"You know, I can tell why everyone calls you deceit." The man yelled as he grabbed his bag and put it near the door of their dorm apartment. "You are nothing but a lying, cheating, bastard. You know, I almost felt sorry for you. I thought that obviously the rumors had to be false. There was no way that you could be as cruel as everyone was saying, after all, who believes rumors anymore." Des's roommate... well, his ex-roommate, Alex, was standing by the door, staring down the mute man. "Karma is going to catch up with you, and you are going to have hell to pay for all of the shit you have done to other people."

The door slammed hard enough that the pictures on the wall shook a bit.

"Wow, that was a bit overdramatic," Virgil said, standing next to Des, both of them looking at the now-closed door. The darkly dressed emo rolled his eyes, shoving his hands into his black and purple jacket. "All you did was expose who he really was. If he wanted people to like him, maybe he shouldn't have tried to secretly be an asshole. At least the two of us are upfront about being assholes." Virgil just shrugged. "But, no problem, we are better off alone aren't we."

Des nodded. Alexander had started off pretending to be kind, they all did, but it quickly fell into a pattern that Des was all too familiar with. Conversations became more forced, congratulations became faker and finally, the rumors started to spread. It was the end of the semester so Des wasn't bothered by his roommate leaving, he had already had 5 in the same amount of months. Somehow, the housing advisor just didn't get the point. Virgil and Des just weren't meant for human interaction. Des turned, heading to his bedroom, stretching his sore arm and pulling at his sleeve to cover the scars.

"I don't understand why they keep trying to force roommates here, you and I don't need anyone else. People are always just out to hurt each other." Virgil pulled at his hoodie, the purple patches stretching a bit at the strain in the fabric.

Des nodded again before responding to Virgil in sign language. He had been mute since an accident when he was a kid, the same accident that left him with scars all over the left side of his body. At least, Des claimed it had been an accident, and that was the story that he was sticking with. Fire was such a cruel mistress, and so hard to contain.

"Really, they already sent you an email about a new roommate, but the other guy didn't even tell us he was leaving until yesterday. Plus who starts classes during the summer semester?"

Des showed Virgil his phone where the dean of the housing association had sent them a message.

"That jerk must have let the housing director know first." Virgil shoved his hands in his pockets with a slight huff. "New one's name is Patton, and he has a hearing disability? Well, at least he won't be able to hear your bitching."

Rolling his eyes, Des shook his head as Virgil laughed. "Sorry, yeah, I know. He was a jerk though, I'm not the only one who saw it right, the other guy. Not this Patton person, I don't even know him yet." Des walked over to the bookshelf in their room and grabbed a three-ring binder with Alexander's name on it. Deceit wrote down the date at the end of the binder before putting it back on the shelf, looking over the organized clutter. He had five binders on the shelf, one for each of the roommates that he had chased away. Fall semester he had chased away 3, but he got smarter during the spring. Thus far he had chased out 8, and Patton would be one more.

His fingers ran over the binders, they held every piece of information he had found on his marks, everything he had used to push them away. Des wasn't going to let anyone close. Humans were selfish creatures, and he knew the only reason anyone would befriend him was out of pity, or feigned altruism. Des didn't need anyone else's charity. He could protect himself.

Once again turning to Virgil he began to sign. 'No, I noticed it too. He was fake, only pretending to be my friend because he pitied my situation. I don't need that. We don't.'

"Damn right!" Virgil sat on the bathroom counter. They had the master bedroom in this apartment-style room and their bathroom was attached to the bedroom with the separating wall only covering the toilet and shower. "The two of us are great on our own! Hey, now that he's gone we should have a movie night. He was always complaining about how loud we had the TV. If he hated it that much he could have said it to our face not complained to his stupid girlfriend. Deceit walked over to the mirror that Virgil was sitting in front of and began examining himself, scarred fingers running over a scarred face. Virgil fell silent and neither of them uttered a sound. Deceit's scars were a constant reminder of a past they couldn't seem to escape, and a future that never really seemed real. Part of Des had hoped that the new roommate would be different, that he would be willing to see that Des was an interesting person in his own right, not just an interesting story. Des had hoped that with Alex too, he had started off as nice, but it never worked out that way. With every new person, Des hoped less and less for a friend. He should have given up already, but didn't he deserve friends as well?

"I'm sorry," Virgil pulled at his sleeves again, looking at the ground. "I should have been able to protect you more."

Deceit shook his head. 'You did everything you could, right?'

"Right" Virgil answered, but his answer was soft and meek, not at all as confident as he had been just a few minutes ago. "Hey! Let's get this place cleaned up. That jerk did a bit of damage in his fit of anger."

'Why can't you clean it by yourself, I'm feeling lazy.'

"Nope, not going to happen."

'Just leave it, it will be better if the new roommate runs away at first sight.'

"Maybe, but this one could be better."

Des sent him a look and Virgil sighed. "Yeah, who am I kidding, we always think that, but people suck. The two of us are better off alone." Des wasn't sure if he really believed that. There was a part of him, a very small part, that wanted to be known, but there was another part that wasn't going to allow anyone to break down his walls. He knew what it felt like to be hurt, and he wasn't going to let someone get close enough to do that again.

Des finally turned away from the mirror, not being able to stomach his own reflection any longer. He really was two-faced.