trois.
chapter three.

xxx.

          Months have passed, and days were mostly the same. Wake up, go to class, study, maybe not study, go out, party, go to sleep, rinse and repeat. Obviously, there were some alterations to that routine depending on who you were. For Felix Catton, there was a little more drinking and partying in there, Nick Kim-Roth had a lot less of studying and going out, Farleigh Start had more 'annoying Nell', and Nell Kim-Roth had more 'being annoyed by Farleigh.

             And Jade, well, Jade's routine involved a lot more of finding a creep staring at their group more often than not.

             The brunette's jaw was locked as she stared past Felix's head, past the several shelves of books that separated her, Felix, Farleigh, and Nell from the dark haired student that she kept catching looking at them. Jade ignored most of the conversation they were having, only catching the integral bits and pieces as she tried to burn holes into Oliver's head, wondering why the hell he was so infatuated with them.

" You know me, I'll be there. Just might show up an hour or so late. " Farleigh declared with a shrug, spinning a pencil between his fingers, though not much of the work in front of him was getting done. He was more occupied with nudging Nell's foot under the table, only looking at her occasionally from the corner of his eye as he continued the conversation with Felix.

" Mm, expected nothing less, really, " Felix replied, glancing over at his cousin, giving him a wry smile before he looked across the table at Nell. She had her head sitting against her fist, eyes scanning quickly through the pages of her book, but she was chewing the inside of her cheek. She nudged Farleigh's foot back, but her face didn't acknowledge it.

Felix shook his head with a laugh, and he went to ask Jade for her input, but the young woman suddenly stood up, her chair squealing against the floor at the quick movement. All three of them looked up at her, confused by the way her brows were wrinkled together in frustration, but she only said, " Bathroom. "

None of them said anything or asked for more details, she just pulled her bag onto her should and left the table. Jade went around the bookshelf, purposefully passing Oliver Quick and Michael Gavey's table. She made eye contact with the brunette again briefly, then headed out the door.

He'd been staring the entire time, at least that's what she assumed. The group was in the library for maybe fifteen minutes before she noticed his eyes glued to them. Jade didn't know if he was unashamed or just stupid at first, waiting for him to realize he was caught, get embarrassed, and avoid eye contact the rest of the time. But he didn't, at least not for several, several minutes. When he finally did, Jade watched as he cleared his throat and tried to look away as if he had simply been glancing over at them by chance.

           While Farleigh might not have recognized him in their tutor sessions, or chose not to, Jade recognized him within the first second. She wondered if he'd been stalking them, or something, given how infatuated his staring had been, both on the first day and just then. And still, there was something just off about him, she just couldn't quite put her finger on it.

            When Jade left the library, she didn't actually go to the bathroom down the hall. Instead, she turned around the corner and went into the small corridor that held a vending machine. She didn't really care to get something, but assumed she should for authenticity, so she began to pull a crinkled dollar out of her pocket, pushing it into the slot.

            She stared down at the vending machine, punching in a random set of numbers as she waited for it to drop the snack. In the glass panel of the machine, she saw someone else approaching her.

           Jade nearly rolled her eyes. How predictable could someone be?

            She didn't even give him a chance as her mouth opened before she turned around, " Can you stop staring at my friends and I? It's fucking weird, and I'd expect it out of Michael fucking Gavey, but two creeps is too much. "

            Oliver's brows inched up, surprise flickering onto his face at her confrontation. He adjusted his glasses, shaking his head a little as he apologized, " M'sorry, really, I hadn't meant to 'creep' you out. You just..caught my eye, I had some trouble looking away. "

            Jade laughed bitterly, right in his face, crossing her arms over her chest as she gave him an 'are you serious?' kind of look, " Right, I'm just so damn hot that you couldn't stop staring at us for nearly 30 minutes. "

            " Mmhm. " Oliver made a sound of agreement, looking at her like he detected no sarcasm, then his eyes shifted to the machine behind her. He inched closer to look down it, then suddenly crouched and poked the door flap open before reaching inside.

           Which might not have been all that weird if he had asked Jade to move, or simply moved her out of the way, instead of crouching down in front of her. She stared down at him, feeling as though her eye was visibly twitching, when he used her leg to steady himself as he pulled the candy bar she'd absentmindedly bought out of the machine. When he rose back up and held the candy out to her, Jade blinked once, almost impressed by his audacity, and simply leaned forward to reiterate.

            " I catch you gawking again, I'll fucking cut you bloody dick off. " She didn't even bother with anything else, pushing past him to head back into the library, leaving Oliver with a candy bar and the task of hiding his growing grin of amusement before he were to head back in himself.

xxx.

           Nick hated being persuaded into things, or even trying to be persuaded, and Felix was the physical embodiment of peer pressure, whether he meant it maliciously or not. Nick laid on his bed, encapsulated in the darkness as the curtains on his side of the room were drawn as they always were. He was scribbling away, almost mindlessly as his thoughts were elsewhere, but you couldn't tell given his pristine handwriting, but his silent peace was disturbed by a pillow flying from across the room and hitting him.

The messy haired boy raised his head, an unamused look on his face, " Serious? "

Felix wore one of those stupidly wide grins on his face, fidgeting with his eyebrow piercing as he held his other hand up, " I've got no clue what you're talking about, mate. "

Nick simply rolled his eyes and threw the pillow to the floor, flipping on his other side to continue writing. With his back facing Felix, he didn't bother to finish his work; actually, he just stared at the wall, waiting for him to pester him again, which he inevitably would.

" Come on, Nick, I've been talking your ear off for the past twenty minutes and barely gotten an 'mm' in response. " Felix called, sounding quite similar to a child whining. Nick looked higher up the wall, blowing out a puff of air as if to mocking acknowledge Felix, then leaned his head to rest in his hand as he began writing again.

Felix shifted on his own bed, letting out a loud, dramatic sigh. He was relatively quiet for a few fleeting moments, then said, " There's a holiday party happening at the pub, you should go. "

Still, Nick said nothing. He just made a face that Felix couldn't see, wondering why he would ever think—

" —'parties aren't my thing', yeah, I know, but bloody hell, you've got to get out of this room at some point. " Felix insisted, dropping one of his hands to his thigh with a clap.

When Nick didn't respond that time, neither did Felix. Usually, Nick didn't straight up ignore him like that, but he just didn't have the energy to have this conversation; Felix would continue to prod, poke, and bother him, and Nick would deny, deflect, and flat out say he was uninterested. Felix would get annoyed, but he'd get over it within seconds and start telling him about something different entirely, and Nick would get to listen to him without having to attend some stupid party. A perfect case scenario.

But he didn't start talking about how he skipped class again that morning, or how Annabel was blowing up his phone. Enough time passed that Nick wondered if Felix had somehow fallen asleep amidst his plotting, and turned enough to look over at his side of the room, but Felix was right in his sight as soon as he did. He loomed over Nick's bed, only for a second, then he leaned down, caging him in as he sat either of his fists into Nick's mattress. Nick's pen and notebook sat forgotten beside him as he laid on his back, looking up at Felix with an uncharacteristic, deer-in-the-headlights sort of expression.

" What are you— "

" Are you upset with me? Have I done something wrong? " Felix cut him off, thick, dark brows knitted together in concern as he hovered over him. If there was one thing—there were many, actually— that Felix didn't get, it was personal space.

Nick stared at him, his eyes narrowing as he processed what he asked, a minute delayed from their close proximity. His eyes drifted, only for a second as he considered whether this was real or a stupid dream, but when he looked back up at Felix and his faux-innocent brown eyes, Nick clicked his teeth together.

It was real. Unfortunately.

" No, I'm not upset, I told you I was working. " Nick finally spoke, silently proud that he hadn't stammered over his words. A few years ago, when he had first met Felix, that might've been a different story. He sat up on his elbows, careful not to close the distance between them too much, but enough to be more level with Felix's face. Nick's dark eyes flickered between his roommate's, and he replied calmly, " And you know I hate parties. "

" I know, I know, " Felix groaned, dropping his head beside Nick's; his jaw tensed as he felt Felix's hair brush his face, and he felt as though he froze perfectly in his place. The smell of apples and some branded cologne Nick didn't care to know the name of flooded him, he nearly coughed but he was certain that was more caused by Felix popping his bubble rather than his smell.

Nick watched his face from the angle, letting himself store away those few seconds of Felix's eyes being closed, just a few inches from his face. He picked his head up after that, a more sheepish smile on his face, but it was still charming—it was a Felix Catton smile, after all. Nick's heart might've missed a beat, he wasn't paying attention. Felix tilted his head, akin to a puppy dog which made Nick want to roll his eyes, and he pleaded, " Come on, Nicky, just go for a few hours, then I'll let you come back to your den. C'mon, for me? "

" Why should I go for you? " Nick asked, albeit much quieter than he would've liked. He pretended to ignore it though, pressing his lips to a thin line. He knew what would happen if he did go: Felix would greet him, surprised he actually showed, and Farleigh would likely be at his side to make a smartass comment, which Nick would reply with one of his own about his sister. Felix would hang around him for a while, and while that was nice, having to find him by the end of the party with a girl, or maybe two, in his lap and sticking their tongues down each others' throat was not.

Nick had met Felix in secondary school a few years prior. He really couldn't explain how, it just sort of..happened. They ran into each other in the corridor during the change of classes once, and Nick nearly lost all the pages of a history project due to the collision. Felix had apologized a hundred times in the two minutes it took for them to collect everything, and, seeing as some of the papers had shoe prints on them then, he offered Nick an exchange; he invited him out to coffee, on the house. That didn't really help with Nick's shoe-shaped issue on his paper, and he didn't even drink coffee, but when he opened his mouth to say no, an 'alright' came out instead.

           He doesn't know if he would say they 'bonded' from then on, but they just happened to become closer. Felix would go out of his way to speak to him, to find him in class even if it meant missing a few minutes of his own. Nick had thought that he was messing with him for a while, but later came to the conclusion that he was just overthinking. Others seemed to think it was odd for someone like Felix to hang around someone like Nick so often, but none of them dared say anything about it.

            Nick applied to Oxford because Felix had said he should. He wouldn't consider it a joke, but he didn't really expect to get accepted; Felix told him he was crazy, that he was the most intelligent person he knew, so of course they had to accept him. Nick still believed that Felix simply spoke it into existence, and the world listened to him to make it happen.

            They weren't attached at the hip, and Nick would never go as far as to say something as embarrassing as 'Felix is my only friend'; he felt friendly enough with Farleigh, Jade became an associated acquaintance, and he had his sister. But Felix...

" Because I'm your best mate, Nicky. " Felix interrupted, so certainly that that was a good enough answer that he even added another wide grin to it. He didn't really need to, though.

That was all he really had to say, wasn't it?

           Nick pursed his lips, unable to look away from the other young man's eyes as he finally sighed, " Fine. "

xxx.

queer things are amongst us

still not sure how I feel about the shorter chapters, mostly because of how I break it into scenes so only having 2 scenes in a chapter feels so minimal but idk I'm still trying 😭just feels like I'm dragging the Oxford stuff out a lil, idk

the main thing I'm trying to focus on here is perspective in each scene, and writing w a certain style/voice depending on who's perspective it's being told in even tho it's all 3rd person. for example, these two scenes are moreso Jade & Nick's perspective, whereas last chapter had some Oliver & Nell perspectives

all comments & feedback are always welcome, hope you're enjoying the characters so far :)