Etho hadn't meant to be so skittish and put off-ish, but after a long day of classes, four things to keep track of in his head, and a few too many people staring at him for his liking, grabbing something and going was the only thing he could do.

The cold aluminum of the energy drink would have stung his hands more if not for the fingerless gloves he wore, and the cold air would have stung his face if he wasn't wearing his usual mask. This outfit was perfect for this weather, and that knowledge let him focus on something else for a few seconds and relax.

It was nice that Bdubs had gotten everyone to ignore him somehow, and now he felt a little bad that he had left so quickly without much more than a "see you around". He mentally slapped himself, but had to shove it away from his mind for now while he walked home.

Programming went fine, even if he had lost time sleeping instead of working on it, but his other classes were a bit more effort. Right now he had a planned meeting with a friend over a call to get an environmental class project sorted out. It was chill, but neither had the time or transportation to meet up at each other's apartments and there wasn't a good place to meet up and stay as long and late as they were planning.

The energy drink felt more like a weight in his hand than anything else. It didn't even fit in his pocket properly to carry that way, so with a sigh, he adjusted his grip on it and kept walking.

"What flavor did I even get?"

Etho turned the keys to his apartment and used his foot to kick it open more. He shuffled in and used his geel to kick it closed, not really worried enough about a killer to lock it properly. He had a knife by his dresser anyway, and the creaking boards would give him plenty of notice time if there was a real threat.

Doc still wasn't back, which was normal when Etho wasn't out super late.

"I should know his schedule, shouldn't I?" He sighed knowing that as his roommate and good friend, he really should know that. It would probably be helpful for planning stuff too, ignoring the fact that Etho never really planned to do things.. "I'm probably a bad roommate."

He shook his head and put his stuff down, barely feeling the drink in his cold hand now. Even with the fingerless gloves, they were stiff, and sweaty at the same time, which was sort of uncomfortable.

He popped open the energy drink, and heard a soft fizz noise. He didn't even really like them, but he needed caffeine, and couldn't just order nothing at the coffee shop when they said the coffee machine was broken. At least it would keep him awake as long as he needed for the project, and after, when he crashed, he could get back into his normal sleep pattern.

Sure that pattern might not have been exactly enough sleep daily, but it was better than sleeping in a full day again or pulling another useless all nighter, one that Beef and Doc would surely scold him for. Less than needed sleep regularly was better than that mess he figured.

The electric blue drink popped in his mouth, and sent a slight shiver down his arms. It tasted like artificial flavors, sugar, sparkling water left out too long, and the color of neon blue. He was too afraid to look at the caffeine mg count on it, or the calories for that matter.

He pulled out his phone right as he felt a buzz and put the drink onto his bed stand, sitting on his bed to read the text.

The real ice-man: Hey dude, you ready yet?

Knock off ice-man: Yeah just got home

The real ice-man: [Incoming call]

Etho was glad their conversations were always pretty short, and his sorta numb hands didn't have to struggle with typing anymore. The call popped up on his phone and he accepted it.

"Hey Etho! You have the page opened up yet?" A Swedish voice cracked a little over the phone. Etho hoped the wifi wouldn't be shaky the whole night.

"Yeah yeah Iskall, gimme a sec."

Etho took another sip of the drink and felt it coat his tongue. It almost felt like he wasn't tasting it anymore, which he could live with. Thankfully it wasn't the exact same as soda and never seemed to give him bloody noses, but he hoped that lucky streak didn't break today.

"What are you drinking dude? You better not have a 20 shot espresso this late in the day."

"Nah, just an energy drink."

"Don't those make your nose bleed? And still dude, that's not much better."

"Surprisingly not actually. And I won't drink all of it- probably, just enough to replace the coffee I was going to order."

"We're not staying up that late to do this. We have a good few hours before it gets dark anyways. Actually,-" Iskall paused, contemplating something, "It's been awhile since we talked, how about we catch up a little before the assignment. She gave us plenty of time anyway."

Etho knew Iskall was the plant person out of the two, and they were best friends with Stress, who happened to be the star student of the class the previous year. He trusted Iskall's time management on this, and catching up sounded nice.

"Sure." It had a genuine smile attached to it, that was clear even through the shaky phone.

Iskall was the more talkative out of the two, so he started with his life stuff first. They were close enough to know that Etho hated the small talk questions, so they quickly fell into talking about life and the interesting stuff that happened recently instead of droning on about the weather.

"Well happy Friday, man! We survived 4 whole days of college, go us!"

"Woah it doesn't even feel like a Friday. Guess sleeping for a day and pulling an all-nighter screws with that."

"Yeah don't do that again. I saw VintageBeef in between my classes and he told me about it. If he's worried enough to tell me about it, then you should take care of yourself more, at least for his sake."

"Yeah, you're right."

They kept talking, and the conversation got a little more lighthearted after Etho promised no more all nighters for at least a month.

"-I got in touch with Mumbo again too. Top of his class in like three mechanical classes but he's struggling to fix his car and a coffee machine." Iskall cackled. "He calls himself a spoon, and I'm not sure what that means, but it seems accurate."

"That sounds like him from highschool. Speaking of coffee machines. The one at the coffee shop I went to was broken, which is why I got this energy drink."

"Wait, you don't even like energy drinks. Why didn't you just make a cup of coffee when you got to your apartment, dude?" Iskall asked.

"There were so many people watching, and I couldn't just walk in and not order anything."

"Ah so it was a social thing then. You could have at least gotten a cookie or muffin or something you'd actually like." Iskall reasoned.

"Yeah I know, but I was sorta panicking in my head at the time." Etho admitted. He paused, and shifted his body onto his bed more comfortably. How long had they been talking exactly?

"The barista, Bdubs if I remember, was at least nice about it. He silently got everyone to stop looking at me somehow."

"Oh Bdubs, I know him! He's one of my friend Grian's coworkers."

"Huh, I guess he just knows everyone then. Grian? Yeah I remember that name too. He wa-" Etho stopped himself. Iskall and Grian were friends, and Iskall probably wouldn't appreciate him calling Grian nosey and loud. "-aaas a fast talker. Yeah. Guess if you're good at talking to people like Bdubs then that's a pretty good start to making friends."

"Do tell." Iskall urged on. Etho suddenly felt like a highschool girl gushing about her crush over the phone, but he shrugged and decided, eh, why not overthink this pretty normal conversation. It's what introverts do right?

He took another sip of his drink and shook the can to estimate how much was less. As much as he didn't love it, it would help him through this assignment and was a waste to throw away, so ignoring the flavor that was starting to feel bland anyway, he drank more.

"Well I was just waiting for my drink, the coffee machine was broken so it was taking a while, and when he gave me my drink, he just started talking casually out of nowhere. Like, how do people do that?" Etho wondered aloud. "He talked like he knew me for years, and showed me pictures of Jellie- Scar's cat -who has grown up a ton since I last saw her in highschool. We know a lot of the same people too, which I guess is helpful when you want to make a new friend. But if it doesn't work out then I'll be super awkward.-

"If what doesn't work out?"

"Uh, friendship? My little pony friend is magic, Iskall. Ever heard of it?"

Iskall snorted, and let out his iconic laughter that cracked through the phone.

The door opening and things moving around in another room of the apartment caught Etho's attention as he listened more carefully, glancing at his dresser warily.

A loud creak of the floorboards and a bang that sounded more like a shoe hitting a counter than a gun echoed out, and it was clear that the intruder wasn't keen on being discreet.

There was a string of curses in both German and English, and Etho figured that maybe it wasn't just a shoe hitting the counter, but he knew it was Doc still, and relaxed a little as he directed his attention back to the conversation.

"Well the dude sounds like a possible good friend. Maybe get in touch more. I don't know Bdubs that well myself, but you and your lone wolf vibe could probably use more company, instead of being locked up in your room, alone."

Etho looked around his room. '"Hey I'm not alone, I'm on call with you aren't I?"

"Yeah, to do a homework assignment that we still haven't started. We should get on that now shouldn't we?"

Etho looked at the time in the corner of his screen.

"Yeah we should."

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(1755 words above the line)

Thank you for reading! And because I forgot how weeks work and forgot that it's the weekend for them now (classes starting on a Tuesday if you're wondering) I'm going to add filler for the weekend! But I thought that was boring to write and read, and didn't want to skip it, so I'm sprinkling in a bit of drama in. have a great day or night, and don't drink every drinks! They are horrible and horrible for you!

(hey, do you like this book? If so, maybe check out my other works while you wait for the next chapter?)