Twice Shy {h.s. au}

V.

Returning back to school was something of a surreal experience for Harry. It had only been a month, maybe a little less than that, but it felt longer to him. He opened presents with his mothers and sisters on Christmas Day, he went to the pub with Whitney and Jane on Jane's birthday, he even went out with his secondary school friends on New Year's Eve. There was still a considerable ache in his chest whenever he thought about Maggie, so he eventually just stopped thinking about her altogether. He focused on his family, he focused on the books his mothers got him for Christmas, he focused on the punching bag in front of him whenever he visited his local gym.

Boxing was the best way he got over everything that had happened. It was an outlet for his frustration, it was a reason to get out of the house every day, and moving around, throwing punches, and moving quickly on his feet made Harry feel better, lighter. So when his mothers both kissed his forehead and sent him off with as much love as they could possibly give him at the airport, he felt good again. He was still an anxious mess, but that was normal for him; it was honestly a relief in some ways. Harry was used to managing his anxiety, it was the heartsickness that was unbearable.

And now that he was back on campus, he felt like he was getting a fresh start. He was in a new dorm room with a new roommate, who, by the looks of it, didn't make smoking weed his personality. Eric was nice enough, a bit of a jock in that kind of stereotypical, 80s and 90s American film kind of way, but nice. He was tall, taller than Harry, and had thick curly hair that was the color of cinnamon. There were freckles on his nose, but they looked more like a result of being out in the sun for too long. When he introduced himself and said he was some beach town in southern California, the freckles and tan skin made sense. And the little necklaces he wore around his neck too, the only kind of jewelry he ever saw Eric wear.

Eric kept to himself mostly, and was neat too, something Harry greatly appreciated. Although, it had only been a couple of days, so who knew how long that would last. Harry could only hope for the best.

"I actually know you!" Eric had said when Harry moved his things in the Saturday before school was supposed to start. His eyes, a light brown color that seemed to match his hair, crinkled with delight. He did that a lot, smiled. It was one thing Harry was sure of about his roommate. He was a very jolly person.

"You do?" Harry asked. Eric wasn't in any of Harry's classes, so he couldn't have known him from there, and his roommate didn't seem like the guy who ran in the same circles as Harry, if Harry even ran in circles.

Eric nodded as he stuffed his arms through a dark green puffer coat, a baseball cap sat on his fluffy hair, flattening it like an upside down crown around his ears and the nape of his neck. Yet another thing Harry came to notice about his roommate. He was almost always in a baseball cap, so much so, that it was odd to see him without one. "You make, like, the best tea I've ever had, dude. When you're not working, I don't even go into the coffee house because the other baristas don't get it, you know? How to not screw up tea?"

Harry was surprised. By a lot of things. One, that Eric drank tea, because honestly he didn't seem like the type. And two, that he didn't recognize Eric. He felt like he made so many coffee based drinks that a tea among all of them would've stuck out. But if it was busy, Harry usually kept his head down so he wouldn't get distracted and not lose focus on the task at hand, which was staying on task and making drinks as quickly as possible.

So Harry and his roommate were...he wouldn't say friends, but he liked Eric just fine. He thought they would get along a lot better than him and Dom had, anyway.

"You should come to this party tonight," Eric said, a few weeks into the spring semester.

Harry was already huddled up in bed with popcorn, M&Ms, and a superhero film queued up on his computer. It wasn't something he normally picked out for himself, but Whitney went to the theaters last week and said it was really good, so he decided to give it a chance. "Um...That—That's okay, thanks, though."