stuck (together)

part 1

Another year. Ethan thought, hopefully this time he'll get laid.

Ethan was going into junior year. His eighth year of being shipped off to a school, so his parents don't have to do any of the parenting, but simultaneously get all the credit. Exciting.

He looked out the window, it was late-August. His parents obviously paid for what they call "first admission", but Ethan called it "early shipping". He wasn't entirely upset, it wasn't like he particularly enjoyed being home. He just wanted to enjoy being home, he wanted to hate school, but he didn't.

Slowly, the tall victorian building came into view. He missed it, he missed his friends, he missed the community.

"Ethan, we're here." Said his driver Richard. He slightly resented Richard, only because his parents never went anywhere with Ethan, they always sent Richard instead.

"You don't have to get down anymore, I think I'm able to find my room by myself." He said getting out of the car.

"Are you sure?"

"Yup, it's easier for both of us anyways."

He closed the door, before Richard could protest, grabbed his bags, and did what he did every year.

He fond his schedule, searched for his new dorm, and got settled.
— — —
He entered his dorm and looked around, He had to mentally prepare himself before glancing at the mirror. His hair looked like he had just been electrocuted, more than usual at least. He had dark circles around his brown eyes. His skin was naturally tan, but once it hit late fall all his natural melanin would disappear.

He was folding his clothes when the bell rang for dinner. He looked at his messy stack, and knew that if he left right now, he would never finish. What's another year with a messy room?, He thought.

The dining hall wasn't completely empty. There was at least 100 students. Usually it's filled with around 400 students. He scanned the tables for a familiar face, someone to spend the next week and a half with.

Most of his friends showed up in September. In the past he would just keep to himself, go to the library, text some friends, draw a few sceneries. This time he didn't want that, he wanted to make a new friend, he refused to wallow in self-pity and boredom like every other year.

His eyes fell on a kid around his age, Ethan hadn't seen him before. His hair looked like he tried to fix it but gave up. His skin was pale, almost sickly. He was sitting by himself, Ethan thought about going over to him, but he wasn't sure what he would even say.

Ethan didn't notice how long he'd been staring untill the boy looked up. Ethan immediately looked down avoiding eye contact.

Suddenly he felt someone sit next to him. Ethan jumped looking up to see his friend, Christopher.

"Why do you look so depressed?"

"You scared the shit out of me," he took a bite out of his food, "I didn't know you were early cargo."

"Neither did I, till this morning. My mom's boyfriend surprised her with an 'end-of-the-summer' trip to the Bahamas."

"You know what that means." Ethan said raising his eyebrows.

Chris shoved him aggressively "Dude."

"Oh, my, God! I was just saying she was gonna go for swim, I don't know what you were thinking about... Your own mother!" He said with an exaggerating gasp. 

"Shut up. This is why I'm ditching you for Julian."

"Julian?"

"It's his first year here, he's one of my dad's business partner's kids. He's pretty chill, reserved but chill."

"Tell him to come over here, it's always so lonely before the rest of the boys arrive." Ethan said picking at his food.

"Nah, I'm rooming with him and he made it sound like he wanted to eat dinner alone," Chris shrugged, "I'll invite you to my dorm later, yeah?"

"Yeah, sounds cool."
—————————
He was sketching his third drawing of the day, when he got a text from Chris telling him that Julian and him were "chilling" in his room and his dorm number. Ethan sent a quick text letting him know he's on his way.

Chris's door was pouring out music when Ethan got there. Ethan entered without knocking.

"You're finally here." Chris said as Ethan walked through the door.

"Julian this is Ethan, Ethan, Julian." Chris said looking between the two.

Ethan was not expecting Julian to be the dark haired guy from the dining hall. "Hey, nice to meet you," he said the way he was conditioned to all his life.

Julian sat on the floor next to his bed. In fact he was leaning his back on the bed. He was using one foot to prop his book on, and the other just laid there.

"Pleasure's mine." He said barely looking up from the book he was reading.

Ethan sat down at Chris's desk to continue working on. They stayed like that; Ethan drawing, Julian reading, and Chris scrolling on his phone.

Ethan tried holding conversations, getting to know the cute guy, that was barley five feet away from him. Julian, however, was tight-lipped with short answers.

After sometime Julian looked up at both of them, "I'm gonna go out for a smoke," he said with a sigh.

"I'll pass, I don't wanna get caught, bro, my dad will  lit-er-ally kill me." Chris said.

"You?" Julian offered to Ethan. He wasn't sure if the invite was genuine since this was one of the first times Julian actually engaged in conversation with him.

"Uh sure," He said standing up.

"You smoke?" Julian asked once they were down the hall.

"Yeah but I really only do it at home."

Julian nodded in response.

Once they got outside Julian stood against a pillar. he took out a cigarette and lighted it. He took in a deep inhale, holding the smoke in his lungs for a little, and exhaled.

Julian handed him the cigarette. Ethan took a smoke. "Your first year here, right?

"Mh-hm." he said taking back the cigarette.

"What are you in for?"

"What is this, juvy?"

"Basically, it's juvy for kids with rich parents that don't like them."

"My dad thinks I drink and smoke too much." he said taking back the cigarette.

"If only he could see you now, huh?" Ethan said wiggling his eyebrows.

"He'd be so proud." He said through a tight lip smile. "I'm gonna head back." He put out the cigarette, and walked toward Chris's dorm hall.

Ethan thought about going back with them, but ultimately went against it and walked to his dorm.

He stayed up late that night.  Every time his music paused and his room went a little too quiet, he would let himself think about the dark haired boy.  He kept telling himself it wasn't a school-girl-crush, and that he was just interested because he was so quiet. In reality it was a little of both.

A/N: hiii!! welcome to my first story im really new please vote if you liked it and share  i would really appreciate it also feel free to point out any errors and submit ideas and things of that sort, i wanna creat a community. (sorry for the sucky capitalization through your the chapters )