A Different Path

The Beginning

218, 219, 220... He said to himself as he walked down the hall in search of the right room number.

It was the day before classes started and he was only accepted just yesterday. He wasn't planning on going to university after high school, he would have rather joined the army but they denied his application. So here he was, walking down the hall of the university's smallest dorms, farthest from the school looking for the room that would be his home for the next year.

He got to the very end of the hallway which only had one door left, 221. He double checked his paper, making sure that this was indeed the right room before knocking a couple of times to announce his presence and then walking in.

The site that greeted him was a messy one. There was a small kitchen on one side of the room with an equally small table. On the other side of the room was what seemed to be a make shift living room, but because the room was so small the couch looked a little out of place. There was a door leading to what he believed to be the bathroom on the same wall as the couch. On the far side of the room from where he stood were two doors, which he assumed to be the bedrooms.

Suddenly a head popped out of the presumed to be bathroom; a dark curly-haired head to be more accurate.

"Who are you?" the head said accusingly, as if offended by Johns presence.

"Oh, um, right, I'm John" he said stuttering slightly and extending his hand in greeting. But the head, who was now a full body and leaning against the door frame, ignored it.

"Why are you here?" he asked just as accusatory as before. John lowered his hand as the man spoke.

"I'm your room mate." He stated. At once the mans eyes turned to slits, as though he was trying to figure out if John was lying or not. When he seemed to decide that John was serious he took out a phone, clicked on a few things and was soon holding the phone to his ear waiting for the person he was calling to pick up.

"Yes it's me." he said into the phone after a few moments. John could only hear a muffled voice on the other end. "I believe there was a mistake with the room assignments." he sated matter-of-factly while eyeing John, who was standing awkwardly by the door with his bags at his feet. "You're joking." There was another muffled response. The man sighed and said an exasperated 'fine' before hanging up and slipping the phone back into his pocket before walking up to John to a rather uncomfortably close distance and stared at him, as if reading his whole life story. John stood still as the man inspected him.

The man stepped back and turned around before going back to the bathroom to finish whatever it was that John had interrupted. Before disappearing completely he gestured to one of he rooms and simply saying "That ones yours."

John followed the direction in which the strange man had pointed and sighed internally before picking up his bags and trudging to his room.

"Oh, by the way, my names Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes."