Shakespearean - JayTim - Camp NaNoWriMo - July 2017

Chapter 13 - The Girlfriend™

"At this point, I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm surviving on pure luck."

Jason couldn't help a silent snicker at the expense of his roommate at the confession. Roy had been running himself ragged already, and it was only the second week of school. "I don't know how you can already be so behind and overwhelmed. Didn't you already take a full semester last spring?"

Roy heaved an irritated sigh, as though he felt Jason was being difficult on purpose. "Yes, Jason, but last semester I only did 12 hours. That's a full semester. This semester, I got permission from the dean of my department to take 22 hours. That's three more classes than a full load! One of those classes even has a lab. A lab, Jay!" He flopped back down on the bed, the palms of his hands pressing into eyes.

Rolling his eyes, Jason turned away from his desk where he was trying to get some of his own work done. "Roy Harper, the Scholar. Who would have guessed?"

Roy jerked up from where he was laying down, shooting Jason a glare. "Like you can talk, Mr. "I memorized Shakespeare while I was living in a cardboard box in an alleyway."

Jason rolled his eyes and pretended to scoff. "I never lived in a cardboard box, Roy."

"Oh really?"

"No, it was dumpster."

Roy cracked a smile. "Makes you sound even more like a pretentious asshole."

Jason shrugged. "Yeah, probably."

Smile fading, Roy dropped back down on his bed, heaving a sigh of great proportions. "What am I going to do, Jay?"

"Stop complaining about it for starters." Roy shot him another glare, but Jason ignored him and continued. "The way I see it, from how you're going now, you can either swallow your pride and drop a couple of classes to help you manage, or keep all your classes but fail a couple of them because you weren't willing to eat a healthy helping of humility."

Roy went white at the thought of either option, and Jason knew he had the guy right where he wanted him. "Or," he said, and the simple word gripped Roy's attention. The poor guy was all ears for another option, and he knew Roy would like this one a lot better. He was too much like Jason not to. "Or, you could pull yourself together, get your ass in gear, and get your shit done. Stop complaining and freaking out about how much stuff you suddenly have to do and just do it, for fuck's sake."

Jason was right. Roy liked that option a lot better.

****

A couple hours passed on that same Wednesday and Jason had finally figured out how to describe human trafficking from the point of view of a social worker looking in through the eyes of a child victim, all without showing any bias. It was incredibly difficult, and it took more words than it should have taken to only be one half of his paper. He knew he shouldn't, couldn't, and therefore wouldn't ask Clark for an extension. All limits have reasons, and sometimes it is just that the professor doesn't want to have to read 10 page papers from 20 different students from a single class every week, but Jason knew there was more to this limit. In journalism, you only have the space allotted to you in order to tell the story and give the information the people need in order to be informed. On occasion, a journalist will be blessed with a large following and, as a result, an expanded writing platform that allows them to write as much as they need, but sometimes you only have a tiny column in a shitty magazine to tell the world something important that it needs to know. You can't ask for an extension. You have to work with what you've got.

Jason was stressing out about how to do the harder half of the assignment with less words to write it with when Roy came back from the showers. Out of the corner of his eye, Jason realized that Roy was dressed a lot nicer than he should have been for an afternoon of cranking out assignments. He slowly swiveled in his chair to face the other man. "What are you doing?"

Roy froze and swallowed before pivoting to look at Jason. "Umm..."

Jason sighed and leaned back in his chair. "You're going out with your girlfriend, aren't you?" Roy opened his mouth to reply, but Jason didn't give him time to defend himself. "Dammit, Roy, and after I gave that awesome motivational speech and everything."

"We made our plans last week. I couldn't cancel on her!"

"Why not? She'd break up with you?"

"No, she'd just kill me! That's actually way worse, just so you know."

Jason tried really hard to hide his smile, but it snuck its way out there. "Jeeze, Roy. Well, have fun on your date. Hope it's worth the chaos it'll cause later." Jason rolled his eyes and turned back to his desk.

"You want to meet her?"

"What," he squeaked out, looking back at Roy over his shoulder.

"I said, 'Do you want to meet her?'."

"Why the hell would you ask me that? Why would I want to meet your girlfriend?"

Roy heaved a sigh. "I don't know, Jay. But she's coming over here so we can go together, so I thought you might want to say hi real quick before we leave. No need to make a fuss over it or anything, it's not like she's your girlfriend."

Jason exhaled, slowly letting the air drain out of his puffed out cheeks from the corners of his mouth. "I'll say hi. Real quick." Roy smiled. "But don't expect me to be a dashing gentleman or anything. And I'm staying in my PJ's."

Roy laughed just as someone knocked on the door. That someone was apparently supposed to be the girlfriend, because Roy immediately panicked, checking his appearance in the mirror one more time before hurriedly shouting, "Coming!" He turned to Jason and motioned for him to stand up. "Come on," he whispered. "I don't have time for you to take all day, either. Our reservations are in half an hour and there's traffic this time of day."

"Why the hell would you get lunch reservations, you idiot," Jason whisper yelled back.

"Because we're both busy most evenings with work, you asshole." Roy threw open the door with a big smile on his face. "Hey, babe. Right on time as always."

A very pretty, very athletic looking blonde with her hair in a tight, high ponytail smiled sarcastically. "Well, yeah, Carrot Top. I am the punctual one in this relationship, aren't I?"

Roy's grin turned just a little mushy, but it didn't show in his voice. "So what, I'm the late one?"

"Generally, yeah." She popped her hip out and placed a hand on her waist. "Who's this," she asked, gesturing to Jason with her other hand.

Jason stepped forward, reaching out a hand. "I'm Jason. I doubt I need to explain the roommate part, considering I'm in his room in my PJ's."

She laughed quietly, nodding. "Yeah, he told me about you. You're the guy Tim spilled his coffee on, right?"

Jason sighed and shook his head. "It's a testament to how many people Tim knows that nobody has brought it up more than once and I'm already getting tired of it."

The girl sucked her teeth, nodding. "Yeah. Rich people and college professors apparently have two things in common: they all know each other, and they tend to stick together." All three of them laughed, though Roy didn't look so sure if he should be happy they were getting along or jealous. "Anyway, I'm Artemis. It's nice to meet you and I'd love to stay and chat, but we'll be late if we keep standing here any longer."

Jason quickly said goodbye to them both and they bustled out the door. As soon as they left, Jason went back to his desk and sighed as he sat back down in his chair to keep working on his paper.

Maybe if Roy could score a girl like that then Jason actually had a shot with Tim.

A/N I know, I know, Roy and Artemis isn't exactly most people's favorite ship. It's not mine either. I just thought it fit well in this universe. This is literally the only appearance the two of them make, so if you don't like it, you won't have to see it again. I know I mentioned them being together in an earlier chapter and nobody made a fuss, so it should be fine, but I'm just letting everyone know just in case.