SDMN Oneshots

Late Night Chats - behzerk

When Ethan got to university, he was a little nervous having to room with a guy a couple of years older. He knew that worry was irrational, because the bloke was clearly in the same situation he was. Anyway, a couple of years isn't that big of a difference, it just felt like it to an 18 year old, fresh out of school and terrified of anyone who wasn't the same age as his mum.

It turns out he had nothing to worry about, because the guy he ended up rooming with is probably the biggest dork on the planet.

Josh is an odd guy. Not in a bad way, he just has a tendency to make weird, off-the-cuff remarks and ramble about useless things.

He also dances around the room with his headphones in when he's stressed, which is arguably just cute rather than anything else. Although it is annoying when he deliberately dances on that one squeaky bit of floorboard over by the door, just to piss Ethan off.

Josh's weird habits shouldn't distract from his intelligence though. His knowledge is widespread, and a relatively intellectual discussion could be sparked by any prompt. He's basically the guy you want for a pub quiz, as a round-up, because it's anybody's guess as to what he knows.

Right now though, Ethan's really not in the mood for Josh's shit. It's 3am, and he's got an exam tomorrow at 9, and he does not run well off of a lack of sleep. The longer Josh talks, the less likely Ethan is to make it to the exam room, and he's not showing any signs of stopping.

Lying on his back, staring upwards into the darkness of the room, he feels like he could fall asleep to the sound of Josh's voice. It's comforting, but Josh usually keeps asking his opinion, or wanting some acknowledgment that Ethan's still listening. He doesn't even know how they got here. Well, that's a bit of a lie. He mentioned that the exam would be related to theories of crime and deviance, and Josh's face lit up.

At the beginning, it was useful. Josh'd make a good teacher, and he managed to keep some of the stats in Ethan's head. Now, it's not useful at all.

Josh is talking animatedly about how Charles Dickens inspired prison reformation in the UK.

"Yeah, so solitary confinement was an American thing that got brought over. It started off at the Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia at the end of the 1700s, and I think it was Puritan-based? Something like that. Anyway, Dickens was going round America in 1842, and thought that solitary confinement was on another level, and said something like "very few men are capable of estimating the immense amount of torture and agony" of solitary confinement. He talks about it going deeper though, and was one of the first to give a shit about convicts feelings, you know. Like, they had food shoved under their doors and never spoke. Sometimes they got separate tasks, like reading the Bible or something religious, it was like the 19th century. Chuck cared a lot about convicts, because when he was like 10 or something - nah he was 12, his dad got arrested for debt, and he ended up in there 3 days later for helping his dad. Marshalsea, I think the prison was."

"Did you just call Charles Dickens Chuck?"

"Yeah?"

"He's more of a Charlie, come on. I know you said he visited America but he's not a Chuck."

"Fine. Anyway, the place was a shithole, unsurprisingly. It's on the  south bank of the Thames, and in later life he-"

"Josh."

"What?"

"It's interesting and all, but I told you earlier, I've got a test tomorrow. Shut the fuck up and go to sleep." Ethan feels satisfied at the lack of reaction, and turns over to settle into sleep.

About 20 minutes later, he's bordering on the edge of sleep, when Josh opens his mouth again, which makes Ethan bury his head in his pillow and groan.

"Do you reckon the moon feels useless? Or like, insignificant or worthless? Because it doesn't do anything on its own, it just borrows the sun's light, which is pretty sad to be honest."

"Josh. The moon is an inanimate object. It can't have feelings."

"How do you know? You ever been the moon? Can you really know if something has emotions if you haven't been that thing?"

"I'm glad to know you're getting something out of your philosophy class, but can we please not have this discussion when I've got pretty important plans tomorrow morning? Thanks. Now shut the fuck up."

With that, conversation for the night is over, Josh has officially shut the fuck up.

Author's Notes
Hey, so I haven't uploaded here in a while and I'm avoiding planning a history essay so I thought I'd do this.

I know English unis don't have many roommate situations these days (Durham still has a fair few, I believe), but hey, plot line conveniences.

I also knew scarcely anything about Charles Dickens and prison reforms before this, so I got to do some history I guess (even if I'm meant to be on mid-Tudor crisis).

Pretty platonic, but nothing wrong with that. This is also for ChelseaXIX , my main behzerk girl 💙

Got any prompts? Just let me know.
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