Doors

Remy goes back to his dorm room, wiped out from a day of being around people. Of course, he'd been around people for the past week he'd been there, but today they were actually talking to him and at him. And that was exhausting. All he wanted to do was face plant into his bed and not see another human for the rest of the day.

But unfortunately, he had a roommate. And of course, today would be the day that he's actually in their room.

Except something was off. When Remy came into the room, Allen was crying -- sobbing more like. His shoulders were shaking as tears streamed down his face; it was a kind of sob that hurt Remy just to hear.

But when Allen noticed that Remy had come into the room, he tried to stifle the sob, sniffling as he stood up and tried brushing past Remy as if it was nothing.

Before he could leave, Remy turned around and touched his arm, saying softly, "Hey. You don't have to go. I'm not going to judge you for crying or anything."

Allen looked at him and nodded, but continued to leave anyway. Remy wasn't offended, though. They had had all of one full conversation, so obviously, Allen wasn't just going to tell him his life story.

As he finally got to face planting into his bed, Remy thought about that kid, Emmitt. The club sounded nice. And the way Remy was going about things, he was never going to make any friends. So... why not try? And if he hates it, he just won't go back. He checked the time. He had two hours before he needed to be there. So he set an alarm, and flopped under his covers.

Remy loved naps. Like, who doesn't? But he especially loved the space you get to when you're neither awake nor asleep. It's like you're still thinking thoughts, but they don't make any sense, and you know that, but when you try to remember what they are, they've suddenly vanished from your mind, just like dreams. It's a space where you don't really feel anything other than drowsiness and this calm, elated feeling where everything you're thinking is funny.

But anyway, Remy was at this stage in a nap and about to take the final plunge into the abyss of sleep when he heard something outside his room, something that made his eyes instantly open wide.

Someone outside was yelling, "No, Renee! Get back here!" followed by the sound of running feet and uncontrollable giggles.

Remy was out of his bed, habitually grabbing his phone, and rushing to the door in a span of less than five seconds. He shoved the door open in a flash, momentarily confused when it came to a sudden stop, followed by the sound of something colliding with the floor. He was tempted to follow Renee, but was held back by his conscience. He couldn't just thwack a door into someone's face and not even say sorry.

"Oh, my god, I am so sorry! I wasn't paying attention and I--"

Remy stopped talking when he saw who it was. The boy who he witnessed take another person's life. The boy who took on a task so burdensome for someone he loved. The boy whose face was scarred into Remy's memory. After months of waiting and wondering what might've happened to this boy and his lover, here he was, standing -- or sitting (the door hit him really hard) -- right in front of him. Landon.

Remy mechanically stuck his hand out for Landon to grab, not taking his eyes off his face.

Landon rubbed his forehead, which took on most of the impact, groaning and chuckling painfully as he said, "Holy shit, man. You really fucked up my face." Still not actually looking at Remy, he grabbed his hand and pulled himself up. "Ya know, I really feel like..." He trailed off and his friendly smile was wiped clean off his face as he got a good look at Remy.

Both in a state of shock, they just stared at each other in disbelief for a minute, until Renee came walking over. "What gives? One moment you're chasing me, and the next, I look behind me and you're gone. Also, you can have your underwear back. It's really not much fun having them unless you're desperately trying to get them back." Finally taking notice of Remy, still grasping Landon's hand, she gasped, "Oh, hi! I'm Renee! Are you Landon's friend?"

Mentally shaking himself out of his panic, he finally looked away from Landon and almost normally talked to the girl next to him. "Hi, yeah. Er- I mean. No. We're not really friends. I just kinda... slammed a door in his face." After realizing how that sounded, he added, "It was an accident. But, uh, hi, nice to meet you." And as far as introductions went, that wasn't Remy's worst one.

She laughed. "Um, excuse me? What?" She looked over at Landon amusedly. "Are you okay?"

Still somewhat spellbound by Remy's appearance, he said, "What? Yeah... I'm fine."

"Wow, he must've hit you really hard. You want to get that checked out?" Renee gestured to Landon's forehead, which he was still rubbing sorely.

"Nah, it's okay. Hey, what time is it? The meeting's gotta be starting soon." He looked at the time. "We've got about fifteen minutes before we need to be there."

"'Kay," she said, then looked back over to Remy, gasping excitedly again. "Do you want to come with us... er... What was your name?"

"Oh. It's Remy. Are you talking about the -- what was it called -- the Acceptance Society?"

"Ew," Renee cringed. "Sorry, it's not you. It's just that that name is so awful. It makes it sound we're all going to be holding hands and singing in a circle."

Remy chuckled, "Yeah, that's true. But funny thing: I was actually already planning on going to that meeting. So looks like I would've met you either way."

"Cool! Um, let me just... put these back..." she gestured to Landon's underwear, which she was still inexplicably holding. "It'll just take a second. You can come with us, then we'll head on down to the meeting."

Remy nodded, following behind Renee and Landon, whose arms were looped together. As they walked to Landon's dorm, Remy had the time to think about everything that just happened in the last few minutes.

He finally found Landon and Renee after a few months, Landon recognized him as the boy he ran into after killing Renee's offender, and now, they just invited him to walk with them to a club meeting. Things really could not have gone better... but Landon and Remy were definitely going to need to talk at some point. For now though, they were just a few new friends walking casually down a hallway. Well, Remy was kind of just awkwardly tagging along, not really sure how to add himself into whatever conversation Renee and Landon were currently having.

When they made it to Landon's dorm, he indignantly snatched his underwear from Renee's hand and just threw them onto the floor.

"See? Maybe if you didn't leave your clothes on the ground, I wouldn't have such easy access to them." She smirked.

Landon just rolled his eyes with a hint of a smile on his face, but as they walked out, he turned to Remy with a serious look, "Hey, I gotta go to the bathroom real quick. Rem, will you come with me?"

Renee gasped, "And you said you weren't friends! You're already going to the bathroom together?" She wiped an imaginary tear from her eye. "That's just... so sweet."

Landon shook his head at her, the smile returning, "C'mon, Remy, let's go."

He walked off in the direction of a bathroom, and Remy quietly followed, suspecting that he didn't just want a bathroom buddy.

His suspicions were confirmed when Landon pulled him into the handicapped stall and bolted the lock, as if that would prevent anyone else in the bathroom from hearing their conversation.

"You're the guy. You saw me that night. I ran into you after what happened. And don't think about pretending you're not that guy, because I saw how you reacted when you saw me." His voice lowered. "It was the same look you had that night."

Remy didn't know what to say, so he just nodded his head. There was no point trying to deny it.

Landon stared intensely at him, brows furrowed and eyes... well, scared. Worried. "You didn't go to the police. Why?"

There were a million questions he could've asked him, like "How did you find us?" or "Why are you stalking us?", but Remy hadn't prepared himself to answer any of those questions, let alone that one.

Remy stumbled over his words, face flushing as he tried to figure out what he wanted to say, "Well, I don't... It's just that you... I just... you..."

Landon stood there with a confused expression, trying to decipher what Remy was getting at. Knowing he wasn't going to stop his babbling anytime soon, he put them both out of their misery by saying, "Look. It's not a big deal." Understatement of the century. "But, like, you're not planning on confessing, are you? Trust me, you don't know the whole story."

Remy shook his head, wide-eyed, "I wouldn't do that to you."

"Okay. Well, uh, thanks. We're gonna have to talk later and get things sorted out, but right now, Renee is waiting and we have a meeting to get to." He was about to unlock the stall, but he turned and put a hand on Remy's shoulder. "Don't say anything to her about this. I never told her about you, if that wasn't obvious. She's been through so much. You don't know, Remy. She doesn't need this kind of drama." His eyes were desperate and pleading now, on the verge of tears.

Remy replied, looking sympathetic, "I wouldn't do that to her, either."