A guy in college and his roommate

It has been a rough semester so far for Jeremy McPrice. He is in his junior year of college, and after an explosive break-up between the fall and spring semesters, he had to hurriedly find a new living situation, since his now ex-girlfriend’s name was on the lease of his old apartment.

Unfortunately for Jeremy, the best he could end up finding was his old friend Dominic Masters. They went to high school together, but despite being fairly intelligent Dominic hadn’t followed Jeremy to college, instead just floating around working where he could. To begin with, Jeremy had been apprehensive about moving in with Dominic, but three months together was already proving he’d underestimated the situation.

Unlike Jeremy, who not only had classes to go to but also had a near-full time job to help pay his bills, Dominic apparently worked somewhere that paid fairly well but gave him little in the way of hours. That left him home all day, yet it was Jeremy who’d ended up doing all the household chores. He also had to be reminded half a dozen times to pay any kind of bill, and Jeremy had sneaked a peak at his financials and found out it wasn’t a money problem. Either Dominic was just lazy or he enjoyed pissing off Jeremy.

It didn’t help that it was hard for Jeremy to put his foot down about anything. He didn’t like confrontation at the best of times, and Dominic was an entire foot taller than he was. Jeremy wasn’t a scrawny guy, he was just fairly average in terms of height and build, if perhaps a little softer than some. Meanwhile, Dominic looked like he could professionally play football or basketball if he wanted to.

After having a tense conversation about who was going to do the dishes (which ended with Jeremy just doing them himself), Jeremy has gone on a walk to clear his head. It’s still fairly cold, summer’s heat hasn’t started to bear down on everyone just yet.

Jeremy isn’t planning on really going anywhere, but when his eyes spy an antique shop he’s never seen before, just a block from his apartment, he’s curious enough to go inside. The place is cluttered, but seems to have a lot of cool stuff. A woman who looks like she can be anywhere from in her thirties to her fifties, with a mature beauty that’s quite striking, greets Jeremy with a smile. “Let me know if you need any help finding anything.”

Looking around the place, Jeremy isn’t sure he’ll actually want to buy any of this junk...until he spies something that catches his eye. It’s a black felt-tip marker, a nice looking one that art students usually used. Jeremy isn’t an artist, but he feels like a marker like that might come in useful. Picking it up, he takes it to the front of the store and asks, “There’s no price tag, how much for this marker?” Of course, if it’s too much, he won’t be getting it.

The woman’s eyes widen in shock. “Oh my! I didn’t think it would be choosing anyone so soon.” Jeremy isn’t sure what the woman means, but she soon starts explaining, “That is no ordinary marker, boy. It is a magic marker, one that changes whatever you write on with it, based on what exactly you write. Unless you specify otherwise, all changes only last a few hours, or until the writing is smeared or smudged.” Jeremy doesn’t believe a word of this, and is ready for the woman to throw out some inside price that she’s using this magic bologna to justify. “Since it has chosen you, you may have it for free. Just be careful on who is holding the marker.” Confused, the next thing Jeremy knows he’s walking in his front door, holding the marker. Trying to brush it off as just a weird coincidence, he sees that Dominic is sleeping in the living room, on the couch, and he’s shirtless. The marker suddenly feels heavy in his hand. Maybe...he should test it on the sleeping roommate.