The Visitor - Part One

The unlikely roommates began to settle into a routine across the next few days as they waited for classes to commence. Nicola, thankfully, began to buy food for them to share that was fit for human consumption, and William took charge of keeping the apartment tidy. They only rarely spoke, happy to exist alongside each other with minimal interactions. Occasionally, he would see Nicola as she jotted down some notes about his behaviours. He suspected that if all her research came from his daily activities, her paper was bound to be absurdly boring, not that he really cared either way.

He spent most of his time at the small desk in his room feverishly revising for his math courses, and rarely left the apartment unless he was cajoled to by his best friend Mark. Nicola, for her part, always seemed to be doing something - he only saw her in the early mornings and late evenings.

"Hey, how's it going?" Nicola murmured to him, her attentions mostly directed to the video game on the television. To him, it was all just a bunch of meaningless lights and noises, but she was incredibly engrossed in it. Her pink shirt pulled tightly across her chest, seemingly skin-tight against her massive breasts, and her matching shorts left little to his imagination. She looked like the living archetype of every teenage boy's fantasy 'gamer girl'.

"Yeah, all good. I'm about to head out to meet Mark." He said innocuously as he zipped up his jacket.

"That's that friend you told me about, right?" She began mashing buttons on the worn controller.

"Yeah."

"Maybe I'll come hang with you guys sometime, could be fun."

He figured she was probably just being polite, but he was certain that Mark would go insane with envy if he knew that his girl roommate was this attractive. Also, while he did love his friend to bits, to call Mark a horn dog would be an understatement and he could do without that kind of drama.

"Uh, sure. I'll see you later." As he exited the apartment, his phone dinged.

Mark: Dude, you're gonna hate me.

William: What?

Mark: I got invited to some party by this chick I was drinking with last night, bunch of Greek life dudes going as well, and I want to get some connections. If you want, I can get you in as well.

In many ways, Mark was the opposite of William. Muscular and tall where William was skinny and short, and confident with a jawline that could cut stone. Women seemed to flock to the young Adonis, and Mark revelled in their attentions. Of course, he was a good friend to William as well; ensuring that anyone who dared mess with the math wonder was in for a world of hurt, and generally made William's life as a nerdy social pariah vastly more bearable.

That’s not to say Mark was dumb either; he was the only kid in William's school who could even try to compete with him academically, perennially placing in close seconds to the scrawny boy. As Mark described it, he was a 'two-way player'. Even though he had narrowly missed out on the Gnole scholarship that William enjoyed, there was a high chance the strapping teenager would be able to get another kind of scholarship for his combined academic and sporting prowess. Currently, however, William's best friend had obsessed himself with getting into one of the college's fraternities. It was nice of Mark to offer the invitation, but it was more of a polite formality than anything; they both knew his introverted self would rather crawl across broken glass than attend.

William: Yeah, I understand man. Let me know how it goes.

Mark: Cool, ttyl.

Sighing, he walked back into the dormitory, resigned to continue studying for his courses. Nicola was no longer in the living area when he returned, so he figured she was in the bathroom or her room. Closing his room's door behind him, he began to write out some equations for him to solve from the second-hand textbook he scrounged off eBay. He heard the door from the hallway to the apartment open; Nicola must be leaving.

A man's voice echoed into his ears, his tone gravelly and deep. "Hey, your roommate here?"

Nicola's reply was a sharp juxtaposition, sweet and bubbly. "Nope, she's out for the day."

"Shame, we could've had some fun, the three of us."

In response, Nicola just giggled and William could only listen in increasing horror as the sounds of the stranger and Nicola making out emanated from the living room, followed by two very entangled people stumbling their way to Nicola's bed, which lay just a thin wall apart from his room.