[IC] A Long Summer -- Wister & UniqueChancer

[UniqueChance]

Luke Chen

Poppy King

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Now that Summer had come and gone, the student body, both new and old, had returned to the city for another year of parties, lectures, and late nights cramming over textbooks with the knowledge they should have started sooner; such a practise was a tradition among students, brought down from year to year without so much as a spoken word. With the return of the student-faculty, meant the return to its vast majority of students, especially those who had not remained on the school campus for the duration of the eight week holiday. Whilst many students stayed at least for a portion of the break in their rented accommodation, the largest portion repacked their belongings and travelled home to visit friend's and family, sometimes travelling abroad.

In one such home, situated at the very end of a cul-de-sac, overlooking one of the four fields the University used for recreation and sports. The frame and build of the house was no different from that of the houses left, or right. Its only sole difference was its occupants, as was each home. Throughout its nine-room layout were a bundle of students and their dedicated rooms. Their interiors a stark contrast to the bland surgical white of the walls its hallways featured. As with most student housing, the building featured three bedrooms on its second floor and a further single room on its ground floor.

Two doors on the left, immediately upon entering the home was the first of these four rooms. Behind the hospital white of its door was the bedroom of Luke Chen, and such it was decorated in such a fashion. From the collection of science fiction books on the shelves above his bed to the dark, willow cello his parent's had gifted him after passing his final school exams with A's across the board. Despite being a key reminder of the expectations that his parent's hung over his head frequently, it remained in high use. It hadn't been with great pleasure that Luke had informed his parent's of his Third Chair position within the University's orchestra.

Such high expectations could have easily been forgotten in the presence of Luke's desk. Upon it a PC he'd been gifted from his elder brother upon his sixteenth birthday. It was a location he would spend most of his free time, tapping away at keys and laughing with the friends he still had from his school days. Each of them taking part in various video games and online activities as if they were in physical presence of one another. As if nothing would ever change.

Taking a right from the first bedroom, across from the kitchen, was the stairs. Each wooden step guiding the way towards the final three bedrooms; two of which still appeared to have life within them. It was the room at the far end of the hall that had been a cause for question since its occupant seemed to disappear one morning, their suitcase and belongings following behind. There had been no goodbye from its tenant, no indication of where she had gone or of her eventual return. The remaining rent for the following three months had been paid according to homes shared bank account, all deposited mysteriously shortly before the disappearance.

Behind its closed door stood the cold emptiness of the room, bland without the decoration of a personality beyond. No posters on its walls, or sheets upon its bed. Its interior seemed almost as if she hadn't ever existed.

Yet, as if like a passing wind, there was a sudden collection of belongings laid out in the hall. It only came to the attention of Luke as the heavy thud of a box reverberated against his bedroom wall. What he had been expecting was nothing more than the delivery of groceries. He hadn't even suspected the reappearance of their roommate and friend, holding a pillow to her chest in the hall as her parents gathered her belongings back in the hallway once again.

"Hey-" He croaked through the silence. Her eyes shot his way with an element of scared surprise as if she'd expected to return to their abode magically. There was something unnatural about her appearance however, a strange change he couldn't quite picture. Beyond the willowy frame she'd held for the vast majority of their friendship, there was something further.

"Hi." Was all Poppy returned before grabbing a smaller box and marching upstairs with such gentle steps that would even rival a mouse. The questions had been something she'd grown to dread, especially considering her leaving part way through the final term of the year. Her departure was as obvious as her return. It wasn't something she was strong enough to deal with.

 

[Wister]

Having grown up in a small, rural town and having ever open ears, Tess was more aware of the noises that indicated that someone had arrived than her flatmate below. This was mainly due to the arrival by car, and the general commotion of opening and closing doors associated with multiple people. The shuffling of boxes and the like further indicated that something was going on, and so Tess stood to look out the window to see an unfamiliar car, with individuals unpacking. So Poppy had returned.

Tess's room was the first that one would see upon arriving on the upper floor. There were a few science posters on the walls that were mostly technical in nature but still beautiful, and textbooks made up the bulk of the literature on her bookshelves. Her desk was neat, with a few notebooks on the corner and sticky notes marking the pages of an electrical engineering textbook. The room depicted a studious worker, and Tess matched that description pretty well. Before the car had arrived, she had been working on a project that wasn't due for another few months.

This said, she wasn't the most focused of people, and her door was generally kept cracked open so that she could hear what was going on in the rest of the house. She walked over to the door, socks making for soft footfalls, and opened it slowly to see Poppy walking up the stairs, box in hand. "It's good to see you," Tess said, genuinely glad that their roommate hadn't fallen off of the face of the Earth for all eternity. "Do you need any help with your things?"

They were simple words, too often spoken without meaning, but this was not generally the case for Tess. There were many whirlwinds of thought stirring behind a pleasant, calm demeanor, and those who interacted with her for even a brief while would quickly discover that she was pointedly honest and meant what she said. In high school, she had had a penchant for phrasing things unnaturally, but this had waned over the summer due to being a camp counselor, as she then found the need to make her language a bit more standard to accommodate her audience.

She was, of course, curious as to where the other girl had been or what she had been doing, which only increased as Tess noticed something off in the other's appearance, but these were not topics that she intended on pursuing now. After all, if someone wanted something to be known, they would say so themselves, and if not, they should at least be given some time before prodding for an answer. They might be friends, but privacy was something she had always respected, and she'd be happy to help in any way, even if it were just moving boxes.

****​

In the room next door, there was currently no one, though the space was very obviously lived in, were one to open the door. Various photographs, mostly printed on 5" x 7" photo paper, were all in an aesthetically pleasing cluster at the center of the wall that the unmade bed with lime green sheets and a turquoise comforter was pushed up against. Fairy lights coiled around a lamp that had been clipped to the shelving near the resident's bed, so that they had the option of having a more or less focused light source. Their whole room was cluttered with drawings, assignments, and other papers, which circulated from the desk to the bed to the floor and to the shelves.

The room belonged to an eccentric student majoring in photography, who had only in college truly become very open about their queer identified status and general interests. In high school, they had been more associated with the trivia club and math team, the latter being where they met Tess, but with the freedom of college and a lack of parental surveillance, they eagerly explored new interests or those that had been confined to their tumblr account.

Here at this new place, they had introduced themselves with a new name and pronouns. They called themselves Quinn, and while they stated that any pronouns would do, they had particular preference to gender neutral ones. The acceptance they received in the liberal college setting was, while expected, still as thrilling as could be hoped. It made them more confident, more social. Though they didn't completely abandon their old contacts, they also found a new group of friends who had similar views of the world and the injustices of it, who they hung around quite frequently and were currently out with now.