InsaneJournal

Who: Grizz Visser & Billy Kaplan
What: Grizz meets Billy his one room across the corridor buddy
When: Super duper backdated to September 2018
Where: Chapman University
Rating/Warnings: Low | None
Status: Log | Complete

"Yeah, mom," Billy said into the phone that was wedged between his shoulder and ear, "I- Yeah, I've got them and the location for the appointment next week. And I'm settling in fine, I haven't met my room mate yet but I'm sure he'll be really-"

He sighed heavily and sat down on the bed, the rainbow flag he'd been trying to pin to the wall above his bed flopping down and landing on his head.

"I'm good, mom, I promise. I'll call you later. I really need to finish unpacking... Love you too."

He hung up and dropped his phone on the bed, pushing his hand through his hair and the flag dropped a little. He wrapped it around himself and ignored the swirling pit in his stomach that was trying to convince him that whoever it was that would be living with him this year was going to be an asshole, that they'd hate him like everyone else he'd ever met. That he'd be alone the whole year just like back at high school.

His head hung forward and he wrapped himself more tightly in the flag, that feeling of numb apprehension washing through him again. It'd pass. It always passed. When it did, he'd get up again and he'd finish unpacking and then maybe he'd take a nap.

Most people would have been terrified at the idea of moving from New England to Los Angeles but not Grizz. He was excited, beyond excited. Sure it would suck not to have friends to just hang out with but he'd made himself a promise at a really young age that his life wouldn't just be in New England especially when he was with the exception of Sam the only gay guy around and that was beyond pathetic. Not to mention statistically impossible given the ratio of people to the town he was from, but whatever. Maybe they like him had decided not to come out in high school and wait for another opportunity. An opportunity like college.

His mom had been pretty upset when she'd dropped him off at the airport but thankfully he was good at the whole comforting thing considering he'd done that when his dad and her boyfriend had just upped and left so by the time he got away from her she was in a much better state.

Los Angeles so far had not disappointed and sure he might have looked like the wide eyed tourist with not a fucking clue what was going on but he honestly did not care. By the time he got to his college and was shown to his dorms he was definitely more feet on ground then head in the clouds. He trailed up stairs and headed down the small corridors until he found his room though just as he was about to head into it he couldn't help but notice a pretty dejected looking guy sat hunched over on his bed and wrapped in a rainbow flag.

Grizz could have ignored him but that wasn't really who he was as a person so with bag still hung over his shoulders he stopped in the doorway and rapped his knuckles against the door. "Hey, you okay?"

Billy glanced up a second or so after the sound of knuckles rapping on the open door pulled him from the quagmire of his thoughts. He wet his lower lip, blinked a couple of times and when his brain finally let his eyes process the person in front of him it immediately fritzed and went into what was, effectively, a total meltdown.

The guy standing at the door was tall - oh God, so tall - and broad with cute features and floppy hair that looked like it constantly would be pushed out of his face and tucked behind his ear. It looked like it might feel quite soft if-

Danger, Will Robinson.

The guy also looked like he might be a jock, if the letterman jacket sitting on his shoulders was any indication.

He wet his lower lip, shrugged off the flag like that would make a difference and he suddenly wasn't quite so much of a fucking target for a fist to the face and he cleared his throat, pushing his fingers through his hair and nodding his head as though he hadn't been caught swimming in depression with the door wide open.

"Uh- yeah- I just got off the phone to my mom. You know how it is," he managed, voice only slightly strained and higher pitched than normal. Just slightly. Pull it together, Kaplan.

Okay so dejected!boy was actually pretty cute, in the whole alternative way that you didn't see a lot in the town Grizz was from. He also liked the piercings and the jewellery, definitely suited him. "Sorta?" He offered with a lopsided smile. "I mean I left mine at the airport so... I'm not really in a rush to call her anytime soon."

The other guy still didn't look right and Grizz being Grizz reached up to make sure his bag wasn't about to come off his shoulder and wandered in, hand outstretched.

"I'm Gareth but everybody I know calls me Grizz."

"Mine insisted on travelling with me, and she left like, two hours ago so she's calling from the airport." Billy shook his head and chewed on the inside of his lower lip, trying to shake the feeling that his mom just thought he was incapable which he knew - logically - wasn't the case at all. She was just worried. That was why she'd set him up with her therapist friend here and generally wanted him to call her every day.

College was about learning to live on your own though, right?

He looked a little wary as the guy re-shouldered his bag and then stepped in, wandering closer as though he owned the place. Billy wouldn't mind letting him, if he was honest, but he wasn't going to fall into that trap again. New college rule: straight or sexuality-ambiguous boys were totally off limits.

He got to his feet so at least he felt slightly less like he was on a lower level but it made little difference. Gareth - or Grizz, as he'd introduced himself - was just as tall up front, Billy reached his shoulder, just about.

"Nice to- uh- yeah-" he took the offered hand in his own, "Billy. I- I'm Billy."

"Yeah, nice to meet you too," Grizz offered with a grin when it was clear where Billy's thought train had been going only to get derailed at the last possible moment. "You're actually the first student I've met. I'd say person but that would be a lie as the person at the admin office pointed me in this direction."

He gestured over his shoulder.

"I'm actually right across the hall from you."

No, he wasn't allowed to look like a jock and have a really nice smile. That wasn't fair. He wet his lower lip and nodded, thankful to whatever Gods were up there that his hand hadn't been sweaty or clammy when he'd shaken it.

"Oh- yeah- the admin guys are alright. People- the admin people are cool. I mean they're helpful." Oh, for the love of- He scrubbed his hand over his face and latched it at the back of his neck like that might better filter the way his brain was responding, ordering his thoughts in a better direction or something. "You are? Cool, so we'll be neighbours this year."

Grizz waited, patiently, for Billy to finish that sentence and was resisting the urge he had to chuckle at the apparent awkward. It was actually kind of adorable and honestly it wasn't a trial to wait as Billy was pretty to look at. Definitely prettier than some of the guys he'd known back with the exception of Sam but then he'd had a thing for him for a long time but that was then and this was now.

"Looks like it," he said with a nod before indicating towards the empty bed. "You met your roommate yet?"

"I'm bunking in with the Invisible Man this semester," Billy teased, glancing at the empty bed and being somewhere between highly relieved and deeply disappointed that Grizz wasn't his roommate. He'd have struggled intensely with that turn of events, if he was honest with himself. "You? I mean- you haven't even walked into your room yet but I don't know if you met them- wait- you said I was-"

Colour caught on his cheeks. "Never mind."

Grizz again waited patiently with his lower lip pulled between his teeth as he fought the urge to smile. "Better the Invisible Man than a total ass." Hopefully his wouldn't be but even if they were he'd figure it out, he normally did.

He was kind of lucky like that.

"I should probably let you get back to... whatever it was you were doing before I interrupted."

"You didn't interrupt," Billy reassured him quickly, "But you probably wanna put your bag down in your room or whatever. It looks... heavy."

If Billy could will the ground to swallow him up, he absolutely would be doing that. He had no idea what he was even saying, or what he was thinking other than finding that his brain was just as useless here as it was at home in New York.

He wet his lower lip, having dragged his eyes from where Grizz had been holding his lower lip between his teeth.

Grizz arched an eyebrow at the remark about his bag and chuckled. “Not as heavy as it looks.”

“But uh I’m gonna head out in a bit and explore the campus so you’re welcome to join me if you want?”

It took Billy an embarrassingly short length of time to think about and then make a decision and he nodded. “Yeah- I mean if you don’t mind the company?”

“Wouldn’t have asked if I did,” Grizz assured him with a further toothy grin before he gestured. “Let me just dump my bag, claim a bed and we can head out?”

Billy thought that grin should be criminal but he nodded his head anyway and rubbed the back of his neck. “Sure- yeah, that’ll be cool. Just come tap on the door when you wanna leave. I’m gonna try and put this back up.” He waved his hand towards the flag that had been hastily dumped on the bed.

Grizz gestured to the flag and then the wall. “Did you want a hand with that?” Because he was pretty good with his hands. He was his mom’s go to for anything DIY and gardening.

Good looking and generous? Billy thought that he might actually die. "Uh- yeah- if you don't mind? But you can dump your stuff first, I don't wanna- y'know, you need to get settled in first. This can wait."

"Nah, it's cool." Grizz placed the bag on his shoulder on the ground then wandered over to firstly collect the flag then he bent at the waist to undo his laces because the last thing he wanted to do was walk all over Billy's bed in his sneakers. Not cool, very not cool. He eventually clambered up onto the bed and started to hang the flag before looking over his shoulder. "That good or do you want it someplace else?"

Billy averted his eyes quickly to avoid getting caught staring when Grizz bent down to untie his sneakers and caught himself cataloguing the habit. Every other jock Billy had ever known was the type to just slip their shoes on and off regardless of the damage it did to the structural integrity of the back of the shoe (and, honestly, he was guilty of doing it too but only to take them off, never to put them on) and so it was of interest to him that Grizz was taking visible care over his things.

He tipped his head, realising he couldn' get away from actually seeing the guy as he was then standing on Billy's bed with his back to him, shirt rucked up slightly which meant that not only did Billy get a good view of the guy's ass (what was his life how was this fair?!) but also the sliver of skin that was exposed as he lifted his arms.

"Uh- yeah- I- the left side needs to be a little higher."

Grizz caught his lower lip in-between his teeth as he always did when he was thinking or focused on something because when Billy said the left side needed to go higher he did just that before turning to get the nod of approval. When that was given he secured one edge and did the same with the other before he bent again but this time to smooth the sides of the flag down until he could get the bottom edges also fastened into place.

"How does that look?"

"Great," Billy replied though he wasn't a hundred percent sure if he was talking about the flag or the guy standing on his bed. "It- thanks, Grizz. At least I know who to call if I need any DIY stuff doing this year." His words were followed by a little, almost shy grin and he tugged on his pierced ear, drawing his lower lip between his teeth. "Thanks, man."

Grizz nodded and stepped back off the bed to lean down and snagged his discarded sneakers. "I'd be happy to help." And he would, especially if it meant he could hang with Billy who was definitely cute and Grizz was certain could if he wanted get any guy he looked at. That was an assumption on Grizz's behalf but given that he'd come across Billy wrapped up in a rainbow flag it wasn't like it was rocket science or anything.

"So, uh, yeah if you need anything doing just let me know."

Billy felt his cheeks flushing a little and he nodded, "I- I'll remember that, for sure." He tipped his head, glanced up at the flag with a little smile and then slipped his fingers into the pockets of his skinny jeans.

"I just gotta put my own shoes on," he said, turning to grab them from under the bed. "So if you wanna get settled and then you can-" he straightened up, battered converse hanging from his fingers, "-I mean, if you still wanna go hang out and explore once you've dropped your stuff off I'd love to."

"Okay, cool," Grizz said with a nod of his head and a further grin. He'd been a little worried about coming out to college in Los Angeles but seemed he didn't have a lot to worry about as it was looking like he'd made a new friend already. A cute new friend at that.

He nodded. "Yeah, of course. Lemme just dump my shit and we can head out." With a parting look Grizz turned on his heel and headed across the hall to greet his roommate who after some discussion agreed that actually yeah Grizz should have the bed near the window and with his bag dropped off and shoes pulled back on Grizz headed back out to meet up with Billy.

Billy, who had spent thirty four and a half seconds looking at himself in the mirror trying to fix his hair like that would retrospectively help him make a better first impression, stepped out of his dorm with shoes and hoodie on, ready to go exploring and maybe grab a coffee with his new neighbour. His really hot new neighbour.

Okay, maybe today wasn't going to suck quite so much.