A/N I'm writing a one-shot! Cos... one-shot's are cool. Yeah. This is all AU and stuff, so... yeah! Should be cute. It's a college/non-famous Channy fic! Yay :)
PS Remember the boy-troubles reference in Sharpies? The boy part of the boy trouble has a girlfriend and she's so pretty -_- *dies* SO PRETTY.
PPS I GOT A NEW NETBOOK. Daddy brought it home from England with him. ITS PURPLE. But my dad got pulled into work after being home for less than twelve hours, so *sigh* I'm back on WordPad, which means this isn't beta'd. Typos will ensue, I'm warning y'all now :P
Twenty year old Chad Goldfarb was annoyed.
Not only had he been late getting back to campus after the mid-term break (stupid Hurricane Irene...), when he'd finally arrived at his beloved on-campus apartment, he'd realized he'd lost his keys. Already.
Heading to the admission's office and growling with annoyance, Chad raked a hand through his blonde hair. He pasted on his best smile, the one his mom said was the secret to his charm. She was female, right? Chad had decided long ago that his mom always gave accurate, smart advice, unlike other mothers. And it was true, things were a little easier if he smiled sincerely enough.
"Hi, there." Chad rang the bell on the desk tentatively.
"Can I help you?" The bored looking girl asked. Chad smiled at her sheepishly.
"I... may... have lost my key." He muttered, sticking his hands in his pockets and grinning. He recognised her as a classmate. Emily, he thought. She sighed.
"Ugh. I'm only on this as a part of student volunteer work!" She complained, then leaned forward a little. "I don't actually know what I'm doing." She confided, grimacing, before turning to face the door behind her.
"Alicia! There's a guy here who's lost his key!" She yelled. Chad winced in sympathy. He'd been stuck with admission's duty before. It wasn't fun. He'd ended up sending two freshman chem students to a sociology class and a lost looking girl to the biology lab before it clicked with him that her car had broken down and she really was, well, lost.
A harrassed looking woman in her late thirties came out, pushing her glasses up her nose. "Who is it now?" She asked exasperatedly, before catching sight of the blonde. "You again?" She groaned. Chad took a deep breath and smiled his most sincere smile.
"Hey, Alicia." She sat down behind the desk, searching around for something with one hand while staring at him rather stormily.
"You know, when you didn't come in on Wednesday, I actually had hope that you'd managed to make it back to campus without losing something. Map, keys, roomate..."
Chad gritted his teeth behind his slight smile. "Hurricane Irene. Travelling problems. I was meant to be here Thursday morning." Term was due to start back Tuesday morning, and Chad liked getting back a few days early to get himself sorted and settled. And, inevitably, to sort out whatever he'd lost. It was early Saturday morning. Alicia snorted, then she pulled her hand out from under the desk.
"Aha! Got it."
"The master key?" Chad asked, surprised. Normally the frustrated desk woman hunted around for a walkie-talkie so she could call the janitor, who carried the master-key around.
"No, son. A key for your room." She rolled her eyes. "I figured getting one was better than bullying the poor janitor." Chad eyed the key, a little weirded out.
"How did you...?" He asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.
"Its the key you got cut. You left it sitting here the last time you asked for help." She smirked at him. "It sits under the desk, taped to a sticky note with your name on it. There, don't you feel special? Never before have I seen someone with such good grades and such a track record for... himself." Chad blushed slightly. His classmate stared at him, openmouthed.
"My mom says I would lose my own head if it wasn't attached to my shoulders." He offered with a slight chuckle. Alicia grinned, a maternal edge to her expression as she held the key out. Chad reached out and she pressed it firmly into his palm, wrapping his fingers around the cool metal and squeezing them shut.
"Hold onto that, Mr Goldfard." She said sternly. "I don't want to see you back in admission's for a while, okay?" Chad smiled and waved with his free hand, the spare key still clutched firmly in his other. He walked out, whistling slightly. It was a gorgeous morning. Chad was suddnely grateful he'd chosen New York University over the Southwestern Medical Centre in Dallas, where his mom had wanted him to go. She'd wanted him to stay local.
Chad loved his mom, but he knew where he wanted to be; New York. He'd applied for colleges all over North America (including, at his proud mother's insisting, a couple Ivy League colleges)- Arizona, Texas, New York, South California, and even a few small colleges in Wisconsin and Minnesota. He'd been thrilled when he recieved the NYU acceptance letter, and had felt a private stab of relief when Dartmouth and Harvard turned him down. He never sent an application to Yale, despite his mother's begging. Two Ivy League schools had been quite enough, he'd thought.
When Chad collected his bags from where he'd stashed them, he stowed the keys in his jacket pocket. He was... fairly... confidant they wouldn't fall out. Reaching his room, he kicked at the door to open it, out of habit.
And instead of the usual sudden pain in his toe that usually met him when he did this, the door swung open.
"Oh, crap." He muttered.
"Hello?" He asked, hoping the cleaner had just forgotten to lock the door after him or herself. He allowed his small suitcase to crash onto the floor, and set his book bag down more carefully onto the couch.
A second later, he found out it wasn't the cleaner.
A brunette tumbled out of the bathroom, shrieking and holding a baseball bat aloft.
"I'm armed!" She warned, waving the bat threateningly. Chad raised an eyebrow.
"I can see that," He said, taking a casual step towards her. "I'm getting from the baseball bat that you don't know this, so I'm just gonna say it- this is my room."
The girl stared at him, bug-eyed. It took her a moment or two to respond, and she didn't lower her makeshift weapon. "No, it isn't." She argued feebly.
"Yes. It is." Chad insisted, disregarding his inner gentleman who was insisting he introduce himself and be polite like an adult. Chad was almost a junior in college, though, and his first few years in New York where finally paying off. "I've lived here for nearly three years. What are you doing here?"
The girl huffed, lowing her baseball bat so she could pull a sulky face. "I'm starting college here. I transferred from the University of Wisconsin, Platteville." He stared at her.
"I meant... what are you doing here? At my place?" She sighed in irritation, throwing her bat down on the couch and folding her arms.
"I got assigned this place. See?" She tugged at a chain around her neck, revealing herself to be wearing a key rather like his own like a pendant on the chain. Chad ran a hand through his hair, the situation sinking in.
"So, we're... roomates." He stated flatly, pulling his own key from his jacket pocket. The girl grimaced at him.
"I guess we are." Well... may as well start over, he told himself. He walked towards the bathroom door, excusing himself. He looked himself over in the mirror, and smoothed his hair which was wild from him running his hands through it in first frustration, then annoyance.
"May as well try to make a good impression." He told himself, wetting his hand and attempting to flatten it the way his mom sometimes did. He was going to be, for lack of a better term, living with this girl, after all. They needed to get along, maybe even be friends.
He walked out of the bathroom again, a small smile on his face. The girl, whose name he didn't yet know, had moved towards the small kitchenette and was boiling the kettle, apparently already at home in his- thier- apartment.
"Maybe we should start again." He said. She jumped, clearly not having heard him come out of the bathroom. She turned, a little flustered, and he could have sworn he saw her hand twitch towards her baseball bat. She relaxed again as she took in his smile, which had grown and switched to its natural lopsided position.
"Okay." She agreed easily, then bit her lip. I've made her uncomfortable, he realized with a stab of guilt. Well, there was nothing to be done about that now- except maybe complaining to the admission's office that he hadn't been warned of his impromtu roomate. He held out a hand for her to shake.
"Chad Goldfarb. Medical student." He suceeded in pulling a smile from her. The smile lit up her face, and he couldn't help but notice that she was really quite pretty.
"Allison Munroe. Art student." She introduced herself, and it was definitely noticable that she was a Wisconsonite. "And you aren't a New Yorker either, are you?" She added. He grinned.
"Texas, born and bred." He said proudly. She giggled and took a teabag out of the open packet. He grabbed himself a mug from the small cupboard. "There's sugar in that pot, Allison." He inclined his head towards a coffee container. A coffee container filled with granulated sugar. "And there's milk in the fridge... I think."
"Call me Sonny, Chad." She said warmly. "All my friends do." Chad grinned at her.
"Alright then... Sonny." She smiled, pouring hot water into her mug, and watching Chad spoon coffee powder out of the sugar pot and into his mug out of the corner of her eye.
"I think we're gonna get along just fine," They said at the same time, before bursting into laughter.
It was ridiculously easy adjusting to living with a roomate- or more specifially, living with Sonny. The girl was, as Chad discovered, pretty much his perfect roomate. About two months later, he caught himself referring to her as his best friend.
"Hey, Goldilocks." She greeted him, four months after moving in, cheerful and completely ignoring the smell of formaldehyde he brought with him. He was pretty sure she was used to it; with him training to be a doctor, he often ended up surrounded by strong smelling chemicals. "Kettle's boiling for a coffee," She informed him, walking past him with her book bag slung low on her arm and ruffling his hair. He grinned good-naturedly; he and his roomate had quickly fallen into a simple, comforting pattern, which involved coffee, taking turns with chores, and complaining about the college life they both loved.
"Got much work tonight, then?" He called, pouring them both a coffee. He added two spoonfulls of soft sugar to hers and stirring a drop of milk to his own, before throwing the small spoon into the sink. He threw his new college-issued lab coat over the back of a chair and picked up his own bag, walking into the living room.
"Yeah!" She called back. Sonny worked as an Art student, something Chad could never imagine doing. His experiance of Art in his freshman year of high school had been disasterous enough. He'd been disallowed to take the class as a sophmore. Neither Chad or the Art department had any problem with this. Sonny, on the other hand, seemed to have a gift that exceeded everyone's expectations. She was smart, creative, funny, and a little crazy; the perfect artist. Chad grabbed his old high school biology text book, and pushed on his nerdy reading glasses, which Sonny had been encouraging him to wear more. "They look good!" She'd encourage him. "You can totally pull off the sexy nerd swag thing,"
He doubted this, but got back into wearing the glasses anyway. It was better for his eyes, after all.
He settled back in the couch, flipping through the battered book, remembering a time when the material in the book was really difficult. Now, he felt like he could rewrite the textbook. With Sonny illustrating it. Yeah. Maybe he'd do that someday. It was a comfort thing. Chad was well aware that having a freshman-junior level high school biology textbook probably put him pretty high on the list of the nerds of the world, but he didn't mind. He liked the idea of being a doctor; the helping people, the learning new stuff all the time, the thought of saving lives and making little kids laugh instead of crying when they went for check-ups... He loved the thought. And the fact that the job would be totally, completely unpredictable excited him. He'd never be bored on the job.
He wondered how Sonny would fare once they graduated thier respective college courses. He, of course, was hoping to get into a proper, well-known med school to become qualified. But what about her? What did artists... do when they graduated?
Maybe they went solo. Chad had a feeling Sonny would be just fine if she did; she had the talent, the smarts and the charisma- a lethal combination.
Suddenly, he remembered that he'd made her a coffee as well. Rolling his eyes at his own absent-mindedness, he picked up her chipped mug and shoved it into the microwave for a minute. When it was done, he walked down the hall and tapped on her door lightly.
"Come on in!" She called. He pushed the door open carefully with his free hand, wary.
Sonny's room looked like a bomb site. An artistic bombsite.
White tarps were spread over the floor, the furniture, and partially covering the walls; a good idea, because everything had somehow got splattered with paint. A huge canvas was set up on a stand, and my new best friend stood in front of it, wearing her painting outfit (sweats and a Green Bay High hoodie) and a look of determination on her face. With her long brown hair piled into a messy ponytail on the back of her head and a thick paintbrush and palette in her hands, she looked like a real professional. He grinned.
"Hey, Sonshine."
"Hey," She said, not turning around. "Is that coffee I smell?" He chuckled at her hopeful tone.
"From my special stash of fancy coffee." He grinned. "I reckon we both deserved a treat." Sonny didn't say anything for a moment, and concentrated on her brush strokes. Chad watched her work, fascinated. She set down the paintbrush and turned to him, a blinding smile on her face. He held out her mug.
"Let's go sit on the couch." He suggested and they walked out of her room. Their on-campus apartment wasn't awfully big- just a small living room with a kitchenette, a small bathroom and a short distance splitting their two rooms. They called this space between the couch and the roons a 'hall' but it was more just a one bigger space with four little rooms attached.
"So, why haven't you had a roomate since your first term then?" Sonny asked him, crossing her legs and playing idly with a pen. Chad snickered, and she raised her eyebrows. She took a swig of the fancy coffee, humming with satisfaction. "C'mon, Chad. Tell me, tell me, tell me," She pleaded, a curious look on her face. Sonny rarely let things go, like a dog with a bone.
"Let's just say, I wasn't a very good roomate." Chad snorted. Sonny raised an eyebrow expectantly and Chad sighed. "It was a mix of a ...clash of interests, opposing schedules, disliking each other, him liking the drink... and the time I came home when I wasn't supposed to." Chad shuddered. "He was with his girlfriend." Sonny looked a little grossed out at the last part.
"So then what?" She pressed.
"All out roomate war." Chad smirked. "I won." Sonny let out a stream of giggles, pretty sure she had some idea how Chad had won. The two were pretty much regarded as partners in crime at this point.
"Don't you have any work?" She asked him when they were done with their coffee. He nodded.
"I do. Just wanted to spend some time relaxing first." He nudged her. "And I wanted my favorite buddy to relax with me, because as awesome as she is, she's a little overworked." Sonny bumped him with her hip playfully as she grabbed the mugs and walked into the kitchenette.
"Who, me?" She joked, pushing her hair behind her ears. He rolled his eyes as she walked back towards her room. She caught the eyeroll and raised an eyebrow.
"Don't you have, like, a thesis to write?" She grinned. Chad sighed.
"No. We have a pre-thesis plan and research on- you don't care do you?"
"Nope. It's all just work to me. Now art- there's some real fun!" She said over her shoulder, before shutting the door on him. Chad rolled his eyes again, then walked into his own room and sprawling across the bed. He grabbed his netbook and settled it on his stomach, ready to write a paper. They were working on some pychological stuff, and although he'd been pretty blocked on what to say, as his brown-eyed best friend danced through his mind, he started to type.
"Chad?" Sonny called, about six weeks later.
"I'm on a Skype call!" He called back and she grinned, pushing the door open with her shoulder. She had a towel wrapped around her damp hair like a turban, and a laundry basket in her arms. Their friendship had only strengthened farther in the past few weeks, and Sonny was well on the way to being unable to imagine a time when he wasn't there.
She knew he talked about her to his friends and family; she did the same. So she felt absoloutely no compunctions about pushing the door open and yelling;
"Chad, I got the laundry!" She walked over and set the basket down on the counter, then walked over and sat beside him on the couch. If they wanted their conversations to be private, then they talked in their bedroom, so Sonny knew she wasn't crossing any lines.
"Who ya talkin' to, Goldilocks?" She asked, leaning over his shoulder.
"My mom."
"Hi, Sonny!" Mrs. Goldfarb greeted. She'd seen the girl walking through the little apartment once or twice before but this was the first time she'd actually had a chance to talk to the girl. Any feelings of unease she- or Sonny's family- may have felt about their son and daughter living together was long gone; both had a strong faith in Christ and were constantly referring to each other as their 'best friend'. And Mrs. Goldfarb could see a change in her son; he wasn't as absent-minded or sloppy- more caring and careful.
"Hi, Ms. Goldfarb," Sonny said, in a rare display of shyness. Chad glanced at her in surprise, and nudged her.
"Go on, show us a smile!" He grinned, unabashed of having this kind of exchange in front of his mother. Sonny's lips curved up in a bright smile. Julia smiled to herself.
"How are you both?" The older woman asked. Sonny played with her ponytail, smiling softly.
"I'm good. Got an A on my psychology research paper." Chad said proudly. He hadn't told Sonny what he'd written about in the paper, and he didn't intend to. His mother knew, though, and her private smile grew even larger.
"I'm okay, Mrs. Goldfarb," She smiled. Julia glanced at her son quickly, and he took the hint.
"Here, keep talkin' to my mom a sec. I'm gonna make some coffee." He shoved his netbook uncerimoniously into her lap.
"The fancy kind?" She asked hopefully.
"The fancy kind." He confirmed, walking into the kitchenette. Julia was wide-eyed. Chad didn't share his fancy coffee with anyone.
"So... Chad tells me you're an artist?" Julia said to Sonny. Sonny relaxed a little, her passion taking over.
"That's right, Ma'am." She said, pushing her chin up proudly. A lot of people judged her for her choice in university, and she didn't know whether or not Julia was one of those people.
"That's... excellent, Sonny." The older woman said, picking up on the young woman's proud demeanor immediately. She'd have to ask Chad about that. "What are you working on now?"
"I just finished a painting a couple days ago, and I'm due to start a class in sculpting." Sonny smiled. Julia knew you had to be talented to get into art college. She was impressed.
"Sounds interesting. Any ideas yet?" The smell of expensive coffee wafted under the young woman's nose, and her face split into a cheeky grin.
"At the minute? A giant mug of coffee." She laughed.
"Of course." Chad smirked at his mother over his best friend's head.
Later that night, when he called her on his cell, the subject of her came up again.
"I do believe you've found your soulmate," Julia joked. Chad laughed.
"I know,"
Blake Munroe wasn't the most observative guy around.
But when he travelled all the way up to New York to visit his little sister at her fancy-shcmancy college apartment thing, six months after she started going there, even he could see the signs.
"Chad! Gimme back my paintbrush!" He could hear his little sister shrieking from down the hall. He knocked heavily on the door. A blonde dude with the odd combination of flicky hair, a slightly paint spattered lab coat and nerdy glasses answered the door.
"Can I help you?" The blonde/nerd/doctor asked politely.
"I'm supposed to be here." Blake said bluntly. Chad had a few seconds to take in the twenty-five year old's lean build, tatoos, earring, and dyed, crazily spiked hair before his best friend shoved past him and hurled herself into crazy rock dude's arms.
"BLAKE!" Sonny shrieked in delight. Her brother, Chad realized, with a stab of relief. She'd said he'd be up sometime that day.
Blake shoved his little sister protectively over his shoulder, and eyed the blonde nerd who was in his sister's place. He'd been travelling with his not-so-crappy garage band, who were sort of creeping thier way into being an official band- and by that he meant they'd just finished recording their first demo. He hadn't been able to talk to his sister an awful lot, and he wasn't very sure about this dude; after all, this was his little sister; as the oldest boy of a fatherless family, he felt a stronger-than-average need to protect his little girl.
"And you are?" He asked casually.
"I'm Chad, Sonny's roomate." Blake eyeballed him.
"Roomate, you say?"
"That's right!" Sonny piped up from over his shoulder. "And m'best friend." Chad gave a lazy grin to confirm this statement.
"Now, put me down Blakerson, because I WANT MY PAINTBRUSH!" She yelled the last part and her brother nearly dropped her in surprise. He set her down carefully on her feet (she was a well-established klutz) then watched in amusement as she chased the blonde around the apartment, screaming for her paintbrush.
Blake folded his arms, and leaned against the doorjamb.
Yes, he maybe wasn't the most observant of people, but even he could see it- the potential love story.
A young woman by the name of Emily watched from across the hall. Chad Goldfarb and Sonny Munroe really were... quite... the pair. The communal dorm living room was crowded and they were sitting with their heads together, no doubt cooking up some prank that would have everyone looking over their shoulders for about three weeks. They'd done it plenty of times before in the last seven months.
But that wasn't the reason Emily watched them. She was doing a degree in English, majoring in Journalism, and her newest assignment was to write about a romance. They could make characters up, but they'd probably get... a lot... more points if she wrote it on real people who she knew. People she could interview. Journalists had to do that anyway, so this would work really well in her portfolio.
And they would work so well...
She watched, and as nightfell, someone cranked on some music, and what started a chilled gathering turned into an all-out, (alcohol free) college party. She saw, out of the corner of her eyes, Chad pull Sonny to her feet, and Sonny pull Chad towards the open space acting as a dancefloor.
They danced like professionals, and not in the weird, awkward grinding way either. More like they'd had training from Sonny's brother's band-in-training. Emily watched them all night, her smile growing bigger and bigger.
Saturday morning dawned hot and bright, and Emily read over the end her finished assignment with satisfaction.
"It's finally happened, folks; word is buzzing around the campus, and we have the full story here! Its true; after seven long months of pranks and flirtationship, roomies Sonny and Chad have finally made it as a couple. The two shared their first real kiss last night at two a.m. at a campus party that rocked everyone's brains out. Look out; there's a hot new couple on campus!"
Emily smiled as she typed her title.
"Potential- Fulfilled,"
A/N Well that... got completely off track. AND it took me until five freakin' am to finish! Jeez. Thanks to MrB.o.B1990 for tweeting me during this, and thanks to past decembers for answering my question :D i love you guys!
This story has been cluttering up in my head for AGES so I finally sat down to write it. Started just after midnight and finished at five am? Yeah, gotta love insomnia ;)
I hope you liked this, even though the POVs were probably REALLY confusing! It's just fluff fluff fluff which was gonna end after Blake's part but it didn't feel complete and Emily's part kinda wrote itself xD
Love you all!
Reviews are love ;)
Hannah xox