SURPRISE - Ch1. The Party

Disclaimer: SLASH. If you don't like, there's a simple solution... Don't read it! I don't own anything either...

A/N: -crawls out from under a rock- I'm BACK, with a venegence! lol. Nothing much else to report, more from me afterwards!

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College. For a student, that word can mean so many different things. Absolute freedom, hard work, crazy times, doing things you never thought you would ever do, partying, 3 am mid-term cramming, finding out who you truly are, making the greatest friends in the world, the list goes on.

For me, college was all those things, and more. And although there were some pretty tough times, I enjoyed every minute of my college experience.

I remember the first day and year like they were yesterday…

"Mom, Dad, can you try not to embarrass me?" I called out as we pulled our over-stuffed car up to my dorm hall.

"CJ, now why ever would we do that?" My dad responded sarcastically, smiling. I simply roll my eyes, praying that my roommate isn't in the room yet.

No such luck. I walked into my postage-stamp sized dorm, and nearly dropped my duffel bag. Why, you ask? My roommate was bending over to put something under the bed, giving me the perfect view of his ass. Before my face could turn red, I coughed a bit to get his attention, and he immediately turned around, giving me more of a reason to blush. Dirty blonde hair that hung down in his eyes, and a smile that could potentially cause more than blushing. He also had an eye patch over his left eye (which he later told me he wore because he was blind in his eye, and the look of it freaked many people out), but even with that flaw, he was perfect.

"Hey, you must be CJ," He greeted me, extending his hand. "I'm Nick. Nice to meet you."

Cue my embarrassing parents barging in the room, my mother squealing about meeting my roommate, the size of my dorm, and anything else a mother could say to embarrass her son.

The rest of the day was a bit of a blur, with the chaotic move-in day schedule leaving no time to breathe, or really get to know people. I barely got time in the first few hours to talk to Nick one-on-one without one of our parents being in the room 'helping' us unpack. And then it was time for parental goodbyes, and we were being shipped off to our orientation groups.

I'm not going to bore you with anything from the orientation shit. Seriously, 'shit' is what orientation was. I got to know and befriend all the people on my floor when we weren't scheduled for ice-breaker games.

Especially with me and Nick. Now, if you hadn't figured out this already, I'm gay. I was semi-out in high school, but really, it was basically just my group of friends who knew. I wasn't that self-confident in myself on the very first day I was meeting these people, to proclaim myself a rainbow-loving queer. So of course when I was telling Nick about myself, that teeny-tiny detail was left out of my description.

Unfortunately for me, when Nick told about himself, he launched into a full scale description about his girlfriend Kaila, who was going to college back in Florida.

Why was I cursed with a Greek God for a roommate who just happened to be one of the straightest guys I knew?

Orientation was long and boring, but once that was over, classes began, and we had little to no time to breathe.

A little over a week after classes began was Nick's birthday. Nick and I had gotten to be rather close, and it was apparent to everyone who knew us, as we were basically always together. So, when I realized Nick's birthday was coming up (thank God for Facebook reminders!), I knew I had to do something for him.

So what did I do? I planned a surprise party for him in our dorm. I knew it would work, because he had a class from three to four-fifteen on his birthday, so I planned to have everyone in our room by four. Being on a low college budget, I improvised on the decorations… Neon colored post-its all over the walls as 'confetti,' sharpie-colored notebook paper as the banners. I also baked a batch of my special peanut butter cookies, just for him, because he had told me that he loves peanut butter.

Anyway, the surprise went off smoothly. When Nick walked in, his face was especially funny to watch, as he was completely surprised.

Time came for him to blow out our 'pretend' candles (tooth picks) and sing Happy Birthday, and then another surprise came, both to him and me.

One of our friends, Kurt, spoke up, holding up a bottle of Stewart's Orange Soda. "I guess I should explain this… it's a tradition between my friends at home that we pass around this bottle and everyone says something to the birthday guy, taking a sip as we go along."

My mind started spinning, as to what I was going to say. So many things filled my head, but I couldn't say them out loud. You have no idea how much I wanted just to confess to Nick right then and there, but I refrained myself.

I was handed the bottle, and everyone's attention landed on me. "Um, well, I guess I should start out with a simple Happy Birthday. I've only known you for about a week, but already I know you and I are going to be great friends,"

and how I wish we could be more,

"No one could have asked for a better roommate. I will admit I was extremely nervous about meeting you, as we have to live in this tiny room for a whole year together, but after that first night, I knew I had nothing to be worried about. As you can see, I went through all this trouble just for you, as I know it kinda sucks having your birthday a week into college, and I know you're missing Kaila,"

…why do you have to be straight?

"So yeah, I guess I should wrap this up now. Happy Birthday, Nick!" I salute the bottle towards Nick, and take a sip, passing it to my friend Emily on my right.

I locked eyes with Nick after I finished, and he smiled at me, sending my heart into a panic.

"God, CJ," Emily started her turn, "I'm supposed to follow that pile of mush?"

Everyone cracked up at that, calling me a sap, but I don't care. I said what was in my heart. I just hoped that Nick wouldn't think too much into it. Emily continued her turn, and eventually the bottle gets to Nick.

"Wow," Nick gingerly handled the bottle, looking a bit overwhelmed. "Thanks guys. I really don't know what to say… This means so much to me, knowing how little we all actually know about each other. Thanks again." With that, he chugged the rest of the bottle.

After that, the party wound down with everyone deserting Nick and I to go to Servo. I survey the room, Doritos crushed on my floor, soda spilt on my sheets, mentally cursing my friends for being such pigs, while Nick just looked at me.

I noticed him staring, caught off guard. "What?"

He smiled again, and sits down on his bed. "You're something else, you know that?"

I laughed, sitting on my bed, facing him. "I wanted you to have a good birthday, and a surprise party was my first thought… So I went with it!"

"Thank you. And I really mean that. No one has ever thrown me a surprise party before, and I've always wanted one. And that speech? I really am lucky to have you as my roommate, CJ."

That feeling in the pit of my stomach comes back, full force. I almost, almost, confessed everything then and there. But instead I just smiled, and thanked him. "I meant every word of it, ya know."

He glanced at me, catching my eyes. "I know."

And we stayed that way for a few moments, staring into each other's eyes. But it only lasted a couple seconds before Nick broke the gaze, immediately getting up from his bed, changing his whole position.

"So, uh, do you wanna head over to Servo?" I noticed the nervousness in his voice right away.

All throughout dinner, Nick tried his best to not look at me. I'm naturally a people-watcher, so I picked up on this habit pretty quickly. Something was up with him. That few-second eye contact had thrown him out of whack for some reason. In the back of my mind, a tiny voice was saying the reason for this was that he realized that he was madly in love with me, but I knew that was not the truth. I also got a little freaked out after the thought occurred to me that he guessed that I was gay and madly in love with him and hated it. But I pushed that thought out of my head since I desperately did not want that to be the case.

Nick's nervous-type ignorance of me continued the rest of the night, but I wasn't really in the mood to question it, especially if it meant explaining things. I chose to let it go, hoping that whatever was happening in Nick's mind would be worked out by morning.

It wasn't.

We barely spoke a word to each other getting ready in the morning, and it really got me thinking. I didn't even know what I did.

But was it me, or was Nick staring at my bare chest when I changed into my jeans?

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A/N: I'd just like to let you all know that this is based off of certain events that have happened at my college so far. Some have happened, some haven't, some most likely never will. lol. CJ and Nick are based off of real people, and the events of the surprise party of 99 true. (that speech truly happened. Not verbatim, but close to it.)
Oh, and if you had no idea what Servo was, it's the dining center at Gettysburg College. :-)

Anyway, the second chapter of this fic is already written, but I'm not going to post it until I finish the third chapter. (But just so you know, I started writing this fic three days ago, and I already finished two chapters...) It's probably going to be a 3-5 chapter fic (I have it outlined, but with my outlines sometimes things get to long, and I have to change chapters and such... haha)

Well, enough babble from me... It's your turn now... REVIEW!

-Braids