Had he had any idea of what he was getting into, Roman would have noped the hell out of it.

Looking back, a somewhat cheap place between campus and his part time job wasn't worth such an obnoxious roommate, and his first hint should have been the kilometric list of rules to follow told to him as soon as his bags hit the floor.

Roman had talked to the guy over the phone a couple of times, aside of a few text messages with pictures of the place along with the details for rent and the cost of utilities, nothing that foretold the kind of person Seth would turn out to be.

Aside that, the place was just perfect. To him, anyways. Seth always found something, anything, to complain about - mostly about the size of things, funnily. The bathtub could be bigger, the kitchen could be more spacious, and even the living room seemed too brightly illuminated for his taste because of the picture window that covered a great deal of the wall facing the street.

"Well, there's not much you can do about the light in here," Roman snorted, "unless you plan to board up the whole window."

Seth glared at him causing Roman to chuckle at how easily he took things to heart. That earned him a couple days of silent treatment and soon he learned that there were quite a lot of things Seth could take offense of, even when the Samoan didn't mean to ruffle his feathers the wrong way. He came to the conclusion that it was best to roll his eyes at every disparaging observation - much better for him if the gesture went unnoticed -, but soon after things soured to the point of no return when Seth voiced his opinion on Roman's late night dinner choices.

"How can you eat that?" He gawked every time he saw Roman eat a couple of pizza slices.

He didn't need to say anything when it came to cheeseburgers, nachos and pastries. Roman could see the disgust and horror in his eyes, which only served to make him uncomfortable and too self conscious about eating around him. It wasn't like he didn't care what he put in his body, though he wasn't as obsessed as Seth was; however, healthy eating was the last thing in his mind when he got off work, so fast food felt like a hard earned prize at the end of his tiring days.

Things turned a tad passive aggressive from then on, with Seth making stupid amounts of salad to share with him and him trying to insinuate, as smoothly as possible, that he was more than happy to stuff his face with whatever greasy treat he could get his hands on after six hours of serving tables and shuffling on his feet non stop. Buying groceries and cooking became some sort of tug of war that eventually led to a heated argument when Roman couldn't find some snacks he had bought the day prior.

Without a doubt, he'd have ran away from Seth like the plague had there been any signals beforehand.

The thought of it always made him smile, perhaps because it was something feasible, something he could do if he really wanted to, except being twenty and scrapping by week after week put moving out a far fetched dream. He was stuck in this beautiful hipster apartment with Seth, struggling to keep up the payments for his student loan plus his everyday expenses. Hell felt pretty real.

Thankfully, after their fall out, they both kept their distance from each other, nodding a casual greeting without looking each other in the eye whenever they happened to cross, so hell was still real but not as insufferable. And, for the first time in months - actually, the first time since he had moved in at the beginning of the semester -, he was spending the night out drinking with some friends.

Roman ran a hand through his hair as he looked at his reflection one last time. He was set to go.

It felt good to step outside without dreading the time ahead. Working, albeit part time, for the last two semesters had become exhausting, and, while the shift he had wasn't as bad as Seth's ever changing schedule, his social life suffered greatly in the past year. He had gone from being a modest party goer to a tired and almost broke bundle of stress and worries.

He patted his pockets after locking the door to make sure he had his phone and wallet with him, the keys to the apartment clinking when he tapped his right front pocket. He was excited, a little too much, and it showed on his face and his movements; he played with the car keys on his way down to the street, skipping the final step on each set of stairs.

The bar they had agreed to meet at wasn't too far away. He could have easily walked the distance just to kill time and not be one of the first to get there, but he knew Dean and maybe more than one of Dean's friends would need a ride home. Besides, getting there early meant he could keep an eye on his friend right from the start and maybe try to halt his drinking once he got all slurry and wobbly.

He strode a block down, where he had to park his car last night, by the end of the street. Finding a spot nearby the building was always a race between the tenants and, surely enough, theirs wasn't the only apartment building around, so the neighborhood was more often than not lacking parking space. It didn't bother him though; at least not as it bothered Seth, who was always in hurry to get to work or to go to class or to come back home or be somewhere else.

He never gathered the courage to tell him that his problem would be solved by him getting up earlier or if he managed his schedules and time better. Although, the next worse thing Seth could do was ignore him altogether, which wasn't such a remote scenario given how he was his least favorite roommate ever.

Roman got in the car and started the engine, trying to clear Seth from his mind for good. He wanted to have fun, not to be hung up on one of the many aspects of his life that made him miserable, yet he kept thinking about the many things he disliked about him. Turned out even his breathing seemed annoying.

Ten minutes later, he was passing by the NoMad Tavern, a spot in a corner that had no indication of being a bar except for the neon lights that read the name in a light blue, save from the Mad part of the name being in red. It suited Dean's taste, to say the least.

He turned around the corner and was pleasantly surprised to see a small parking lot behind the building. "So far so good," he said to himself with a relieved sigh as he left the car there, hoping the indoors stepped up the game too.

He wondered if this would end like the last time he hung out with Dean: a shitty bar with worse beer, a fist fight in which they were outnumbered by three, and a hell of a hangover the next day for him and a zillion nauseous runs to the bathroom for the blond. All because of a failed class and a messy break up.

Roman locked the doors and walked back around the corner. He took a look at the entrance, a tinted glass door with a small round neon sign flickering open right at his face, before pushing it to give the place a quick scan.

"Hey! Ro!" He heard from his right, and, sure enough, there was Dean waving at him; he and a couple of his friends piled in a small table nearby the end of the bar.

Roman smiled wide, walking towards them. "Thought you had said to meet at ten."

"Yeah, but we came after finding out our grades. To celebrate, y'know." They hugged each other, not missing the chance to lay a heavy palm on their back while letting go, and soon Dean was introducing him to everyone there. The only people he recognized were Becky, a girl with bright orange hair, and Sami, a sweet looking red head; both were familiar faces on his friend's social media.

Name after name Roman stretched out his arm for a handshake.

"We were thinking of bar hopping, but this place ain't half bad." A short assenting motion towards the other side made him glimpse back to take notice of two pool tables. "We can waste some time here, have a couple of beers and see where we end up tomorrow morning."

The impish smirk on his friend's face predicted drunken fun to the fullest and, for once, Roman was in for it.

"It sounds good." He nodded. After all, he had set his mind on drinking his frustrations and concerns away.

Dean raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "I thought I'd have to beg you to agree." He snorted, then patted his shoulder. Both chuckled at that. Roman wasn't exactly good at letting himself loose, and he had gotten more than an earful of how his caring-mom side ruined the mood a lot of times. It had been a something Dean loved to tease him about in the very beginning of their friendship, although he grew to be thankful of it and even like it in secrecy. "Come on, let's play a bit, mom." The blond said with a clap.

They walked to one of the pool tables, the balls already racked up in the middle, and were about to decide who got to break when they heard Becky squeal a name.

"Seth!" She stood up to greet him.

Roman felt his stomach drop, and he even had to do a double take to be sure it was the same Seth he knew, the one he wasn't happy to share an apartment with and who hardly spoke to him and who he thought was - pretty much - a petty prick.

He saw Dean's face light up as he waited for Seth to finish say hi to the others and come closer to where they were. A heavy sigh came out of his mouth thinking that maybe, if people said it's a small world, campus was even smaller. What were the odds?

"You made it!" The blond said excitedly. "I want you to meet my friend Roman." And, with that said, Seth expression changed altogether.

"Oh, no." Seth blurted out, his facial expression a mix of disbelief and displeasure.