3 weeks later

Studying had just begun for Dave, and unlike the dreaded years of high school, he was pretty stoked to start learning about music and getting into the mixing business. He wasn't quite sure what to expect, but instant recognition and spending his days perfecting his sick beat making skills were definitely there somewhere. But those mostly unrealistic expectations were soon crumbled on his very first day.

His very first lecture was history, which was odd for Dave. What sort of history could there be? Well it turned out there was a lot of it. The lecturer talked about their study plan throughout most of the first lecture and then began teaching them on the history of classical music. And as it turned out, Dave wouldn't be able to learn what he wanted to in the first year at all. All of the subjects were more general, setting the base of their musical knowledge before they move on to specific studies next year. Dave would be lying if he said he hadn't heard something about that, but his mind usually tended to zone out and ignore all the boring stuff. Because hey did you know that a shit tone of years ago there was some douche named Bach or someone with a short middle name like 'van', who made even more boring music? Fascinating.

Though, it seemed that he was the only one in the class who was surprised at this turn of their study plan. It was almost as if like everyone else actually took the time to read their schedule online before the studies began. Fucking losers.

So far he didn't see anyone in his class that would be worth hanging out with. Except for maybe this girl who sat at the front, her name was Aradia if Dave remembered right, and another guy named Cronus. Those two seemed to know what they were doing and what the lecturer was talking about.

Another surprise for Dave was his room. It wasn't anything that he had expected it to be. Dave could barely call that a room, more like a walk-in closet by the size of it. It was one of the few rooms on campus for only two people. The wallpapers were dark, faded and were starting to peel off at the edges, there was a single chair standing in the middle of the room and a slightly larger than average nightstand by the window that was supposed to serve as a desk. On the left was their bunk bed, which's stability was quite questionable. Karkat immediately called the top bed his own to which Dave responded by making a handful of gay sex related jokes.

And to top it all off, they had a constant visitor in their dorm. While Dave didn't mind hanging out with Karkat's friends every other day or so, hedid mind when Gamzee was basically always present in their room. He had the nerve to lie on his bed, bring the stench of weed with him and smile like a god damn creep every time he laid his eyes on him.

Gamzee proclaimed that he had grown attached to living in this dorm (his room used to be a few doors away from theirs) and that he felt a strong emotional and spiritual attachment to it or whatever, that he wasn't quite ready to leave behind yet.

At least that was what Dave managed to catch before Gamzee started talking in quotes again, something about 'Before I travelled my road, I was my road', that was when he zoned out and got back to studying. All the while Dave tried to keep calm, he was pretty damn embarrassed about his little outburst on his first day and he sure as hell didn't want that to happen again.

Karkat wasn't too happy about these visits either. But the clown was immune to Karkat's threats and insults and reacted only if he started to use force and physically push him out of the room.

Well at least there was one good thing about this, Dave thought. The Gamzee thing was probably the only thing that he and Karkat agreed on, which made it quite easy to live with him. It's true what they say, that a common hate brings two people together. In this case, the hate for Gamzee made Karkat forget that he hated Dave as well, and most importantly it also helped Dave keep himself chill.

Today however, was one of those days when everything seemed to go wrong and generally suck for Dave. He barely got any sleep due to a party happening next door, he had history lectures again and got assigned his very first project that was due next week. It was going to be a pain in his ass. He got back to his dorm exhausted and pissed off at himself and wanted to just flop down on his bed and take a long nap. But, there was a mop of messy jet black hair already occupying his bed. It almost seemed that Gamzee didn't even go to lectures at all and existed purely to stay in their room and annoy Dave.

"Leave, Gamzee." Dave said firmly, dropping his bag by the bed and taking a seat on the chair.

"I'm not ready, not just yet." He replied, slowly opening his eyes and hollowing his cheeks against the cigarette in his mouth.

"I don't fucking care." He said flatly, being careful about not raising his tone too much "I've been busting my ass in lectures all day and I deserve that bed so get your stinky ass off of it."

"This bed isn't that small, I'm sure we can share." Gamzee suggested, smiling widely and looking up at him "I can tuck you in, make sure you get a pleasant motherfucking nap." The words were rolling off lazily from his mouth as if to rub it in Dave's face just how relaxed and comfortable he was.

It was clear that Gamzee wasn't going to leave until he was pulled from the bed, but Dave didn't have the energy nor the will power to do that. He briefly considered napping on Karkat's bed, but realized he couldn't fall asleep with that asshole there anyway. Dave watched as Gamzee flicked off the ash from his cig on their floor and momentarily glanced at his katana by the other side of the bed. One day Dave thought bitterly. He turned to his desk where he could start working on his project instead.

"Do you ever wonder if there's a god out there?" Gamzee asked after a minute of silence as Dave turned on his laptop and started gathering his notes.

Dave closed his eyes and counted to five.

"Maybe there isn't a higher power after all, 'cause I mean there's this saying that there's no real difference between the grass and the man who mows it." Gamzee thought out loud "But then again, who is responsible for the miracles that we witness every day? Like, just this morning when I woke up I really wanted to smoke a joint." Well gee isn't that surprising. "And there was exactly one roll left, it was just meant to be. Miracles." He said once again shaking his head with a smile, quieting down. Dave heaved a sigh of relief and started closely reading his notes and comparing them with the information online.

"When you think about it," Gamzee started after two minutes of silence "every single one of us is a miracle, so perhaps everyone is also a god-"

"Oh my god shut the fuck up." Dave replied. His voice shook a bit from the frustration. Well, there went his ignore-his-existence plan.

"You seem a little under the blue today, Dave." Gamzee noted staring up at him from his heavy eyelids. Dave just shot him a glare, but realized it wasn't really visible because of his shades. God damn it.

"So what is it?" Gamzee asked "Maybe you just need a word of wisdom to set your mind at peace." He offered while rubbing his hand on Dave's knee in a supposedly comforting way, but it was just creepy to be honest. Dave was already used to the constant invasion of his personal space though. He hung out with Terezi often after all.

Dave knew Gamzee probably didn't give a shit about how he felt and that he was just fishing for more material to tease him on. Nonetheless, he still opened his mouth.

"College just doesn't make sense to me." he said quietly feeling incredibly tired all of a sudden. Gamzee nodded all knowingly as if he understood exactly what he was talking about, which of course, he didn't.

"I too was confused about life when I first came here." He said like he was talking about a distant past and not something that happened last year. "But we have to choose the right path and embrace it. And yours, Dave, is one of a poet."

"For the last fucking time I'm not a po-"

"And as our brother Confucius said, we have to decide: to be or not to be, that is the motherfucking question." He finished with a satisfied smile, taking a drag and blowing out thick smoke slowly, savoring it.

"That was Hamlet you nimbrod clown." Dave said with a sigh.

"Whoa, don't force your beliefs on me."

Dave's hand started shaking slightly, it's like everything he said made his blood boil and not in the good, hot type of way. He didn't know what made him think he could stand being around this guy.

"Okay nut brain let's get something clear." Dave said barely controlling his tone of voice. He closed his laptop swiftly and loudly. The sharp sound got Gamzee's attention and he lifted his head a bit looking at Dave with curious eyes.

"I don't like you." he said flatly. "I'm about two seconds away from taking my katana and giving you a haircut." He was about to start visibly shaking from the fury. "I don't give a shit how you feel about this room, you have your own place now. Go have your emotional bond there, piss on it, mark it yours I don't fucking care just leave us alone." He poured out all in one breath while Gamzee stared at him with an unreadable expression.

Dave didn't have the patience to wait for him to respond and he didn't really want to hear what he had to say anyway. So, Dave stormed out of the room and headed for the library. He passed Karkat along the hallway and gave him a curt nod while Karkat narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him, but said nothing. He was cool like that. Dave turned on the corner, but still heard Karkat screaming upon opening the door to their room

"You do not live here you fungus!"

The blond finally managed to relax and get his shit back together while walking across campus to the library. It was chillier that day, the autumn wind made the ones still wearing tee's and shorts shiver slightly. Although, the change in the weather didn't really change the fact that Dave was wearing the same thing that he was wearing when he had first arrived here. You'd think he was just lazy and didn't do his laundry. But he just had a lot of the exact same clothes.

Dave now realized that Gamzee was doing this just to tease him and drive him up the wall on purpose like he did with Karkat. Gamzee quickly discovered the things that made Dave tick and started using it against him. It was the oldest trick in the book and frankly it was kinda lame. It was almost as lame as Egbert's pranks. This was the kind of immature crap that you'd expect from a snotty five year old (which was strangely an accurate description of the asshole) who thinks that by saying the opposite of everything you do will get under your skin.

But the worst part was that it worked. God he hated that clown.

His university had a very large library that was open 24/7. Dave wasn't a big fan of books, and honestly this would be the last place where you would see someone as awesome and rad as Dave being. But with the current situation, he really wouldn't mind staying here for a few weeks, tucking himself in with a few thick dictionaries.

This was the first time in a few weeks that Dave didn't play it cool, but it was okay, he was okay, it didn't get to him at all. In fact, he wasn't even going to think about it anymore. He thought as he flipped the pages of a useful book about symphonic orchestras and not thinking about punching anyone. That would be ridiculous.

His peace didn't last for long though. Dave heard someone approaching him at the back of the library with a happy skip in their step that could belong to only one person he knew.

The third-year curly haired blonde with a simple, yet tight fitted outfit, that got the attention of half of the library, stopped right in front of his table. She smiled widely and messed the top of Dave's hair playfully.

"Hey Davey, how's my favorite cousin doing?" he pulled his head back instinctively, but didn't bother to fix his hair.

"Fucking sweet and so chill. Like I'm just so chill. I'm like a cone of frosty caramel flavored ice cream with fucking sprinkles on top in a room full of flaming meat balls."

Roxy looked him over with a thoughtful expression

"You really are good with words." She took a seat next to him and leaned in closer as if telling a secret "Rumor has it that you've given up your music career to become a p-"

"If that sentence ends with the word poet, I swear to god I will smack you across the face with a dead fish." Dave poured out in less than three seconds.

"Whoa what's with the tight ass attitude, Strider?" she asked taken aback, fixing the bright pink clip in her hair. "People are starting to know who you are, this is good!" she said brightly

"That's not how people were supposed to know who I am." Dave sighed annoyed "All I'm sayin' is, I don't wanna be known as the sensitive douche like Poe or young Justin Timberlake y'know? I gotta be the one who's bringing sexy back, not crying rivers."

Roxy put a comforting hand on his shoulder

"It's okay Davey, I'm sure no one thinks that you're a denim wearing pop star from the 90's. Actually…" she said as an idea hit her "During the party next week I can introduce you to new awesome people and get you some decent friends." Dave almost forgot that Roxy was known and loved by almost everyone here. She was like the Beyonce of this campus.

"That's a sweet motherfucking offer. It would be hella cool to get to know some people." Dave thought out loud.

"Of course it will be! I'll talk you up to some people while everyone's getting drunk and before you know it, you'll be the star of the party." She said gleefully thinking over her plan.

"That's the best motherfucking plan I've ever heard." Dave remarked. His mood went up considerably, not that anyone could notice it though. Every year there's a party held at the beginning of the year to welcome freshmen and supposedly it's one of the wildest parties. Dave wasn't a big drinker, but he loved being there when shit went down.

"Oh god I'm so excited I can't wait for it." She squealed excitedly. "It will be good to get you out of Terezi's little circle too." Roxy added as an afterthought

"Nah, I don't mind them. They're pretty okay I guess."

"Really?" Roxy asked narrowing her eyes.

"Yeah, they're all kinda cool once you get passed the sense that they want to murder you." Dave shrugged while Roxy leaned back on the wall and closed her eyes thinking.

"Well if you say so. Still, Terezi is a bit of a psycho." she began counting them down on her fingers. "Despite being the best in his class, there's a reason why people call Sollux 'two-face', and while Kanaya is hot and not a bad kisser she's like really boring." She said rolling her eyes "So it'll be good to get you to hang out with someone who's both cool and emotionally stable." She looked at him all-knowingly. "Speaking of emotional instability, where's Karkitty?" she asked sitting upright.

"He's probably repainting our room with Makara's blood." The thought of drawing blood from that creep was strangely endearing and Dave almost smiled.

"Oh man, he's still not leaving your room?" Roxy asked sympathetically "Oh shit my break is almost over, gotta fly." She panicked looking at her phone and getting up from the chair "Just don't hurt Gamzee too much okay? 'Cause I can't hook you up with people if you're not at the party." She said like it was obvious.

"Uhm, what?" Dave asked confused. What did that asshole had to do with anything?

"I'm saying don't get banned from entering the party." Roxy explained stopping at the end of the table

"Why would hurting Gamzee get me banned?" he asked still not seeing the connection. For a cool guy, Dave wasn't that sharp.

"Cause he's hosting the party, dumbass." Roxy rolled her eyes before ruffling his hair one last time and dashing out of the library. The last conversation Dave had with him flashed quickly across his mind. Well shit.