A/N: Guys, I'm still alive! And so is this story! I gotta apologize in advance, this chapter sucks. It's short, it's not beta-ed and it's kinda been written over two nights, so yeah. I think it shows and I'm extremely sorry for that, but that does not mean I don't respect you enough! No, it means the exact opposite. I've just finished with my finals (all done, phew) and I'm leaving for summer camp tomorrow. But some of you have been asking for a new chapter and I know all of you have been waiting and it just felt unfair to keep you waiting that long. I promise that when I get back, I'll write a proper one and that the waiting time between chapters will decrease rapidly.

In the meantime, enjoy at least this, and let me know what you think of the story so far in the reviews!

Chapter 10

Sam was looking at the photo he and Dean made together yesterday, when they went into . He liked it a lot. Dean, though, that was a different story.

At first, the photo was in the upper corner of their mirror, but that lasted only until morning.

Wednesdays meant an early lesson for Sam, so he was the only one waking up, but that was nothing new. What was new was that Dean only texted him one worded replies and when Sam gave up trying to get him to talk, because he felt lame, Dean never even tried to reach out, even when his class had long since ended.

When he got back into his room, he met Dean in the door. His roommate was just leaving. Sam asked where he was going and frowned, when the only response he got was a "meeting the guys" thrown over Dean's shoulder as he walked away.

Sam was going to let it pass, though, until he saw that the photo wasn't on the mirror. He really wished it didn't hurt as much as it did. He was actually going to check the trash bin Dean kept under his table to see if Dean had thrown it away, when he noticed it was lying on Dean's desk.

So now Sam was looking at it and thinking, where had things gone wrong. They had a great time yesterday, right? Was it the gallery? Was it too boring for Dean? Sam sighed and absent-mindedly dragged his finger over the photo gently.

Sam's day was pretty much ruined already. He only had today and tomorrow to make Dean fall for him so to speak and this didn't look good at all.

He would've just stayed in the room and feel sorry for himself if it weren't for Jess who invited him out for a coffee.

It was refreshing, actually. Sam got to complain about Dean's weird behaviour and in return, he listened to Jess about her and Gary's recent crisis.

They were finally past complaining and talked like normal friends, when the door of the diner opened and Dean's group of friends – including Dean himself – walked in.

Sam bit his bottom lip, unsure whether he should even let them know he was there as well, but Ben noticed him and made the decision for him.

"Hey, Sam-man!" he greeted him loudly and the whole group moved towards them. "We were wondering why you weren't attached to Dean's hip as usual," he grinned.

Sam's involuntarily landed on Dean, who was smiling and didn't look uncomfortable with the situation, but he wasn't looking at Sam either.

"But as I see, you are on a date," Ben smiled. "Your loss, Dean-o," he turned to his friend. Dean laughed, but he still didn't look at Sam. "It'd be cool if we could join you guys, but we wouldn't want to disrupt your afternoon with such a lovely lady," Ben smiled at Jess.

Sam opened his mouth to answer, but Jess beat him to it.

"Lovely lady doesn't mind," she smiled and moved her chair so that the others could sit around their table.

"Mind if I sit next to you?" Ben smiled at Jess.

"Oh not at all," she grinned.

"Jess," Sam scolded her. "You're taken!"

"Hey, I just like to keep my options open," she protested.

"I like her," Ben grinned.

"She's a girl. Of course you like her," Jim rolled his eyes and everyone else laughed at that.

Dean was sitting next to Sam, but Sam wasn't sure whether it was because he wanted it, or because the others just assumed he'd sit there and left the place for him.

Overall, it was a nice afternoon. Dean's friends had become Sam's a while ago and as it seemed, they were adopting Jess as well. The only thing ruining Sam's mood was Dean and his weird behaviour.

For example, Dean didn't really address him the whole time. When he wanted salt or a napkin, he asked someone else and he avoided all 'Sam'n'Dean' comments, brushing them off with a wave of his hand.

On the other hand, he didn't shut Sam out completely and he definitely didn't make him feel cut off. As the topic changed to the motorcars, Dean quite enthusiastically told everyone how Sam took him to the races and while he didn't talk to him directly, he made sure to mention him and Sam actually felt included in the conversation. Dean even mentioned the Lunapark they went to the day before. He didn't talk about the Gallery, but Sam wasn't surprised by that. He still thought taking Dean there might have been a mistake.

"Oh, guys, I forgot to tell you," Jim exclaimed. "There's a party tomorrow on our floor. The guys got the ok from dean himself and it's gonna be huge. We gotta go, guys, you all have to come."

Everybody but Sam and Jess rolled their eyes.

"You and your huge parties, man," Ben shook his head.

"No, but seriously guys. Semestr's almost over. There won't be that many chances for us to party together anymore, come on," Jim said with a pleading tone.

"Well, I guess we could come," Matt said, looking at Tess questioningly.

"Yeah," she shrugged. "None of us has anything else to do, right?"

"Fine, we're going to the party," Ben sighed. "You two, too, though," he said, pointing at Sam and Jess.

"Do I have a choice here?" Sam asked.

"No," Ben shook his head.

"Well, then I guess I'm going."

Ben looked at Jess expectantly.

"Uhh...well, I guess I could ask Gary..." she said hesitantly.

"Great, that's settled then," Ben rubbed his hands with a satisfied grin.

The rest of the afternoon passed quite quickly and people started getting up and leaving. First Matt and Tess, then Julie and Ben and Jim whom Julie managed to convince to walk her back to her room and suddenly there were just Sam, Dean and Jess left by the table.

"So, um, I guess we get going as well?" Dean cleared his throat a bit awkwardly.

Sam had to actually blink in surprise and stay completely still for a second, because after whole day of being kind of ignored, it was really weird to hear Dean actually speak directly to him.

"I guess we are," Jess answered, looking at Sam funnily.

"Alright, just let me go to the bathroom," Dean said, got up and walked away.

"You okay?" Jess looked at Sam pointedly.

"Yeah," Sam frowned. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, you just gaped at Dean like a fish when Dean asked you a question."

"No, I didn't," Sam protested. "Anyway, I take it you and Gary are good again?" he changed the topic quickly.

"Huh?" Jess blinked. "How'd you know?"

"You've been staring at your cell's screen for the past few hours," Sam smirked.

Jess laughed at that. "Sorry. Yeah, I think we're okay," she smiled.

Right then Dean returned and they left the diner. To Sam it was a no-brainer that he'd walk Jess back to her room, but he didn't know how to ask Dean to join them. He didn't even know if he wanted him to join, because then the walk back could get pretty awkward.

Fortunately, though, Jess took the initiative on that one.

"You guys gonna walk me back?" she asked.

"Well, we can't let Ben's lovely lady walk the streets alone," Dean grinned at her. "Even if it's just a few hundred feet and the streets are at Campus."

"I guess not," Jess laughed and so they went to her dorm.

They said goodbye to Jess and walked back.

As Sam suspected, they went in an awkward silence. It was really unusual for Sam to be alone with Dean and wish he weren't.

"So, uh," he decided to break the silence finally. "How was your day?"

"Pretty good," Dean shrugged. "Had to go to classes, but other than that, fine, I guess."

"That's good," Sam said, stuffing his hands in his pockets, not really knowing what more there was to say.

"How was yours?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, mine was okay, too."

And they continued in silence, which now seemed even more awkward than before.

They got into the room and Dean went immediately for the shower. Sam didn't even consider joining him this time and when Dean walked out, Sam just slipped in to take his own dose of hot watered relax.

When he walked out, Dean was already in the bed, his eyes closed. Sam sighed and went to his own bed. For the first time he wished his bed had never been moved.

On Thursday morning, Sam woke up first again, even though his classes started 2 hours later than on Wednesdays. Dean slept so deeply, he completely ignored the sound of Sam's alarm clock, as usual.

Sam got ready quickly and quietly and went to his Roman law lecture.

"Hey, Sam," Jess greeted him with a smile and a kiss to his cheek, but then she frowned. "Hey, what's wrong? You look like someone stole your favourite toy. Is it Dean still?"

"Yeah, he's just...I don't know," Sam sighed.

"I'm gonna have to have a word with him," she said seriously.

"Oh, god, no," Sam said quickly. "That wouldn't solve anything. I'll talk to him when we're alone, maybe before we go to the party. You are coming, right?" he asked. "You have to, you can't leave me alone in this, please," he pleaded.

"Yeah, we're coming," Jess nodded.

That was a relief for Sam. At least he'd have someone to talk to and forget about the awkwardness that was between him and Dean.

Jess apparently took it as her responsibility to cheer Sam up and keep him too busy to worry and mope. But it worked. Sam had a pretty nice time, even during classes. Jess's giggles and Sam's laughter even got them kicked out of a lecture. It wasn't a big deal and even though it'd never happened to Sam before, he couldn't help but laugh about it with Jess the whole way to the canteen where they bought a coffee to go.

The weather outside was nice, so they went to sit on a bench and laugh some more, until their next lesson started. They managed to not get kicked out of that one, but it was an uphill battle with Jess constantly commenting on Elephant's clothes and rhetoric skills, which were nearly nonexistent.

The day passed by really fast that way and eventually, Sam and Jess had to part their ways. Jess promised to call Sam when she and Gary made their minds up about when they'd go to the party.

The room was empty again when Sam returned to it. It reminded him of the beginning, when Sam was a lone loser and Dean was never there and Sam was kind of scared of him. The paradox was that even though everything had changed since that time, right then it felt like nothing had changed at all.

When it became clear that Dean wasn't coming anytime soon, and therefore Sam wasn't going to be able to talk to him, he just started getting ready by himself.

He picked out a clean pair of black jeans and a nice light blue – almost white – shirt. He ran a brush through his hair, but as expected, it was pointless. His hair just did whatever it wanted and didn't care about no brushes, hair gels or whatever else Sam might have come up with.

He heard some noise, voices and laughter and then the door to their room opened and a laughing Dean followed by Jim and Ben hurried in.

"Oh, hey Sam," Dean looked mildly surprised about seeing Sam, which was a bit irritating. "I'm just gonna change and we're heading to the party. Wanna come with us?"

"Yeah," Sam shrugged, feigning indifference.

Ben and Jim exchanged a funny look; probably they picked up on the awkward atmosphere between the other two friends.

Sam texted Jess that he was heading out and she promised to try and hurry up to get there as soon as possible, but knowing Jess, it would still take her and Gary a while. He was seriously considering just getting drunk to forget about everything and have fun for at least a while. Or maybe he could get Dean drunk and finally find out what the heck had been going on. How could things turn from amazing to crap overnight, just like that?

The party was the same as all the other parties Sam had been to. There was loud music, drinks were flowing everywhere and smokers were huddled outside, burning their cigarettes, covered in grey smoke, but they didn't seem to mind.

At first, the group of friends, along with Matt, Tess, Julie and Julie's new 'just-a-friend' whom they picked up on the way, stayed together, but with time, they kind of scattered and soon Sam found himself standing by a wall with a cup in his hands and drinking alone.

"Sam, I'm sorry we didn't make it here any sooner," Jess rushed to him and hugged him. "C'mon, let's have some fun. Can't let you mope here for the whole time," she sighed and pulled Sam along to sit on a couch. Gary seemed okay with it and went on to talk to some of his buddies he met there.

"Did you get to talk to Dean?" Jess asked.

"No," Sam looked at his hands in his lap. "He came into the room at the very last moment with Ben and Jim."

Jess bit her bottom lip and squeezed Sam's hand in a gesture of support.

"The thing is, I really have no clue what I've done wrong," Sam sighed. "When we came back from the fair, everything was perfect. I really thought everything was going to work out. And then I wake up to this. I really don't know what to make of it."

"Me neither, Sam, but let's not worry about it."

"That's easy for you to say..." Sam grumbled.

"I know," Jess winced. "But I really think the problem is not you. I think Dean needs to come in terms with some things that changed between him and you and he's being weird about it. But it sure as hell ain't your fault."

"Thanks Jess," Sam smiled at her sadly. "I appreciate that, but..."

"No buts. Come on, let's dance."

"What?" Sam gaped at her dumbfounded.

"Dance, Sam," she gave him a funny look. "Moving into the music. You know what that is, right?"

"Pff, of course I do," Sam said defensively as Jess pulled him up to his feet.

"Prove it," she grinned and pulled him along between all the people that were dancing to the music that was playing.

It was more fun that Sam had ever thought it could be and soon they were in the middle of a circle, doing all kinds of crazy figures and laughing hard when they messed up.

The music changed then into a slow dance and Sam wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes. "Wow, that was...really something," he chuckled breathlessly.

"I'll have to agree with you on that," said Gary who probably wanted to take Jess for this slow dance.

"Hey, did you see that? How did we look like?" Jess asked, her eyes shining with mirth.

"Like complete retards," Gary chuckled. "But I loved it. Everyone loved it."

Jess laughed and Sam left them be. He walked out of the circle of slow dancing people and went for the bathroom to wash his face and dry his hair a little.

He didn't even get there, because what he saw made him freeze in his tracks.

He didn't know how he could have missed it, but Dean was on the dance floor too. He was swaying into the rhythm of the slow music, but he wasn't alone. Some other guy had his hands on Dean's waist and his head on Dean's shoulder as they swayed together, their bodies touching. The guy raised his head to whisper something into Dean's ear and the senior laughed.

Sam saw both red and blurry, as he got so angry he felt like crying. He turned around and hurried out of the room, the floor and back into their room. He thought he heard Jess call after him, but he didn't bother to stop. His phone vibrated and he did check it – it was Jess – but he didn't pick up.

He stumbled into their room and he felt an urge to throw Dean's stuff out of the window, or at least ruin everything that was his in the room.

What he ended up doing instead was pushing his bed back to where it belonged. He was done. He could understand that back on Sunday, with the girl, that it wasn't Dean's fault. He had a really hard time believing it now, but he could understand that. But this? This was completely consensual. This was Dean wanting to be pressed up against someone else and Sam didn't care anymore. Dean could do whatever he wanted with whomever he wanted, he wasn't Sam's boyfriend anymore; he clearly had no intention to be.

When he was done moving the bed, he went to take a shower, brush his teeth, simply do everything as though this was any other evening. Because it was, right? Nothing special about it.

Despite his tries not to think about it, he still stopped at Dean's desk to look at their photo. It seemed like another life ago. He did want to rip it into pieces and throw it away, but that lasted only like a second. He knew he'd regret that immediately, even though he was done with Dean.

He ended up putting the photo on top of Dean's pillow. Hopefully, it would make his roommate feel bad. And even though Sam didn't think that would happen, there was a chance that if Dean brought his new boy toy here, it would ruin their night.

Then he crawled into his bed and went to sleep.