"Out."
The door didn't creak when it shut, even though it looked older than anything else in the room. An older dorm, with creaks and drafts and mice and all those wonderfully misery inducing things...completely unlike anything in Cloud's old house. He guessed...It wouldn't be so bad after a while, but for now it was just so out of place. No, not really. It wasn't out of place, he was. And he knew it.
Cloud's parents had been overprotective of him his entire life, regulating every little thing he did. Where he went, when he came home, who he hung out with...His friends were usually short term, taking pity on his situation and trying to help him out of it one way or another. He was always being told to stand up to his father or to run away. Running wasn't really Cloud's style though, and being smacked around didn't hold much appeal. When the time came to pick colleges, his parents had gone over it almost entirely by themselves. Occasionally they'd ask Cloud if he liked morning or evening classes better but even his responses to those didn't really fly far. If he said he wanted all evening classes, they'd attack him with barrages of questions. Why did he want to sleep all morning? Where was he going to be that he'd need an entire morning off? Just reverse it if he wanted morning classes...
Rebellion never went far in his house. Once or twice, he'd try sneaking out, but when his father caught him scaling down the wooden siding of their small two story house, Cloud was made very sorry for it. He tried to dodge his father in the dark for a few hours, but got lost in the woods so quickly that his crashing around eventually brought him back into his own yard. He'd been grounded, his room looked over every night before he went to sleep by his father...His mother knew better than to ask what the bruises on his body were from. She would steel her face and slit her eyes until she looked like a department store maniquin and tell him it was his own fault.
Since Cloud never ran away, since all rebellion failed, his friends would eventually get tired of his stories and leave. It seemed unbelievable to them, that people like that still existed. So they believed Cloud was making it up.
So what was he doing here now, in all of this, with none of the restrictions he'd grown up with? Everyone else had already had tastes of freedom before, but he should have been living at home..or...
Hell with it, Cloud gritted his teeth and shook his head, storming away from the door. His roommate was one of those skinny withdrawn gothic guys...Cloud knew he was an outsider but he didn't want to fall into a little well of self pity with that guy. Vincent, his roommate, had just had to go and ask where he was going. Had to.
Trotting down the steps in the slowly filling dormitory, Cloud steeled himself inside. If this was going to be freedom, he was going to take it and make sure it was his. Nobody had a right to know where he was, where he was going, when he came back or what he did. None of it. He was going to go out and figure out who he was for himself, this time. Maybe once he went home then, his parents would leave him the hell alone. If he went home. The idea of just staying seemed interesting...at the least.
Cloud's boots crunched on the gravel pathway leading up the hill to the dorm as he moved on aimlessly, dodging in and out of the little circles of pale light from campus streetlamps. Someone must have forgotten to turn them off, but that wasn't really on his mind right now. He was going to go someplace, make something out of this and not live the same kind of dependant locked in life he'd been forced to before. Crossing the road out of campus and into town, Cloud ran a selfconcious hand through his hair, hoping it would stay in place. The spikes were his choice, done up at the last minute before he came. In the bathroom at the airport and without any idea of what it would really look like when it was done. If anyone started in on him over his hair...well he knew one thing he wouldn't do.
There was no way in hell Cloud was going to talk about home. It lost him friends before, no matter how shallow, and he was sick of being treated like a leper. Besides, he was away from there now. No point in it. He wasn't going to be the kid back home. That kid, he was told himself as he wandered towards a small knot of people outside a beaten three story victorian house, got left at the airport. Or his plane crashed. That's why he would never be there to answer the phone, or go home, or think about home. Because he was gone. Dead, gone, not him.
It was that train of thought that got shocked and derailed when a gloved hand clapped over his shoulder and made Cloud jump. Jolting back slightly, he did his best to not look so obviously...himself...The student standing in front of him- if he was a student- was tall, probobly an upperclassman. His hair was cropped short and blonde and he wore what Cloud could only label as 'default rebel' cloths. Most of it looked like black leather, although it might have been immitation. He had on a grin, albiet a strange one that both unnerved and invited Cloud. Holding out his free hand which was wrapped in fingerless leather gloves, he introduced himself.
"Hey there, freshman aren't you? I'm Seifer."
Cloud caught Seifer's gloved hand and shook it once, wishing it wasn't so obvious he was new to the campus. It could be worse, though, he reminded himself. He could have been completely snubbed. As it was Seifer'd stopped him to talk to him. It was a good sign. That's right, a good thing, so don't screw it up by showing you've lived under a rock your entire life. Cloud didn't smile, but tried to return Seifer's smirk. "Yeah, I just got here today. I'm Cloud."
With a nod, Seifer moved his hand around to cup Cloud's shoulder and began to lead him away from the small crowd he'd been standing with. The tall white haired upperclassman with a painfully effeminiate face waved them off. "Don't cause the kid too much greif, Seifer," he drolled, sweeping a hand through his feathery hair. Seifer gave a smirk over his shoulder and moved towards the house, guiding Cloud past the little collections of people dotting the lawn and porch.
Inside, the music playing was...Bad, Cloud thought to himself. I can't say anything though...cause what if Seifer likes it, and then where the hell would I be-
"Hey! That tail spin is so cheap, man. You best lay off it or you're gonna get a face full of bear paw!"
"You can't stop Gon! NOBODY can stop Gon!"
"I'm calling a game after this. And for once, I'll show you how to play seriously..."
"Lighten up, Frey, it's just a game."
The mixture of voices from one of the side rooms caught Cloud's attention as he turned his head to see who was there. Occupying the room that had once the den were now three or four people gathered around together playing games. Cloud did a slight double take at the one sitting back before confirming that yes, she had a tail and ears...side by side with the main controllers were two guys, one towering over the other even as they sat. The taller had darker skin and shorter hair, and a football player's build. The more slight and pale of the two had a cascade of dark black hair running down his back, spiked to an extent Cloud had never seen before. On the screen, a short stubby dinosaur and a brown bear were both gradually beating eachother to bits. Tekkan three, I know that game.
Seifer caught Cloud watching out of the corner of his eye and gave a light snort. "Watching those fuckin loosers over there? Don't even bother with them. Hey, you said you're a frosh, right?" It didn't seem like Seifer was really offering Cloud a choice as they moved through the knots of students and off campus friends througout the house. Seifer clipped two plastic cups at the bar together with his fingers as they walked and handed one to Cloud, smirking to himself. "Here, welcome to college."
For a moment in Cloud's mind there was a slight hesitation, but he going against it was obvious. Seifer was...confident, smooth, knew everything. What Cloud was going to be now. There was no if, he was going through with it. Who he was now was...someone who'd done this before. Seifer probobly knew that wasn't true but Cloud didn't care. When Seifer took a seat in one of the battered armchairs in a corner and pointed with his pinky towards the couch beside it, Cloud took the invitation and sat, drinking quietly. It didn't taste good or bad or anything really...just...there. When Seifer started to speak again, his tone was more confiding and quiet, carrying just far enough to reach Cloud.
"Right, listen up kid...I didn't pal up to you because I thought you needed it. I do have something in mind here. You talk about it though, and I will turn you inside out...got it?" Cloud blinked in slight shock and nodded. Seifer gave a slight smirk and narrowed his eyes at Cloud, grinning. "Do I frighten you?" He asked, his tone nearly mocking.
I'm not afraid of you, or anyone for that matter, Cloud thought bitterly to himself. He was sick of having other people intimidate him, he was sick of being afraid of things that didn't matter. So he wouldn't be. He snorted and gave Seifer a look that he hoped would show him just how unimpressed Cloud was with his tough attitude. "No."
Seifer sat back in his chair and the smirk faded, replaced by a serious mask. "Good. Because I don't want people I'll be having close contact with being afraid of me. Now listen close because I don't feel like repeating myself." Cloud swept the corners of his eyes towards the taller blonde but said nothing. Seifer continued. "I'm going to give you something...consider it a sort of sample. You got two options then. One, pay me back, or two, decline. So?"
Cloud shrugged appatheticly and set the flimsy plastic cup, still mostly full, on a side table beside the couch. Inside he was shaking, every bit of sense in his brain panicking and throwing themselves around like a nuclear reactor. Thinknowactnowavoidnowgetawaygotwoardswaitlaternowherethenwhen...Cloud took a deep breath and tried to look as though he was considering it, although he was really trying to calm the maelstrom inside his mind. There really didn't seem to be too many options. Accept and keep on this track of who he wanted to be, or back out and be...a child. Not much of a choice really. "Show me."
Grinning and delving his hands into his pockets, Seifer nodded. "I thought so. Now...you will do this here. And you didn't get it from me. Understood? You act fucked up if there's any problem, and I don't know you." For a moment, Seifer seemed to freeze. Hands slithering back out of his jacket pockets, he flicked a pinky towards Cloud. "Hold out your hand."
Cloud obeyed, not really knowing what to expect. Seifer leapt forward and clapped both his hands together around Cloud's palm, shaking them tightly and grinning in his face. "You're not so bad after all," He hissed, patting the younger student's arm and withdrawing. Cloud's fist, clenched reflexively he could feel around what had to be a small tablet.
Screw it, I haven't got anything to lose. Cloud did his best to move inconspiciously as he swallowed the tablet dry, Seifer giving him a clap on the back and laughing. So the past was left at the airport. That was that.