Chapter 7

Nick returned to the dorm, dripping in green paint and extremely pissed off. They had lost. How could they have lost? He blamed Thad.

Upon entering the room, his eyes were drawn immediately to Jeff's empty bed, also covered in the green liquid.

"Jeff…?"

There was no response.

"Jeff, where are you?"

Jeff sat in the bathroom, hands wrapped around his knees, refusing to answer the other boy.

Nick knocked on the bathroom door. "Jeff, come on, stop sulking. They didn't mean to hurt you or anything. It's just a game!"

Jeff nodded to himself. It wasn't their fault. It was his. He tried to ignore the thuds on the door.

And so it went on for an hour. Nick would try to convince him to come out and Jeff would sit quietly waiting for him to go away.

Nick finally gave up and moved away toward the balcony, where he sat smoking, a glum expression painted over his face.

"You know you can't sleep in there!"

No reply.

"Fine, whatever!"

Nick tossed out the cigarrete and moved off toward his bed.

Why doesn't he just come out of the room? For the love of-

His angered thoughts were interrupted when he looked at the green duvet and pillowcase on Jeff's bed again. He stared at them momentarily before sighing and exiting the room.

Thad and Ben were half asleep when they heard Nick knocking loudly on their door.

"Oi open up it's freezing outside!" , he called. "Open it! Ben…Ben!"

An extremely grumpy and partly green Thad opened the door, giving Nick his biggest and most practiced death stare.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Yes, seeing as I have an established knowledge of clock faces."

"Could have fooled me…what do you want?"

Nick pushed his way into the room, flicking on the light switch.

"Uckoffyouwanker" Ben managed to mumble from underneath his sheets.

"What do you want?" Thad repeated angrily.

"Yeah alright calm down a moment" , Nick answered slowly pacing around the room.

Thad sighed. Ben began to snore again.

"Do you have any spare sheets?"

"What?"

"Give me your blankets."

"Why?"

"Because."

"No."

"They're for Jeff, his bed's all green….also he's trapped in the bathroom."

"What, why would you do that to him? I haven't even met him yet and you've locked him the bathroom!"

"I didn't do it, he locked himself in there."

Thad looked puzzled, "For how long?"

"A couple of hours I think."

"What!"

"I know. I'm actually quite concerned, last time I slept in a bath tub I had neck pains for a week."

"This isn't funny Nick."

"Just give me your blankets."

"What happened to your spare ones?"

"You don't remember the ladder rope…'Nick, this is a very serious concern, we can't have you climbing out of your balcony at night. If you were to harm yourself!'" Nick said, imitating a very concerned Mr. Peterson."

"What, so they still won't give you spare blankets?"

"Still."

"Ouch"

"Yeah, so I'll just be taking yours."

"And how do you propose to get Jeff out of the bathroom?"

"I don't know, I assumed he'd come out at daylight."

"SHUT UP!"

The two boys turned around at the sound of Ben's voice. He had a pillow over his head and back faced away from them so that his nose was touching the wall.

Nick grinned slyly. He walked up to the sleeping boy, leant over him and breathed heavily into his ear. He immediately knew he had pushed his luck when Ben turned over and punched him squarely in the jaw.

"Fuck!" Nick stumbled backward, as Thad burst out laughing.

"Jesus Christ Ben. What the hell is wrong with you!"

"Go look after Jeff or something, just get out of here, I can't sleep!" Ben said angrily as he turned over once more, bringing the blanket over his face.

Nick quickly stormed out of the room, the spare duvet in his hands and his jaw throbbing. He trudged down the corridor and kicked the door open once reaching his room.

He stared at Jeff's bed, calming down a bit. What time was it now? It had to have been past 3 in the morning.

He quickly remade Jeff's bed, tearing of the lime green sheets and replacing them with Thad's.

"Ok Jeffrey. I just got punched in the jaw and I'm sick of you whining, so just come out already and go to sleep."

Jeff sat inside with a confused look on his face. He checked his watch. 3.35am. He would have to be up in three hours anyway. Nick sounded angry.

He heard Nick stomp back to his bed. And then silence.

Jeff stood up and unlocked the door. The room was dark but he managed his way to his bed easily enough. He noticed the clean sheets and stared at Nick who had his back toward him.

"A…Are you asleep?"

"Yes."

"Thank you." He managed to whisper quietly.

Nick smiled to himself upon hearing Jeff's words. He waited a full half an hour, before he heard Jeff's breathing patterns subside, before turning around to face him.

He watched the blonde boy sleeping, his hair tousled and mouth slightly open.

He tried to stop staring at him, he really did, but every time he tried to look away his gaze was drawn back to Jeff.