Chapter 2 - Roommates (Posted 26 October 2011)

"I don't like him." Harvey voiced his disapproval as they were setting up their dorm room.

"Who?"

"Your new friend. Trenton. Travis."

"Trevor." Mike reminded him. "And how can you say you don't like him? You only met him for a few seconds."

"I could tell he was sketchy as soon as I saw him."

"Right. Because you read people and everything you say is always correct."

"Exactly." Harvey smirked.

"Seriously?" Mike asked. "He's a nice guy, he sat with me and showed me around campus. You of all people should know how rare it is for someone to actually take an interest in being kind to me instead of harassing me. Can't you just be happy for me?"

"I just don't want you getting into trouble. I've spent the last five years keeping you safe, I don't want you to make all that meaningless by getting mixed up with bad people."

"You're worried about me?"

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to."

"Yeah, well, don't let it go to your head."

"Don't worry. I won't."

Harvey glanced at him before going back to making up his side of the room. Although he'd never outright admit it, he hated seeing Mike accept Harvey's indifference so easily. He knew the guy didn't have many people who cared about him, He needed to be showed some affection every once in a while. It was just a shame that the only person he could go to was the least affectionate person in the world. "Are you going to keep hanging around with him?"

"He invited me to a movie marathon his floor is having tonight."

"Are you gonna go?"

Mike paused. "I'm thinking about it. But you know me, I probably won't. He probably only invited me out of politeness." He turned away from Harvey and cringed at himself. He hated when things like that slipped out.

"You should go out and socialize." Harvey told him. "It'd be good for you. Just... be careful, alright?"

Mike shook his head. "Eh, you don't have to worry about me. I'll probably just sit in here all night and read. Unless you'd rather have me leave you alone, then I can go to the library or something."

"Hey, when have I ever asked you to leave me alone?"

"Well, never, but I'm sure there were times when you were annoyed with me."

Harvey chuckled. "I'm always annoyed with you."

"Oh..."

"Lighten up, Mike. Friends annoy each other, it's a fact of life. But I've gotten used to it."

"You've never annoyed me," Mike told him.

"For real?"

Mike nodded, and then snickered as he remembered something. "Well... there was this one time you came over to my house and forced me to watch ten hours of Star Trek episodes."

Harvey cracked a smile. "You willingly sat through it."

"Yeah, yeah."

"You should go."

"Huh?" Mike asked, forgetting what they'd been talking about before.

"You should go to Tristan's movie marathon."

"Trevor. His name is Trevor. And I've already decided I'm not going."

"What?" Harvey was confused. He thought he wanted to go. "Why not?"

"Even if he really does want to hang out with me, his friends probably don't. You know how things usually end up when I try to meet new people, Harvey."

Harvey sighed. "Do you want me to go with you?"

Mike was about to smile and accept, but he caught himself, shaking his head slowly. "No. Don't worry about it. I told you, I just want to stay here and study."

"Classes haven't started yet."

"I know. I want to be ahead of the game."

"You're going," Harvey said, putting his foot down, "and that's final. You can't just hole up in our room and never interact with anyone but me, Mike. I don't want you to become a hermit."

Mike was almost shocked. Harvey had never forced him to hang out with other people. Suggested it? Yes. Encouraged it? Yes. But force it? No. Maybe he really did want to get rid of him. "Oh... ok."

Harvey smiled a little. He didn't want to put Mike in an uncomfortable situation, he just wanted him to have more friends. He wanted him to have more people he could look to for comfort. If that meant sharing him, he'd put up with it for the sake of Mike's well-being. "I'll still go with you."

"You don't have to do that."

"If I don't take you there myself, you probably won't go at all."

"...True enough."

Harvey shook his head. "We're going."

Mike huffed. "Fine."

"When is it?"

"It starts at eight," Mike told him reluctantly. He saw him nod and then they continued to set up in silence. But Mike's mind was anything but silent, it was whirring, contemplating what he'd done to make Harvey want to get rid of him so much that he was willing to personally hand him off to the next person unfortunate enough to be stuck with him.