Eren walked back to his seat after reading his essay. He thought it went okay, it was pretty hard to go wrong with this essay. It was kind of a free verse essay, you didn't need separate paragraphs or even proper grammar. The teacher just said he wanted to have an idea of what our writing was like. He really did just want to us to sit down and write what we thought until we were done. The essay was basically a participation grade and that was fine with Eren. He sat down in his seat and turned to his left, smirking at his friend Mikasa. Well friend might be a loose term for them; Mikasa was more like a sister.

Early in their childhood, Eren's parents had basically adopted Mikasa after her parents were killed during a robbery. The two of them hit it off almost immediately after she moved in with them. They continued to be close even after many years have gone by. Originally they were going to share an apartment once they got to college, but they decided otherwise when they realized that they only had one other friend, Armin.

They branched off from each other within the first few weeks that they had been in college, but not in a bad way, Mikasa had made a friend, Annie, and Eren had been focusing on his schoolwork. However, this didn't change the fact that they were family, so they still made time to hang out with each other, and sit near each other in every class they had together, which happened to be Chemistry and Creative Writing.

Mikasa smiled back at Eren sadly then pulled out a scrap piece of a paper and scribbled a note to him quickly, "I remember when you used to play violin for mom. I would sit and watch and you looked so happy that mom was happy."

I read the note and smiled at Mikasa, then looked back to the front on the classroom, the next reader appeared to be none other than my hated roommate, Jean Kirschstein.

Jean walked up to the front of the room, clutching his paper tightly in his hand. Eren scoffed at him, and rolled his eyes. Then Jean cleared his throat and began, his voice slightly unsteady, "The highlight of my teenage years was not so much a highlight as it was a tragedy." He swallowed, the lump in his throat and continued, "When I think of the word highlight, I don't think of something that stuck out to me. To me that word means something good, something better thing to say is the focal point of my teenage years. The day it happened, started out as a normal day, as any other day would. I woke up and got ready for school as per usual. However, when I arrived at school, that's when everything changed. As I walked down the halls of my high school, everyone was quiet, everyone looked at me. I thought maybe I just had a stray hair or my shoe was untied or something, that wasn't the case. I sat down at my normal seat in homeroom and looked over to my friend's seat, Marco, he wasn't there. I remember sitting there wondering where he was, Marco was never late to school, if anyone was, it would have been me. Yet, he was the one who was not in his seat." Jean seemed to be having a hard time telling this story, he kept blinking as if to keep tears from falling out of his eyes, and his breathing was labored. "When homeroom came to an end and an announcement rang out over us, saying that the junior class should make their way to the auditorium. Looking back on it, I remember thinking how Marco was going to miss the announcement, but I didn't say anything. I simply walked into the auditorium and took a seat. As the assembly started, I noticed that the principal had a grim look on her face, there was a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach, I couldn't place it at the time. Then the principal began to speak, 'Attention everyone, we have a very important announcement for all of you. This morning one of our students, Marco Bott, was in a car accident. As he was driving to school, an inebriated driver swerved into his lane and crashed into him. If any of you are close to him, you may leave school and visit him in the hospital. He is in fatal condition.' From there on out the rest of the day was a blur, a blur of tears and people hugging me and saying, 'I'm sorry.' I remember going to the principal's office and asking her if I may visit him, she nodded and handed me a slip to leave. I walked out to the parking lot, thinking of how I probably shouldn't drive in the state I'm in, but I had to see him." he stopped reading his essay for a moment and covered his mouth as a sob escaped it.

The teacher walked over to where Jean was standing and patted him on the shoulder, then whispered something to him. Jean nodded and made his way out of the classroom. Eren raised his hand, "Professor, can I go see if Jean's okay?"

The professor nodded his head and Eren got out of his seat to go after Jean. He looked at Mikasa quickly and gave her an apologetic glance. She nodded understandingly. Eren made his way down the steps of the lecture hall and out the door, he saw Jean in the distance, walking into the Men's Bathroom. Eren followed after him quickly and opened the door, walking in behind him. The bathroom was empty.

Jean turned around, tears still evident on his cheeks, and said, "What do you want, Jaeger?"

"I wanted to see if you're okay." Eren spoke as he walked across the bathroom towards Jean.

Jean frowned, "Yeah I'm fine, just telling that story brings back some really bad memories."

Eren nodded, "Did Marco...die?"

Jean sighed, "When I got to the hospital, they made me wait in the waiting room for a long time, longer than I would have liked. It gave me time to think of all the terrible things that might happen. Eventually, they did let me back into the ICU. I saw Marco, he had just gotten out of surgery. He didn't have a left arm and he had burns all down the right side of his body. The nurse told me that he suffered nerve damage on large amounts of his left side. He also lost the use of his legs. But he would survive. That was the happiest I have ever been."

Eren smiled, it was strange to see this sentimental side of Jean, but it was nice. He almost wished that he had not moved out yesterday. Jean seemed like a genuinely nice person once you got to know him. "That's great."

"Yeah it was for me, but once Marco came to, he was devastated. He loved football. He could never play it again, he would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life." Jean leaned against one of the porcelain sinks and sighed deeply, "He then spiraled into depression for most of the year and tried to take his own life. Thankfully his mother found out and put him into therapy. I was very upset with him. I don't think he realized how much he meant to me as a friend."

"Is he fine now?" By now Eren was genuinely invested in what happened to this Marco kid, if not for Marco himself, for Jean's sake. He didn't like seeing the usually motivated and upbeat guy so sad.

"He is. I'm actually about to meet him, we were going to go out to eat after class." Jean said.

Eren smiled, "So he goes here too?"

"Yep," Jean nodded, "I'm gonna go outside and wait for him, wanna come with?"

Eren nodded and the two of them made their way out of bathroom and down the carpeted hallways of the university. They got outside and walked towards a bench, talking a seat next to each other.

Eren looked down at his feet, "I'm sorry I left."

Jean smirked at him, "It's okay, I was being pretty unreasonable. I wanted to share a dorm with Marco but I ended up getting you. So I was angry and never gave you a chance."

Eren was surprised at how much Jean was opening up to him right now. It was so out of character compared to how Jean had been acting the last few weeks, but it made sense. "Wanna go out for drinks sometime?"

Jean made a face, "What bar will serve us? We're underage."

Eren smirked slightly, "There's a bar downtown called The Garrison give discounts to people who go to the university. A family friend of mine works there, I'm sure he'll sneak us something."

Jean smiled, "Sure, that sounds like fun."

"Cool." As Eren spoke he saw someone coming down the sidewalk in a wheelchair. He looked at the boy in the wheelchair and smiled at him.

Jean turned to see what Eren was smiling at, and his own face broke out into a grin, "Marco!"

"Polo!" The black haired boy in the wheelchair replied. He smiled at Eren, although his smile was really only about half of his face. The left side of his face was covered with tougher skin that was grafted on after his burn. "Hi, I'm Marco."

Eren smirked and shook Marco's hand, "I'm Eren, I've heard all about you."

Marco looked at Jean, "So you've been spreading my sob story around campus I see?"

Jean punched Marco lightly on the shoulder and fondly said, "Shut up."

Eren pulled out his phone and looked at the time, it was 5:30. He didn't know when Levi got off work so he thought that he really better get on his way. "Hey it was great to meet you but I really got to be leaving now, my roommate is waiting for me at his work."

Marco smiled, "Nice to meet you too."

Jean waved his hand slightly, "You owe me that drink Jaegar."

Eren had began to walk in the direction of the subway station already but he turned around and said, "You'll get that drink Kirshstein."

Eren walked towards the subway, it was a weird feeling to be pleasant with Jean, not only an hour ago was he thinking about how much he hated the guy but now here he was, making plans to get drinks with him.

He walked swiftly, Levi seemed the type of person to get angry over someone being late. Eren didn't even know what late was but he wanted to avoid Levi's anger at all costs.

He walked down the steps of the subway station, taking two at a time, the next subway wouldn't be leaving for 10 minutes. He probably would get back to Levi's work for another 30 minute now, and that's counting on there be no delays and Eren walking very very fast. He boarded the subway and took a seat, he got out his phone and put in headphones, turning on some music for the ride. He let his mind wander as the subway pulled out of the station. Thoughts of Levi began to run through Eren's mind. something about Levi made Eren want to be his friend, he didn't know what it was or why he would even want to be that douchebag's friend, but for some reason he just did. Maybe it was because he was extremely talented at acting or was good looking or maybe it was because Levi had this certain mystery about him that Eren wanted to figure out. He wanted to put the puzzle of Levi together, find out what he was all about.

Eren sighed to himself, he knew it wouldn't be that easy, Levi wasn't exactly the most approachable person. Besides with Eren's newfound homoerotic thoughts toward him, he knew it would just be that much harder for him to figure him out. Now he had to worry about if Levi liked him in return. He really was acting like a teenage girl. Eren groaned to himself, receiving a few strange looks from people sitting near him on the subway. Eren's blushed, he was taking this Levi thing way too seriously, it had to be just some weird hormones acting up, just a little crush right? God this whole thing was way too much to be thinking about on a subway ride home.