Chapter forty-six
September 2017 (A year later)
Dean stood in front of his dorm building. KU's freshman dorm looked even bigger than he had imagined. He couldn't believe that he was finally going to college.
Once he'd settle in, he'd have to call Sam and check in how his freshman year had started. It had taken a lot of convincing on Sam's part for Dean to agree to live on campus rather than at home with his younger brother. Eventually Dean relented but that was only because Sam had moved back in with Bobby while Rufus found someone else to rent the apartment for the time being.
"It's awesome, isn't?" Someone said behind him. He turned and saw a redhead girl in overalls and converse standing there. When he still didn't say anything, she stretched out her hand, smiled and said, "Hey, I'm Charlie. What's your name?"
"Dean," He whispered. He said it so quietly he was sure she hadn't heard him.
He was proven wrong when she said, "Okay, Dean. It's nice to meet you."
"You too," He said back.
Charlie glanced at him. "You're not much of a talker, are you? That's okay, I can talk for the both of us."
Dean smiled at that.
After their first meeting, Charlie had shown him around the campus, introduced him to her friends and told him all about the different hangout spots. She talked so much that he didn't catch everything but he had to admit it was nice to have a friend who didn't know all the fucked up shit about him.
It also turned out that they had some classes together. As they was walking toward their calculus class, before he turned a corner, Dean saw a guy with the blackest hair and the bluest eyes and he thought his stomach had dropped to the floor. Because he knew. He knew who it was.
It was Cas. Shit, it was Cas.
Since Dean had stopped in the middle of the street, Charlie almost walked into him and when she saw him making eye contact with the guy, she blurted out, "Ooh, I smell discomfort, drama and excitement all wrapped into one Who is he?"
Dean rolled his eyes but found he couldn't answer her question. Who was Cas to him? His best friend. His soulmate. His everything. If he was being honest. Even now, after a year of not talking, Cas still meant everything to him. He didn't say any of that though to Charlie.
"Just someone from my past," He said instead and added, "No one now."
"Okay, dokey." Charlie looked like she wanted to say something else because she had opened her mouth as if to add on something but then seemed to change her mind because she said, "If he's no one, then let's go to class. We can't stand around here or we'll be late and I heard the professor's a real witch."
He followed her but before he did, he turned and stared at the place where Cas had been standing. But there was no one there now.
A few days later he called Sam to check in. His brother had started high school and so Dean wanted to see how things were going for his brother. He hated not being there but he knew this was for the best. As Bobby and Sam had said, he deserved a real college experience. And Sam would be fine without Dean there. He would definitely be fine. Dean was hoping if he kept trying to convince himself that, he would believe that.
He thought of this while he was calling Sam and waiting for him to pick up.
"Hey, it's Sam," Sam said when he finally picked up.
"Sammy, hey, how are you?" Dean asked.
"Dean!" Dean could hear the grin in his voice. "I'm good, how are you? How's college?"
"It's good. I made a few friends."
"That's good," Sam said. "Anything else?"
For a few seconds, Dean didn't say anything. Then he added, "I saw Cas yesterday."
Dean heard Sam sigh over the phone. "Shit Dean, shit. You okay?"
"Yeah," He said, his voice cracking. "It was just weird. I didn't know that he was at KU. Thought maybe he was still doing his gap year or something."
"Oh," Sam said softly. "I'm sorry, Dean."
Dean huffed out a laugh that sounded more like a sob. "That's okay, it's not your fault."
"Still.." Sam said quietly.
They didn't say anything for a while until Dean decided to break the silence. "So how was your first day of high school?"
"It was good. Gabe and I are in some of the same classes and I met this girl, Amelia. She's pretty cool." Sam babbled on and on about high school and Dean couldn't help but smile. His little brother was growing up.