hipster music on cassette.

the funny thing about dorm life is that everyone can hear everything, no matter how hard you try. and hunter... well, he couldn't say he was very good at trying, then again, hunter was always more productive in the middle of the night, and loud pop-punk music and homework went together like peanut butter and jelly. 

but there's always that one song that can break any concentration and force anyone to crank their radio up as high as it goes. even if it's the middle of the night in a dorm with walls as thin as toilet paper.

suddenly homework was trivial, and the nearest pencil case became his microphone as hunter lived out his childhood dream of becoming a rockstar looking over at his roommate's empty bed like it was an audience.

he did always get carried away at the sound of that iconic high g... 

but then, not everyone seemed to be as excited to hear his singing as his mother was back home, because he hadn't even gotten to the best part of the song when he was rudely interrupted by a loud bang at the door. 

hunter sighed and paused his laptop with his foot. he jumped off the bed and swung his door open in a rush to see who had come to bother him. "can i help you, princess?"

hipster music on cassette.

hunter scoffed loudly. it was crystal clear within seconds that this intruder didn't know the first thing about music. sure, hunter may have gotten carried away pretending he was a one-man revival of the black parade, and it may have been two in the morning, but he wasn't actually trying to pick a fight here. more specifically, he was just trying to get his damn chemistry homework done while looking for any excuse to procrastinate.

"do you have any idea how loud you are?"

"what's it to you?" hunter rolled his eyes and mimicked a relaxed version of the other boy's stance, with arms folded casually across his chest. he bit back a laugh while he listened to the other rant, humming and nodding in agreement every few seconds like he was paying attention, but it was late and he was itching to return to his music - er, homework.

and then. 'squawking'. his squawking?

hunter stiffened. "I don't squawk," he challenged. "and, for the record," hunter turned back into his room and grabbed a cd off his desk, flipped around, and shoved it in the boy's face, "welcome to the black parade is an iconic song! god! ain't you ever heard of my chemical romance?" hunter may have been a country boy, sure, and he wasn't caught up with all this newfangled urban technology, but at least he knew good music, unlike the degenerate in front of him.

hipster music on cassette.

man this kid could really go off. hunter couldn't get a word in once he opened his mouth, which was very... un-hunterish; usually it was hunter who did all the talking and complaining. it felt almost out of place coming from the kid in front of him. and, for the record the whole dorm was grateful that hunter had such a good taste in music. last year he was stuck in a hall with some pretentious douchewad who played shitty edm glitch pop bullshit on repeat for an entire semester. this was my chem, and this uncultured swine had no idea what he was talking about. plus, hunter totally killed the intro before he was so rudely interrupted.

"my chemical romance? is that really what that was?"

"are you saying you never heard of my chem? welcome to the black parade? i'm not okay i promise? any of these ringing a bell in your empty head?" hunter all but exploded. he ran his hands through his messy hair in disbelief and whistled. "an' here i thought i was uncultured, you ain't even heard of my chem." 

sometimes life is based off of split-second decisions, impulse reactions that often lead to something you could never predict. this was one of those moments. hunter reached forward to grab the other boy and yank him into his room. "you can't go your entire life without listening to the black parade!" any two am fatigue that had been calling him to bed was suddenly gone and replaced with a huge, mischevious grin. "ok where do you wanna start? i got all their cds but the black parade is fuckin' legendary, dude."

hipster music on cassette.

there's something classy about bringing someone to your dorm late at night to listen to music. granted, most of the time it ends in the complete opposite of classy, but hunter would take what he could get. besides, he recognized the other boy from his chem class, which he desperately needed help in, and judging by the fact that the guy was banging on his door at two am to shut him up meant he was obviously some kind of nerd. what actually cool human being went to bed that early?

hunter threw himself onto his bed and looked back at his guest. he waved his chem homework in the air, "we have chemistry together. fourth period? you get what's going on in class, cuz i certainly don't..." he motioned for the other boy to sit down with his notebook and join him on the bed. "an' you only hate my chem cuz you ain't actually listened to 'em yet."

the other boy seemed to be going through some internal dilemma over whether to leave or stay, but he was already in the room and the door was closed, so why not make the best of it, right? it wasn't like hunter was going to rip him to pieces in his sleep, or anything. he wouldn't even sleep over, considering he apparently lived directly one floor down. hunter just happened to remember the boy's familiar two-toned hair from chem class and lord knows hunter needed all the help he could get in that class, so this obviously seemed like the best solution. 

"c'mon. chemistry and my chemical romance. don't be a buzzkill now," hunter rolled his eyes and watched as the other still looked frozen in the middle of the room. hunter knew he moved at a faster pace than most. people were always telling him to calm down and speak slowly so they could understand, but this was almost too slow. "hello-o?" he drew out the end of the word before getting up and walking over towards his guest, leaning just a little too close to his face and down at his bare chest.

oh.

"you look kinda cold... here, take my hoodie," hunter ripped his sweatshirt from over his head in a single fluid motion and chucked it right at the other boy's face, chuckling. "oh yeah. what was your name again?"

hipster music on cassette.

ever seen another person in your clothing and it's like seeing them in a whole other light? that's about where hunter was right now. at 2:30 in the morning. on a school night. staring at some boy he barely knew after begging him to give him a quick tutoring session. did he mention that it was 2:30am? because it was.

"me? flirting with you? ah.." hunter rubbed the back of his head nervously. "why would i be doin' that?" he did all he could to surpress the blush he could feel crawling on his skin. now, hunter wasn't the type of person to fall quickly into love, nor did he have much of an idea how the whole 'romance' thing worked. such a simple country boy, he never had much of a knack for these things, nor a desire for them. but damn if this kid wasn't strangely pretty, with his two-toned hair and different colored eyes, one of which covered in a scar that was barely illuminated by his laptop screen. and to top it off: he was wearing hunter's hoodie. the one he probably hadn't cleaned in several weeks, that had been lying on his chair for god knows how long, the one that was currently too big for the other boy - oliver - so that it showed just enough collar bone to have hunter averting his eyes just a little too quick. "y-your welcome," he breathed.

"a-anyway... wh... what type are you?" any form of small talk to get hunter's mind out of the gutter was highly appreciated. forget what they were even here for in the first place, hunter was suddenly far more interested in getting to know the pretty boy in front of him than his grade in chemistry.