Save Your Happiness For Tomorrow {Jack}

[salem alaric burroughs]

Salem’s outfit is here

The worst part of moving anywhere was always the unpacking. Yes, it was exciting for those who were actually social to move, meet new friends, and experience new things. But when you were looking for particular items that hadn’t yet been unpacked it left you with only two choices. Wait until you actually do unpack, ignoring the item’s absence, or start unpacking. And Salem, reluctantly chose option two.

Another part of the reason for Salem’s rather harried unpacking was because he wanted to surround himself with familiar things. So managing the best he could trying to unpack with only half a bedroom to use, he opened boxes and moved things. The first box he unpacked was his writing and music gear, a sight that instantly left the delicate boy smiling. He turned to his desk, laying out pencils, pens, and a few well-beaten up bound notebooks on its smooth surface. Then out came his box of bedding, a pretty grey and black comforter set with matching pillows and what was left of a Jack Skellington throw blanket he’d had for several years. As quickly as he could he got his bed made up nice and tidy before returning to his unpacking.

After what seemed like forever, though realistically wasn’t more than an hour and a half, he had unpacked every last box and broken them down. He now sat on his bed, his chest thundering and his breath coming in panicked gasps as he realized he’d forgotten several important items at home which he’d have to have his friend mail to him. Salem hiccupped a nervous, upset noise as he looked at the many music posters he’d hung up and the various nick-nacks he’d placed on every surface of his side of the dorm bedroom. He had forgotten his inhaler, his favorite scarf, one of his lyrics notebooks, and one of his guitar strap/pick sets. He silently cursed himself for being such a foolish twit and fought back the emotions circling around inside his head like a sick marry-go-round.

After a few more moments of self loathing he called up his friend, having the boy make a list of what Salem had forgotten and making him promise to overnight it. With all of his unpacking and moving stuff he’d become sweaty and made his way towards the showers. After a quick shower he blow dried his brown, curly hair which made it even more unruly. He dressed himself in a 69Eyes tee, a pair of black skinny jeans, converse chucks, and jammed his black beanie over his head. He applied his standard thick eyeliner and a dab of pale gloss before rummaging in his studded messenger bag for his favorite lyrics notebook and a mechanical pencil.

Salem sat indian style in the middle of his freshly made bed and began to work on some lyrics. He grabbed his vintage Gibson acoustic guitar from beside his bed and strummed out notes, humming to himself as he wrote down whatever seemed to work best at the time. Becoming increasingly antsy about who his new roommate would he flipped to a random page in his book and ran through his vocal exercises before beginning to sing what he’d written down.

”We are so young, our lives have just begun
But already we are considering escape from this world
And we’ve waited for so long
For this moment to come
We’re so anxious to be together
Together in death, woah

Would you die tonight for love?
Baby, join me in death
Would you die?
Baby join me in death
Would you die tonight for love?
Baby join me in death” His Finnish accent was still able to be heard in some of his enunciations but his angelic voice made it all seem to come together.

He grabbed his guitar, strumming along the acoustic version of what he’d written down in the music notes section about the song. His bright green eyes closed as he let the music fill him up, plugging all those holes in his heart and his voice came out strong and passionate.

”This world is so cruel
And we’re here only to lose
So before life tears us apart
Death bless me with you…”

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[jack bristol callahan]

outfit!

Jack had never been a timely person and it was likely that he never would be. Despite the fact that plenty of people had moved in the day before and that morning, Jack and his entire family did not arrive until late that afternoon. With his father in the lead, the entire Callahan clan trooped up to the dorms carrying boxes and bags, though not nearly as many as he saw some of the female residents carrying. It took only one trip with five of them carrying things and the littlest toddling along behind them.

Even though he would miss his family as soon as they left, Jack could not contain his excitement over moving into the dorms. He had always been overtly social and living with an entire floor of potential best friends was very nearly fulfilling his life dream and purpose. He and his family were going to go out to dinner before they had to leave, and after that, Jack all but kicked them out of his dorm so that he could make friends. His mother did manage to put the sheets on his bed and clean off as many surfaces as she could, but Jack assured her that he would get to the rest of it and so, after a nearly tearful goodbye, Jack was left alone.

He did not, of course, intend to do any sort of cleaning or unpacking now that the world of College was open to him. He did want to meet his roommate as soon as possible, but it seemed like that was going to be a far off goal. Jack was notoriously A.D.D. and with all of the activity going on, thousands of things were catching his eye. There were boys playing football on the lawn, girls wandering around in cut-off shirts that they thought were "frumpy" for move-in day, but which were actually adorable, people carrying colorful things. Jack didn't really know what to do with himself.

It was lucky that he got intercepted by an RA before he had to make a decision because he would never have known about the socials that were coming up. Jack was practically fizzing with excitement as he buzzed around, trying to decide which group to invade first. Roommate and room maintenance pretty much forgotten, he made his way to a group of boys sitting around and talking about their classes. They accepted him almost instantly and, from what he could gather in the beginnings of the conversation, none of them had known each other until right this second. It was perfect.

Unfortunately, classes were not something Jack was particularly interested and many of these boys were already able to take their major classes. Since he had come in with no credit, he was stuck taking math, english, and science this semester. Excusing himself with the promise that they would all meet again, he decided that maybe it was actually time to go back to his room. Sure, he wanted to make friends, but this whole atmosphere was too hectic and he didn't know what to do. Besides, if he was going to meet his future BFF and bro, he should probably start with the closest person. That's how it happened on TV.

It never occurred to Jack that people might be less social than he was or that people might find him alarming/annoying/overbearing. Thus, it was not with this or any misgivings in mind that he bounded up to the second floor and burst into his room. Luckily, his roommate was there. Jack flung the door shut and practically skipped over, thrusting his hand in Salem's direction.

"Hi!" he said, towering over the bed. "I'm Jack. I meant to read what your name was on the front of the door, buuuut I forgot. I saw an S, though. Is it Shawn? It's totally Shawn, isn't it?" He nodded, grinning as though he was trying to get in on a personal joke of Salem's. While he saw that he was wearing tight clothes/makeup, it didn't really register as anything unusual and so Jack, oblivious as always, just beamed at him.

[salem alaric burroughs]

Salem’s outfit is here

Salem had gotten done with practicing his song and resolved himself to tidying things up. He looked warily at the boxes filling the opposite side of the room and the boyish bedding on the opposite bed. He moved his own stuff around as much as he could until he got antsy and just had to have a cigarette. He didn’t figure smoking was allowed in the dorms but he wasn’t about to risk being bombarded by girls oohing and aahing over him when he walked out the door. Or angry jocks asking what anatomy he had in the most intrusive ways possible. He wasn’t social at all, in fact some people wondered if he was some sort of crazy cultist because he avoided human contact as often as possible. He wasn’t one for parties, going out, and such. And he began to worry about what his roommate would be like. If anything he hoped he’d get another art student, preferably one who was content with being left alone. He didn’t know if he could handle much excitement.

Listen to me, prattling on like an old man. Any roommate will be fine and if it becomes an issue I’ll ask the administrators about moving. I need to lighten up, college is for fun as well as learning. He fussed at himself in his head.

He lit a cigarette and inhaled the smoke deep into his lungs. He sighed contently, breathing the smoke out in little wisps. He continued smoking as he jotted down some more music notes and lyrics into his notebook. Smoking was life’s biggest stress reliever aside from his nasty wrist-picking habit. And he refused to do that on the first day he was here. So he smoked his precious cigarette and worked on another song. Salem finished his cigarette and located an ashtray among his stuff, snubbing out the butt.

Salem sat himself back into the middle of the bed and debated on whether to take a nap or wait up for his roommate, his question answered itself. The door was flung open, making Salem squeal out an embarrassingly feminine scream as he moved, in the process accidently flipping himself onto the floor. He righted himself, backing into the corner with his green eyes wide in alarm. His chest was pounding as if his heart was about to fly out of his chest. He saw a boy approaching, speaking half his sentence before he crossed the room, which in itself was quick.

”Hi! I'm Jack. I meant to read what your name was on the front of the door, buuuut I forgot. I saw an S, though. Is it Shawn? It's totally Shawn, isn't it?”

Salem just widened his eyes even more as a hand was stuck into his face. He gulped in a deep breath of air to prevent himself from having a full-blown panic attack. He suddenly felt relief and anger as he realized the guy must be his roommate. He closed his eyes briefly before shaking his head no.

”Sa-Salem. My name is Salem Bur-Burroughs. Are you..my roommate?” Salem asked in a voice that couldn’t have been anything above a very shaky whisper.

He cleared his throat before standing up, reaching out his own hand and shaking Jack’s. He looked the boy up and down quickly before moving back to his own bed and sitting down. He leaned over, face in his hands as he tried to get his heart to stop racing. He looked at the other boy, obviously one of the..normal sort, and took another deep breath.

”Erm, I am sorry about the scream. You just startled me. I’m not used to someone so…exanimate. You are really…perky, huh?” Salem said it word carefully as if it were worth it’s weight in gold.

He absently rubbed at the scars on his arms and wrist as he looked at his new roommate. The boy was cute, he’d give him that, but definitely not the type of guy Salem had hoped to room with. But perhaps he was being too quick to judge. After all, people tended to judge him on his appearance and get him all wrong. He pulled his legs up onto the bed, folding them back into the Indian position before breaking into a small smile at the other boy. He readjusted the beanie on his head and awaited the other boy’s response.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[jack bristol callahan]

Perplexed might have been too fancy a word to describe Jack when Salem screamed. Puppy-like worked better, since he cocked his head and furrowed his brow in confusion. People did not usually scream around Jack unless it was in excitement/delight or they needed to release the tension inside them due to an excess buildup of awesome. Shawn did not look like he was trying to get rid of excess awesome, unless Jack walking in the door was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Which Jack supposed could have been true. His perplexity vanished to be replaced by his usual game grin.

Jack didn't even realize that he had fallen until after he'd stuck his hand out, at which point he knelt down to reach him better. On a short day, Jack was only about 6'3, but in general, he was a little over 6'4 and it would have been impossible to reach Shawn from his standing position. He straightened up, though, and his bafflement returned when Shawn's name turned out to not be Shawn. He totally thought he had it. His face drooped, especially when Shawn Salem sounded so nervous. Perhaps he was just intimidated by his general awesome. Jack could deal with that and fix it.

Seconds later, Jack was beaming again and pumping Salem's hand more forcefully than it had likely ever been pumped. It didn't occur to him [of course] that this might have been too much for Salem, despite the fact that Jack had a firm grip and a lot of enthusiasm. He was just excited that his roommate was everything he had hoped he'd be--excited, friendly, and much neater than he himself was.

"Of couuurse!" he said, snorting. Obviously, Salem was a jokester. "I'm from Pennsylvania. How about you?" With this, he walked back over to his side of the room, which wasn't very far, and flopped onto his bed. It was surprisingly more comfortable than he was expecting and he felt at home with his Batman sheets and matching comforter. Unfortunately, his pile of boxes and spilling possessions also reminded him of home--something that did not exactly bode well for his neater roommate.

"That's cool," he said, waving off his apology. "I have that effect on people. Especially girls. Especially hot girls. adfkjghfskjdgf!" he cried, leaping off his bed. "We should go meet hot girls!!!" He could barely keep himself on the ground and, in his excitement to go out and Do Things, he was hopping from foot to foot. "We're in college now and it is our right to buy ice cream for girls way hotter than the ones from highschool. IT'LLBESOMUCHFUN!" This last bit was said without much breath and, shiny-eyed and hoppy, Jack stared at Salem.

[salem alaric burroughs]

Salem’s outfit is here

When Jack leaned down towards him Salem scrunched up as far against the wall as his small frame would allow before realizing the hand was a helpful offering rather than a hurtful fist. But could one blame him when this other boy, Jack, obviously had no regard for personal space? Salem resisted the urge to scream ‘stranger danger’ and pelt by the much more enthusiastic boy.

Salem scrambled to his feet, his green eyes still terribly wide and filled with nervous terror. This was exactly not what he’d hoped for in a room mate. He went to open his mouth but thought better of it and closed it again, keeping his full lips firmly together.

At least he hadn’t asked if he was a boy or a girl. That was a start, right? When he shook Jack’s hand he was jarred around and felt a sharp pain in his shoulder that he hard to resist crying at. Now he was anxiety-ridden and had a possibly dislocated shoulder. He tried to smile as Jack’s facial expression drooped. He instantly cursed himself in his own head for making a fool of himself like he had.

”Of couuurse
I'm from Pennsylvania. How about you?"

”Seattle, Washington. Erm, you know where it rains at the time?” In his nervousness the latter part of the sentence came out as a squeaked question.

He watched Jack walk over to his bed and his face curved in a frown at the boxes that had spilled and the general chaos that had ensued since their meeting. He silently begged to the Dorm Gods to not let this boy be a pig. And when the boy didn’t instantly begin cleaning once he’d noticed it affirmed it for Salem. He sat himself down on his own bed, eyes still watching Jack as if he were going to attack him at any second.

”I have that effect on people. Especially girls. Especially hot girls. Adfkjghfskjdgf!
We should go meet hot girls!!!
We're in college now and it is our right to buy ice cream for girls way hotter than the ones from highschool. IT'LLBESOMUCHFUN!"

Salem cringed at his excitement, his face falling in a perfect anime exasperated expression. He rubbed unconsciously at his temples, a migraine dancing around behind his eyelids. And the last thing he wanted to do was to get out of his dorm room right now. Or ever. Maybe the day he graduated he’d get out of the dorm room. Yeah, that sounded like a wonderful plan.

But his new room mate was like a hyperactive Golden Retriever and he just couldn’t say no. He had a feeling that Jack would take no as some foreign word for yes and it would be easier just to agree. But first he had to find something different to wear. Geez.

”I’m…not. I’m not terribly social, Jack. I doubt the girls here would pay much attention to me anyway, they didn’t in high school. And I…I’m just not sure about getting out of the dorm. Ever. I have stuff I need to work on for music class and—“He paused then he made a very unreasonable decision that he was sure he’d regret, ”Oh what the hell. This evening we’ll go meet some..attractive girls.”

He didn’t mean for the word girls to come out in such disgust. True he was indeed bisexual and favored the same sex. But he didn’t need to let his room mate on it just yet. He didn’t want to be accused of butt rape come morning. Salem wrapped his small arms around himself in an attempt to soothe the feelings twisting around inside his stomach. He looked down at his legs, not willing to meet his room mate’s eyes.

No matter how devilishly cute and deliciously chocolate brown they are, all mischevious and full of--

Oh damn. Did he just think that? Curses curses! Salem felt his face flush bright pink at his thoughts of how cute his obviously heterosexual room mate was. He gulped and kept his eyes on his lap. He began picking as his left wrist, not deep enough to cut through skin but deep enough that it hurt and changed his mind set. Salem braved looking up at his room mate and flashed one of his dazzling smiles, wishing he had half the courage he had on stage.

”So, Jack. What is your major? Mine’s vocal performance and next year I’ll be applying for a guitar performance major too.” Salem’s voice finally came to him and the Finnish accent was a lot more pronounced.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[jack bristol callahan]

Jack was unbothered by Salem not accepting his hand in help and so stepped back to allow him more room to right himself. Vaguely, Jack noticed that his roommate was a little twitchy, but he figured that was just first-day jitters. Even he knew that not everyone adjusted to new things as well as he did and not everyone was quite as go-with-the-flow. Salem had probably never been away from his family before. Poor guy was probably super depressed at the prospect of not having anymore home-cooked meals until Thanksgiving. This thought caused a small frown to appear on half of Jack’s mouth, but he pushed it aside and was soon grinning again.

Satisfied with the way their first meeting had gone, Jack grabbed the nearest box to his bed and started poking through it. When he discovered that it was just essentials--one plate, two sets of silverware, two glasses, a and a mug packed between extra sheets and bed things--he cast it aside and grabbed a new box. He needed to find his action figures before anything else went on his desk, since they had priority as decorations of awesomeness. The next box was more clothes, which he supposed he should have unpacked, but he just pulled two shirts out and shoved the rest of the box aside. Perhaps he should have let his mother stay and help him unpack, but whatever. He would be fine. He didn’t have that much stuff.

“Washington?” he asked, trying for another box. It was hard for Jack to divide his attention between two equally interesting things, but he was going to try to the best of his ability. If he got too distracted, he would just abandon the search through his possessions rather than his conversation. “Like, where the president lives?” Which just went to show how much Jack was really retaining. Or how much he knew about geography. Either was a perfectly viable option. “That’s cool. Do you know any secret service agents?” He looked up then, watching Salem very seriously. Jack’s favorite thing in the entire world was spies and secret service agents were the next best thing.

Deciding that the action figures could wait until he and Salem got back from their girl venture, Jack abandoned the box and instead stretched out on his bed. He was lucky that it wasn’t a short mattress, since his feet nearly hung off the end already. Jack had realized early on that he was a little bit too big for the dorms, but since he was used to being freakishly tall, it didn’t bother him too much. It didn’t occur to him that this fact might also be why his roommate was so nervous, but then Jack would never come up with valid reasons for other people’s quirks.

He started thinking about them, though, when Salem started speaking. What was he even saying? Not social? Did that even exist? Jack watched him during his speech, eyebrows drawn together, lips pursed. His diatribe made little sense to Jack, so when he finally cut himself off and ended with an affirmative, Jack all but leaped off his bed in excitement.

“Yes!” he said, pumping his fist. “It’ll be so awesome! Someone downstairs told me about this club, but we don’t have to go to it yet because I think they’re doing like, a back to school island party thing next weekend, so maybe we should make our big debut then. There are girls everywhere, though, so I bet we could just like…go to dinner and everything would be totally fine. We could probably even just walk downstairs.” Jack heard nothing strange about the way Salem was speaking, likely because he chose to assume that everything the other boy said was just as euphoric as everything he himself said.

Deciding that he, too, should change his clothes since they were wrinkled and dusty, Jack yanked his shirt over his head, revealing an athletic torso with small patches of hair in all of the manliest places. “Guitars are cool,” he said. In just his jeans, he reached for yet another box and rifled around for his deodorant. “You seem more like the artisty type, though. Do you perform and stuff already?” After locating and using it, he reached for the t-shirt he’d set aside earlier and tugged it on before grabbing the over shirt and shrugging into that. Satisfied with his appearance, he turned to face Salem again. “I’m a theater major. It’s gonna be awesome.”

[salem alaric burroughs]

Salem’s outfit is here & officially updated
Salem still warily looked indirectly at Jack as he righted himself. He still wasn’t sure about having such a spastic room mate. He braced himself for not being able to study properly, sleep properly, or even be able to hear himself think. But when he saw the half-frown on the other boy’s face he instantly felt terrible for the way he’d been thinking. He needed to give him a chance.

Salem watched at Jack tore through boxes only to shove them aside. Salem’s face fell a little as he saw just how slovenly his new roommate was behaving. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to deal with this all year. He wasn’t completely anal about how clean things had to be but he preferred stuff to be tidy instead of thrown all over creation. He closed his eyes and rested his head against the cool wall, fighting back a migraine already.

” “Washington?”
Like, where the president lives?
That’s cool. Do you know any secret service agents?” Salem gawked at the boy’s obviously lack of geographic skills.

”Erm, no. Washington state. Like above California?” He felt a bit of a snippy tone in his words but hopefully Jack didn’t catch it.

He opened one eye as he heard the bed squeak. He spotted Jack laying down, though he had a feeling it wouldn’t be for long. Salem curled up into a sitting ball in the corner of his bed where two of the walls met, his green eyes closed in exasperation. He realized just how tall his room mate actually was since the boy’s legs hung off the bed a little. He felt his own bed was mammoth, since he was so thin. But he, himself, was six foot one.

As he spoke he felt the boy’s eyes on him but kept his own closed a moment longer. Opening them again he spotted the look of confusion on Jack’s face and his smile became lopsided. He felt even more awkward now that he’d admitted he wasn’t social. He had a feeling Jack might’ve thought him some sort of freak or foreign life form or something. But when he affirmed the plan to go meet girls he spooked again as Jack got up off the bed. He squeaked, though not nearly as loud as the shrill scream he’d done earlier.

” “Yes!”
It’ll be so awesome! Someone downstairs told me about this club, but we don’t have to go to it yet because I think they’re doing like, a back to school island party thing next weekend, so maybe we should make our big debut then. There are girls everywhere, though, so I bet we could just like…go to dinner and everything would be totally fine. We could probably even just walk downstairs.”

Oh hell. Salem had gone and done it now, Jack apparently expected him to go to every social event this year which would not happen. He kept his mouth shut at the suggestion for all of the social places to go and just stared at his lap. He wasn’t going to enjoy his Freshman year, and he wasn’t coming out of his shell or the closet or anything else for his roommate. He feigned a smile of Jack, hoping he’d fool the other boy into believing he was actually excited.

When Jack began to strip in front of him Salem felt his face flush red again and he instantly fought himself internally to not stare at the boy’s manly physique. He spotted a nicely carved abs and patches of hair and—Salem gulped, pulling his hat down further to keep from his face being seen clearly. His chest was thumping like a flighty rabbit and he felt heat gather around his collar bone and lower neck as he saw Jack bend over to grab another shirt. He figured he might as well change in front of the boy so as not to seem like a freak. |

” Guitars are cool
You seem more like the artisty type, though. Do you perform and stuff already
I’m a theater major. It’s gonna be awesome.”

”Yeah, I’ve been playing guitar since I was a little boy. And singing nearly as long. My mum was a musician so it comes natural.”Salem said, his voice a bit louder now that’d he’d gotten over his originally fear and thus his accent was pounced more, ”Theater? It suits you very well.”

Salem stood up and walked to his dresser, opening a couple of drawers to debate what to wear. He grabbed a pair of dark blue girls’ skinny jeans. He changed into the skinny jeans as quickly as possible, jumping up and down a couple of times to get the skinny jeans over his legs. He turned to walk over to his closet to look for a shirt to go with the jeans. He found a girl’s slim fit Mistfits tee and slipped his 69Eyes tee off, all of his many tattoos becoming visible. As he slipped on his new tee his beanie came off, causing his brown hair to stick out.

He blushed as he leaned down and grabbed the beanie, stuffing it back onto his head as quickly as possible. Finally he grabbed a thin, slim thrift store white and black striped scarf and wound it around his neck, sitting down to put his converse back on. He grabbed his messenger bag and crammed his notebook back inside, looking at Jack and smiling.

”Are we ready to go, then?” He asked, his voice shy as his sleeve-tattooed arm came up to brush his hair away from his own green eyes.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[jack bristol callahan]

"Oooohhhh," Jack said when Salem clarified the Washington thing. He was unbothered by his misunderstanding the first time as Salem would learn that he was unbothered by most misunderstandings and instead just went with it. "Sucks that it rains a lot," he said. He hadn't been aware that the other Washington was above California. Certainly, he'd known it was somewhere in that general area, but he would never have pegged it there. That didn't matter, though. Salem clearly did not need him to say words about Washington.

He didn't notice, either, that Salem seemed less than enthusiastic about talking to him. People who started out snappy with Jack usually warmed up to him in the end, so he had learned early on to tune that sort of thing out and just be himself. He'd yet to have a problem with it and, since he and Salem were living together and spending at least 60% of their time together [in and out of the dorm, obviously], things would be fine. Besides, they were going to be best friends. That was what roommates were for.

Maybe, though, he should try and reign it in. Even Jack was starting to notice that Salem was acting a little weird, though he still definitely thought that it was the shock of being in a new place. If he hadn't been so determined to be excited and friendly and involved, Jack probably would have been moping a little as well. He wanted to make friends and be on his own, sure, but he would miss his little sisters and his mom and breakfast and...food.

When he was done getting dressed and noticed that Salem had done nothing, he flopped back on his bed. With his hands on his pillow under his head, he turned and looked at his new roommate, watching him pick out clothes. Jack had never really had friends that dressed any differently than he did--practical and inexpensive. Salem, however, seemed as though he actually made an effort to pick out outfits and clothes that had distinctive styles. Jack doubted that he would be happy walking into American Eagle and pulling things off the clearance rack. Target seemed like a far off dream.

Although, the jeans he was pulling on looked like they could have come straight from his tweenie sister's closet and, with the trouble Salem appeared to be having, Jack wouldn't have been surprised if he had actually gone to the Junior's section at Target [or American Eagle] and picked out some skinny jeans there. Jack could not fathom why anyone would want to wear pants that took as much effort as these seemed to be taking, but he supposed that they matched his skinny black t-shirt [which also looked painfully tight] and scarf. If Jack squinted, Salem kind of looked like a girl. Maybe he was going for the pretty-boy angle? This, as Jack knew from observation, did not work as often as people thought it did. He would have to help him.

"Dude, those pants look painful," he said, hopping off the bed. They couldn't have made a stranger pair, but Jack hardly noticed as he walked over to collect his roommate. "But whatever floats your boat. I'm ready whenever you are." He strode toward the door, swinging it open and waiting for Salem to leave first, like a gentleman.

[salem alaric burroughs]

Salem’s outfit is here & officially updated
Salem watched Jack with this odd fascination as he spoke, watching the movement of his lips and his hands. Salem was becoming increasingly tolerant of the other boy. When he spoke Salem just made a grumble in acknowledgement of the comment. Instead Salem bashfully looked away before Jack caught him staring.

He looked instead at his notebook and began to jot down lyrics that flowed through his head. He hummed a tune with them as he wrote, though not loudly enough that Jack would hear it. His soft, delicate voice inflected with a heavy Finnish accent slipped out as he furrowed his brow and read over the lyrics;

”Oh let the world turn it’s back
and please let me come closer
Though this hearts filled with fear
For this love…” Salem grinned in spite of himself as the lyrics flowed softly from his lips


He tried to ignore the fact that a rather ripped and well-built guy was so easily undressing in front of him but it was a loss. He pretended to be interested in a poster in the general vicinity of Jack’s body but secretly watched him. God he was such a creeper. As quickly as the moment began it was over and Jack had sat back down.

He felt terribly embarrassed trying to get dressed in front of Jack. Especially once he had to jump up and down to squeeze himself into what he realized was a pair of his best friend’s jeans. She must’ve left them over at his house when they packed their things together which meant she had his favorite pair of dark blue skinnies. He pulled his shirt on over his head without much issue since he was so lean, though he secretly wondered how easily he’d get along with a guy with the fashion sense of a colorblind ape.

” Dude, those pants look painful” He jumped again slightly as Jack spoke having been silent for more than a minute.

”They’re Ashleigh’s jeans. They must’ve gotten mixed up when she and I packed together last week.” Salem walked to his full length mirror and admired how the jeans hugged his hips, they weren’t a bad look actually.

He grabbed his messenger bag from the bed and slipped it over his body, the weight of it seeming to tip him over. He decided that he didn’t absolutely need it right now, so he slipped it back off and laid it back on his bed. He caught Jack’s eyes on him though, eyeing him as if he were wearing a collar made of sharp nails and cleared his throat.

He smiled when Jack opened the door for him and walked out, feeling that he might just get used to being around the other boy. Perhaps he’d even come out of his shell a little, though he doubted that fact. He smiled, moving to walk close to Jack’s side and looked down at the ground as he walked. When they rounded the corner he peeked up at Jack’s face and broke into a grin. This year might not suck after all.

He didn’t even seem to notice the throngs of people whispering and pointing at the two as they walked. He liked to think it was because a rather masculine looking guy was walking around with a feminine looking smaller boy beside him.

”So, where would you like to go first, Jack?” Salem hoped that the other boy didn’t catch the soft sighing way he spoke his name.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

(OOC: Uh-oh! Mancrush alert! xD)