Roommate || Variable ten

As soon as Yew entered the bedroom, he saw his roommate sitting on the left bed. Looking baffled, he wondered why this beautiful girl was in his cottage. He was pretty sure that boys and girls lived separately.

Did he make a mistake, or did the school make a mistake? He had no idea what to do, so he just gawked at her gorgeous long wavy yellow hair.

"Oh," his roommate saw him, and took off her fluffy orange headphones. "So you’re my roommate? What’s your name?"

"Yew… Yew Sky," he answered, then swallowed his saliva, while his feet remained glued to the floor.

"I’m Linden Tamalini Gomat Cave. Nice to meet you," she waved at him.

"Cave?" Yew was sure that he had heard this family name before.

"I know what you’re thinking, and you’re correct," the beauty responded. "Sorrel Cave, who guided your group, is my ma."

"Oh," Yew recalled the teacheress's name. "So you’re her daughter," he concluded.

Before he could blink, Linden jumped out of her bed, and in one swift motion connected her fist with his face.

Suddenly, Yew was on the floor. He opened his eyes, and looked up into her green eyes embellished by her long eyelashes. Her face would have been so dazzling, if she wasn't menacingly glaring at him at the moment.

Linden tightened up his fist, ready to serve him another punch. "Listen here, you pukebrain. I gave you my name, right? It’s Linden. Linden is a male name, you retarded poopkin."

Yew didn’t respond, so shocked he was that the beauty in front of him was actually a boy.

Linden bared his teeth. "I have a dick, and if you dare to call me a girl again, I'll make a mincemeat out of you."

Yew was speechless. The obscenities flying out of his roommate's mouth so contrasted with his appearance.

Linden went back to sitting on his bed, but he didn’t stop talking. Without looking at Yew, he explained his situation.

"I cannot help it that I’m more beautiful than girls. My pa is the chairman of Aphrodite. Makes sense, right? And it sucks. Both of my parents work in schools. If I went to Aphrodite, I could have graduated with perfect scores, but I’d rather study somewhere else."

Aphrodite was an ostentatious school, where scores were decided by one’s appearance and fashion. Anyone could apply, but only the most glamorous people could graduate. Those less than beautiful were failed upon entrance. As such, Aphrodite was a school, which some dreamed of attending, while others felt disgusted and wondered why did it even exist.

However, Linden’s words did explain a lot. Certainly, it assured Yew that he was speaking with a boy - a fairly beautiful boy, but a boy nonetheless.

Still shaken by the violent welcome, Yew got up from the floor, then went into the restroom, where he took a good look at his face in a mirror.

His left cheek hurt a lot, even though the bruises were too faint to see. Just several hours ago, it had been burned with a cigarette by that damn noble. And just a moment ago, he got punched on the same cheek by that damn pretty boy.

The beginning of his school life didn’t look promising.

He checked the shelves under the sink, and found a basic first-aid kit. He applied the gel for bruises to his cheek, hoping that his face would heal by tomorrow. Then he walked into the bedroom again.

Linden, clearly not intending to apologize, kept his eyes closed, while wearing his headphones.

Yew didn’t want to start a fight with his roommate on their very first meeting, so he decided to let things slide once, but only once. If Linden ever punched him again, he was going to punch him back, no matter the reason.

Ignoring the damn beauty's presence, he left his backpack on the other bed, then went into the kitchen to see what was there to eat.

A minute later, Linden came, leaned on the entrance wall, and asked, "where are your stuff?"

"My parents mailed them to me. They’ll arrive later," Yew responded and looked inside the fridge. "Why is the fridge empty?" he asked his roommate.

"You didn’t read the guidebook?" Linden responded with a question.

Yew shook his head in confirmation.

"Your parents didn’t tell you?"

"My parents are magicless," he declared.

Linden rolled his eyes, "so you’re also magicless, and you know nothing about Hecate."

He stepped into the kitchen, then took out a pot from one of the bottom cabinets. He filled the pot with water from the sink faucet, then put it on the stove, setting the switch to high.

Yew observed Linden apprehensively, like a rabbit watching a wolf.

"In Hecate, cottages have all the necessary furnitures and some of the essential commodities, but that’s all," Linden explained, while taking out two plates and setting them on the table. "Everything else you have to get yourself, such as plates or food." He opened a drawer underneath the counter, and took out two spoons and two forks.

Yew looked at the plates on the table, then at the utensils in Linden’s hand. And he figured out that his roommate was preparing food for two people.

Linden put the utensils on the table between the plates, then walked back to the cabinets. "Normally, parents send their kids to Hecate with food to last them at least for one day, and enough money to get whatever they need, once they’re here," he continued to explain as he took out a box of noodles and a jar of spaghetti sauce.

Yew realized that Linden was utilizing only the bottom cabinets, and he got curious, "what’s in the top cabinets?"

"Nothing," Linden replied. "I cannot reach there without a chair, so I don't use them." He put the box of noodles next to the stove on the counter, and carried the jar to the table. "You don’t have anything against spaghetti?" he asked without looking at Yew.

"No," Yew answered, already feeling hungry. His last meal was the breakfast, which he had before boarding the train. He hadn't packed anything for the journey either.

His mother wanted to give him food for the journey, but he refused, because he didn’t want to risk it getting squished or spilled inside his backpack. Moreover, the school had a cafeteria, so he was sure that he would get a meal once he arrived.

He didn’t prepare for the possibility that he’d have to secure his own groceries, but he was glad that Linden was kind enough to realize the problem, and share his rations.

Nonetheless, Yew found it odd that his beautiful roommate, who had punched him in the face mere moments ago, was making dinner for both of them. Was that Linden’s way of apologizing?

"That’s good to hear," Linden responded, "because this is the only thing I can make at the moment."

He poured salt onto his palm from the box, which was in the corner of the counter. After he measured by eye the right amount of salt, he threw it into the pot, then he put away the box.

"So?" Linden looked at Yew. "Why go to Hecate, if you’re magicless? You wanna be a wizard?"

"Kind of," Yew answered and sat at the table on the chair closest to the fridge. "Um, about my stuff - I think it’ll arrive within a week, but I didn’t know about…. ugh…" He looked at the plates and utensils on the table, and Linden immediately guessed what he meant.

"That’s fine. Just use my stuff," he addressed Yew's worries. "They’re not technically mine though. My ma bought all that, so I don’t care what happens to them."

"I’ll buy my own, just not now," Yew clarified his intentions. "I did get money from my parents, but that’s for food. I’ll need to ask for more…"

"Don’t bother," Linden interrupted him. The water began boiling, and he threw the noodles into the pot. "The food in the cafeteria is free for students, who score at least ninety percent on their tests," he informed him, while he took out a wooden spoon from a drawer, then he stirred the noodles in the pot.

"But I don’t know whether I’ll have such high scores," Yew contested.

"Give it a try. The first year is never difficult. And this way, you can buy new things using the money, which you saved on food."

Linden continued to occasionally stir, while Yew pondered his words. They didn’t talk for a while. From his seat, Yew looked around the kitchen, whereas Linden was keeping his eyes on the pot. Several times Yew glanced at Linden, but wouldn’t dare to stare for too long. He was having a hard time figuring out Linden's disposition.

"It’s ready," Linden said, while turning off the stove. He strained the noodles, then set them on the table. "There’s no cheese," he disclosed, "but it should be good anyway."

He sat down, moved some noodles onto his plate, then tapped the jar three times with his index finger. The lid came loose with a tiny pop. He poured the tepid spaghetti sauce on top of his noodles, before he pushed the jar toward Yew.

"Eat, before the noodles get cold," he advised.

Yew served himself a portion of the spaghetti, then began eating. Without cheese it didn’t taste as good, but it was better than staying hungry. Both of them ate in silence, and Linden took a second portion.

"I’ll do the dishes," Yew offered after their meal.

"Nice," Linden approved the idea. "The dish soap is under the sink," he mentioned, put the leftovers inside the fridge, then left the kitchen.

From the same cabinet, Yew took out the dish soap, a sponge, and a drying rack. He washed the dishes, rinsed them, and left them to dry on the rack.

Afterward, he returned to the bedroom, where Linden was already asleep. The hour was already late, but it wasn’t nighttime yet, so Yew was mildly surprised. However, suitably to the situation, he quietly unpacked the contents of his backpack into a wide drawer under his bed.

Next, he took his toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, towel, and pajamas, and went to take a shower. Ten minutes later, he returned to the bedroom, already wearing his pajamas.

He left all his toiletries in the bathroom, and brought back only his daytime clothes. While putting them into another drawer, he managed to see the final glimmering rays of sunlight disappear from his bed.

He moved aside the netcurtain, which covered the top three quarters of the window. Then he looked outside, where rows of bushes separated the cottages.

The western sun was almost completely hidden behind the moss-covered roofs. Some of its remaining glow still illuminated the violet sky, which in less than an hour, would turn black.

Yew was captivated by the colors on the horizon. He sat down on the windowsill, and silently watched the view. Even though he was far away from his parents, and far away from the house, where he grew up, he felt an eerie familiarity toward the scenery.

Soon every last bit of sunlight in the sky had died out. Yet he continued to watch the shadows overtaking the hamlet, turning every tree and every bush into silhouettes of scary monsters.

The long summer hours of daylight were deceptive, and it has been long past Yew's usual time to sleep. His eyelids felt heavy, so he rubbed them instinctively, but it didn't remove his drowsiness. He moved away from the window, climbed up the stairs of his bed, and fell asleep as soon as he slid under the comforter.