John walked into the dorm, looking stressed and pacing around. After a few moments of looking down and muttering, he stopped. He knew his roommate wouldn't listen to him, really, but it was worth a shot. "Alex, can I rant to you?" ALex looked up from his laptop where he was working. To be honest, he hand't even seen John come in. He had been working much to hard lately. "Uh sure go a-" John cut him off, beginning to pace again, a frown etched into his face, making smooth lines in his forehead and around his mouth.

"So today James Reynolds came up to me and was all like 'GAY' as always but it got me thinking. I don't know if I'm gay or straight or bi and I don't wanna worry about it. I'm too young to think about all this. But all I know is that I have to pee now from all this stress. Be right back." He ran to the bathroom.

Alex thought about all this. He had always sort of had a crush on his roommate, who pretty much everyone but himself knew was super gay but totally denying it. No one had the guts to make him face the truth.

John looked in the mirror at himself. "What am I doing?" he quietly asked himself. He splashed water on his face, trying to wash away his feelings. He knew how he felt about Alex. He knew that it was something like love. He didn't want to feel that way but at the same time, he never wanted it to stop. 'But no. I can't like Alex. I can't. Then that makes me gay, and I can't be. My dad would flip. I don't, I'm not, I can't.' He splashed the water again, this time to wash off the tears that had fallen down his cheeks. He knew, however, in his heart, that one day, he'd have to face the facts. And that was terrifying.

John returned a few moments later, snapping Alex out of his train of thought. "So what do you think? Not like what do you think think but like, what do you think?" he stated, getting worked up again. He was rather flushed, he noticed.

"John, I think you're a wonderful roommate and a great bestfriend. I never want you gone from my life. And I don't care what your sexuality is, all I know is that I l-" he cut himself off. He had gone too far.

John looked into his eyes. They had somehow ended up chest to chest. He felt the other's breathing, shallow and quick. He could hear his heartbeat going a mile a minute and he knew, at that moment, he was in love.

Alex finally gained the courage to continue. "I //love// you," he whsipered. He looked down and drifted away back to his bed. "But whatever. I have homework," he muttered.

John could still feel the spots where they had been touching, warm like a blanket, now cold and unfeeling. "Alex, it's okay. I know you. You're shutting yourself off. Please let me in. I have to tell you something but I can't have you like this." He really didn't know where this was going but he knew that whatever he was feeling, it was surely love, probably. But no matter what it was, he never wanted it to stop. 

But it was too late. Alex had fallen back on what he did most, tiring, grueling, restless work with no end, ever. It was the only thing that distracted him from reality and the one thing that was tearing him apart. Slowly, slowly, it ripped and tore until there would be nothing else but a cracked shell of the vibrant man there used to be.

There was only one thing that could stop the madness, breath life into the shell until...until it was mended. That thing was John, he just didn't know it. He didn't know it.

John sighed and sat down at his usual place on his bed. He could feel the small indent that had formed from all the time he spent there. Alex didn't have a dent yet. They had only been roommates a year. Not nearly long enough to leave a dent. But oh how John wished there was a dent. That maybe, just maybe, their realationship would be strong enough to leave a dent. He wished for hours alone, talking, with Alex right next to him, a small indent that proved they were a pair. But no, he looked down at the spot next to him and ran his fingers over it's smooth surface, feeling no trace of his roommate anywhere. It seemed he was contained within that one corner of the room where he sat. Maybe at the desk sometimes. John didn't want that. He wanted Alex to be like a mist, all around, everywhere you went, you could feel him, not just in that little, dark corner where he so often was.

Alex ignored the tears that began to fall from his eyes, ignoring the burning in his throat. He simply wiped his eyes when he could no longer see and went back to work, the light of the computer shining in his wet eyes.

He didn't think about what he was doing. It was all a mindless ditraction really. All he could think about was John, and what he had said. 'Shutting yourself off,' he didn't think he was. He was getting work done, 'work work work. That's all I ever do! I'm sick of it! I'm sick if this routine and the missing the games, and the no social life and all of it! I need John in my life and I am losing him!'

He slammed his laptop, startling John greatly, who had been sulking on his bed and walked over to him silently. John was super confused. Alex grabbed him off the bed and kissed him.

At that moment, Alex became a mist. John had never been happier and in a few months, everything was much better. Alex was working less, and John got what he always wanted, a dent for Alex, his boyfriend.