Chapter Text
Mark stared up at the male dormitory with his suitcase by his feet and a duffle bag on his right shoulder. He smiled and breathed in deeply eager to get to his room, unpack, and meet his roommate. He heard he wouldn't be there right away due to having to fly over from some other country. But that was fine. It would give Mark some time to settle in and set up his things.
He grabbed his things, headed into the building and went up a flight of stairs, looking for room B26. Once he got to it he was confused as he could hear someone inside already. With a frown he used his room key and went inside. The sight that greeted him was, well, a terrible one to say the least.
Inside the room there was another man, about his age, who was moving around unpacking things in an un-orderly fashion. He was about an inch or two shorter than Mark, with short brown hair that had a bit of grey in it, and he was wearing a metal band t-shirt and skinny jeans. But that's not what bothered him. What bothered him was that he was blasting deafening metal music, and had clothes and nick-nacks strewn about the room already.
His frowned deepened as he called out, trying to get his attention; "Hey! Excuse me?!"
The other guy didn't hear him and was too busy to notice Mark standing there as he continued to make a mess of things. So he did the only other thing he could think of. He went in and shut off the blaring music that was on the stereo.
"The fuck?" The other man had noticed his music shut off and turned around. "What're ya doin' shuttin' my music off?"
Mark sighed; "I was trying to get your attention, but you couldn't hear me." The man stared at him with piercing blue eyes.
"Oh. Well what do ya want?"
"I think you might have the wrong room," Mark explained, "I'm not supposed to have my roommate until this weekend."
The other man grinned, "Nah, I'm in the right one. Trust me," he held up his room key, "See? This is my room."
Sure enough, the room number on the room key was B26. Mark frowned a bit confused.
"I thought you weren't supposed to show for a week?"
"Yeah, well, I got an early flight here. Lucky me!" The man rolled his eyes before he remembered something, "Oh! I'm Jack by the way!"
Mark looked at him as he held out a hand, and he shook it, "Mark."
"Well, it's nice ta meet ya, Mark!" Jack practically yelled with enthusiasm.
Mark smiled a bit and nodded. Yeah. Super. He'd been hoping to settle in on his own before having to deal with a roommate so that way he could get comfortable first. Not that he hated that Jack was here, he just wasn't prepared to have a roommate already. Especially one that was messy and played loud ass music.
He got to unpacking his own stuff and putting it away on his side of the room (since Jack seemed to pick his already). He sighed as he did so, and just hoped that this would all go okay.
It did not go okay.
After only one week, Jack had gotten on every nerve that Mark has in his entire body. He blared his music way too loud for Mark to study, he touched all of Mark's things as if they were his, and he also left empty soda bottles, food containers, and clothes everywhere!
If there were things Mark hated, it was all the things that were Jack's habits. The guy had no respect for personal space either. If Mark was on the sofa, he would come over and lay down putting his feet right in Mark's lap without asking if it was okay. He also tried to poke his nose into his business all the time.
There was one time when Mark had been private messaging someone, and had gone to the bathroom. He came back to Jack reading the messages and even answering back to the person he was talking to. Mark had yelled at him, and the other just laughed and said it was a joke.
But joke or not, it still pissed Mark off. He told him, and Jack instantly got hotheaded and retaliated by calling Mark a whiny bitch and storming out of the room.
But that wasn't the last of it either. It kept happening over and over. Each time Mark got pissed at Jack for doing something, and then Jack got pissed at him complaining so much. It continued to go back and forth between them that way, and Mark was soon discovering that he really hated having Jack as a roommate.
So he went to the council office to see if they could switch him.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Fischbach, but we can't switch you roommates," the elderly woman told him, "there is just no one else requesting a switch."
He sighed. "It's alright, thanks anyways ma'am." He smiled and left the office but he wasn't happy in the slightest. Quite the opposite in fact, as he was heading to his next class. Computer science.
Now usually, he loved this class. But recently Jack transferred into it, and ever since the guy has done all he can to irritate Mark. The one time he played a 'prank' on him by attaching a string to his chair. As Mark went to sit down, Jack pulled the chair from under him, and he went down flat on his ass.
Everyone had laughed, causing Mark to flush with embarrassment. It was so fucking childish! Just because Mark didn't like the habits he had, didn't mean he had to to go so low as to embarrass him in front of others. But he'd just glared at the Irishman and righted himself to get to work.
But it wasn't all bad. There were times when Mark would get peace and quiet. When Jack himself would be working or studying too much to actually cause disturbance to him, he could actually relax and not worry about his boisterous roommate. It was almost like heaven.
Other times he would go hang out with his friends Bob and Wade that he'd met in a couple other classes he had. They were good pals that he could laugh and have fun with, even while studying. Don't get him wrong, Jack was funny and did make him laugh, but there was just so much that he did that upset Mark. He wasn't sure they'd be able to truly get along. There was just nothing in common between them.
But what Mark didn't know, was that he couldn't have been more wrong.