text: Aaron took the stairs two at a time up to his apartment. The leftover rain on his coat slowly dripped onto the carpeted hallways as he walked on, casually and relaxed. He breathed in deeply and smiled. Nothing like the smell of rain. It had to be one of his all-time favorite smells, along with mint leaves and sticky raspberry yogurt. Was sticky a smell? Aaron entertained that thought long enough to admit that it was, well, a stupid thought. He was beginning to think that he was recently having one too many of those. Taking out his keys, he quietly unlocked the door, grasping the smooth metal handle carefully as he did. Trying to sneak in on Bruce was always impossible, but he always tried anyways. He opened his door to find his roommate waiting for him. Aaron smiled, white teeth contrasting with his dark complexion. “You know, one of these times I’m gonna do it.” Bruce, wearing his typical bored expression, simply shook his head and sat back down on the couch to resume his game. Aaron also shook his head, still grinning, as he walked into his room. Dropping his backpack with college books with a muffled thump, he plopped down on his soft bed. He could already feel the energy draining from his body. It had something to do with the bed, he figured. In another minute he would be too tired to get up for anything. “Amanda came over,” Bruce called from the other room. “She was looking for you.” Aaron shot straight up, suddenly full of energy again. Amanda with the great legs. Amanda the woman from 3B. Amanda, the reason he had almost taken up dancing. Amanda with the great legs. The legs were worth mentioning twice. “What did she say?” he asked, trying to sound uninterested. He failed miserably. “If you are so excited, why don’t you ask her yourself?” the blond haired Caucasian answered, his attention never leaving the game. “What makes you think I’m excited?” Bruce looked up at him for a moment. “Maybe the fact that you practically teleported from your bed to the couch when I mentioned her name.” Damn. Aaron leaned back onto the couch and let out a sigh. “Is it that obvious?” “Only to people with eyes.” Aaron rolled his eyes. “So what did she want?” He asked once more, his curiosity beating out his pride. “Something about wanting ‘to see the world’.” “... And?” Bruce looked at his friend once more. “You don’t actually think I was paying attention to her words, do you Aaron?” "You're an ass." "I know." “Did you at least get your eyes off of her body long enough to know where she is right now?” Bruce thought for a moment. “I believe she was heading back to her room. That would be the first place I would check for her.” Aaron was almost out the door by the time his friend finished talking. Taking the hallway down to the elevator, he pushed the arrow a few too many times. It was only after he was inside did he realize how he was acting. “Man, get a hold of yourself,” he mumbled, his palm on his forehead, as he tried to regain some composure. “She just wants to talk, maybe she saw your game last week. Or needs help with the writing assignment.” He paused for a moment. “Yeah, she doesn’t need your help.” When the elevator doors opened, Aaron was once again calm and controlled, with the exception of his extremely wide eyes. The sunglasses could fix that. He knocked on the door, then rested back on his heels, trying to look as comfortable as possible. Two seconds later, it opened. She was wearing volleyball shorts. At this moment, Aaron was very thankful he was wearing the sunglasses. Her long, blond hair ran just to the middle of her back, and was complimented by her beautiful blue eyes. Her whole figure was, well, amazing; not a toothpick, but athletic, curvy. Even her nose was attractive, and her lips looked great, smiling and forming words... Shit, she was saying something. “... said that you were out.” she finished, still smiling at him in that cute way, her eyes twinkling. She had one hand resting on her hip as she leaned against the door frame, looking like a model. Aaron stopped himself before going into another embarrassing lapse of attention. “Yeah, I just got back from class. So what’s up?” he asked. He was getting better at this. “Actually, I was just wondering what Mr. Hassle gave in our class yesterday. I missed it ‘cause of a dentist appointment.” Aaron looked at her for a moment, then leaned onto his heels once more. “Yeah, I’ll bring it over after dinner if you want.” Stay calm, stay calm. “Thanks,” Amanda said, her smile returning even brighter. “I appreciate it.” “Yeah, no problem. Oh, and what was that you mentioned about seeing the world, or something?” Amanda stared at him for a moment, confusion written on her face. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” she answered slowly, still smiling. He was gonna kill Bruce. “You know what, don’t worry about it. I’ll see you after supper,” Aaron called as he turned toward the elevator once more. Finally, a study date with Amanda, sort of. This day just got about a million times better. Now all he had to do was find a way to hid Bruce’s body, and the day would be perfect. Roommates.