Breathless

**DANNY’S POV**

“It’ll be fine, mate.” James wrapped an arm around my shoulder as we walked down the filled second corridor of the third building.
My name is Danny Worsnop, and today is my first day of college. I really didn’t wanna go. My mum told me to get off my lazy ass and do something with my life after high school. So as long as I go to school, I don’t have to get a job. Yet. Meanwhile, I’m living on campus with James. He was already going to this school to study to be a cop. So I decided to be with him, and make this just a huge party experience. My mum said I had to go to school. She didn’t say I had to take it seriously.
I threw my backpack over my shoulder. Many of the dorm rooms were empty because students were either in class or littered the halls.
“202…201…200! Here we are,” James inserted the key to our dorm. I wasn’t excited at all. We flew a few hours just to get to this stupid place so I was too tired to care about anything. The room consisted of two queen sized beds, a television, and a computer desk. I took the bed near the mini closet. I chucked my backpack near the desk and flopped on my bed. I watched James get situated as I passed out.

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“Wake up, ladies.” I strange man yelled into our room. I sat up, rubbing my eyes for a better view. “Dorms need to be cleared for the next hour for cleaning.” There stood a man, now leaning against our door, with light brown hair, almost a red tint and brown eyes looking back at me. When my drowsy gaze met his, a small one sided smirk grin tugged at his lips. “Morning, sleeping beauty. I’m Sam.” He smirked.
“Danny.” I retorted kind of annoyed there was a stranger in my room while I was sleeping. “How’d you get in here exactly?”
“Yeah, what the fuck?” James now sat up too, only wearing his boxers. I caught Sam looking him up and down quickly before smirking at him, too.
“And you are?”
“No of your business, you’re in our room.” James snarled.
“I’m Sam Bettley. I’m the second floor manager. I pretty much make sure everyone is in check and follows the rules. But you all need to get out while the dorms get cleaned.”
“Where do we go?” I asked with attitude.
“Well in the lobby of the first building, there having a back-to-school club day. You could go check that out. I don’t know, and don’t care. But you need to be out in 5 minutes,” I heard him holler as he was half way down the hall, probably off to bother other students.
“What a smashing school you chose,” I sighed, rolling onto the floor in a lazy attempt to make it over to my backpack for some clothes.
“I didn’t know.” James yawned, rubbing his neck. We both got dressed and made our way down to the lobby of our third building. Just like the other two dorm buildings, the lobby was packed with students and visitors either watching TV, checking in or out, or taking advantage of the free breakfast buffet. James and I decided to skip breakfast since we weren’t really that hungry. But I did get myself a coffee to help myself wake up. With one hand in my pocket and the other one holding my coffee, we made our way out side to the first building.
Identical to our lobby, we headed down the main hall. Signs points to the mess hall, so we followed. Instead of cafeteria tables lined up in sections, stands and booths took their place. Colorful posters and demonstrations caught my eye. It was extremely over packed, but we decided to continue through. We made our way through the crowd.
“Danny, they have a guitar club!” James shouted.
“What?” I kept walking forward but turned my head, causing me to run into someone and spill my coffee all over them.
“Oh shit! I’m so sorry!” I panicked. I looked up. Holy fuck. Before me stood a very tall, handsome man. I wasn’t really into men, but I’d go gay for this guy any day. He had shaggy dirty blonde hair and spider bites. His ice blue eyes winced. Probably because I spilt hot coffee all over his “the Doors” tank. That brought my attention to his lower half. He was very thin and lanky. His collar bone was covered in tattoos and so were his strong arms.
Reality smacked me when he spoke. “Don’t worry about it, mate.” Oh, he had an accent like me and James. And he wore it well. The man grabbed at his burning stomach and made his way opposite of me, through the crowd. Who was that?
“Nice, Danny.” James laughed, patting me on the back. I stood there for a moment before someone bumped me and I realized we were still in everyone’s way. James grabbed me by the wrist and pulled us aside. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“…Hmm? Oh, nothing. I’m fine.” My mind was still with that mysterious man. I decided I should probably brush it off. James and I agreed to continue looking around. We ran across the guitar club again. Behind the counter was a man not much shorter than me. He was covered in tattoos and had a dermal below his eyes. He sported a Key Street snapback and sweatshirt. “So what kind of stuff do you do in this club?” I looked at the pictures and flyers they had arranged on the table.
“Oh, hey. We’re pretty much a bunch of bros jammin’ out. We play some shows and competions, but that depends on how involved you plan on being. I’m Tony Perry, by the way.” He smiled shyly and put out my hand for him to shake.
“Danny Worsnop. So what kind of music or guitars?”
“All kinds. Metal, post-hardcore, punk. And we play electric, acoustic, and even bass guitars. We even have a drum set and piano we mess with.” And with that came a man from behind me. He had spiked up brown hair and a guitar pick in his mouth. He held onto a bass guitar as he got behind the stand and sat next to Tony.
“Hey, make a new friend, Tony?” he chuckled and reached his hand ojut toward me. “I’m Jaime.”
“I’m Danny, nice to meet you both. James, doesn’t this seem kinda cool?” I turned to see him texting and not paying any attention. “Hmm? You really wanna join a club? I didn’t think you wanted to get involved in anything.” He grinned.
“I don’t know. If I’m not going to class, I might as well be doing something I enjoy.”
“Sure, man. I’ll join too.” James looked back at his phone.
“Great! Here’s a slip.” Tony reached under the table and took out a form.
“Sign all your info. The room is always open if you need a place to escape from life, but we have meetings every Tuesday and Thursday.” Jaime smiled and gave us each a pen.
“I’m in the room most of the time if you ever need me. Music is definitely an escape for me.” Tony smiled weakly, looking down. I gave his a smile back and started to sign the papers. When finished, Tony and Jaime took our papers. I could tell that by the folder they put the slips in that there were quite a few other members. We said our goodbyes and left towards the lobby again.
“Those guys seem really chill,” James said. I nodded.
“Lets grab something to eat. I think its like 1pm. I think the rooms should be done too.” I took out and checked my phone. Sure enough, 1:38. We walked off of campus and across the street to this little dinner called Asher’s. We opened the door to find it filled with other college students.
“This must be where everyone hangs out.” James noted, looking around. We found a booth near the window and sat down. I just ordered a coffee since mine was splashed all over that poor man. Then he returned to mind. He was so handsome. I wonder if he belonged to a club. Maybe he was just looking around like us. He didn’t really look like the type to play sports or really give a shit about extra activities. But I don’t know. I zoned back in when a hot mug was placed in front of me. I looked at James whos face lit up at the plate of pancakes in front of him. I’m glad I’m here with him. I didn’t want to be alone. I gazed out the window which had a perfect view of our school. I sighed. Welcome to college Danny, I thought. Welcome to college.