Apartment 4C

It had been two weeks. Two weeks had gone by and Jake hadn’t seen the hot guy from the laundry room again. He knew he hadn’t hallucinated. He knew the guy was real. He wasn’t crazy. But he just didn’t understand why he hadn’t seen him again. Maybe he worked crazy hours or something. Maybe that’s why. Hopefully he wasn’t just avoiding Jake for being so weird. That would suck.

It didn’t help that Jake had so many essays to mark. Every week he set essays for his Freshmen, Junior and Sophomore classes, and every week he had to grade 25 from each year, 75 in total. 75 each week, unless he set specific projects or longer papers for the students to work on, like he normally did for the end of the year. He was just glad that the college didn’t like giving Senior classes to any teachers who hadn’t been there for at least 5 years. Jake wasn’t sure why, but he wasn’t complaining. At least he’d only been teaching at the college for 2 years – he had another 3 years to go to prepare himself.

All the work he did though, the long hours he spent working, it didn’t exactly give him much time to socialise. Sure, he was normally home by 6.30pm every evening, but he rarely had any energy or enthusiasm to go out on the bar scene, and he sure as hell preferred his Friday night tradition of take-out and movies with Gabe and Elliot. Occasionally he met a cute guy in a coffee shop, or when he forced himself to take a walk at the weekend (otherwise he’d spend all his time cooped up indoors and that just made him restless), but after a couple of weeks it got boring. And even after the rare times that he had sex, he still got bored with the guy – Jake was stuck in a routine, stuck in a rut, and he knew he needed to change that.

He just didn’t see how he could do it though.

Today was a Tuesday, an average Tuesday. He’d graded his Freshman essays this morning that he’d collected Monday morning, and collected his Junior essays this afternoon, ready to grade them tomorrow afternoon. Monday afternoon he’d collected his Sophomore essays which he would grade tomorrow morning. It may sound confusing but Jake had his routine set and memorised. It worked, so he didn’t mess with it. It was the only way he could get everything done.

By the time 6pm rolled around though, Jake was ready to get home.

“So are you ready to leave?” Elliot asked, leaning in the doorway.

“Yeah, just logging the computer off,” Jake nodded.

Elliot nodded, his longish brown hair falling in his eyes slightly, before he flicked it away with a head toss. Elliot Parker was one of Jake’s best friends, and also taught at the University of Chicago. They’d met because Elliot taught Linguistics, and so his office was in the same academic wing as Jake’s. He was far more laid back than Jake could ever be, and far more charming too, always having women flocking to him. It probably helped that he was ridiculously good-looking. Elliot wasn’t afraid of saying what was on his mind either, sometimes blunt and confrontational, but he was one of the nicest people Jake had ever met.

“Dude, I swear, the freshmen this year are going to drive me mad,” Elliot groaned, as the two of them walked down the corridor, heading towards Jake’s car.

Jake usually drove to work – it was easier than getting public transport – and because Elliot lived close to him and his flatmate Gabe, they usually gave him a ride too. Typically though, he spent a lot of time at Jake’s apartment. He said it was to make sure Gabe was perpetually irritated, but Jake knew he just liked the company.

“I don’t know, I’ve got a few good ones in my class to make up for the morons,” Jake mused.

“Well lucky you then. I think they stuck all the no-hopers in my classes just to piss me off,” Elliot grumbled.

“Probably. But you’ll live,” Jake smirked.

Elliot just stuck his tongue out, making Jake laugh. Elliot could be a little dramatic sometimes.

“Speaking of living…have you seen the guy in your apartment block again?” Elliot asked.

“No,” Jake sighed.

And it sucked. He was just so nice to look at!

“Still not? Dude, are you sure you didn’t make him up?” Elliot teased.

“I didn’t! He’s real!” Jake insisted.

“I don’t know man, you haven’t had any dick for a while, he might be just in your imagination,” Elliot laughed.

Jake blushed heavily. So what if he hadn’t gotten laid in a few…months? Shit, nearly 6 months? Fuck, that’s ridiculous.

“Shut up!” Jake whined, only making Elliot laugh harder.

Elliot continued to tease Jake the entire walk across the staff parking lot, Jake still blushing when they reached their friend Gabe.

Gabe is Jake’s flatmate, and pretty much the complete opposite of Elliot. Where Elliot was laid-back and fun-loving, Gabe was uptight and serious. Elliot taught Linguistics, Gabe taught Chemistry. Elliot was spontaneous, Gabe liked order. Elliot had longish brunette hair, Gabe had short gingery curls. Elliot smiled a lot, Gabe was usually frowning. Jake could go on for days, to be honest. But however negative and particular Gabe was about things, he was a good friend. And Jake always found it funny how Gabe and Elliot disagreed on nearly everything. It was always entertaining – unless they both joined forces to turn on him.

“Why are you blushing?” Gabe frowned, pushing his glasses a little further up his nose.

Elliot grinned, making Jake roll his eyes.

“Just ribbing Jake about a guy he dreamt up,” Elliot shrugged.

“I didn’t dream him up!” Jake insisted, “He was in the laundry room last week!”

“Oh, are you talking about the new guy in 4C? He moved in 2 weeks ago,” Gabe said simply.

“Shit, he’s real?” Elliot laughed.

Hah, take that Elliot. Wait a minute…

“How do you know he’s in 4C?” Jake frowned.

“The girls in 2A were talking about the hot new guy that moved in, so I assume that’s the same guy. Y’know, seeing as you’re so riled up,” Gabe said, smirking slightly.

Jake just blushed a little more, making them both laugh. Damn it.

“Come on, let’s get going. Who knows, maybe we’ll even see 4C and we can find out what’s so special about him,” Elliot said, wriggling his eyebrows.

Jake punched him in the arm, ignoring Elliot and Gabe’s laughter. Screw them. At least he knew a little more about the guy now, if he ever saw him again. At least he knew he wasn’t going crazy.