I Wasn't Asking for the World

Bob sighed as he threw his book down onto the floor. He fell back onto his bed and let his blonde bangs flop over his closed eyes. He could not concentrate whatsoever. It's not like he even had any distractions, his dorm room was empty, and for once his neighbours were being quiet.

No it had nothing to do with distractions, he just had something on his mind: his roommate to be precise. Whether it was fate or just a coincidence he had been paired up to a room with Frank. Up until about a week ago it was going perfectly. Now however, Frank was avoiding him every chance he got.

He didn't understand why or what exactly he had done to deserve the treatment. Whatever it was Bob planned to apologise anyway just to set everything right again. Frank was about his only friend at college and he thought they had a good friendship; he didn't want to loose that.

Bob must have dropped off to sleep, thinking through what he could have done to Frank and what he could say to him to make it better. The next thing he knew he was being awoken by the door to the dorm room banging off the wall. He sat up quickly, blinking in the light of the bulb overhead, and quickly spotted Frank coming through the door, a pile of books in his arms.

"Sorry. I didn't know that you were asleep," Frank said, nudging the door closed with his foot. "I didn't exactly have a free hand to stop it from slamming anyway. Sorry," he apologised again.

"Don't worry about it. Here let me help you," Bob said getting up and taking some of the books from Frank.

"Thanks," Frank said avoiding eye contact at all costs and dumping the books on the desk. Bob set his pile on Frank's bed, mainly because there was no more room on the desk.

Frank sighed as he pulled out the chair to the desk and sat down and started on the work he had to do. Bob sat back down on the bed and stared at him, trying to get his attention.

Eventually Frank felt Bob's eyes on him and turned, frowning to see what was going on. "Yes?" he said when Bob continued to stare at him even though Frank had caught him.

"Why have you been avoiding me lately? I've hardly seen you this past week," Bob said, getting straight to the point.

"I haven't. I've just been busy," Frank said, averting his eyes again and looking down at his book.

"Bullshit. I'm not stupid you know," Bob said, crossing his arm across his chest.

"I don't know what you are talking about. I haven't been avoiding you." Frank said as he stood up "look I need to go to the li-"

"See! You're doing it right now! You don't need to go to the library. You've practically been living there for the past couple of days. Now tell me what is going on," Bob demanded sitting up straight, still with his arms crossed and with a stern look at Frank.

Frank sighed and looked down to the floor, finding the carpet suddenly interesting. "Meandmikeybrokeup," he mumbled quietly, but loud enough and clear enough for Bob to hear him.

"What?" Bob asked just to make sure, in case he had picked Frank's words up wrong. He certainly hoped he had.

"I broke up with Mikey," Frank said, louder this time and looking up to meet Bob's gaze. Bob's facial features hardened as ways to hurt Frank ran through his head but softened again as he realised he didn't know the full story yet and couldn't place blame until he did.

"What happened?" Bob asked, trying his hardest to keep his voice level and controlled.

"I haven't told Mikey. I just couldn't. I just broke it off without an explanation. He'd be crushed and angry and god knows what would happen if I told him why I did what I did," Frank explained, flopping down onto his bed with one of his hands over his eyes.

"Well, you've obviously done enough damage as it is by breaking up with him. You were his rock. How bad could it actually be that you could make it worse than it already is?"

"Oh trust me it's bad," Frank said looking up at Bob seriously. He quickly looked away again when he saw the anger building on Bob's face.

"Tell me." Bob demanded, getting frustrated at the avoidance Frank was showing him.

"You have to promise not to kill me, when I tell you. And not to tell Mikey. I don't want him to loose faith in everyone," Frank said.

Bob frowned slightly but nodded in agreement. Frank hesitated for another minute before taking a deep breath and diving into an explanation.