TheLilyinBloom5963

  A high-pitched beep echoed down the hall as the keypad let out its signature chime, indicating the door was unlocked. With one final push, the heavy door swung open into the apartment, allowing Eli to get his first look at his new home, at least for the next three or more years. It had taken Eli a while to lug both heavy suitcases up three flights of stairs. As such, his right leg was screaming in protest. Of course, the elevator had been out of service, and it wasn’t like his parents would help him. Afterall, he had to ‘be a man’ and do it himself.

  After a quick look around the apartment, Eli could see that it had a shared living space with two attached bedrooms. Each bedroom was designated A or B. The paperwork indicated that room B was his. Peeking into his bedroom, Eli could see that although compact, the room was cozy in its demeanour: warm brown paint covered the walls, a desk, a charming old-style wardrobe, a bedside table, and a bed decorated the room. The room was about 12 feet wide by 15 feet deep, a vast improvement over where he lived at home. His room back home was a small 8-foot-deep by 8-foot-wide glorified broom closet with just enough room for his bed and a rack he had mounted along the opposite wall to hang his clothes. He had also managed to fit a computer desk and a PC inside. Sure, he’d had to chop the legs off the desk to see the screen without the clothes hanging down blocking it, but he’d made it work.

  His parents finally entered the apartment before sitting at the kitchen table and watching him unpack.

  “Listen here boy, get to unpacking. Your mother and I will stick around for a few minutes before heading out.” That was his father, Austin Rivers. He was a tall, imposing man with short brown hair and hollow brown eyes. He treated Eli like a disposable tool, only needed to bolster his image and self-worth.

  “...” The silent response had come from his mother. She was of average height with long icey blue hair and matching eyes. She often stayed silent for long periods. She didn’t even acknowledge his existence most days. She hadn’t for a long time.

  Eli’s father scowled for a moment before he responded, “Come on Diane, are you sure we should send the child here? Even the elevator was broken.”

  There was a moment of silence before the sound of Eli’s mother’s stilted speech responded. “Come on, it can't be that bad of a college. I have heard that they have an accredited science and art department.”

  “Yeah, but seriously, who names their college Pickle?”

  I.C.K.L.E or the Institute of Creative Knowledge and Learning Excellence, most people just shorten the acronym to pickle. It wasn’t the worst college to attend: they had a well-developed biology department specialized in Xenos biology and a highly accredited Art program. The college was different, however, as the first year was comprised of 12 compulsory courses that covered pretty much everything you would have if you graduated grade 12. The school allowed anyone to apply. It was there to establish an academic baseline for all students. The second year was up to the individual students, who could branch out and try whatever they wanted. They still needed eight credits for the year, but as long as they had those by the end of the year, it didn’t really matter. In the third year, students would pick their major and pursue it from there.

  With smooth, robotic precision, Eli did as he was told. Unpacking the few things he had been allowed to bring: clothes, some basic essentials, and a small ptop that he had barely convinced his parents to allow him to bring. Thankfully, Eli had always had a good typing speed, so it wasn’t hard to convince them. It wasn’t his fault that he wrote with his left hand and just so happened to use his right that day. He’d also managed to smuggle a few of his secret items from home. He didn’t want to risk them being found afterall. While the central air vent in his room was probably the st pce his parents would check, he still didn’t want them to find the small collection of gender-bender doujins, manga and Xenos biology books he had. To them, these things were basically contraband.

  He’d barely hidden the contraband under his clothes in the wardrobe when he heard his father say, “Alright, we will be heading out now. I'd better hear good things come midterms. You have to catch up with your older brother afterall. He’s a wyer and runs his own firm now, and he’s only 20.”

  His mother remained silent, looking on with cold, lifeless eyes, like a human doll. For a moment, Eli thought he saw a glimmer of something as he met her gaze, but it was gone just as quickly as it had appeared when she turned away and left. Her movements were smooth and efficient as they left the apartment.

  Eli let out a sigh of relief at their departure. Almost like he’d sensed Eli’s reaction, Eli’s father stuck his head back in. “Listen here boy, it’s high time you man up and get yourself a girlfriend. And it better not be one of those queers or Deviants, do you understand?”

  Like clockwork, Eli's answer came before he’d even finished processing what his father had said, “Yes, Father.”

  With that, Eli’s father left the apartment for the second time. It wasn’t until Eli heard the clunk of the automatic lock engaging that he finally allowed himself to rex. Eli quickly approached the door and gave it a slight push just to make sure it was shut tightly before slumping down in the kitchen chair.

  His father had always been closed-minded around LGBT individuals, especially around Xenos. While his father referred to them as Deviants, the proper term was Xenos. These people began to manifest around the world after what is commonly called “The Advent,” when a meteor shower rger than any other pelted the Earth, followed by a ripple that passed around the globe almost like a shimmering wave of light. After this, multiple peoples began to manifest powers.

  Now referred to as the Xenos gene manifestation, these individuals would go on to both save and destroy parts of the world. That was 50 years ago. Nowadays, around 40 percent of the popution has some kind of power, and they manifest their Xenos gene around the age of 15. There are multiple theories on how you can force someone to manifest their Xenos gene, but results are mixed, and any attempts at forcing individuals to manifest their Xenos gene in a certain way have all led to failure.

  France had tried to make a specialized military unit based on people that they forced to manifest their Xenos gene through heavy experimentation and horrific conditions. That was back in 2038, the next year marked the Shattered Horizon event, and any dreams they may have had as to a militarized unit of specialty Xenos was crushed when the world collectively agreed to leave any form of powerful Xenos out of political conflicts. Of course, someone leaked evidence that the experiments were happening anyway in France, and the world brought the hammer down in 2042.

  With a sigh, Eli y down on his bed. It was weird, after sleeping on a small single mattress since he was a kid, having a full-sized mattress just felt off. He could easily roll from side to side on the bed without falling off. Now he wouldn’t have to make sure his back was pressed against the wall to ensure he didn’t fall out of bed. As he y there just enjoying the softness of the bed, he started to drift off. It wasn’t long until he heard a knock at the door before the heavy clunk of the automatic lock roused him.

  Eli quickly sat up, his eyes flicking over to the clock on the microwave in the kitchen. 5:30 PM, had it really been an hour and a half already? Eli quickly climbed out of bed, only letting out a small wince from the pain in his leg. He’d forgotten to do his stretches before rexing, and now he was paying for it. As he walked into the kitchen, he was greeted by the sight of a tall beanpole of a girl with long bck hair and vibrant emerald eyes. She wore a bck crop top and a skirt with studs and chains. This was complemented by a lovely purple satchel sitting around her hip with a small fg pin. This was odd. Eli could have sworn that the coed dorms were on the other side of campus. There was no way that his parents would have allowed him to stay in those.

  Eli couldn’t help but fidget a bit in front of the tall girl. Her emerald eyes seemed to bore into him. “Oh… high there, this is the men’s dorm, are you lost?”

  The girl just shook her head with a smile. “Nope, this is definitely the room I’m supposed to be in. Let’s just say I pissed off the head of the housing department who is very… old fashioned.”

  Old-fashioned? What was that supposed to mean? Eli was confused, but he didn’t want to bother the girl any more than he already had. “Um… sure.” Eli couldn’t help but be intimidated by the girl. She towered over him. Now, Eli was used to people being taller than him, being only 5 foot 4, but this girl was easily over 6 feet tall.

  “Well there stranger, got a name? My name is Amy and it seems that we will be roommates for the foreseeable future.”

  Oh god, he’d been staring, hadn’t he? Eli couldn’t help but find the digital interface of the microwave very interesting all of a sudden. “Elliot, Elliot Rivers, though I prefer to go by Eli.”

  Amy cocked her head to the side. “Oh, any particur reason?”

  Eli couldn’t help but rub his arm. This whole situation was awkward enough, and now his own feelings were making Amy ask questions. “I don’t know. It’s never felt right, you know? It’s just too stuffy and feels like it doesn’t fit.”

  Amy’s eyes seemed to glow for a moment as she examined him. “Oh, I definitely understand where you are coming from. Well, I still have to unpack all my stuff.” Amy said while gesturing to her luggage, which was still in the hallway. She had five rge bck and purple luggage cases, the biggest one featuring the same blue, pink, and white fg pin, and a rge stuffed shark.

  Eli knew he should just mind his business, but couldn’t help but ask. “Would… um… would you like a hand?”

  “Don’t worry, I got this,” Amy said with a smug grin as she managed to lift all five bags of luggage and awkwardly shuffled into her room. She tried to look cool, but definitely failed in the process.

  With a faint smile, Eli returned to his room. This time, with more time to look around, he noticed the full-body mirror hanging on the interior of one of the wardrobe doors. How had he missed that st time? It was pretty obvious. Eli quickly looked away from the mirror; no one wanted to see that. Thankfully, the mirror was only hanging in pce and wasn’t permanently attached, so it was easy for Eli to lift it off the door and lean it against the back wall mirror side down so that he wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally seeing his reflection. After this, Eli sat down at the desk and booted up his computer, and, for the first time in what felt like forever, Eli rexed.