Moving In! (Annamarie/Joseph?)

[XERXES HARRISBURG]

OUTFIT HUR YO

New school. New dorm. New year.

God, college. Xerxes Harrisburg was in college. Moving into a college dorm.

He felt the big city pressing in on all sides, shoving the four walls around him closer and closer until he was nothing but a single, anonymous pinpoint in the midst of a sea of millions and millions of stars. High school had been fun, familiar, full of people he knew. Still scary, being people and all, but like, he knew them. He knew they weren’t like, creepy rapists. But here, at this huge school with 5,000 other kids, he was invisible. Like, nobody knew him. And nobody wanted to. Nobody cared.

And they were all strangers. And they were all like, scary. Xerxes had seen them all standing around in little, like, group things or whatever, as he’d heaved his suitcase up the stairs. They were all tall, with weird hat things and sophisticated clothes and cold expressions on their faces. And old. God, they were just like, so old. Like, older than Xerxes had ever thought he’d be. Was Xerxes that old? He hoped not. He didn’t want to be old. Being old meant being by yourself, and being by yourself meant scary things, scary people, and stuff. Creepy old, like, adult people. And nobody to help you if…well, things happened.

But at least Annamarie was here. Xerxes held the door so she could follow him into his new home for the upcoming year. When Annamarie was here, then He never came. He hated the Woozle more than anything, and Xerxes knew that this year would be a lot better if they could just keep Him away. Things were never as scary when He wasn’t around.

"What do you think?" he asked, trying to take his mind off the subject. "College smells weird," he remarked, sniffing the air around them.

[wooooozle]

Annemarie was not a studious girl, having long ago given up her education. But it did please her that her Chere was so truly clever and bright, even if he was so short sighted he did not see this himself. He was such a worrier, her Xerxes. Pedophiles were on the top of his list of worries, having the Watchdog site bookmarked on his blasted computer. It spoke miles to little Annemarie, who was a foot shorter than her amore, and was not truly clever but oddly wise. He still saw himself as a child, who should worry of such things, and not a strong man with which Annemarie saw him as.

So she clung to his arm, as they walked down the halls, and she kept her eyes half closed, as if to stay invisible. She was quite good at making herself unobtrusive. She was quiet as they went down the halls, trying to appraise Xerxes' happiness. And mostly, she tried not to think of all his friends, who so obviously despised her. Of course, Annemarie had a great skill for exaggerating. If one in a group hated her, then all must, though the others showed her enough mercy to be polite. Bless them, for not scorning Xerxes- who was so good and sweet and strong- for bringing to them a white trash girl whom they could barely understand through her thick Cajun accent. She told herself it was plenty that he loved her.

The Woozle was in utter loathing of Xerxes, except when they were entwined at night. Her shadowy weasel, the size of a Newfoundland, who hated to be less loved than anything else. In her ear he hissed of the evil that Annemarie had happened upon the night they met. The blood, the steaming corpse, the diluted blood in the alley. But Annemarie ignored. Those had not been Xerxes eyes.

Besides, she was no angel.

When he spoke, her eyes fell to him, as if surprised to find him in the room with her. What did she think of the room? Well, it was a room. Two windows, one door, a closet to share with whomever he would share it with. A boy, as she was far to jealous to allow a girl to live with her Chere. "It mus' only be stale from the summa." She shrugged, looking around, sliding her hand into his. "It is good, an' you know this." Though her word placement was still off and rigid, her accent was softly fading as she was surrounded by Yankee's constantly. Though r's still managed to evade her, she made a conscious effort to pronounce her th's. She would be acceptable to anyone who loved him, even if she had to fight tooth and nail for it. "My Chere worries far too much, I think. Be happy. No monsters here." Resting her head on his narrow chest, she could not stop the shy after thought that whispered in the back of her mind.

For now.

[XERXES HARRISBURG]

God, Xerxes hated dorms. He’d checked that like, Watchdog site thing like, sixty times to make sure that there were no pedophiles in the immediate area, refreshing it every few seconds and everything. But still, he totally wasn’t convinced. They’d always taught in school that you weren’t supposed to believe anything you read on the internet, right? So maybe he like, shouldn’t believe that. Maybe there actually were pedophiles living all around the dorm, and maybe they ran Watchdog.com to make Xerxes think it was really safe to come here and lure him in, and then maybe in the middle of the night when he thought he was perfectly safe they’d all come in and…oh God, oh God, this was so scary. He totally shouldn’t have come to college.

It would be like, so much better if he could just find some nice, safe apartment at the very top floor of a building and just live there with like, his Annamarie and absolutely nobody else. But Barry University, his new school, had like, this rule that all freshmen had to live in dorms. Xerxes was totally sick of living in dorms after living in one for like, the past two years at boarding school, but hopefully he wouldn’t be here very often. He and Annamarie would go out and do like, stuff, right? Yeah, totally. Everything was fine when he had his Annamarie.

"It mus' only be stale from the summa." She shrugged, looking around, sliding her hand into his. "It is good, an' you know this."

Xerxes never liked to disagree with anything Annamarie said, so he just like, shrugged and pulled open his first suitcase. It was stuffed completely full of hair products. ”I wish there was more space for you to live,” he replied quietly, beginning to arrange his hairspray cans on the shelf. ”I have to have a roommate, and just…” He shook his head sadly, glancing at the tiny space. He was already like, hating freshman year. ”But I’ll get a job this year, and I’ll totally work like, really hard, and then we’ll buy a nice big, uh…” He thought for a moment. ”Castle! I’ll buy you a castle, with big huge gigantic walls so no pedophiles can get in, and no…” His voice trailed off, but he knew she knew.

Alright. Okay. A castle. That was what was going to get him through freshman year. Freshman year that he was totally already starting to hate.

"My Chere worries far too much, I think. Be happy. No monsters here."

Xerxes sighed, feeling Annamarie’s head on his chest. He ran a soft finger through her hair that was way too beautiful for like, any real human to have. ”Right. Yeah, no monsters here.” He laughed softly. ”Just you and me. And like…some weird roommate dude. If he ever gets here.” Except for…Him, he thought, gritting his teeth. Hopefully He wouldn’t come for a long time. Hopefully.