Leo dropped his bag on his chair in his room and sighed, falling back onto the bed; he groaned in discontent. He turned his face to the side and stared at his brackish green walls and grimaced; thank God he only had another two years of these walls. He had always hated the color.

And now that he needed to turn into a real snail and disappear, he would probably be seeing this color more and more now.

Maybe I can get Evan to deliver my meals to my room, for a few bucks.

Or I can get plastic surgery, and ask Evan to call me … What rhymes with Leo? Neo? Eww no.

He plopped down onto his red and gray striped bed set. it was the only thing he could ever find that didn’t look dastardly with the old paint color and wasn’t entirely ghastly to look at. Well, better than the worn-out desk and chair sat under the solitary window. On the desk were his laptop and books, which only improved the room’s aesthetics minor. Having a solo dorm room was a luxury everyone usually jumped at the chance to have, especially in the new dorm building they had built less than five years ago. The new buildings were lovely.

But Leo was in the old building, and no one fought for the dead-end rooms furthest from campus. Especially when that room was the smallest, and all available space had unscrupulously shoved and cramped together with other old furniture left in there to die. The attached bathroom was little more than a cage with a toilet, a sink, and a tiny shower so small you had to hold your breath to slide yourself in so you could close the door that opened inwards. Most of the time, you wished upon a star; you wouldn’t run it over your toes while trying to shut it.

Leo was happy he spent most of his time at either class or out with his friends doing activities because spending too much time here was depressing. Leo sighed, exasperated with himself.

How had he gotten into this mess?

Was Max done? Or would he come back and accuse him of something else? What was he going to do about Max and his key?

And that kiss! So confusing!

It wasn’t his first kiss; he had gotten to kiss his crush Cass at a dance a few years ago. But it had ended up with his braces smacking her in the teeth so hard she never talked to him again. It had been uncomfortable, definitely an unfortunate experience. His first real kiss, more then five seconds.

Max’s kiss had been squishy and wet too.

But much nicer.

Softer.

And he had already been so hard from when Max had grabbed him. When the kiss happened, he was sure it would jump out of his pants; he immediately reacted everywhere. A fresh rush of blood flew through all his veins like a jolt. He grew so embarrassed when he realized he had expanded inside Max’s hand.

Leo blushed.

What are you thinking, Leo? Get a grip. Get your mind out of the gutter. It was just a small. A tiny little amount of physical touch.

He sat off his bed, grabbed his bag, and started punching it.

“Why. Me!” He growled, annoyed, then sighed in frustration and punched the bag one last time.

A tiny clink and the shine of something small and silver tumbling from the bottom and onto the floor with the last punch. It was a gentle noise like soft chimes. The kind you would hear at your grandma’s house or in ASMR.

Leo bent down and picked the item up.

His legs turned to jello, and he sunk back into the bed in shock.

“A key!” He strangled out the words around the shock.

“Maybe it’s not his…” Leo tried to lie to himself, but he couldn’t deny whose it was as he turned the key with a broken jewelry chain ring hanging through the hole in his hand. It was covered in a thin layer of pink gooey, gum.

A beautiful silver key with a large ornate M engraved into one side and gold plating on the other.

It was expensive and one of a kind. And it could only be “that” key. He groaned and bounced up and down anxiously.

But?

Leo turned his bag over, looking for holes. He flipped the bag upside down and saw it, there at the bottom of the mesh a hole right about key sized and covered in the same sticky pink goo.

His face crumpled in a look of utter disbelief.

He and Evan had been goofing around earlier and making fun of the seniors taking the freshman games so seriously. He had said something stupid and caused Evan to laugh so hard that the gum Evan had been chewing spewed out of his mouth.

They were both klutzes, such ridiculous, idiotic klutz; sometimes, I hate being me. He groaned aloud at the realization.

I flung my bag on top of his gum.

Gross.

What is with all the crappy luck lately? What are the odds that it would land atop a precious key Max left on the bleachers? I dunno what the odds are, but never go to Vegas and gamble, you will end up in a deep hole int he middle of the desert with one shoe and thugs telling you to shovel.

So this whole mess, the aftermath of all of it, then, I caused it all.

I did fucking steel Max’s key. Leo groaned, Oh bloody hell. I have to give it back to him! You know what lets drive to Vegas now, get this over with, start digging now, why wait to die of embarrassment, I can skip giving it back and just die instead… or hide it, throw it away? Yeah. I could do that!

He walked over to his trash can, pressed the button and the lid popped open, he held up his hand and froze.

Leo whimpered pathetically. “Ugh,” stupid human decency. He kicked his bed frame, then swore as his toe throbbed.

“Why are you such an idiot! We should have just looked for the gum instead of littering.” He frowned in disgust and walked into his bathroom, grabbed a Kleenex then walked back out and rubbed the key clean before he turned back went into the bathroom and dosed the key in soap and scrubbed at it like a madman.

He looked up into the mirror and back at his soap covered hands.

“Okay, this is not good.”

Note to self: Gum removes dignity and rationality. Evan’s spit: 1, My dignity: 0.