And so went Kaden's first day of college. Classes were okay, but mostly uninteresting, at least at first. He'd tried joining a few clubs, and had even tried to forget about being so embarrassed by his parents that first day. 

But Hawk still wouldn't let him live it down. 

"What the hell, man? It isn't even that funny," Kaden moaned. Shockingly enough, they'd become friends since that first day, and had even started hanging out.

"Are you sure? I was like 'you're staring' and then you just started blushing. It was crazy. And your parents, man. Your dad." And with that, Hawk started his usual fit of laughter.

Kaden snorted and rolled his eyes. They were in the library, and they were supposed to be studying. Only Kaden kept getting distracted by Hawk, his too-hot roommate who was, predictably enough, some kind of a genius, and didn't even need to be spending this time studying. However, he insisted on trying to get friendly with Kaden any chance he could get, which included when he didn't have classes. 

Of course, being roommates, it was kind of predictable that Hawk would know exactly where he planned to go even when Kaden didn't tell him. It was hard to avoid letting him know, anyway, so he just decided to roll with it. Besides, being stuck with someone smart and attractive really wasn't that bad, as shallow as it sounded. 

It at the very least meant that he had a tutor if he got stuck on something. 

"What are you working on?" Hawk asked, after he'd calmed down enough to speak. Hawk had his laptop open and a book out, but he clearly wasn't doing any work, and had supposedly already finished the paper he said needed to write. So why did he even try pretending, anyway?

"Something boring," Kaden muttered, and typed out the rest of the sentence he was in the process of finishing before he looked up at Hawk. "And dude, you're kind of a distraction." 

Hawk smirked. 

"So I am, aren't I? Well, it's a good thing I'm around to keep things fun."

Kaden grinned despite himself. Hawk was definitely charming; he'd give his roommate that.

"Hey, guys. What's up?" Their friend Laine joined them at the table. She sat down next to Kaden, and Kaden only felt relieved that someone else had joined them before things got too awkward.

"Not much," Kaden replied. "Just trying to focus while Hawk is being an annoying jerk who already finished his paper." 

"What are you writing about?" 

"Shakespeare," Hawk cut in. "Did you know this guy could have maybe not been a guy at all?" 

"You mean that he could have been a group of people, or a woman writing under a pen name," Laine added.

"I wrote a paper exactly like this in high school. Why is it coming back to haunt me now?" This, of course, was Kaden, who had perfect memory of the exact paper he'd written for his high school English class.

Kaden was trying not to stare at Hawk too much, as usual, but he couldn't help it. The guy was just too attractive. Plus, in a leather jacket, jean shorts, and some kind of band t-shirt, he looked sort of like that kind guy your parents would tell you to stay away from, but to another college kid, he just looked cool, and like he didn't have a care in the world.

"Why don't you just copy and paste that paper into another document, make a few edits, and submit it?" Hawk suggested, like the arrogant jerk he was. 

"Why don't I just write the paper honestly, and have you stop nagging me?" Kaden snapped. Once again he felt his face flush, and avoided making any eye contact with either Hawk or Laine. God, this was going to be the death of him. This weird feeling he got around Hawk was--it was certainly something.

It's not like it was a bad feeling, though. No. It was anything but that. In fact, it was the best he'd ever felt around anyone ever, really. Only he couldn't ignore the butterflies he got whenever he looked Hawk directly in the eye.

And he couldn't help but wonder if Hawk felt it too. 

"Woah, woah. Guys. Just chill out," Laine said with a sigh. She was like their personal police officer, who stopped them from from fighting before it got too ugly. 

Hawk rolled his eyes. "Oh, dear God. Kaden, why?" Kaden felt himself blush even harder. Even though he knew Hawk was only teasing him, he still couldn't help but feel embarrassed anyway. Whenever he thought about the weird feeling he felt around Hawk when someone else was around, or actively engaged in conversation with him, he kind of froze up. 

"Hawk," Kaden warned. 

"What's going on with you two, anyway?" this was Laine. She was eyeing Kaden with a look of concern. Kaden looked shyly down at his keyboard, not in the mood to say anything else to anyone. 

"It's nothing, really. He'd just get mad at me if I said anything else," Hawk said flippantly.

"Do you want me to leave?" 

Laine, with her long blonde hair and pretty gray eyes, was, like Hawk, the picture of perfection. Why did all of his friends have to be so perfect? This definitely wasn't what he'd expect for his new friends in high school, that's for sure. 

"If you don't mind, I think that's what Kaden would prefer." 

Kaden accidentally looked up at Hawk, and noticed that his roommate's face looked a little red. 

"Well, see you guys later. I'm just going to go get something to eat at the cafe," Laine said, and grabbed her stuff. With that, she took off. 

Now that they were alone, it seemed all there really was to do was bask in the awkwardness of the situation.

Until Hawk blurted out:

"Do you feel some kind of--weird feeling--when you're around me?" 

He leaned forward on his elbows, staring Kaden directly in the eye now. What was even more strange was that, now that he thought about it, Hawk had some gold flecks mixed in with the green of his iris, and his pupils seemed shinier and more reflective than he thought was normal, not that he paid too much attention; they just stood out. He had that stereotypical Asian eye slant, with jet black hair he'd let grow just a little longer than most guys he knew, and his hands--

Kaden stopped himself before he could think any further about describing Hawk. It's not like he really wanted those thoughts on his conscience for the rest of the day anyway. 

"Actually, yeah," Kaden replied, looking around to make sure no one was paying attention to them. But there were only a few other people in the room, and they were all doing something or had headphones in. "Do you think it might be a--"

He cut himself off before saying "crush". Now that was just a place he wasn't sure he was ready to go to right now. 

"Let's not," Hawk said suddenly, surprising him. He leaned back into his chair again and tilted his head up so that he was staring directly at the ceiling. "Besides, don't you still have to work on that paper?"

They were interrupted by a loud crash. When Kaden looked up, he saw a large owl peached on a windowsill. 

The last thing he remembered was something hard and heavy colliding with his head before he blacked out.