Aiden’s shift felt like it went on for an eternity, but that wasn’t atypical for Friday nights. It was always busy but painfully slow at the same time. He was grateful that the older gentleman who owned the convenience store was understanding of his schedule and kept his shifts short, usually only four to five hours, but it meant that he missed dinner because he wasn’t legally allowed a lunch break. It worked out great for his lifestyle, but it did make the end of the day a slog.

Everything he’d wanted to eat had closed by the time he’d gotten off, so he grabbed a ramen package and another energy drink from the shelves when his replacement came in to take over. He said his goodbye to Colby—the owner’s son—and took his purchases with a whistle.

The night was cool, and he wondered if he should open up the windows while he worked on his comic, let in a little fresh air. Stepping outside of his work, he headed around the side of the building to the residential entrance and swiped his keycard to get inside. The architecture around here was one of the reasons he’d picked the college he did. The university was small and had a decent program, but he also knew his degree would only really get him so far, so it didn’t necessarily matter where he went. It was more about the vibes, the convenience, and the tuition costs, as well as the location itself. Careers in animation weren’t amounting to much nowadays, he hated it but it was the truth. He’d found a way to be successful with it, and had been an amazing few years for his confidence and art style, but it had become more about the connections, gaining the experience, the possible internship, and the opportunity to say that he’d done it. His comic had taken hold of his life, and he knew that was where his future was headed.

The college town was pretty much entirely walkable, which he appreciated since he didn’t like driving and opted to spend his money on his tuition over a car. Many of the apartment buildings had restaurants and businesses underneath them that operated late. The complex he lived in had six buildings with a massive courtyard in the center, each one had a different shop underneath. Living above where he worked had been awesome, especially if he needed a late night snack, but he was jealous of his best friend Margo who had an ice cream and boba shop under their home—they also lived two minutes away from the campus, so they’d gotten a better deal in his opinion.

As Aiden walked up to the elevator, he pressed the button for floor five and waited for the lift to come back down. It was currently on floor seven, so he knew it would take a second to reach him. He pulled out his phone and started scrolling through his emails to make sure he hadn’t missed any messages from his university or his webcomic platform. He was bad about checking his socials and staying up to date with things, he felt like he missed announcements quite regularly and was always too late to sign up for promotional deals that would help get his comic out to more readers. He wasn’t sure he wanted that, though. It was already hard enough to keep up with the deadlines, and the last thing he needed was getting sucked into a merch drop or a contract that would demand more of him than he could give at the moment.

His final was already eating him alive. Someday he’d have more time to indulge, to make it his sole focus, but he didn’t want to wish away his college career so quickly.

The elevator slid open and Aiden stepped inside. He rode up to his floor and yawned as he stepped out into the corridor. The building wasn’t big, each floor only had six units, and his was at the very end of the hall. The first apartment had a few fake plants by the door with a doormat that read ‘my cat hates you’ and it was true, the girl who lived there had the most judgmental cat he’d ever seen. The couple in unit four were freshmen, high school sweethearts, and they always had massive packages arriving at all hours of the day. The unit across from his had been empty for a while, the last person to live there graduated at the end of the previous semester and it was rare for someone to move in mid-way through a season, so it had been mostly quiet.

He approached unit five and grabbed his keycard to unlock his door. As he did, he heard the door to unit six open. Turning on his heel, he found himself staring face to face with Mr. Hot Goth Pants who was grinning at him. The stranger had removed his leather coat, revealing muscular arms with plenty of red and black tattoos trailing down his long limbs. He’d pushed his shaggy hair back with a black cat ear headband, and he had golden eye masks under his eyes that shifted as he smiled. He was holding a small trash bag, he had slippers on his feet, he looked like he was getting ready for bed.

Ready for bed in the unit across from him.

The unit directly next door.

The hot goth was next door.

“Oh, no,” Aiden said, clearly not realizing the thought hadn’t stayed in his head.

“Oh, no, what?” the stranger said with a grin. Did he have fangs? Why did his teeth sparkle like an anime villain? Who was this man?

Aiden slapped his hands over his mouth and quickly ran inside his unit, slamming the door shut with a gasp.

Oh, no, indeed. The hot goth was his new neighbor. He was so screwed.