“Hm?” He clenched his jaw, fingers tightening on the hoodie he was holding. He’d frozen in front of his closet. “Yes, I’m good.”
“You sure? You seemed absent-minded,” Theo noted.
“No, yeah. I’m fine. Just kinda nostalgic.”
“I get that.” Val nodded as he sat on his bed. “I already miss the crazy shitshow my family is.”
“I can’t say the same,” Theo added. “But I sure as hell am gonna miss having a bedroom all to myself. The idea of listeningto you shit or hearing you moan while choking the chicken is appalling.”
“Says the fucking princess who shits roses and rainbows.” Noah tossed the hoodie inside the closet and grabbed a pillow, smacking him in the face with it.
“You don’t wanna start a fight,” Theo said, his tone challenging.
“Are you daring me?”
“You bet I am, fuckface!”
Noah was about to lunge at him, feeling slightly lighter again, but a knock on their open door distracted him.
“Hey,” a dude with hazel eyes said. “We’re... your neighbors,” he added hesitantly, flicking his finger between himself and the dark-haired guy beside him as they stared.
“Oh, hey! I’m Theo,” he greeted, walking over to them. “This is Val and Noah.” He gestured in their direction.
“Nice to meet you,” they both said in unison.
“I’m Zacharias, Zach to friends. And this is Mads.”
“Hey.”
“Just wanted to tell you that the others are talking about going out tonight to get to know each other a little and all that.” Zach flashed a perfectly aligned, white-toothed smile.
He gave off Viking vibes. His long blond hair was in a ponytail with the sides shaved, and he had a tattoo peeking out of the neck of his tee that reminded Noah of a serpent’s head, like the ones carved at a drakkar’s front.
“That sounds good to me.” Val nodded, side-glancing at his friends.
“Yeah, sure,” Noah said.
Zach’s grin widened as his eyes locked on Noah’s. “Awesome! Meet us in the lounge at six.
Fifteen
Instead of one shortcourse or a single semester, Noah had enrolled for nine months to learn in depth about music theory, songwriting, composition, and even production.
His time wasn’t spent solely on studying, though. There was so much to do here. Talks and workshops were available every Friday, not to mention the parties. They had them often. Some were wilder than others, like at Halloween when they all helped build a horror house. But he always had fun.
Before he even realized it, time had flown by. Not only was he doing something he was so passionate about, but life was so fucking good here. It had shown the introvert in him that the outside world wasn’t so bad, especially when the people in it matched his weirdness.
Like Zach.
He looked stoic with his strong, stubbled jaw, elegant gait, broad frame, and mountain-like height. But then he was the cutest thing with the attention span of a puppy, save for anythingrelated to music. When the conversations were about music, he was all ears and enthusiasm, which Noah appreciated so much. He was learning a lot from him.
“Show me what you’ve got,” Zach said, lying down on his bed with his arms folded under his head, one calf resting over his knee.
“Okay…” Noah mumbled, biting the inside of his cheek as he double-clicked on the file icon in the middle of his screen.
Beginning with eerie synthetic sounds that moved back and forth, gradually building to a distortion, ominous drums established the rhythm for what he envisioned would become a dark, epic composition.
Noah cleared his throat.
