Conversion

Chapter 3 - Roommates

"It's really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much bigger than theirs."
J.D. Salinger


"You're my roommate?!" he shouts at me. I almost cringe at the volume of his voice, but instead I opt to roll my eyes.

"Yes. And you're loud," I tell him bluntly.

"At least I'm not an asshole like you!" He crosses his arms over his chest and turns his head to the side defiantly. Distantly I wonder why this guy is so defensive. Sure, everyone sticks up for themselves, but this guy... Something about his tone and about his body language makes it obvious that he has high defenses. I smirk again, beginning to plot ways to break down those defenses. He may be annoying, but he's the best looking guy I've seen in this school.

"There is no way I'm going to live with you," he tells me.

"It's no use, I've already tried getting out of it. You think someone like me wants a roommate?"

"What do you mean, 'someone like you'? Are you one of those emo people?" he asks, making a point of looking me up and down, taking in my preferences for dark clothing, as well as my dark hair and pale skin.

"No, I just don't appreciate loud morons invading my space." Okay, probably not the best way to go about breaking down his walls, but it has to be said. "But the headmistress says it's my 'duty as the Junior class president' to take in the school's newest student and show him how to get by in this place." Hopefully I've shown enough of my bad side for him to believe that this is Tsunade-sama's will and not my own.

"No thanks. I can figure things out on my own."

"Yeah, yeah. You just keep telling yourself that. To be honest, you're lucky you made it a whole day. Remember what Sakura did to you in first block?" He knows I'm taunting him, but he nods anyway. "Well, she's one of the nice ones. The only reason nobody goes at you on the first day is because all the faculty is watching. Sakura just got a lucky chance when our teacher and the headmistress walked out of the room, but in the next few days, if you're not careful, you'll be tripped, beaten up, emotionally abused, and bullied by every other person who lays eyes on you." He swallows thickly. I'm getting to him. "But, as you may have noticed, I'm well-liked here. Stick with me, let me show you around, and you'll be good to go."

He eyes me incredulously. "Why would you do something like that for me when you were treating me like crap before? And offer right after you essentially said that you hate being around people like me?" He's good at this, but I'm better.

"It's not my choice, it's the headmistress's. But suit yourself, go ahead and do whatever you want. If you don't mind, however, I'm going to go take a nap. I had a bit of a party last night." I leave out the 'in my pants' part. He probably wouldn't like that too much. "My mind doesn't really work well when I'm tired." I yawn for good measure, then turn and walk back down the hall, waving as I say, "My bedroom's the first one on the left. The bathroom is the one on the right, and your bedroom is the last one on the left. Oh, and don't wake me up unless you have a death wish." I walk down the hall to my bedroom, where I set my alarm clock to go off in two hours before laying down for my nap. After a few minutes of thinking I fall asleep, wondering if Naruto will accept my proposal or not.

***

Hesitantly, I open the door to Sasuke's bedroom. He said that he was only taking a nap, but it's been almost two hours. Now I don't know about you, but when I hear "nap" I think half an hour to forty-five minutes, not two whole hours.

As I peek into his room, I see that Sasuke is still laying in his bed and is in fact alive, as his chest is slowly rising and falling in time with his breathing. I consider waking him up, but something in the back of my mind is telling me that he wasn't exaggerating when he said that I shouldn't wake him up unless I had a death wish. I have no such death wish, and so I decide not to wake my sleeping roommate.

Suddenly I hear what sounds like an alarm and then a crash. I jump slightly and look over to see Sasuke's fist sitting on top of his alarm clock, which now has a small crack in the screen. I swallow thickly and back silently out of the room, making sure to close the door behind me. Yup, I'm definitely glad I chose not to wake him up.

I return to my fairly simple bedroom to finish up my homework. Really all that's in each of the bedrooms is a bed in the far right corner, a night stand next to the bed, a desk against the left wall, a dresser against the same wall as the door, and a full-length mirror set up by the dresser. I walk over and sit down at my desk where my Algebra book is laying open. I still have no clue how I'm in Honors math classes when I essentially suck at everything else, but it is kinda nice when people don't think I'm an idiot.

Just as I finish reading the section on linear equations and I'm about to start the homework, I hear my bedroom door open. Turning around, I see a slightly disheveled-looking Sasuke standing in the doorway.

"Hey," I say casually, smiling my big, fake smile. "I didn't think you were going to wake up for a while there." He watches me for a few seconds with an odd look on his face, as if he was trying to decide whether or not he should say what he was thinking.

"Is that why you were watching me?" he asks finally. I stare at him, slightly dumbfounded. He was fast asleep! How the hell did he see me?

"Uh... Yeah, I guess," I reply, chuckling and rubbing the back of my head nervously. "I considered waking you up, but I remembered what you said earlier. And after seeing what you did to that alarm clock, I sure am glad I listened!" I laugh, and Sasuke stares at me blankly, as if he's still half asleep or something.

"Whatever," he says as he leaves, closing the door behind him.

Dropping my act, I turn back to my desk. What the hell was that about? I ask myself, but my mind doesn't have enough time to answer as the furry black object that had somehow snuck onto my desk pounces on me. Screaming, I scramble up from where I had fallen onto the carpeted floor, the black object on my chest dropping to the ground as I do so. I run out into the living room, tripping all over myself and slamming my door shut in an attempt to put as much distance between myself and that creature as possible. Apparently I'm tripping over other things as well, because I soon find myself laying on my stomach on the floor, with something of human-like consistency beneath me.

Opening my eyes that had probably been closed since that thing attacked me, I see the navy carpet, a pale ear, and a few locks of blue-black hair; I must have fallen on Sasuke. "Sorry..." I mutter, planting a hand on the carpet on either side of Sasuke and attempting to push myself up.

"Whatever," he replies, sitting up just as I turn my head toward him to apologize again. I feel something against my lips, and see Sasuke's eyes go wide. My eyes shoot downward, and I feel my eyes widen as well when I see Sasuke's lips pressed against mine.

I'm thrown into momentary shock by the thought that I, the biggest homophobe on the planet, just lost my first kiss to another guy, and I fail to move away. After a few seconds of immobility on both our parts, I feel what has to be Sasuke's tongue moving against my lips and I'm snapped out of my paralysis, and within a single second I've put ten feet of empty space between myself and my roommate.

"What the hell was that?!" I scream at him.

"Accident." He shrugs. SHRUGS. God, I think I hate this guy. "Anyway, what the hell were you screaming and running about?"

Huh? Oh, yeah. The thing that attacked me. "There's a monster in my room!" I shout, completely forgetting that I just kissed another guy. Well, not completely, but that's beside the point.

Sasuke rolls his eyes at me. "First off, I seriously doubt that there's a monster in your room. Secondly, what is with you and yelling?"

"If you don't believe me, go check for yourself!" I say, choosing to ignore his question. Sighing, Sasuke stands up and turns toward my room. I rise as well and follow him at a good distance; I don't want that thing jumping on me again. Sasuke reaches my door and turns to look at me. Hesitantly, I walk over and stand behind him, looking over his shoulder. Then he opens the door, revealing...

A cat. A domestic house cat sitting in the middle of my bedroom, staring at us as if we're idiots.

Sasuke blinks. "Venus," he says simply.

"What, now?" I ask.

"Venus. My cat." Walking into my room, he stops a few paces in front of the cat and kneels. "Come here, girl."

"That thing's a girl?" I ask disbelievingly as the demon-cat jumps into Sasuke's arms. "But... It's evil!" As if to prove my point the cat turns and hisses at me, then resumes snuggling into Sasuke's shoulder.

"She's not evil, she just doesn't like anyone but me," he says, scratching the demon's head. "And yes, Venus is a she. The only female who's ever held my attention."

I furrow my eyebrows in confusion as he continues petting the cat almost lovingly. "What's that supposed to mean?" I ask.

Sasuke turns and looks me straight in the eye. "I'm gay."