Highmauve: Tobi's Dorm

There's a certain coziness inherent in Tobi's dorm room. The building is newer than Noelle's; thick carpet and painted walls already doing more for the atmosphere than cinder block walls. His shelves and desk are piled high with text books and binders full of class material and notes. Notebooks pepper the spaces between. They're organized in a loose system that only makes sense to the owner. Laundry is still piled high next to the bed; the sweatpants Tobi had tossed there days ago rest on the top of the pile. His laptop is open and playing some internet radio station. Soft twangy guitar and banjo fills the room. On his bed, on top of the quilt, is a medium sized cardboard box that seems like its been sitting there for at least a day or two.

Tobi sits on the couch in his room against one of his quilts, glasses perched low on his nose as he taps his pen against the edge of his textbook. Notebooks filled with his scratchy handwriting are piled high next to him while loose leaf sheets flutter across the room like leaves whenever the cool evening air filters in through the open window. There's a small bowl of baby cut carrots resting on a pile of books on top of the mini fridge he's using as an end table; every so often, he reaches without looking to grab at the snacks. There's a to go carrier full of coffee from the local cafe resting on an open space on his desk.

Noelle knocks on the door. It's a soft and slow rap against the door. She is almost bouncing on the balls of her feet- she's filled with anxiety for some reason. Perhaps she wants to hear what Tobi's been up to. And how Agnes was dong. And Sunshine. Through the door, she heard the soft bluegrass music, which made her smile a little.

She changed into some dark grey sweatpants and an old high school sweatshirt from her mom. Her hair is in an unfamiliar messy bun on the top of her head. Her glasses lay on her nose, and she has some leftover makeup on from her date earlier. Her bag is across her chest, as usual, and it's filled to the brim with textbooks. Some are her own, others are general business textbooks. She planned to meet up with Evan after hanging out with Tobi. She read through some of the stuff he needed to go over for his test later that week.

"It's open," Tobi yells at the door. He's buried underneath the textbooks and notebooks around him, built up and arranged in such a way that he's afraid of the consequences of moving. He had intended to clean up a bit after showering, but time had gotten away from him as he studied for an upcoming test. He had managed to change into some thick sweatpants, a t-shirt from one of the school's many student events, and tied his hair back loosely behind him before losing himself in his textbooks and notes.

He knows its Noelle. Not many of his floormates bother him at this hour, though his door is always open.

Noelle opens the door slowly and looks around the room. Everyone works in a different environment, she had to remind herself. At first glance, she had missed Tobi. On closer inspection, he was in the center of the clutter. Standing in the doorway, she chews her lip. She didn't want to walk in, afraid she would knock something over.

"Hey." Don't startle him out of his surroundings, Noelle. It'd probably cause a literal tidal wave of books and paper.

"Yo," he says back and looks up from his textbook at her. "Love t'casual look. Glad y'could make it. Coffee's over there," he motions towards his desk. "Got snacks over here." he motions towards the bowl of carrots. "Make yourself at home." He finishes and starts to gather up some of his notes and notebooks to clear a spot for her. Once gathered, he sets his textbook aside and stands, shoving some of the papers and notebooks on a shelf in between a stuffed binder and a large mason jar half full of a clear liquid. There's a handwritten label on the jar, but it's not Tobi's handwriting and it's not clearly visible from the doorway.

"Sorry 'bout the mess." he says as he clears out an area for her. "It ain't usually like this."

"Oh no, I totally understand. We can hang out some other time- I don't want to be a distraction." Chewing her lip, she takes a closer look at the room from the door. The jar of liquid catches her eye for a moment, but she keeps scanning. She sees the cardboard box of books and her eyes sparkle with anticipation. She finally enters, kneeling down, trying to help the best she can with clearing a space.

"Naw, I wan'tcha here. Invited you, didn't I?" Tobi's lips quirk up at the sides. "Jus' got a bit messy." He catches the open box on the top of the bed. His eyes widen a bit when he notices it. He grabs it as quietly as he can before shoving it underneath his bed. With the room slightly more clean than before, he takes his seat back on the couch and pulls his textbook back onto his lap. He settles in and leans his weight against the quilt behind him once more.

Noelle carefully steps through, grabbing her coffee and sitting next to him. She noticed his aversion to shoving the box under his bed and frowns a little bit but quickly resets. Setting her bag down, she begins to take out her own books and notebooks, arranging them in a neat pile.

She sits with her legs up, sipping her coffee slowly and deliberately. With her wide eyes, she has an uncanny resemblance to a barn owl hunched over itself. "What are you working on?"

"Organic Chemistry." he responds and tilts his book up so that she can see the cover. A pen that had been resting in the crease of the book slides down onto Tobi's lap. He puts the book back down, picks up the pen. "What 'bout you?"

“That sounds difficult.” Noelle looks at the thick textbook, she takes out a thin Buisness textbook “I’m actually done with my homework for the week. I’m helping out Evan with his- reading over the material so we can discuss it. Occasionally I proof read his papers, but not often.”

She takes out a pencil and opens the book. Her perfect manuscript is already all over the page.

Tobi peers over at the book, tilting his head just the slightest bit in surprise. Well now that's something that just don't sit right. He'd seen this sort of thing in his lab classes, where one partner would end up doing all of the work while the other rode their way to a passing grade. Hell, he'd been that partner a couple times. He didn't want to think ill of Noelle's new squeeze, and he certainly didn't want to ruin Noelle's good times with the man, but he needs to at least say something.

"Noelle," he starts slow. "That looks a lot more than helping."

“What? Oh, no. I promise it’s fine... I usually need to write out my thoughts, you know. Seriously, this is tame compared to my textbooks and even my regular books.” She tilts her head, confused at his concern “And Evan helps me too! It isn’t like we just focus on his work when we hang out. It’s fine. I promise.”

She offers a small smile, gently tapping her pencil on the book “Besides, it’s a business class. How hard can it be?” It’s a mild-manner joke, but the light bags under her eyes aren’t helping her case in the moment.

"It's more than you prob'bly need t'be focusin' on right now." Tobi answers easily. His eyes catch on hers and the dark bags underneath. "Earn those doin' what you love, not doin' someone else's work. Send t'boy to a tutor." He grabs another carrot from the bowl and snaps it easily in half between his teeth.

Noelle stares back at Tobi for a moment, before saying a quick “Well, my work is done... I’m not really working on anything else and I don’t have much else to do. I’m just going to look over this one more time.”

She suddenly feels extremely ashamed of herself. Evan was always so grateful when she helped him. But Noelle did notice that he always had a lot of work to do. ‘I work better when you’re around’. That was his usual response.

Noelle reaches for a carrot, and chews on it, scanning the pages in front of her. She’s close to Tobi, but she feels no awkwardness about it.

"Uh huh," Tobi hums slowly. Not the outcome he was looking for. Something still didn't sit quite right with him, something deep in his gut. He trusted his instincts, and right now they were pretty suspicious of this Evan kid. Noelle seemed to like him just fine, but something about this while situation is making Tobi bristle.

Honestly, sounded like he was using her.

Smart girl like Noelle though, he trusted her. He trusted her to know when the getting was good, to leave if she ever felt threatened or upset. And if she felt okay with this, well then, shoot. Tobi would worry, but he could respect her choices.

"Jus' do me a solid and get some regular sleep." he says. "Calm my poor, worried heart."

Noelle could tell that Tobi was apprehensive, but she knew that if Tobi met Evan, he would think otherwise. Evan was so sweet and kind to her. But the last thing Noelle wanted was for Tobi to worry.

“I’ll take care of myself, don’t worry. It’s just been a busy week. I’ll catch up on sleep this weekend. Life should balance out by then anyways...” Noelle’s eyes flick to the clear liquid in the mason jar and gives a wry smile. She had an idea of what it was, but wasn’t going to say it.

Turning her eyes to the book, she took small notes on the margins of the pages. “So, how is homecoming planning going?”

Tobi groans at the mention of homecoming and leans his head against the back of the sofa. "It's drivin' me insane. Thank the Lord above it'll be over soon." He shakes his head and sighs. "Least Ness'll be comin' up again. Only good thing comin' outta this twice damned week." he pauses, looks over at her.

"You goin'?"

He wishes she were at least. It would give him someone other than Ness to gripe to, and he wants to meet this Evan boy formally. Scope him out for himself. On the other hand though, he knows someone's gonna make him dance, and the less people he knows that see that, the better.

“Yeah... Evan asked me a couple days ago. I’m not really looking forward to it. I need to go get a dress and learn how to look like I know how to dance... I feel like I’m going to just step on everyone’s feet.”

She felt Tobi’s distaste for the dance in her chest and related to it on so many levels. She knew she was going to have to dance, but she was going to avoid it as much as possible.

Tobi chuffs out a short laugh. "Most that show up are jus' there for the free food and the lookin' pretty. You'll be in good company." He bites into another carrot while the soft evening breeze flutters some of his textbook papers up. "Least you're not the one cleanin' up afterward."

Shrugging, she looks through Evan’s textbook some more “I’ll stay after and help clean up. Gives me more time to hang out with you and Agnes.”

After a couple moments, she closes the book. She takes out a used copy of The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, opening it, her pencil in her mouth. She reads silently, comforted by Tobi’s presence.

"Well, that's mighty nice a' you." He nods, appreciating the gesture. They lapse into comfortable silence with Tobi reading through his textbook and Noelle reading through Evan's textbook. Finally, he sees her close it out of the corner of his eye. 'Good,' he thinks as she pulls out a copy of the Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe and settles in.

Minutes go by in a companionable silence. Tobi flicks through the pages of his textbook, jotting down notes in the notebooks every so often. The coffee is warm, the breeze is just cold enough, the quilt behind him is comfortable, and Noelle is next to him. This is probably the most enjoyable study night he's had in a while.

Noelle yawns, blinking blearily at the words in her book. She's acutely aware that only 3 out of the past 36 hours have included sleep, and it's finally caught up to her. She begins to relax, her head lulling to one side.

A breeze that causes her pages to turn brings back her attention. She focuses on reading the words, her lips moving silently. After about a half hour, she begins to blink again and slowly finds herself falling asleep, leaning on Tobi's shoulder, snoring incredibly softly. Her glasses are now lopsided, and her cheek is squished against his arm. She sleeps peacefully, her breath fluttery and soft. She could stay there for hours, her body now tucked in on itself for warmth. She sleeps with her mouth open slightly.

Tobi scratches sentence after sentence into his notebooks. His glasses slide further and further down his nose until he has to push them back up. He can feel a growing pressure against his side, but he brushes it off. He's too focused on his schoolwork. It's only when he hears faint snoring does he look over.

Oh.

Noelle is slumped against his side, her head smushed against his arm. His first thought is relief. He's glad she's finally getting some sleep, she seems like the type to work herself into the ground. He does worry about her, this freshman who's wormed her way into his thoughts. She's equal parts steel and string, iron will and fragile glass. 'Hell of a combo,' he thinks. '

Her glasses are skewed on her face. He knows that can be a pain, so he very gently and as smooth as he can, removes them and places them next to his bowl of carrots. His free arm reaches back behind him to grab at one of the folded quilts on top of the sofa. He very softly unfolds it and drapes it over her. The quilt's one of his first ones he made; its a little more ragged, some of the edges don't match up right, the stitching's pretty uneven. Still, it's pretty warm, and the girl seems to get cold quick.

Something tugs at his chest then, the sight of Noelle curled underneath a quilt he's made, her squished up against him and snoring softly. It's warm and painful at the same time, tugging the breath from him like a sharp hit to the ground. He can't stop the immensely fond smile that tugs at his lips nor the warmth in his eyes as he looks down at her.

As soon as the quilt envelops her, she seems to relax even more. Her breath slows down even more, and her body is completely lax against Tobi.

It's a deep and dreamless sleep. The only type of sleep when you have worked way too hard and your body powers down. She starts to drool a little bit (something she's not proud of). Her book is still in her hands, opened in the middle. Unbeknownst to Noelle, her phone has been buzzing in her bag.

Where are you?

Noelle? Are we still meeting?

?? Seriously?

And two missed calls. All from Evan. But that didn't matter right now. All that mattered was that Noelle had a safe place to sleep. She could have stayed there all night.

Tobi lets the girl sleep. She seems like she needs it, what with how dark the bags under her eyes were. That coffee did absolutely nothing for her, he saw that, and that's a state he's only hit during cram weeks and before tests when he chains together all-nighters. He also can't say that he doesn't enjoy her leaning against him. It's a little selfish, he knows, but he can't bring himself to care.

She's drooling a little now, and Lord almighty that shouldn't be as cute as it is. He shakes his head with an unguarded smile and decides that maybe he's done studying for the night. He closes his book and sets it aside carefully. The carrots are shoved aside to make room for his own glasses next to Noelle's. With that, he settles more comfortably onto the couch. His arm is forfeit, he's accepted this, so he settles his head onto the back of the couch and closes his eyes.