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So, yeah. This is short, so I hope you guys enjoy!

One tip: about eight months after the previous chappy.

Roll the Film!

Colton's P.O.V.

I waved to my mom as I drove out of the driveway and turned down the street. The blue-and-white Durango coughed down the street as the engine warmed up, but once it was ready, it settled into a steady roar.

I rolled the windows down to get the breeze rolling through the car as I drove down the highway, forty-five minutes to DIA. I had left the house close to five hours early to account for security in the airport, and it was still 6 P.M. I wasn't looking forward to a redeye flight but that's what I could get that was within my budget. I was hoping I could get a job in Cincinnati that would help pay for the surprise trips I wanted to take home.

Laughing quietly to myself, I realized that instead of a football scholarship like I wanted, I had gotten a full-ride on swimming. Turns out I was a better swimmer than football player (and football players are in high supply and low demand). I had made State every year I had swum.

The Durango puttered to a stop in a parking space in the Pikes Peak lot for parking at DIA. It would remain there for the better part of six or seven months, unless I could afford a Thanksgiving Break trip back.

The bus ride to the airport was relatively uneventful. A few more furs got on the bus--a gryphon, an eagle, and a wolf, like me--but none of them said anything, and neither did I. Security was a breeze; it took me about T-5 minutes to get through, and I had a good three and a half hours before my flight. I was that kind of guy: I could never be too early, but being on time was the same as being late.

I had a quick dinner at the Chiles' in the C terminal, which occupied about thirty minutes of the time, leaving two hours and forty-five minutes. Remember, I had to travel to C terminal as well. I spent the rest of the time playing games on my phone.

Finally, as it had seemed much longer than three hours, my flight started boarding. American Airlines Flight 407 to Cinncinatti/Northern Kentucky International Airport boarding now. I stood and stood in the Business Class flight line. My parents had paid, and Business class on a redeye was the same as Economy on a normal time flight.

I quickly found my seat and waited until everyone else had boarded. The gryphon from earlier caught my eye as he boarded. I glanced at him, and he quickly looked away. I thought there was something...I don't know, familiar?...about him. The flight was scheduled to take two hours and fifteen minutes, because we would be going against the jet stream. I smirked to myself; had two hours and fifteen minutes to game late at night.

Or I could sleep. I closed my eyes and immediately knocked myself out.

I awoke as we began the descent. I slept the whole time? I was surprised. I rarely was able to sleep on planes, which was attributed to my insomnia. I must've been really tired.

We touched down, and I let nearly everyone on the plane get off before me until the only fur on board with me was the gryphon.

"Go ahead," he insisted.

"I can't, you go," I replied, then smiled. "We are gonna be here all night until one of us caves, aren't we?"

He nodded. "Yep."

I laughed. "Then I'll go." I stepped out into the aisle and grabbed my bag from the overhead compartment. Just before I turned to step out of the plane, I turned and looked at him. "By the way, it's been bothering me the entire flight: do I know you?"

He peered at me for a second, then shook his head. "No, I don't believe you do."

I frowned. "Huh. Are you in college?"

"Yeah, where are you going?"

"Xavier," I said, "on a swimming scholarship. I'm a freshman."

"Hey, same," he said. "Except...not on a swimming scholarship," he added, smiling.

I led him off of the plane, and when we reached the hallway, he caught up and walked next to me. "You know, you remind me of someone, someone I knew a long time ago... What's your name?"

"Colton."

He shook his head. "Yeah, not the same person. My name's Renaldo, by the way."

I laughed. "Good name."

"I could say the same about you."

"Thanks."

Silence reigned over our conversation for a few minutes as we rode the underground tram to Baggage Claim.

Then I said, "What room are you staying in?"

"Eh, I don't know. Don't really care. I think it was close to 150?"

"Hey, same here," I paused. "You gonna take a bus?"

Renaldo nodded. "I was thinking we could ride over together."

I shrugged. "I suppose it couldn't hurt. Sure!"

He smiled. "Hey, at least I won't be alone for the journey!"

We laughed together as we approached our baggage claim.

Close to fifty minutes later...

I shrugged my backpack that contained all of my electronics higher on my shoulder. I had a camera, a computer, a phone, a Samsung Tablet, and an iPad. All of my books, my clothes, etcetera, were in my suitcases.

The bus pulled to a stop at our stop. I let go of my cramped grip on the bar and hopped off, my suitcases thumping against the ground behind me. I took a deep breath of the clean night air and turned to Renaldo. "We have a little ways to walk, but I planned it so that it was shorter and more downhill."

"Well," he said, "Glad I came with you. I would have gotten off at the last one."

I shrugged. "I try to do my research. Made me do something very stupid earlier in my high school life."

"I think everyone could say the same," Renaldo said.

"No, like, really stupid. Like, 'the fuck you do tha' fo'?' stupid."

"Well," he said, "I think you beat us on that one."

I laughed. "Perhaps, but a friend of mine did something nearly as bad."

Renaldo laughed as well. "That we could all relate to."

"I suppose that's why I said it. Legit, I went into shock and seized at the same time." We laughed and started walking. "This is probably the most relaxed I've been in a very long time," I said. "Being out of my home town, I can tell, has already done me some good; way too tense back there."

Renaldo nodded. "I agree."

Silence reigned over our conversation until I started singing Broken Together by Casting Crowns (no copyrights owned ;D).

Renaldo listened until I finished, and applauded me as I finished. "Huh, you have a great voice. Again, reminds me of someone from my past, but wrong name."

I smiled shyly. "My family hates it. They think I'm a terrible singer and tell me to stop every time. They even restricted me from taking Voice at the school I went to."

"That sucks, man. You do have a really good voice; I'm not lying." He laughed then. "Check my record, if you want. In the year where there were more people expelled than were in my class, I was one of the few that did not get expelled."

I smiled. "That makes sense. You're too good of a kid to be expelled, from what I've seen of you."

He nodded, and once again silence ruled our conversation. It lasted until we arrived at the campus four or five minutes later. I pointed. "That would be the dormitory building. We should go and get some sleep."

"I agree. Walk with me?"

I smiled and took his extended hand in the fake 'boyfriends' manner, until we broke down and laughed, letting go of each other. "Let's go." I stepped into the dorms and stopped. "Well," I said, looking around at the magnificent polished white granite walls and tiled floor, "no turning back now. What number is your dorm?"

"It's number 154. I was actually pretty close!" We both laughed as we walked down the hallways--quietly, of course. We knew there were people sleeping behind the closed doors that dotted the long hallway. "If I know anything about how schools are set up, we're probably on the first floor, so right down this hallway."

"And I'm number 156, so right next to you."

"How do you know?" Renaldo asked.

"Well, odd numbers are on the right, and evens on the left, from what we've seen already. It's the only logical conclusion," I replied, looking up at him. Did I mention that he was close to a head taller than me?

He cocked his head. "Good point."

I shrugged. "Logic." We reached Dorm 154. "Well, I guess this is where we part for the night."

Nodding, he said, "Yep. See you tomorrow?"

"For lunch, probably."

"Cool."

I smiled at him as he turned and closed the door to his dormitory.

And in the brief second before the door closed?

Well, I think I saw him smile back.

I turned and walked another door down and used my key card to unlock the door to my dorm. I stepped in and closed the door quietly, locking it again behind me. I could immediately see that Xavier set the dorms up as double-ups, which, for those of you who don't know, means you share the room with someone else. The first room was what you'd expect of a living room: a flatscreen TV with a few game consoles, a couch, a few bean bags, and a small kitchen-like area in the right corner next to the door, if you ever wanted to eat a meal at your dorm. There was another door on the right side of the room, also next to the kitchen, which probably led to the bedroom. There was a door almost exactly opposite the bedroom door on the left wall, which I assumed led to the bathroom, which had a shower, a sink, and a toilet, plus a little moving space with nothing in it.

I laughed--very quietly, because it was possible that there was someone sleeping in the bedroom. Walking across the carpeted floor, I put my hand on the handle and slowly turned, opening the oiled hinges without a creak. What--or rather, who--I saw sitting on the bed on the right nearly gave me a done good heart attack.

"Seje?" I gasped.

"The one and only," he replied, smiling. "When I found out that you were my dorm partner I nearly flipped."

"Jesus, man," I said, "you almost gave me a seizure."

"Well, good thing I didn't."

"So," I said. "Swimming."

He smiled. "Yo. How're you barking?"

"Pretty pole vaulting, how about you?" I managed to answer, before exploding into laughter. It was an old joke between us. We'd use sports or actions that usually aren't used for greetings/questions as exactly that. "But seriously, I haven't seen you since...what was it, fifth grade?"

"That's it," he agreed. "So good to see you again!"

"Same," I said.

"Awesomesauce!"

"I can see you never stopped with your weird words." I laughed, remembering how he used to always twist a word in every sentence so that it sounded similar, but at the same time completely different.

"I kind of did, actually. People started making fun of me for it, so I stopped."

"Jesus, man. I told you then, and I'll tell you now, I don't give a damn about what other people think, and neither should you, if it's something bad about you." Then I shook my head. "That was phrased terribly, but you follow?"

"Yeah," Seje said.

I laughed. "When I first met you, you seemed like the type of person who would never let other people drag you down."

Seje smiled up at me. "I was. Not so much anymore." He sighed. "This game has broken my façade."

He stood up. "Seje?" I said quietly. He looked at me. I quickly drew back my fist and hit him across the face, hard enough to make him fall to the ground. "Seje," I repeated, now holding out my hand.

Seje took it and allowed me to help him up. "Thanks," he said, rubbing the spot where I had hit him. "I needed that."

"Of course," I laughed. "Anything for an old friend." What I'd done is knocked that mindset out of him.

"Well, I need to get to bed." He yawned. "This is definitely too late for me."

I laughed again. "You always were the 'Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise' type... Alright, I'll let you go to bed. I have to brush my teeth, at least. Maybe take a quick shower."

"Alright," Seje said. "Just make sure to lock both doors. We share the bathroom with 154."

"Oh?" I said. "That'll be interesting. By tomorrow morning or night I'll probably have forgotten about it. Don't remind me, though; I want to see the reactions of who is in there. I met one of them on the way here: he was on the plane with me, and we ended up becoming...well, buddies, I guess."

He smiled. "I would ask to be in there with you when it happens, but I'm not sure I want to be."

I laughed. "No, you do not."

"G-night," he said, crawling up in his bed and pulling the covers over him.

"G-night," I said back, but he was already asleep. I smiled a little and turned to get my bags, unpack and clean up.

Well, quite an unexpected ending! Colton goes to college and realizes that he has double-upped with an old elementary school friend! And who is this mysterious 'Renaldo'? Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Many thanks to The Bloody Seje for letting me use his character 'Seje'.

I'll see you guys next time!

Momentine!