"I don't get why we couldn't be roommates," Jace shook his head, they had been talking to the woman at the desk for over an hour about their mixed-up arrangements in the dorm. "We specifically requested, as you can see right here," Jace slammed his finger against the computer screen, "to be in the same room."

The woman glared at Jace with a hatred stronger than I had ever experienced. "As I have said multiple times that was a request which was not met. Per our agreement, it is said that we will do our best to meet your requests but it isn't guaranteed. I apologize for the inconvenience, but I can't do anything."

"Inconvenience? Inconvenience?"Jace's voice rose to a level not even fitting for outside. "Get me somebody else!"

"Sir, if you can't calm down I'm going to be forced to call security to take you off the campus." The woman pulled out a radio and placed her chipped nail on the button. "Shall I?"

"By the angel, Jace!"I smacked his arm and pushed him away from the desk so I could face the worker. "It's not your fault. I'm sorry, can we please just get our keys and information?" 

"Of course." She glared at me as I tried to remain smiling. I imagined that she didn't smile often if ever. "You are in room 314 and he," she rolled her eyes at Jace, "is in room 316. You're next door to each other."

"Next door?" Jace smacked his forehead. "Why in the hell didn't you lead with that?"

"Jace," I took both sets of keys and waited for Jace to wander off, angrily while I listened to the rest of the instructions from the woman.

"Finally, if you speak to both of your roommates and they accept, you can switch rooms to be together." Her sneer lessened just a tiny bit. "I would recommend staying where you are though. We matched people with an algorithm. Your roommate will be much better than that boy you're here with."

"Thank you," I nodded and walked to Jace who was pacing and texting loudly. "Hey."

"Tame the shrew?" He asked as I handed him his keys for his room, laundry, and, main building.

"You didn't have to be so rude to her." I bumped into him with my shoulder as we headed outside so we could walk to our building. "She said that if our roommates agree, we can switch rooms."

"That's great." Jace clapped me on the back. "Let's run upstairs, tell them to switch, and then we can grab our stuff."

"Jace, we can't just tell them to." I rolled my eyes. My best friend was a great guy, but he was far too accustomed to having people do what he wanted. "We need to ask," I made sure he was looking at me before adding, "nicely."

"Yeah, yeah." He threw his arms up. "Okay. I'll be nice."

"Good," Alec said as he slammed into someone. "Ouch!"

"My pants!" The man shouted back as he landed on the ground, his butt hitting the wet grass. "What the hell?"

"Sorry," I held my hand out to him to help him up and was stunned when I caught his eyes. They were brown like chocolate and his hair was in a red, spiky mohawk. He ignored my hand and jumped to his feet with a glare. He didn't say anything as he briskly walked into the building we had just left.

"At least I'm not the only one who already made an enemy." Jace laughed as he held the door open for me to our building. While I was watching the mohawk guy disappear Jace had already unlocked the door and was inside. "Come on."

I shook my head and jogged to catch up with him, entering a bustling building full of girls and guys that were our own ages. Jace pushed through people, not caring if he actually hit anyone. Most of them reacted like people normally did to him, they stared and jumped out of his way. I wondered sometimes if he was aware of it or if it was so common he didn't even notice it. 

"314." Jace said as we stood in front of my dorm. "Remember, don't get comfortable. We're switching rooms."

"Right." I tried the door and found that it was locked so I pulled out the shiny, silver key and unlocked it. Inside I found a tiny room with two bunk beds with desks underneath and dressers at the end of them. There were small closets on each side of the tiny hallway and window on the far end between the two beds. It was about half the size of my bedroom at home. This was going to be an adjustment for sure. 

"Small, right?" Jace was leaning against my doorway. "My roommate, Simon, is cool with switching so we're all set." 

"They both have to agree." I reminded him. 

"Whatever." Jace rolled his eyes and sighed. "Fine. If your roommate gets here today then we'll ask, if not then we just go for it. I don't get why they'd care."

"Jace, we'll wait until I can talk to him." I gave him a stern look. "Why don't we start to bring our stuff up. We can start with you because either way, it'll go in your room?"

"Deal." Jace disappeared for a moment and reappeared with a nerdy, glass wearing guy behind him. "Simon said he'd help if we help him."

"Hey, I'm Simon," Simon said as if I was a complete idiot who was incapable of deducing that fact.

"Yeah, got it." I shoved my keys into my pocket and closed my door leaving it unlocked since there was nothing inside to worry about. "I'm Alec."

"Nice to meet you." Simon was overly friendly. I didn't like him.

We spent the next hour carrying, and dragging in Simon's case, boxes and totes upstairs putting everything in their room. Each time I checked my room but there still was no sign of my roommate. I met Jace at my car to help him with the last tote that needed both of us to carry it. 

"I talked to your roommate." Jace was beaming. "He said it's cool."

"Really?" I was glad, but at the same time, I was a tiny bit excited to have a little space from my best friend. "That's great."

"Yeah." He closed the door, I clicked the key to lock it, and we each took a side of the tote. Simon met us at the door struggling to carry his last box that was probably filled with a single pillow. I hated weak people. 

"We're ready to switch," Jace said as we set the tote underneath the bed on the left side of the small room. 

"I'm going to go thank my old roommate," I told him and he rolled his eyes. "What?"

"Don't be that guy." Jace gave me an embarrassed look. "We'll talk to them later. First, let's get settled."

"Okay, I guess you're right." I shrugged and opened the tote, pulling out my clothes. I was lucky because I really didn't own that much. I liked to wear clothes until they literally fell apart and then for another year or so before buying more. I owned about a month's worth of clothes if I wore the same thing most of that month.

"Should we at least help Simon get his stuff in his room?" I asked after having to move two of his boxes to get to my closet.

"I'll do it." Jace offered quickly. I was shocked, but I had hoped he'd become more considerate at college so I decided to let him continue.

"Ah, Jace?" Simon opened our door with a  hand on his neck. He looked flushed and confused. "There's a guy in the room I was switching to that's very confused."

"I'm sure it's nothing." Jace pushed me out of the way. "I bet you went to the wrong room." Jace shoved Simon out of the doorway and slammed the door shut behind him so I was in the room by myself. I had known better than to believe him. He probably hadn't even met my roommate. I opened the door and walked to the room that I was meant to be in to see Jace speaking, his arms flailing around in the air. 

"Jace," I touched his arm so he'd move to let me inside and I saw none other than mohawk guy. 

"Alec, I'm guessing?" The guy motioned to me.

"Yeah." I nodded. "I'm sorry for the confusion. My friend told me that he had already spoken to you so I thought it was fine."

"Geez, Alec." Jace hissed at me, a sneer on his perfect face. 

"If I allow you to switch rooms you'd owe me right?" The guy rubbed his chin.

"Yes," I said at the same time that Jace said. "No."

"Listen, the people screwed up. We're practically brothers and just want to be able to share a room. You don't know anyone here so I don't think it's a big deal." Jace explained.

"Yeah, but Alec here, ruined my favorite pair of pants and I don't like either of you so I'm not in the mood to be helpful." He smirked and cocked an eyebrow at me.

"So you'd rather share a room with the guy you hate?" Jace shook his head.

"It would make it much easier to get my revenge." His eyebrows went up. "By the way," he reached around Jace with his hand. "I'm Magnus, your new roommate."

"Dick." Jace stormed away.

"Well, this is going to be an interesting semester," Simon said as he struggled to grab his one box in the room.