Mark Watney x Ryland Grace college/university AU
kind of more in depth version of this post.
Colt and Ryland graduate from high school with matching smiles on their faces. In the crowd, there is a man who looks like a copy of the boys, or they are a copy of him. Court watches from the back as his baby brothers graduate, Colt with a hockey scholarship and Ryland with an academic one to the same university. Package deal.
Court helps them move in, though its in the form of the completely paid for moving van that shows up to their grandparents house and the pizza that arrives later that night with a pack of watermelon gum on top.
They couldn't swing being roommates, and end up on opposite sides of campus. Ryland ends up with some business major who is rarely their, determined to join one of the frats first thing. Colt, however, ends up with a guy named Mark, also a STEM major, but studying botany.
Ryland doesn't like him. He is loud and arrogant, and thinks he knows literally everything. It's not enough that he is living with his brother. Oh no, it's only fair that they end up with a group of mutual friends, putting them at the same tables in dining halls and for study sessions in the library.
By the end of the first semester, Ryland is about to lose it. The whole drive back to their grandparents house for the holidays, Colt is subjected to his brother ranting about how insufferable his roommate is.
Little does Ryland know, in their friend group there are several bets placed. Colt has at least $200 on one specific bet, and he is sure he will win.
Call it intuition, or being brothers with one of them, and roommates with the other, giving him an unfair advantage.
