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chapter 0.01: feels like we’re meeting for the first time | series masterlist

summary: in which you receive some not so good news about your roommate situation upon preparing for your last year of university. however your mom thinks there’s a silver lining hidden beneath it when you see who you’re living with for the year.

pairings: ex boyfriend!chris sturniolo x ex girlfriend!reader [ eventually ] and oc boyfriend x female!reader

warnings: swearing, angst. that’s about it.

word count: 2.8k

dedications: thank you to @strnilolover, @endereies, @bernardsbendystraws, and @luvs4matt for proofing this.

dividers: @strnilolover as always.

finishing your university degree in journalism has been your dream since you were sixteen and you just successfully published a thorough review blog of every movie that released that year.

completing your degree was the first time that you truly believed you were capable of doing something right. of potentially making a name for yourself. you felt like you had actually succeeded in life. realizing this was like feeling something close to utter bliss for the first time.

you’ve always felt a very strong passion for studying movies and writing about them, including your opinions and thoughts while also remaining unbiased, allowing your followers and readers to form their own thoughts. during your senior year, you had been received early acceptance into your first choice school and you couldn’t be happier.

when you first walked into the university, you were at a loss for words. you had finally started the path you had always dreamed of taking, but you were alone, and it scared you. your mom had been so willing to walk you to your first class, and you about two seconds from letting her. but you knew this was a step you had to take on your own. for the first time in eighteen years, you were truly doing things by yourself.

your mom had been by your side from the moment she had you at seventeen and your dad walked out of the delivery room. she would’ve moved into your dorm if you had let her, and if it wasn’t technically a crime, both literally and socially.

and as you maneuvered your way through the seemingly endless and winding halls of university, you bumped into someone. as you were about to start spewing nervously apologetic ramblings, you looked up to see who you had collided with, only to meet the prettiest eyes you had ever seen. he was quick to take the blame, saying he was too focused on trying to remember where he was supposed to go while your words died in your throat.

he asked you where you meant to go, teasing you about how looked like a lost puppy, and after showing him your schedule, he walked you to the room you had passed by twice already, he smiled and told you his name before realizing how late he was, before turning around and walking away without getting your name.

there was something about him that drew you in, despite him looking like a walking advertisement for the school’s fraternity. however after a few more run-ins, he finally asked for your name and number, and promised to make good use of it.

you and chris had gotten together shortly before spring break after spending months of tiptoeing the line of friends and something more. while getting to know each other, you found out you were both from boston, only about an hour drive from one another, and you were pleasantly surprised to find out that he was actually quite a kind and gentle person, nothing like his frat brothers for the most part. sure there were times that he was a bit of an asshole during the talking stage of your relationship, but after a serious conversation, you had learned that he wasn’t good with letting people in at first. you learned how deeply it scared him.

out of everyone in your family that met chris, your mom was the most skeptical of him at first. partly due to her annoyingly unwavering habit of judging people based off their appearance and the way they present themselves, and partly because she wasn’t ready to let go of you completely. but with the way chris looked like the poster child for every stereotype you could think of when looking at a frat boy, your mom was scared you were going to get hurt. but within a week of meeting him, she trusted him to take care of you, her baby, her pride and joy, and she knew how deeply he loved you. and so, she gave him her blessing.

and over time, you were able to help chris unlearn every negative or toxic belief he had about relationships. when he was with you, he learned that love didn’t need to be a game, and you learned that love was so much more than an obligation. you taught each other something so precious and gentle, something that many couples took years to find and learn. you were stable and healthy and utterly in love with one another. that’s why it shocked everyone around when the two of you broke up after four years together.

there was no big dramatic moment where it all came crumbling down, no fight that was blown out of proportion. it was a soft conversation hidden in the back of a cafe on a sunny mid-winter day, the two of you had gotten so busy, his hockey practices and games had started to really pick up, and he so was focused on being scouted, and your journalism course had landed you an internship with a media company and you were out running interviews and exposes day and night. the two of you felt like you didn’t have time for one another anymore, and it crushed both of you, but you decided that taking a break, breaking up, splitting, however you wanna spin it, was for the best.

when you returned home at the end of the year, you were ninety percent sure your mom was more heartbroken over the break up than you were. of course you were devastated, but you knew it had to happen for the time being. you loved chris with everything in you, and you were quite certain that you always would, but the two of you were growing in separate directions, which meant you had to love him from afar.

as you get ready to leave for your last year of university, you’re now twenty four, you just completed your bachelor’s degree in media journalism, and now you were finishing your last year of your film and media degree. as you start packing up for the last time, it hits you that you’re going on your sixth year of schooling, and it’s an exciting realization that’s been tainted by something melancholic and nostalgically heartbreaking. you’ve spent so much your time away at school, it’s become your second home.

you were counting on getting either a single dorm-room or a shared one with one roommate, or even at the very least shared dorm housing with a group of girls. but as you read the email about your housing situation, it dawns on you that that you completely let the deadline for securing a single dorm slip your mind.

sure, when applying for dorming, you clicked co-ed at the very last second because there was no way you afford to rent an apartment while also paying tuition. but even as you clicked send after choosing co-ed as your last option, you had been a little too confident in thinking that you’d never get placed in one.

you tried to barter with the lady who was head of dorm admissions, hoping to someway, somehow land a non-co-ed dorm, but as she reprimanded you, you could tell she was exhausted after having dealt with enough entitled brats throwing money around to get the dorm they want, and with that, she sent you your dorm number and ended the conversation. you let out a loud grunt of annoyance, making your mom chuckle as she steps into your room.

“what’s got you all pissed off?” she hums, not so sneakily sifting through your clothes, hoping to find something she can claim as your own.

“i got stuck in a lame ass co-ed dorm this year, which is whatever in itself, but i don’t wanna be cooped up with some weirdo gamer nerd that doesn’t know how to speak to people. and maybe that’s pretentious of me, but i want my last roommate to be a good one.” you grumble, venting away your frustrations while snatching the red halted top you had just bought yourself out of your mom’s hands, side-eying her as she pouts.

“well i don’t know but i think you should try to find the positive in it all. there are a lot of people who go to your university, you could make a new friend or maybe your roommate will be an old face that you haven’t seen in a while, maybe a certain ex-boyfriend of yours?” she laughs and teases, making the hair on the back of your neck stand tall at the idea of rooming with chris.

“yeah no, if that happens i’m moving in with aidan, you know, my boyfriend of six months.” you sneer, tired of your mom constantly pushing for you and chris to somehow reconnect, despite the fact that you haven’t talked in almost two years. with a heavy sigh, you turn to completely face your mother, a frown tugging at your lips,

“i know you loved and adored chris, i still love him and i always will but we broke up for a reason, mom. things weren’t working and we were way too busy to focus on our relationship. and we haven’t seen each other since the break up, i think that’s a pretty good sign that we’re not meant to reconnect. i’m with aidan, and he makes me happy. sure he’s nothing like chris and he’s a lot like dad and the life you didn’t want to be apart of, but he’s good to me. he’s kind and caring and insanely smart, give him a chance? please.” you speak, your voice trembling but certain with every mention of chris and what you felt for him.

“are you trying to convince me to give aidan a chance, or yourself? because you don’t seem so sure about him, but you seem quite sure of your feelings for chris.” your mom fires back, her response only further upsetting you as you push by her, needing some room to breathe.

for a while you wander around your neighbourhood, taking every back alley and hidden path, hoping to clear the bad mood and anxious thoughts from your mind, but your walk is interrupted by your phone going off, you begrudgingly assume it’s a text from your mom or aidan, but a part, a tiny part of you that’s locked away in the depths of your mind silently, secretly, and oh so desperately hopes it’s chris, but the rational part of you knows it’s not. and every time you find yourself wishing he’d reach out, the guilt is immediate. it’s raw and violent and it tears you apart from the inside out.

you really do like aidan and you enjoy being with him, but chris was the first guy that you ever genuinely loved, he was your first true relationship. he wasn’t just some confusing situationship that left you awake in bed and wondering why every night. he made you feel safe, secure, and loved every second he could. aidan was good to you, he was kind and funny, but it was all still so new. and you felt like things were rushed with him at times.

he came from a wealthy family that was all about settling down as young as they could and with aidan being the youngest of his four siblings he felt as though he was behind compared to them. so in an attempt to meet their standards, he was pushing for something serious and long lasting with you, despite only having started dating you less than a year ago. you wanted to stay with him, but at times you weren’t sure if the relationship was really meant for you.

with a dejected sigh, you pulled out your phone to see that your friends from university had texted their dorm room numbers in the groupchat, and you found that you were all in the same building, mainly different floors but close to one another nonetheless.

you replied with your dorm number “245 B” and you were met with various replies, a few of them mentioning chris and how they heard from matt that he was in the same building, which made you nervous, sad, and sort of excited. but you brushed it off, deciding to text aidan, knowing he was coming back from his weekly golfing trip with his family within the hour, asking if he wanted to go for dinner tonight.

you were to brush off your mom as you returned home, not wanting to face another conversation about whether it should be chris or aidan. climbing the steps to your room, you rummaged through your boxes, wanting to find the exact dress you knew aidan liked, groaning when you realize that you left it with tessa after you met up with her in somerville. you may have worn in hopes that you’d run into chris, but thanks to whatever bullshit karmic injustice was planted on you, you didn’t see him.

but as you start searching through more boxes, trying to find a specific outfit that would be suitable for the date, you decided that you were going to focus on aidan and that you were going to move on from chris completely.

as the last few weeks of your summer break went by, despite your decision to focus on your current relationship, you found yourself more and more wrapped up in your head, wondering if you and aidan truly had what it takes to make it together. you wanted to make it work, partly to prove that you were capable of loving someone other than chris, which made you feel guilty that you were using your new relationship as some sort of selfish method to prove something to your ex, but also partly because there truly was something about aidan that had you hooked, and you didn’t want to give up before the honeymoon phase was over.

you knew you had some things to sort out within yourself, you had a lot issues with overthinking and the lack of closure when it came to your relationship with chris didn’t make the constant onslaught of overwhelming thoughts any easier. you considered reaching out to chris to figure out how to get that closure that you both deserved so, so many times but you didn’t know how to do that without putting yourself in a compromising situation.

aidan, as sweet and patient as he could be, also felt a bit wary about chris in general. aidan understood there was some lingering feelings and issues, and it worried him, however he genuinely trusted you. which made you terrified to let him down, to betray the faith he holds so highly in you.

the drive back to school was nothing short of easy. mind numbingly easy. you had done it a thousand times over at point, and you could probably make it with your eyes closed, safety and danger hazards aside. pulling up to the university for the last time felt bittersweet, you were excited to finish this chapter and start the next one at the end of the school year, but you found yourself in this building, you learned so much about yourself and the world around you, you met so many people that you weren’t ready to say goodbye to.

and you know you’re getting ahead of yourself as you think about the end of your time here, but you can’t help it. when a person spends so much of their time in one place, there’s a certain fondness and nostalgia that makes it hard to think about leaving.

with a nervous huff of breath, you grab a duffel bag and head to the admissions office to grab your dorm key and name plate to stick on the door. while you’re there, you make a point to apologize to the lady for coming off as a pretentious asshole earlier in the summer when you received your email, letting her know that you didn’t mean to act that way, you were just nervous about getting a roommate you don’t know. she smiled warmly and accepted the apology and sent you on your way.

you walk to your dorm was full of numerous busy hallways crowded emotional moms sending their children off for the first time, exasperated dads carrying heavy boxes and rolling their eyes at their wives, and embarrassed young adults, but you couldn’t help yourself as you laugh under your breath at the sight of it all.

before you knew it, you were standing in front of your dorm. the door was slightly ajar, which could really only mean that your roommate was already here. with a few quick deep breaths, you push it open and call out into the relatively empty space, a slightly familiar scent and smoke, expensive cologne, and something sugary catching you off guard when you start to look around.

but as you turn to face the sound of footsteps, you’re stuck looking into the prettiest blue eyes you’ve ever seen, the same ones you fell in love with at eighteen, and your breath catches in your throat as he looks at you, really looks at you.

“holy shit, y/n-“ he rasps, his voice trembling with shock and something indiscernible underneath, “why are you here?”

“i think i’m your roommate, chris.”

STARS CORNER not the mom predicting the future what???

thank you to @strnilolover for helping out the time i was writing this + thank u for making my dividers as always, i love u :(

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