@il-mostrc starter: Lonely Hearts Club
Felix stared in confusion at his phone informing him to pick up his campus mail. Felix never got campus mail. Everything got sent to his appartment or PO Box. Upon retrieving said mail, Felix's expression went from perplexed to outright concern. The worker, a lovely middle aged woman that made it her job to memorize everyones names, had laughed at him.
"Oh don't look like that sweet heart. You're a senior yeah?" Felix nodded, chewing on one of his lip rings. "This is around the time students start getting big commission requests from the wealthy. Rich people are like that." She motions to the invitation he's holding as if it were a work of art itself. "They like to woo their artists into their first big job. Be known as the one that gave them their big break into stardom. And if I remember correctly your mid-year exhibition caused quite the controversy. Wouldn't expect anything less of someone interested in your work." Her smirk was downright salacious; which prompted a hasty goodbye and exit from a blushing Felix.
The mid year exhibition in question was a showcase of current seniors. Because this art school decided to torture it's students and have two final collections instead of one. Felix had made his first a series of paintings depicting how kink could be intimate and loving. It hadn't even been explict! The one he expected to be the least popular, a self portrait of sorts titled 'Self Love', of course got the most attention.
Felix wouldn't have minded it if the damn thing hadn't basically been a study in loneliness. Because he was painfully lonely and only a single person attending the event had picked up on it. Starting college late had ostracized him from his peers. An age gap of two years was alarmingly large when the elder was twenty. To add insult to injury his singular upperclassman friend (from a different university) all but vanished when she left for gradschool two years ago. Now at 24 he had no prospects, romantic or platonic.
Except now maybe he did? Felix was used to rich folks and their eccentricities but this felt different. Honestly it was the vagueness of the invitation is what put him off a little but who was he to judged? Free food was free food.
In the present Felix finds himself dressed in his nicest clothes and accessories. Which were admittedly dumpster dive finds from behind the mall that he had frantically tailored this morning and a black and gold drugstore cane he had removed the foam handle and replaced with leather. Checking his phone for the millionth time, seeing it read 7:25, he finally pulls himself together and knocks on the door.
