strange exhilaration 🔙
college!chester bennington x reader
warnings: slow start, chester and reader don’t exactly click to begin with
001 - my roommate is unusually and exceedingly peculiar
exiting the elevator, you kept your eyes locked on the papers in your hand. one of them had the wing and number of your new home away from home. the paper had a map of the college campus with a highlighted path of where you were instructed to go. the only thing that was not made clear on paper your new roommate.
you walked down a short hallway and made a left turn. lo and behold, three doors down was a dorm that matched the number on the paper.
you began to search your jean pockets for the key you were recently given, but your train of thought was interrupted by the muffle of music that was heard from inside.
you knocked on the dormitory door three times and waited as you felt your anxiety creep up… no one answered.
huffing a bit, you knocked another three times. this time louder in attempt to get the unknown person’s attention.
soon you heard the obnoxious music stop and the door unlocked. once it opened, what you saw.. confused you quite a bit
a boy with spiked blonde hair answered the door, you could tell he was in need for a touch up on his roots. he wore a white tank top and a pair of random basketball shorts. he was also tall, close to six feet but not quite. definitely charming.
a boy? i’m sharing a room with a boy? there has to be some mistake
“can i.. help you?” the boy spoke, he barely had stepped out of the dorm, the door was close behind him so you couldn’t see inside.
“oh um, there must be some mistake. i’m new here- just transferred, and i was told that this would be my dorm but-“
“what’s the dorm number?” he cut you off, crossing his hands over his chest.
you handed him the paper you were given by the school dean. he scanned it and looked back with you with his tongue poking inside his cheek.
“you’re right this must be a mistake.” he started, handing the paper back to you
“you’re at the right place, though.”
the boy with spikey hair almost wanted to shut the door in your face. he wasn’t very fond of the idea of giving up sharing his dorm with someone. he’d made it halfway through the year without a roommate, why decide to give him one now?
you stared up at him with a blank expression and he mirrored that exact look. neither of you knew what to say next.
“come in, i guess.” the boy broke the awkward silence and turned back into room.
you stood still for a second before stepping in. you were immediately shocked by the mess you saw.
clothes and bags were littered throughout the room. takeout, wrappers- you name it. it was all scattered throughout the room
you mindlessly scrunched your face.
“it’s just you here?” you asked the blonde
“i might’ve cleaned up but nobody told me you were coming.” he replied, sitting on a bed that was a few feet from where you were standing.
“oh.” you said, your body language clear that you were uncomfortable.
“you got a name?” the unknown roommate asked
“y/n, what’s yours” you looked at him
“chester.” was all he said.
“well, chester. where’s the other bed?” you asked, turning your head a few times, looking yourself.
he got up from his bed with a sigh, almost as if the question bothered him. he walked past you to what looked like a pile of clothes and began to throw them all to the floor. soon revealing the second bed.
you looked at him with a confused face before opening your mouth to speak.
“do you think this is okay?”
“what? they were clean.” chester responded shrugging his shoulders
“no, to live like this.” you gestured to the mess around you.
“how? aren’t there inspections”
he rolled his eyes
“there are, the next one is in two days. and guess what? this mess—“ he gestured as you did a few moments ago
“is now considered your mess. if it bothers you, do something about it.” his words shocked you. he turned his back towards you and walked back to his bed which was on the complete opposite of yours.
you turned your side of the room, well— actually, bed. a few of chester’s posters hung on the wall, as well as his belongings on the nightstand next to your bed. you sighed, you were too tired from the long travel to go head to head with someone, let alone someone you’re supposedly now living with. you turned back to your roommate,
“do you think you coul-“ you cut yourself off, noticing he was laying on his bed, instead of bothering him you turned back around and began to exit the dorm with the intentions of bringing your bags up. alone.
…
later that night as you lay down on your new bed in your new home, if you would even call it home, you stared at the ceiling. sleeping in new environments was always hard for you.
the dorm was pitch black dark. you hadn’t unpacked your bags nor had you talked to chester since getting back from the student-only authorized parking lot.
you were 95% sure chester was asleep, he hadn’t said a thing since his clap back earlier. you slowly got out of your bed and reached for your duffle bag. using the moonlight from the window seal that doubled as a seat, you opened the bag and rummaged through it until you found your white noise player, something that often helped you sleep. you plugged it into the wall and set it on the nightstand before pressing the button that was programmed to the white noise.
it unexpectedly played loudly which caused you to hurry and turn it down so (hopefully) only you could hear it. after a few moments you felt peace from hearing the familiar sound and you turned in bed to snuggle in you comforter. the peace only lasted a few minutes until chester finally decided to speak
“can you turn that shit off?”
you felt a strike of anger wash over your body before taking a deep breath.
“it helps me sleep when i can’t. get used to it.” you replied before pulling the comforter over your face.
chester was rolled his eyes at your snarky reply. as he began to stare at the ceiling like you were before. in his head, the thought of snapping back battled with the thought of letting you be, maybe take your advice and try to get used to it.. nah. he soon came up with the idea to turn it off once you fell asleep.
at least thirty minutes went by before chester got restless. he got up from his bed with a sigh and walked over to the side of the room he once would lend to his friends that would get too drunk to leave his dorm and looked at you, your back to him.
eyes following his ears, chester spotted the little device that was making that torturous noise he just loathed.
“fuckin’ shit” chester mumbled under his breath, degrading your treasured possession, effortlessly finding the cord, and unplugged the device.
silence finally filled the room and chester turned to head back to his side
“what the fuck” you said tiredly, sitting up on your elbows. you were on the brisk of sleep. and this motherfucker just waltzed over and ruined it.
chester groaned before looking at you
“i told you that shit was annoying, i can’t fucking sleep!” he one-up’ed you by raising his voice a little
“well, now you know how i feel.” you replied, getting up and plugging your white noise device back in and turned towards chester, he was closer than you had thought, looking down at you intensely,
“get used to it.” you repeated, saying it more demanding than before.
chester held eye contact with you before mumbling something under his breath and walking back to his bed.
you groaned out of annoyance and got back in bed
you went to bed that night thinking about how you didn’t know much about your new roommate other than knowing that you did not like him, and chester’s thoughts did not differentiate from yours. he knew he wasn’t going to be able to stand you.
this is gonna be a long semester.
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