There Once Was Something Here [Fiction Friday, Part 3]

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Tyson was quickly confronted with two identical visages, meeting his gaze with an innocent inquisitiveness on their faces. "Seriously. How is it possible for so many people to know me, when I haven't even been here for a full day yet? I haven't even set up my room yet!" His skin was rapidly becoming a blood red with a mixture of anger and a sort of shy anxiety.

"Well...Jeeze Tyson..." Began one of the pair, "We were just..."

"...Trying to be friendly." His doppelganger continued, "We've already figured out everyone else in the dorm, so we figured that..."

"...You must be the one left over - and so we thought we'd just come and say..."

"...Hello!" They ended in unison. Tyson shuddered slightly - it was weird enough trying to tell when one stopped talking and the other began without looking them in the face (which Tyson rarely did to anybody, preferring to - as it had previously been expressed - inspect their sneakers) let alone when they spoke as one.

"Uh...I'm...I'm sorry..." Tyson backed up slightly, bumping into his door. "I just...I had a run in with some guy in a weird hoodie and...my family lives basically on the other side of the country...and...it's just...it's been, like, been like...well...shit really..." He struggled to express himself, as he found his comfortable life unravelling quickly before him. His usual uncaring facade was finally replaced by the melancholy he felt inside.

"Dude chill," the left twin placed his hand on Tyson's shoulder, "It's just university - it's no big deal. You had a run in with a bit of a freak, which happens to everyone here now and then..."

"...And you can still see your old friends and your family online!" Tyson slowed his breathing and considered what the twins had said. They were right - there was nothing really that bad going on, it was just part of growing up and experiencing the "real world" - he was just overdramatising ("as usual", as his mother would have said.) As he calmed down, Tyson found that the twin's rapid change style of talking was less disturbing - though just as difficult to separate.

"There you go, all better." The left twin always seemed to initiate any dialogue that the two engaged in, "I'm Lachlan..."

"...And I'm Leo." Both twins stuck their hands out, and Tyson shook them with ginger enthusiasm...Something about them...about what they'd just said...didn't sit right. Something about their names...As he finished properly greeting Leo it suddenly dawned on him. He tried to stifle his reflexive sarcasm, the return of which at least indicated to him that he truly had calmed down.

"Wait..." He had failed, "Lachlan...And Leo..." He stared at the twins in disbelief - surely their parents couldn't have had that little forethought. The twins rolled their eyes, knowing what was on its way. "Your parents named you Lockie and Leonard?!"

"Yeah, yeah," Lachlan started, his voice a strained indication that they'd explained this situation time and again, "They're massive surfers, and they thought it would be 'cool' to name us after a little surfer rat instead of giving us normal names and, you know, letting us not be mocked through every English class in year 7." He continued on with a spiel about how his parents believed in nominative determinism, and how they wanted the pair to be famous surfers, everything that his parents just couldn't be - the stage parents of the coastal world. Leo let his brother talk, not once taking over.

"I...I'm sorry..." Tyson began to tense up again, fearing that he had prematurely tried to be casual - meeting new people was not something he'd had to do for quite some time - his previous social clique, which in his mind resembled a merry band of skaters was a close knit community that rarely accepted new members.

Leo's face brightened, and he finally spoke first "No harm done! How were you to know the history?" his voice was almost alarmingly chipper, "Anyway we read your bio - the one you had to do when you applied for the residences - and we wanted you to come out with us tonight. Just for dinner, you know. It'll be us, and a couple of people from a couple of the courses around here. Just trying to make new friends, ya know? I'll be fun..."

Tyson contemplated his options...It couldn't hurt to meet some new people, after all..."I'll..." His confidence faltered as the thought of betraying his old social circle flitted across his mind, "I'll think about it. While I'm setting up my room..." He quickly opened his door and stepped inside, saying a quick goodbye to the twins, who promised to come back for him before they left.

He thought about how his behaviour must be making him come across, before attempting to regain his usual nonchalant attitude. He switched on his computer, turned his music up loud, and proceeded to arrange his room in the anarchic style to which he was accustomed.

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