Three years is a long time. When Jonny first walked up to the grand doors of UCL with a stack of books balancing in one hand and a guitar case in the other, he never even imagined that he would make any friends at all, let alone three very significant ones who he seemed to be stuck with now for quite a large chunk of his future.
The air around the four of them teemed with excitement as the end of the week drew nearer. Chris had taken to posting a countdown on the wall in the kitchen of the flat he and Jonny shared. Every morning Jonny would walk into the kitchen to see that the number had already changed – Chris was never one to sleep in.
When the four of them were together, all of Jonny's, Guy's and Will's combined efforts went into making Chris settle down and stop talking. He would go on and on about how only four days remained, or three days, or two days, and if neither of the other three had ever said anything, he would have talked nonstop until that Friday finally arrived.
Thursday morning, Jonny felt the booming presence of the giant number one boldly written in red ink on the notepad by the wall. But when he looked up, the ink was shaped more in the form of a two. He felt a tiny sinking feeling and the inkling that something was off scratched at the back of his mind.
Jonny immediately left the kitchen and headed for Chris's bedroom. He found the door open, as usual, and as he stopped he nearly had a heart attack; Chris sat in the corner by his writing desk, curled up and staring at the now occupied doorway with impossibly large eyes.
Jonny cautiously walked into the room. He didn't ask permission not only because the door was already open anyway, but because he knew that Chris wouldn't object. In fact, Chris never even stirred until Jonny took a seat beside him.
He shot his eyes in Jonny's direction, clearly fearful and Jonny thought he even saw a bit of sadness in them. Jonny spoke and chose his words carefully, for he had seen Chris go through a mass number of mood swings over the years and taking it easy around him was always a good idea. This seemed to be even worse than usual.
“Have you had anything to eat yet?” Jonny asked. If Guy or Will had been there, they may have asked Chris if he was all right, or asked him what was wrong, but they didn't know him like Jonny did. They were all close friends, but his and Chris's relationship was different, if not only because they lived together. Jonny had the ability to learn every aspect of Chris's multifaceted personality, especially the parts that Chris only ever let show in the late hours of the night and the early hours of the morning.
And when Chris was around the other three in a group, he took to being the over-enthused one, trying to never let anything besides optimistic words flow from his perpetually moving mouth. He had broken down once or twice in front of them all, but even then he bottled up his feelings as much as he could to spare them all the burden of dealing with him. He only ever let Jonny see him like this, because he knew as Jonny did that they weren't like the others. The flat they shared was his home, a part of him, and therefore he felt as if Jonny was a part of him. There was no reason to hide here.
“Everything's going to change, isn't it?” Jonny blinked and waited for Chris to continue. “Tomorrow, we'll get signed, and then everything's going to change.”
Jonny shrugged. “Probably. Do you want some pancakes or something?”
Chris returned to staring at the doorway. “This is worse than going through high school.”
“We'll always be here with you, Chris,” Jonny told him, and in a slight way he meant to say, I'll always be here with you, but Chris knew that and it didn't need to actually be said.
“We don't have any more pancake batter.” Chris looked at Jonny out of the corner of his eye and guiltily admitted, “I kinda couldn't sleep at all last night, and you know how my metabolism gets when I don't sleep.”
Jonny looked up to the ceiling and sighed plainly. “That's right, if I remember correctly you once stayed up for four days straight and nearly cleared the campus of any and all edible items.”
“As delicious as they may look, the half-eaten meals they throw into the garbage bags aren't all that tasty,” Chris sheepishly warned. Jonny laughed, still staring upwards.
“We can go to that dinner around the corner, they always have good pancakes.”
Chris shook his head. “No, they don't, but I'm so tired right now that I could eat the tables if it wouldn't break my teeth and possibly my digestive system.”
“I think that would cost a lot more than the pancakes would. Come on,” Jonny quickly said, tapping his hand against Chris's arm, “it's on me.”
Jonny jumped up and held his hand out for Chris. Chris never needed any help standing, but he was always glad to take Jonny up on the offer. “OK,” he replied, his fingers still digging into the back of Jonny's hand, “but first I have to go change that number. Jonny, we're getting signed tomorrow!”
Chris flashed a huge grin as he released Jonny's hand, then sped off into the other room with no further notice. Jonny followed him, feeling quite accomplished. He knew there were plenty of bad days ahead of them all, but at this particular moment he felt confident that he could handle anything life – or for that matter, Chris – threw at him.
