Xander smothered a sigh as his roommate came swaggering into the room with a girl under his arm, and then also had to throttle the frown trying to creep over his face when the idiot jock looked at him pointedly. He had regretted many things in his life, but few mistakes were as irritating as the agreement he had rushed into when moving into this dorm with Jake this year. When the guy had suggested that they should cede the room to the other if they ever happened to bring back company, Xander had agreed quickly, partially because he figured it wouldn’t happen that much, and partially out of a panicked desire to be on good terms with someone he was going to be spending a large amount of time around. What he hadn’t known at the time was that Jake was a larger man-slut than just about anyone else on campus, routinely bringing girls back several times a week.
The girl giggled and whispered something into the lunk’s ear, eyeing Xander’s side of the room with the combination of disgust and morbid fascination that most of the vapid barbies did, her eyes coming to rest on his most recent canvas. Xander was proud of that piece, he had managed to really capture the essence of a grim reaper, the empty sockets of the skull portraying a piercing hatred for the living. “Ewww… that’s so totally cheugy…” the blonde ‘whispered’, her slightly slurred speech easily loud enough for him to hear as he stuffed his laptop into his backpack and headed out the door. He frowned to himself, pissed off by the comment, and debated about turning on them, but he heard his roommate chuckle followed by the wet sounds of a drunken makeout starting up. With an irritated sigh, he just trudged out of the room instead, but slammed the door behind him as hard as he could. He wasn’t particularly strong, and the hydraulic door closer was just as robust as everything else in the dorms, so he barely managed a small ‘bang’.
Xander still imagined that the noise interrupted the asshole as he took a moment to rake his fingers through his long black hair and check his eye shadow in the mirror of the little compact he carried around. “Stupid normies,” he muttered as he retouched a few spots before heading off down the hallway. Being a goth hadn’t ever been particularly easy, especially coming from a smaller town, but he had found a few other kindred spirits here at the college. That was lucky since nights like this were all too frequent and he often needed somewhere to hang out for the night. Pulling out his phone he sent a message off to a couple of his friends as he headed out of the dormitory hall and into the night. At least one of them was probably still up even this late, but if not he could just chill in the art studio and work on his sculpture.
There were a handful of students out, some heading to or coming from various bars or maybe a frat party, but there weren’t that many, and the night sky was clear as he trudged. The cool autumn air was a bit nippy, so he picked up the pace slightly. Xander hadn’t heard back from anyone by the time he was getting close to Heller Hall, so he headed up the concrete steps and into the building, swiping his student card through the reader to gain access. It was going to be a long ass night, so after getting to the third floor he headed for the small common area where the vending machines were. The building was mostly dark, the room lights being off along with half the hall lights to conserve power, and it was nearly as silent as a grave. A smile twitched his lips as he thought about that saying, and he imagined a deep fog rolling down the tiled floor to herald the approach of some dark entity. Thus, he nearly jumped out of his skin when a loud ‘CRACK’ resounded from around the corner, followed by several more.
After the initial shock passed, he hesitated briefly, but then hastened to go see what was happening when muttered curses began to accompany the sharp cracks and bangs. Turning the corner, he saw another student angrily attacking one of the snack machines. “Stupid fucking capitalist pigs!” the short brunette swore as her hand again smacked the glass loudly, causing the whole thing to shake. Xander immediately saw her issue, as not one or two, but three bags of chips were currently stuck half vended. The snacks were accordioned up and pressed against the glass, but were still stuck on the metal corkscrew. The girl’s blows were causing the bags to wobble very slightly, but they didn’t seem to be going anywhere fast.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Xander didn’t like most people, especially normies, but he could easily understand the frustration of putting what little money you had into the overpriced TRK-KN vending machines only to have your life-saving snack get stuck. He debated about if he should try to help, but was worried that his pale and lanky figure might scare the girl if he tried to approach in the dimly lit hall. Still… he did have a thing for short girls, and she didn’t give off the barbie vibe that he hated so much. Her hair was tied up in a no-nonsense bun, and she was wearing a red flannel shirt and well worn jeans, both of which had some grease stains on them. She was probably a student of the engineering department then, which shared the building with the art studios.
He shrugged to himself after a moment. While she wasn’t his type, the girl was a fellow student and maybe he could get her to throw him one of the bags of chips. He cleared his throat awkwardly, trying to get her attention, but her repeated attacks on the machine drowned out his first and second attempts. She did hear the third though, and she whipped around, one hand going to a hip where a small belt knife was clasped. “What the fuck?!” she demanded without a trace of fear, but then relaxed upon seeing him lift his hands with a bit of a smirk. “Uhhhh chill… I come in peace?” he tried to joke lamely, but it clearly fell flat. She just glared at him in silence, making him shift uncomfortably a bit from foot to foot before he nodded at the stuck snacks “I uhhh… couldn’t help but notice that you might need some help?” he said. She seemed to relax a bit, so he continued on “These old TRK-KN machines get stuck all the time, but all you have to do is rock them a bit” he explained “This one in particular always gets stuck. But on the other hand it’ll probably knock one of the Snickers loose too.”
She stared at him in wary silence for a few more seconds, before letting out a long sigh, her anger fading away into annoyance “I’d rather not get in trouble for that kind of bullshit” she said with a shrug, “But if you want to take a shot at it, be my guest.” She stepped away from the machine to give him space, so he stepped closer to it. He reached up to grasp the upper lip of the machine, and with the experience derived from many other lonely nights of practice, expertly began to rock the recalcitrant snack hoarder. With his height he had a good angle to get it going, and let it bang back into place a few times. The chips shuddered much more than before, and he smirked in satisfaction believing they would come any time now. After a minute though, they still hadn’t budged satisfactorily, and the girl snorted “Yeah, them bastards are stuck, on cap…”.
Xander grunted, already starting to sweat a bit from the exertion, but growled angrily “No, I’ll get them…”. He had already been annoyed tonight, and her use of slang irked him a bit since it reminded him of the blonde sucking face with his roommate. This girl wasn’t exactly his type, but it still felt like a mild betrayal because he had wanted her to be better than all the other dregs of society he had to deal with.
He began to shake the machine a bit more violently than usual. It felt good to expend a bit of his frustration, and he could see the bags actually moving slightly. One of the candy bars did indeed fall with a clunk, but he was too focused on the stuck chips to care. He gave another big tug, hoping that this would be the one to get them loose, but was slightly confused when the expected resistance of the machine rocking back into place never came. Xander heard a panicked shout from behind him and was just beginning to look up from the brightly colored bags that were his focus when the TRK-KN vending machine finished toppling over and crushed him beneath its metallic bulk.
