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In the dining hall, Grian and Jimmy sit, the former rambling about something or other - Jimmy’s long since lost track, too busy poring over his notes as he takes a bite of his sandwich. Finals week is rapidly approaching, and he is not feeling very prepared for most of them. Grian had mentioned going to the dining hall to study with some food as fuel, and Jimmy had gone along with him because it seemed like a good enough idea. The library would be full, anyway, so he figured they’d have more luck here. It’s busy, certainly, but there’s still some empty seats. They got lucky in finding a table with enough room for them to spread out their things a little.
Jimmy tunes in to Grian’s rant just in time to hear the word “Scar” and the name of Grian’s boyfriend, and from there it doesn’t take long to realize he’s talking about how his boyfriend feels about Scar. Again. He resists the urge to sigh, taking another bite of his sandwich and marking a few things down in his notes.
By this point, it’s easiest to just let Grian talk. It’s never any use telling him to do anything about it, seeing as he always gets defensive about his boyfriend. Jimmy tunes him out again.
He looks up a little bit later upon seeing some movement and his eyes widen a little when he sees Scar and someone he doesn’t recognize making their way towards him and Grian. Grian is still talking, so Jimmy takes it upon himself to greet them with a rather loud “Scar!”
Grian jolts, quickly turning around and seeing Scar. Scar grins at him, something soft. Jimmy looks away, focusing instead on the person he doesn’t recognize. He’s shorter than Scar, with blond hair tied up into a bun and wearing a red hoodie.
“Mind if we sit here?” Scar asks. The words are barely out of his mouth before Grian is nodding, moving some of his stuff out of the way. Jimmy takes his lead and does the same. Scar plops into the seat next to Grian, turning to him immediately, leaving the other guy to sit next to Jimmy.
It’s a little awkward at first, and Jimmy tries to go back to his notes. He isn’t succeeding for long, though, before the other turns to him.
“Hi, I’m Tango!”
Jimmy blinks. “I’m J -”
“His name’s Tim,” Grian pipes up, grinning at him with his usual shit eating grin. Jimmy rolls his eyes, and Tango frowns.
“Tim…?”
“It’s Jimmy, actually,” he’s quick to correct. “Grian just calls me that.”
“Ah,” Tango says, nodding. “You two are cousins, right? I think Scar’s mentioned that Grian’s cousin goes here.”
“Yup,” Jimmy says, popping the p. “We’ve been together since - well, basically ever.”
“He’s never getting rid of me,” Grian adds, and Jimmy snorts, resisting the urge to roll his eyes again.
“It’s more like he’s never getting rid of me.”
Tango chuckles. “It’s nice to have family nearby though, yeah? I’ve just got my parents, and they’re not very close.”
Grian goes quiet, so Jimmy quickly nods. “Yeah, it’s nice. We spend the holidays together. Joel’s also our cousin, but he usually goes with Lizzie during holidays.”
“He’s abandoning us,” Grian scoffs.
“You say that like you didn’t almost spend Christmas with -” Jimmy’s mouth snaps shut as he feels Grian kick his leg. He glares at him, and Grian sticks his tongue out.
“I didn’t though, did I? Still celebrated Christmas with you.”
“You did, you did,” Jimmy allows. “You also texted him at every possible moment.”
“He’s my boyfriend, what more did you expect?”
Jimmy just sighs. Again, it’s not worth getting into an argument over this. Besides, he gets it. If he had a partner, he’d probably want to spend the holiday with them, too. He just…hadn’t wanted to spend the holiday alone, so luckily Grian had decided to stay with him and spend the holiday together like they’ve done for years.
He turns to Tango. “So, how do you know Scar?”
“Oh, I was in the library working on an assignment when I noticed the guy at the other end of the table looked to be struggling with what he was working on. I talked to him, and found out he was working on an assignment for the same math class I took the previous year, so I helped him. And then we got to talking, and…” He shrugs. “You know what Scar’s like.”
Jimmy chuckles. “Yeah, he kind of worms his way into your life, doesn’t he?”
Tango laughs, nodding.
The two of them continue talking. Jimmy learns that Tango is a year above them, and is majoring in engineering. Jimmy told him that it took him a while to decide on what to major in, but he eventually settled on kinesiology with the goal to become a sports therapist. He used to play football - soccer, whatever - until he got injured right before they moved to the US. He’d been talking to one before they moved, and when he was trying to decide what to do, he decided he’d really like doing something like that.
When Jimmy told him that, he’d lit up. “Does that mean you know where all the muscles are?”
“Uh, not right now, but I should at some point.”
“What’s this one?” Tango points to his arm, and Jimmy blinks.
“That’s your tricep.”
“Oh, yeah. Okay, that was an easy one.”
The two of them get so caught up in their conversation that Jimmy doesn’t realize Grian has been saying his name for the past few minutes until he feels him lightly swat at his head. He squawks, turning to him, a complaint already on his lips. That falls away though as he sees his expression.
There’s a pinch in his brow that hadn’t been there before, a tightness to his lips, and Jimmy frowns. A quick glance at his phone shows a notification from his boyfriend, and his frown deepens for a moment.
“C’mon, we gotta go.”
Jimmy sighs, a slight pout forming on his lips. He turns to Tango.
“Can I at least get your number before we go? I’d love to hear more about the game you’re working on!”
“Of course!”
The two of them exchange numbers, just in time before Grian grabs his arm and starts dragging him out of his seat. He shakes him off and collects his things, waving at Scar and Tango as they leave.
The moment they’re out of earshot, Grian turns to him with a smile that he already does not like the look of.
“So. Tango, huh?”
“...Yeah? What about him?”
“Oh, so we’re not going to talk about the instant crush you developed on him?”
“The - what?!”
Grian snorts as they exit the building. “Come on dude, it was so obvious. You were so engrossed in your conversation you didn’t notice I’d been saying your name for the past 5 minutes!”
“Tango was telling me about this cool game he was making! It’s called Decked Out, and -”
“Yes, I know about Decked Out. I know Tango too, y’know. I’ve heard about his game.”
“So you know all about how cool it sounds!”
Grian rolls his eyes. “Yeah, sure.”
“Anyway, I don’t - I don’t have a crush on him or anything. We just met!”
“Mmhm. Sure. We can pretend that I believe you.”
Jimmy sighs, but doesn’t say anything more as they walk across campus to Grian’s apartment.