Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Dwight was four and a half when he met baby James. Dwight found it ugly and annoying. It cried all the time and couldn't even hold its own head up. Dwight’s mommy said he could when he was a baby because Schrutes had superior genes and Dwight had the strength of two babies. It was unfortunate that it didn’t seem to have the same genetic makeup, but it was the new son of his mommy’s friend so he had to play nice.

It would always stare at Dwight whenever he came over. His mommy and its mommy were best friends, so they were always here. Fannie played with its older siblings, leaving Dwight in its company. It never cried around Dwight, which was good, but it would always start up once Dwight moved from its sight. It would always grab at Dwight with its small, balled-up fists, teeny tiny fingers trying to clutch at Dwight’s superior hand. It would cling to his shirt, getting its baby drool all over him and not its bib. It would bob its head whenever Dwight smiled at it. It was a dumb baby, and Dwight didn’t like it.

Its mommy always took pictures of the two of them. “Awww, Jimmy really likes you, Dwight!” She snapped a picture of Dwight and it huddled together, its hands balled up in Dwight’s shirt. It kept gasping at him, little bubbles coming from its mouth. Yuck. Both of their mommies and daddies found it cute though, and it encouraged its behavior by making Dwight hold it. It looked up at him and drooled more, giving him a gummy smile.

“I always thought Fannie and Pete would tie our families together, but maybe it’ll be James and Dwight,” said Dwight’s mommy, causing everyone to laugh. Dwight blanched. He had no idea what they were talking about, but he didn’t want to be in the company of it any longer! And of course, it was of no help, staring up at him with its big eyes and giggling face. Eck.

Their families went skiing together in the Poconos. Dwight was too young to ski, so the five-year-old had to sled with the baby instead. He watched Pete, Tom, Larissa, and Fannie with jealousy. They always got to do cool stuff while he was stuck with the baby. His mommy told him that he couldn’t call the baby an “it” anymore because he had a name. James, Jamie, Jim, Jimmy, whatever, Dwight didn’t think he should acknowledge it if the baby couldn’t tell him his name himself. So “baby” it was. 

Dwight watched the baby try to crawl around the room. He normally could, but his mommy put him in a snowsuit that made his arms and legs jut out like a starfish. So the baby kept scooting across the floor on his belly, not getting far because he couldn’t gain his footing through the puffy coat. Dwight sighed and picked him up. It was funny to watch him struggle at first, but now it was sad; the baby looked like a farm animal that needed to be put down. He sat him on the couch of their hotel room, propping him up on pillows so he could look around the room. The baby giggled at him, making Dwight roll his eyes. What a creep. 

The baby’s daddy came and took Dwight and the baby outside to play. Dwight had to ride on the same sled with the baby because he was incapable of doing anything for himself. Dwight had to wrap his arms around the baby to keep him from falling over. What a nuisance. The baby made happy noises as air whizzed pass his face. Dwight supposed this was his first time sledding, he didn’t even exist last winter. “Did you have fun,” Dwight asked the baby, not expecting a response. What a weirdo. Dwight’s mommy said he could speak at five months old, obviously this baby was defective. Instead, the baby made gurgling noises as his daddy took pictures of them. 

Dwight sighed. This was not a play date he wanted to remember.

Months later the Halperts were at Schrute Farm barbecuing for Labor Day. Dwight ran around outside, chased by Fannie and Pete, while the baby rolled around on the porch. He still couldn’t walk or talk despite being eleven months old, something Dwight found ridiculous. The baby wasn’t trying hard enough, he’d never survive in the world.

The baby watched Dwight play with the older kids and moved to get to him. He tried crawling down the steps of the porch, but his mommy pulled him back. The baby started bawling. 

“Shhhh, Jimmy! Don’t cry! I don’t want you falling down the stairs,” cooed his mommy, kissing his face. Dwight thought the baby’s mommy coddled him too much. Dwight took the baby from his mommy and sat him in the dirt. There. Now he was at the bottom of the steps and not crying. 

“Bababba,” said the baby, holding his hands out to Dwight. Dwight took a step back, out of reach of the baby. The baby didn’t like that and tried reaching for him again. Dwight moved again. “Deewhytatata!”

“No “deewhytatata”. If you want me to play with you then you need to learn how to walk. Crawling is for babies.”

“He is a baby,” Fannie chimed in. 

The baby put his stubby arms on the stairs behind him and stood up on wobbly legs. “Deewhytata!” He took a shaky step forward towards Dwight. The baby’s mommy jumped up and ran into the house. She came back with a camera and called for her husband. “Gerald! Jimmy's about to walk!” 

The baby fell over on its behind and cried out. His mommy moved to pick him up, but the baby made a waving gesture that looked like he was saying no. Everyone crowded around and laughed, including Dwight. “Deewhytata! Deewhytatata!” The baby pulled himself up on the steps again and took a step forward. “Deewhyta! Deewhyta!” 

“Oh my god,” the baby’s daddy breathed. The baby tottered towards Dwight chanting, “Deewhyta! Deewhyta! Dee-why-tah!” He eventually reached Dwight and grabbed onto the bottom of Dwight’s shirt with his grubby hands. 

“He’s walking and talking,” cried the baby’s mommy. She kept filming the scene but her hands were shaking hard. 

“He said “Dwight”,” said Tom, appalled. “He should be saying “mama”, “dada”, or “Tommy”, not “Dwight”.”

“Way to make it about yourself, Tommy,” said Fannie. Dwight picked up the baby and brought him to his daddy. His daddy, in turn, put him back down and watched as he tried and failed, and then tried and succeeded to walk back to Dwight.

“Dee-why-tah! Dee-why-tah!” The baby caught up to Dwight and held his arms out, demanding to be picked up. Everyone laughed again and Dwight obliged. Dwight was proud of the baby for walking and saying his name, but more importantly, he was proud of himself. He knew the baby was lazy, he just needed someone to give him a push in the right direction. Dwight had been the one to do it.

Dwight was in the barn when he heard Jim scream. He ran outside and saw the four-year-old holding his arm, crying. There was a smug-looking goat on the other side of the fence who moseyed away. 

“Dwight! The goat bit me! I’m bleeding, I’m gonna die,” Jim cried. Dwight checked Jim’s arm, and outside of red skin where the goat nibbled on him, he was fine. The skin wasn’t broken, and it definitely wasn’t bleeding. Jim had a way of overreacting.

“Do you want me to bandage it,” Dwight asked instead, knowing it was easier to play along than convince Jim he wasn’t dying from a goat bite. Jim nodded and held his arms out for Dwight to pick him up. Instead, he bent over and allowed Jim to climb on his back. Dwight took him into the house and bathroom where he sat Jim down on the toilet seat. “Okay, I’m gonna fix your arm but first you have to stop crying,” Dwight said solemnly. Jim kept crying but bit his lip to keep noise from coming out. It was good enough.

Dwight rinsed Jim’s arm off under warm water before drying it off. “I’m gonna put magic healing cream on your arm, okay Jim? Once it’s on your arm won’t hurt anymore and you won’t die anymore either, okay?” Jim nodded. In actuality Dwight rubbed Jergens lotion on Jim’s arm and massaged it in, causing him to giggle. “Does it still hurt,” Dwight asked. 

“No, it feels better!”

“Good. I’m going to wrap it in gauze now.” Dwight wrapped Jim’s arm in toilet paper, before tying the ends together the way he learned in cub scouts. Jim admired Dwight’s handiwork before giving him a hug.

“You’re my hero, Dwight!” Dwight rolled his eyes and hugged him back.

Dwight held Jim’s hand as they walked back downstairs and into the kitchen where their moms were talking. Jim ran to his mom and held his arms out, wanting to be held. Unfortunately, Mrs. Halpert was already holding Dwight’s newborn brother, Jeb, while Dwight’s mom held his younger cousin Mose. Mose’s mom died after she had him, and his “good for nothing” dad ran off. Thus Dwight’s mom had two new babies to raise.

Jim didn’t understand that though and saw the two babies as threats. He was so used to being the youngest in both families that he wasn’t handling other people getting attention well. He was accustomed to his parents fawning over him at home, before coming to the Schrutes’ later and having them fawn over him too. He didn’t even know Dwight had a brother on the way, he just thought Dwight’s mom was getting fat. Dwight found it amusing how jealous Jim was. He wondered if he acted the same way when Jim was born? 

Before Jim could start crying Dwight picked him up to the best of his ability. He sat at the table with their parents and shifted him onto his lap. “Mommy! The goat outside bit me and I almost died but then Dwight put magic healing cream on it and wrapped it and I’m alive!” Jim’s mom shifted Jeb and took Jim’s bandaged arm into her hand. She’s looked at Dwight for confirmation and he nodded. 

“I “healed” him, so it should be fine. Victor didn’t break the skin.” Jim’s mother ruffled his hair and went back to tending to Jeb.

“Thank you so much for your help, Betsy. It’s been stressful these past couple of weeks. I still can’t believe Shirley passed so suddenly…,” said Dwight’s mom. She looked ready to cry so Dwight patted her arm. She smiled fondly at her son before wiping her eyes.

“It’s no problem, you were there for me when I had my children. You’re family, of course we’d help!”

“Why are we family,” Jim asked. Dwight could tell he was growing testy from being ignored as he liked to ask ridiculous questions to garner attention. Dwight found it hilarious at the moment but hoped he’d grow out of it eventually. “Is it because me and Dwight are getting married?” 

Both of their moms laughed while Dwight furrowed his eyebrows. They had made a joke about Jim clinging to Dwight all of the time and said they’d probably end up together. Jim took it to heart and now believed that they were to be married when they were older. “Jim, boys can’t marry each other,” explained Dwight for the umpteenth time. “Only boys and girls can get married.”

“I can be a girl,” said Jim proudly. Their moms laughed harder and Dwight groaned. They encouraged Jim’s childish behavior far too much.

When Jim was seven his teacher called home to recommend glasses for him. He could read things up close but had problems if he had to be more than half a foot away from something. She discovered this when Jim couldn’t answer questions on the board unless he stood directly under it.

Dwight went with the Halperts to get Jim an eye exam. Jim whined the entire time that he’d be the only person in his class with glasses. “I don’t need them! I’ll just sit really close to the board so I can see it!”

“You’ll make it so you can’t read at all if you keep straining your eyes like that, Jim,” replied Dwight, patting his back. He couldn’t relate, because his Schrute genes afforded him perfect 20/20 vision. However, he knew how it felt to be an outcast at school. He was having a bit of trouble fitting in, and so far only made one friend, Michael. Not that he minded. He had Fannie, and Larissa and Pete, and Mose and Jeb. But most importantly, he had Jim. 

“I don’t want to wear them,” said Jim, teary-eyed. “Nobody else does, so I’ll be a freak and they’ll bully me!” The optometrist gave him a small smile before fitting him with different pairs of glasses. Jim’s parents decided on a simple pair of black frames since Jim was being disagreeable, along with a pair with an elastic band instead of arms in case he wanted to play any sports. Jim looked thoroughly defeated by the whole affair and Dwight felt bad for him. He pulled the optometrist and Jim’s parents to the side. 

“Do you have any glasses where the lens aren’t real? I think Jim would feel better if he wasn’t the only one who had to wear them.” The optometrist nodded.

“I do, but they're a bit older. I can give you a couple of pairs for free, the style isn’t very popular and they’re taking up space at this point.” He walked away and came back with a few cases of nerdy looking glasses. Dwight tried on a few different styles until he found on that fit his face. The optometrist then gave him different sized glasses in that particular style in case he wanted them for when his face changed. 

“You’re giving him so many, are you sure it’s okay for him to have them for free? We can compensate you for them,” said Jim’s father.

“It’s absolutely no problem. Seriously, no one wears this style anymore. I’d never be able to get rid of them. Besides, it’s nice that he'd be willing to do that for your son.” 

Jim’s father ruffled his hair. “I agree, Dwight’s always been a good kid.”

Dwight went back to Jim with his new glasses. “Look, Jim, I have to wear glasses too! They just did an eye exam on me, and I can’t see well either.”

“What happened to your superior Schrute genes,” Jim sniffed. 

Dwight covered his mouth to hide his smile. “My genes are superior in other ways. It’s only natural that some specimens need eyewear. In fact, wearing glasses makes us superior, because it means our other senses have evolved and exceed their maximum potential. You can augment your eyes with glasses to make your sight stronger, but you can’t make your hearing stronger, or your taste stronger, or your touch stronger, or your smell stronger without evolution. We Schrutes have done that, and so have you.”

“And now you need glasses too,” Jim asked suspiciously. Dwight nodded hard, causing his glasses to slide down his nose. He pushed them back up. Jim jumped off of the examination table and ran over to Dwight before attaching himself to his side. “I want glasses now too!”

“Well, you’re gonna get them regardless, Jim. At least you won’t be alone in wearing them.” Jim held his arms out so Dwight would pick him up; Dwight sighed and did so. Jim didn’t like being held anymore, except for Dwight. He was such a strange child. Jim planted a kiss on Dwight’s cheek before jumping out of his arms and running to find his parents. Whatever. Families kissed each other on the cheek all the time, and the Halperts and the Schrutes were technically one big family. 

He found Jim playing on the floor, wearing his glasses. He looked up at Dwight and called for his parents. “Mom! Dad! Look! Me and Dwight match! We both have glasses!”

“I know sweetie,” said Jim’s mom. “Who would have thought Dwight would need glasses too?” She winked at Dwight and mouthed “thank you” to him. He shrugged, he didn’t mind if it made Jim more comfortable. It was no problem at all.

“I’m being bullied at school,” said Jim indignantly. “There’s this boy in my class who likes Pam. But since Pam is my best friend and not his he’s jealous and takes it out on me. I won’t stand for it any longer!” He pounded his fists on the dinner table to get his point across. Pam was Jim’s friend, a girl who moved to town a few months ago. The two bonded over the fact that they both wore glasses and liked reading more than other people. Dwight was happy that Jim had a friend his age now, the age gap between the two was growing more pronounced. He wasn’t sure if he related to Jim as much as he used to, eight and twelve were worlds away. 

Jim’s mother snorted while passing a basket of rolls to Dwight’s father. The Halperts invited the Schrutes over for dinner once a week, and while that meant there were at least nine mouths to feed it was a good way for everyone to catch up with each other.

“How about I call your teacher tomorrow Jimmy, and we’ll work it out that way,” asked his father. 

“No, that won’t do. I need to prank him!” Dwight laughed. Pete and Larissa left the eight-year-old a book of pranks when they went off to college and he was now obsessed with pulling them on people. By people that mostly meant Dwight, but it’d be nice for Jim to prank someone else, especially if they deserved it. 

“I agree with Jim,” said Dwight, “the only way to destroy such confrontational behavior in this boy is by showing him Jim is not to be trifled with! I say we prank him until he learns his lesson!” Jim cheered. 

“Dwight gets it!”

“Jim, no. If you prank this kid then there’s a chance you might get suspended. Is that what you really want,” asked his father.

“He keeps messing with me and Pam. I have to defend her honor, otherwise, other men will try to dominate her and cuckold me!” The parents and Fannie all turned towards Dwight, shocked. It was the type of thing Dwight would say, and unknowingly (or maybe purposely) teach Jim. Dwight looked away, fighting back laughter.

“Don’t say that Jim, and do not prank him. If he bothers you again scream really loud and a teacher will help you,” said Jim’s mother.

“That’s lame, no offense Mrs. Halpert,” said Fannie. “If he bothers you again ask him why he’s being so antagonistic towards you. He might just want friends. Try inviting him to eat lunch with you, that should work.” 

“I like my idea the best,” said Jim stubbornly. “Although I will consider what you all have said.”

“Jim’s gonna fight,” asked Jeb innocently. Jim glared at him. It had been close to four years since Jeb and Mose were born and Jim still didn’t like either of them.

“I’m not going to fight, I’m going to use my brain. Roy Anderson will never bother me or Pam again!”

Dwight snuck out of class a bit early the next day to pick up Jim and Pam. His middle school was only a few blocks away from their elementary school, so class was still going by the time he got there. He spotted the pair on the playground, another person with them. The boy yanked at Pam’s pigtail, causing her to cry out.

“Leave her alone, Roy,” said Jim, slapping his hand away. Roy fumed before shoving Jim, but he barely moved back two steps. Pam took both of her pigtails in her hands so Roy couldn’t pull them again. Instead, Roy snatched Pam’s purple glasses off of her face and held them out of reach. 

Dwight watched to see what Jim’s next move would be. He dully thought that he should step in, or get their teacher. But Jim needed to learn to fight his own battles, Dwight couldn’t step in and save him every time. Even if that meant Jim had to snitch and get the teacher instead.

What ended up happening was: Jim launched himself backward onto the ground as if Roy had pushed him. Roy watched him quizzically while Pam stifled a laugh. Jim removed his glasses, making a show out of the whole process, before smashing them on the ground. He then rolled around, rubbing dirt from the ground into his clothes and hair. Dwight watched him, fascinated. What was Jim up to? 

Jim let out a bloodcurdling scream. 

Multiple teachers came running over, while students began to gather around. Jim’s homeroom teacher dashed over and kneeled beside him. “Roy pushed me! He pushed me and broke my glasses! And now he’s gonna break Pam’s too,” cried Jim. His eyes were teary and his nose runny, and for a second Dwight wondered if Jim were actually crying from beating himself up. 

“I did not! Jim pushed himself over! He broke his own glasses,” said Roy. 

“Then why do you have Pam’s glasses in your hand,” asked their homeroom teacher. Roy didn’t have a rebuttal. The teacher pulled Pam’s glasses from Roy’s hand and gave them back to her. “Pam, is this true? Did Jim push himself over, or did Roy do it?”

“Roy did it,” Pam lied. “He’s always being mean to us!”

Their teacher picked up the crying Jim and beckoned Roy to follow him. Jim peered over the teacher’s shoulder and down at Roy. He stopped his fake waterworks and gave Roy the middle finger and a dirty smile. Roy became agitated and cried out, “He’s faking! He’s faking! He just gave me the middle finger! He’s lying! I didn’t push him!” Jim let out a loud sniffle for good measure before burying his face in his teacher’s shoulder.

“Wait until your parents hear about this Roy! You can’t pick on your classmates,” scolded the teacher. Dwight walked around the playground to follow the kids and teacher inside the building. He was in absolute awe that Jim conspired to get Roy in trouble. There was no prank involved either, just manipulation. It was bad, but Jim was smart to do that. Roy probably wouldn’t mess with him again. 

A week later, when his suspension was over, Roy sat at lunch with Pam and Jim. “He’s my friend now,” said Jim at the Halpert-Schrute weekly dinner. “He’s very nice now that I’ve dominated him. He’s learned he can’t cuckold me or Pam!” Fannie punched Dwight under the table at Jim using “cuckold” and “dominate” again. Dwight smiled, thoroughly proud that Jim learned to stand up for himself, in his own strange way.

“Jim, what are you doing,” asked Dwight, watching the ten-year-old scale one of the trees on his farm. He was holding what looked like a beehive, but on further inspection, Dwight realized it was a paper mache replica. Jim must have put a lot of effort into creating it, it looked realistic.

“I’m setting up this prank for Larissa! When she comes by she’ll see this beehive and get scared! I have it rigged so it’ll shake when she gets close to it. It’ll hit the ground and explode confetti everywhere!” Jim’s sister Larissa was coming home after studying abroad for a year. The only person more excited than Pete for her arrival was Jim, who missed his old sister dearly. Dwight discovered long ago that pranks were Jim’s warped way of showing people affection, if he liked them. Sometimes he did pull pranks and jokes to be a hell-raiser, but typically the boy didn’t like to expend effort on things or people he didn’t like. That’s how he knew Jim liked him because nine times out of ten Dwight was the recipient of Jim’s pranks.

Dwight watched Jim’s friends meander around the tree. He could tell by their faces that none of them thought this prank was particularly a good idea. Dwight stepped closer to get a better look at what Jim was doing.

“Jim, come down! What if you fall,” asked Andy, a perpetually nervous kid who Jim, Pam, and Roy befriended at the beginning of the year. 

“I won’t! The Schrutes have strong trees to match their strong genes. I should be fine!” Jim stepped onto a branch to hang the mache hive. The branch shook a bit but Jim continued to crawl towards the end of it. He hung his beehive off the very end of the branch and admired his handiwork. 

“Jim, come down now,” called Pam. Jim moved to back away toward the trunk of the tree but the branch cracked and fell from underneath Jim. 

Dwight launched forward to catch Jim, who hit three branches on his way down. He managed to catch Jim in his arms before he hit the ground and did more damage.

“Oww,” complained Jim. “Dwight! Did you catch me?” Jim looked at Dwight in a way Dwight had never seen him look at him before.

“Yeah, I did! You need to be more careful Jim, what the hell were you thinking? Are you hurt anywhere?” Jim flexed his arms and neck to show that he didn’t sustain any injuries. However, when attempting to kick his legs out he felt stinging on his thigh. He looked to examine it and found a ton of blood where he cut his thigh deeply on one of the branches. 

“I’m bleeding out of my thigh,” said Jim. Dwight checked to confirm and sighed. Jim would probably need stitches. 

“Pam, run ahead and tell Jim’s mom what happened, I’m going to carry him back.” Pam did as she was told, with Roy following behind her. Dwight trailed behind slowly, doing his best not to drop Jim onto the dusty road. Andy grabbed Jim’s things from under the tree and awkwardly followed.

“You’re gonna be in so much trouble, Halpert. You should be lucky you didn’t break anything,” said Dwight. He shrugged his arms trying to get a better grip on Jim.

“It’s because of you that I didn’t break my leg. You’re my hero, Dwight!”

“Oh please. I did what any citizen would have done. I couldn’t let a pre-teen fall out of a tree to his certain death.”

“And that makes you a hero!” Jim threw his arms around Dwight’s neck and hugged him. Dwight scoffed and shook his head trying to dislodge Jim’s tight grip. Jim snuggled in closer.

“No, I’m just a concerned citizen. No need to thank me.”

“I love you,” said Jim out of the blue. “Do you love me back?”

“Did you hit your head on the way down, or is the blood loss making you delusional?”

“Just answer me, Dwight.” Dwight huffed and said, “Yeah, I love you too. Are you happy now?”

“Good, you should! Now when we’re older you have to ask me to marry you!” 

Dwight almost dropped Jim flat on his butt. “Jim, what are you talking about? I’m not marrying you, I meant I love you like a brother. I couldn’t marry you anyway, it isn’t even legal.” 

“Well, I love you since you’re always so nice to me. You’re mean and rude to everyone else. Doesn’t that mean you love me too?”

“Yeah, I love you like I love Fannie, or Jeb, or Mose. Not romantically.” Jim looked hurt at that as if Dwight deflecting his confession caused him more pain than the deep gash on his leg did. Jim fought against Dwight, no longer wanting to be held by him. “Jim, you’re gonna get dirt in your wound if I put you down. Then it’ll get infected. Just calm down, alright?”

“No! You said you don’t love me!” 

“Ugh, fine! If it ever becomes possible then I promise to marry you. There! Does that please you?” 

Jim nodded his head furiously. “Andy! Remember this moment,” yelled Jim. “Dwight Kurt Schrute has promised to marry me and make me Jim Schrute! You can’t take it back either, I will remember forever!” Andy nodded beside them, and Dwight totally forgot he was there due to Jim’s theatrics.

“You don’t want to keep your last name,” Dwight asked, momentarily amused. 

“No, I want to be a Schrute, because you guys are awesome and my family is lame; you always say so!” Dwight chuckled. They approached Dwight’s farmhouse where Jim’s mother was waiting for the three of them, furious. She pulled Jim out of Dwight’s arms fast and examined for injuries. Once she spotted the wound she screamed into the house for someone to call an ambulance. Dwight watched the mayhem unfold passively. He was instead wrapped up in the promise he made to Jim. Dwight had nothing to worry about, the chance of gay marriage ever becoming legal was slim to none. Besides, Jim couldn’t remember what he did last week, no way he’d remember this promise. He’d eventually grow out of this phase and meet some nice girl he’d settle down with. Dwight did his best to ignore how his chest tightened at the thought.

Naturally, Jim and Dwight drifted apart. Dwight was older than Jim by almost five years and found it increasingly hard to have the same interests as the boy. Jim, for his part, started to make more friends and no longer had the time to tail Dwight around like he used to. Their families were as close as ever, still having their weekly dinners which served as the only time Jim and Dwight ever saw each other anymore. Neither hated the other, it was just hard when they were in different stages of their lives.

Dwight was a few months into his senior year of high school. He wasn’t necessarily popular but had a tight-knit friend group that kept him from being a total outcast. He had his best friends Michael and Angela, and his other friends Stanley, Meredith, Phyllis, Kevin, and Oscar. He still wore his fake glasses, liking the way they looked on him. The nerd trend was in, and the look along with his overall demeanor afforded him quite a few girlfriends. He mostly focused on getting into college. Dwight was sure he wanted to study engineering at the Pennsylvania State University. It was a good school, and all of his friends planned on going there. So he was concerned with college applications and scholarship profiles and fretting over whether he’d hear back early action or have to wait until March. He was concerned with the old car he was trying to restore, and if he could finish the task before the winter came. He was concerned with helping at his family’s farm slash bed and breakfast on the weekends. He was concerned about Michael and making sure his attention-seeking stunts didn’t get them both killed. He was mostly concerned about Angela, and her rare but cute laugh, and the curves of her body, and how she’d potential fit against him. He wasn’t worried about Jim.

Jim was mostly concerned with acclimating to high school and finding his thing. Both he and Pam stopped wearing their glasses, opting for contacts instead. Jim was popular amongst the freshmen, his tall good looks and easy-going personality winning people over. His pranking took on a new life in the form of verbal jokes and manipulations. They were harmless enough, Jim talking classmates and peers he found extremely annoying into doing things to embarrass themselves. Otherwise, he was very helpful to the point that students begged him to be class president, something he was too lazy for. He still wasn’t overly talkative, but also not the social recluse he had been in elementary and middle school. He kept the same close friend group comprising of Pam, Roy, and Andy, but added other freshmen by the names of Ryan, Kelly, Darryl, and Erin to his circle. He played sports, mostly basketball, although he wasn’t committed to them. Instead, he preferred creative writing and science, and Dwight thought he could make a career out of the latter. Until one night after dinner, when Jim cornered him.

“Dwight, I’m failing algebra! Can you help me?” Dwight looked down at Jim, who still wasn’t quite his height. Algebra 1 was painfully easy to the point that he couldn’t believe Jim was actually failing it. However, Jim pulled his latest test from his backpack showing a forty-three percent on top. If he were getting these grades consistently then yeah, he was failing.

“Jim, it’s mid-October. How’d you let it get so bad?” Dwight really didn’t have the free time to help Jim study. But if he didn’t then Jim would fail the class and potentially out of school if he couldn’t grasp the other math courses. He sighed and said, “I’ll ask Angela if she can help, she’s better at math than me.” Jim shook his head furiously. Dwight always got the impression that Jim didn’t like Angela, but he wasn’t sure why. 

“No! Why can’t you help me?” Dwight sighed again, not wanting to hear Jim’s whining. He always managed to save that side of himself for Dwight. 

“I’m busy, okay? The only time I could help you is on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5, but you have basketball practice.”

“I’ll quit,” Jim said eagerly. While shocking it was the correct response in Dwight’s book. He wouldn’t be allowed to play anyway if he failed algebra.

“Okay. I’ll come to your place and tutor you. I hope we can get you up to a C plus before the semester ends, or you’ll be in deep shit with your parents.” 

Jim nodded and said, “Right. And let’s not tell them about this, I don’t want to disappoint them.” Jim gave Dwight a brief hug before going back to the dining room.

Jim was hopeless at math! They had been at this for a month and Jim wasn’t getting any better. Dwight had to constantly explain the same concepts to him over and over again, and even then Jim would still get the practice problems wrong! He wasn’t even trying, and instead spent the time trying to get Dwight to watch YouTube videos with him, or prying into his life. It was like Jim didn’t want to pass.

“Dwight, what are you going to study in college? You’re going to Penn State right?” 

“I hope I am. That’s where I applied. And I’ll be studying either agricultural or environmental engineering.” Jim’s demeanor shifted a bit, only really noticeable to Dwight. 

“Oh. I was looking into engineering too. Is Penn State a good school for it?” The last time they spoke about this Jim wanted to be either a playwright or songwriter for theatre shows. He occasionally fielded chemistry as a potential career. The first two sounded dumb and impractical to Dwight, not to mention a bit gay. But it was a good thing if Jim wanted to do engineering. Chemical engineering wasn’t a bad field to go in, but it required math, something Jim still sucked at.

“It is. But you should worry about the here and now, like passing algebra. No school will take you if you fail.”

“Right.” Jim was still distracted and was frankly wasting both of their time. 

“Is there something else you wanted to ask, Jim?”

“Why Penn State? Is it because Angela’s going there?” The question felt very charged in Dwight’s opinion. He wasn’t sure what Jim wanted him to say, but most days he wasn’t sure what Jim wanted at all.

“Yeah. Everyone’s going there. Angela, Oscar, Meredith, Stanley, Phyllis. Maybe Kevin, maybe Michael.”

“Is she your girlfriend?”

“Hmm, I’m working on it.” Jim looked disgusted and scooted away from Dwight. Dwight snorted. He turned his full attention to Jim now, algebra homework forgotten.

“And what about you? Are you interested in anyone? What about Pam?” This time Jim snorted.

“She just started dating Roy.” There was a hint of bitterness in Jim’s voice, but Dwight couldn’t tell what it was from. “And Andy and Erin like each other, and Ryan and Kelly are dating. Darryl is even talking to a girl at a different school. Everyone is with someone except for me.”

“What about Karen Filippelli? I see you with her a lot.” Jim’s face became disinterested at the mention of Karen. Dwight couldn’t understand why, she was pretty, smart, and a cheerleader. She seemed perfect, and she was all over Jim.

“She’s my lab partner for bio. I get the feeling she likes me, but I told her no.”

“I thought you wanted someone?”

“Not her.” They sat in silence, Jim scrolling through his timeline and avoiding Dwight’s stare. “Can I tell you something,” he asked. Dwight sighed, they talked a lot and gotten nothing done.

“Later. Let’s study for now.” 

Dwight had gotten a letter back from Penn State saying he was accepted to the engineering school! He was happy he applied early action, it made the process easier for him. The Schrutes and Halperts went out to a fancy restaurant to celebrate, everyone extremely proud of him. Everyone except Jim, who sat silent the entire night. Whatever, Dwight had gotten into the engineering school and Angela the business school. He wasn’t going to let Jim’s toxic mood ruin his night.

The next day a few of the teachers congratulated him, having heard the good news. One of them was Mrs. Bennett, the algebra teacher. “Congrats son, I’m glad to hear you got in!” 

Dwight politely thanked her before asking, “How’s Jim Halpert doing? I know he was struggling in the class, but has he made any improvements? I’ve been trying to help him but I’m not sure if it helped.” 

Mrs. Bennett looked at him funnily. “Jim Halpert? Struggling? He has the highest grade out of all the freshmen in this class! Over one hundred percent because I give out so much extra credit to help his knucklehead peers!” Dwight was shocked. He had seen the bad grades he had gotten, and how he struggled to solve problems. What was the truth?

“Was he ever struggling? Because I’ve been tutoring him for the last month and a half because he said he needed help!” 

Mrs. Bennett shrugged. “Well, he lied. In fact, he helps tutor other students during class.” Mrs. Bennett pointed inside the classroom where Jim was bent over a girl’s desk, trying to help her. “He’s so good that we want him to skip straight to pre-calc. We’ve tested his aptitude, and there’s no reason for him to even take Geometry or Algebra 2! He could be on the AP track soon enough!” Dwight didn’t want to hear it about how good a student Jim was though. He was nothing but a liar and a time-waster. 

Jim happened to look up and saw Dwight staring intensely at him. All of the color drained from his face and he slowly moved away from the girl. He dipped out of the second door in the back of the classroom and ran down the hall. Dwight followed after him. After chasing him for what felt like forever Dwight caught up to Jim. He grabbed him by his shoulders and slammed him into the nearest set of lockers.

“What the fuck Jim?!”

“I’m sorry!” Sorry wasn’t good enough in Dwight’s book. He wanted to know why Jim wasted his time like that, for nearly two months.

“Are you dumb? Did you think I’d never ask? Or see your report card grade? You’re fucking selfish Jim!” Jim tried squirming out of Dwight’s grasp to no avail. Dwight slammed him back on the lockers again, drawing a yelp from Jim.

“Dwight, you’re hurting me,” Jim whispered instead of offering up an answer. Dwight gripped him even tighter, the pads of his fingers digging into the top of Jim’s arms. It was petty and cruel, but wasn’t Jim? He kept him from doing things he needed to do, like study or hang out with his friends.

“You’re such a jackass, Jim. Why would you purposely waste my time like that? I told you I was busy and you still went out of your way to lie about needing tutoring. I could have been hanging out with my friends but instead, I had to babysit you! Where’d you even get the fake tests?”

“I forged them.” Dwight dug his nails into Jim’s arms until he could feel skin breaking underneath a couple. 

“Why?”

“Because you never hang out with me anymore,” Jim said lamely. Of course, this was about Jim’s jealousy. He had always been this way, he hated when he wasn’t the center of attention. Jeb, Mose, Roy, Angela. He was pissy about all of his friends dating now. No one was paying attention to him so he pulled stupid stunts like this. He honestly couldn’t stand Jim right now.

“I shouldn’t have to! I hang out with you once a week, why isn’t that enough! I have other friends and things I need to commit time to, everything isn’t about you Jim!”

“Having a family dinner doesn’t count! We don’t talk to each other, we don’t see each other outside of the dining room. You’ve changed a lot, it’s like you don’t like me anymore.” 

Dwight released Jim and said, “No, I don’t think I do,” before walking away.

Dwight observed Jim at lunch a week later. They only had a few more days until Christmas and everyone was in high spirits, except for Jim. He sat with his friends at lunch but seemed far removed from them. All of the couples were huddled together, lost in their own worlds. Darryl kept his face in his phone, probably texting his girlfriend. Jim was hunched over his lunch, picking at it sadly.

Dwight didn’t want to feel bad for Jim, because he was a jealous, moody child. But he did. He guessed Jim acted less out of jealousy and malicious intent, and more out of loneliness? That still didn’t give him the right to lie to Dwight for months. But would he have done the same thing if he were as lonely as Jim must have felt? They were friends, and Dwight could understand why Jim would try to cling to him. They hadn’t been hanging out as much, and Dwight was supposed to be Jim’s best friend. But they were in different stages of their lives, and Dwight wouldn’t even be here in nine months. What did Jim want from him?

He sighed and texted Jim, telling him to come sit with him and his friends for lunch. Dwight watched as Jim checked his phone before putting it back and resting his head on the table, lunch long forgotten. He really didn’t know what Jim wanted from him.

Jim didn’t come to dinner that week and instead hid in his room. “I’m sorry, Jim’s been really angsty as of late,” said his mother. “It must be puberty or something.” Dwight could only hope so.

The Schrutes and the Halperts didn’t always spend Christmas together, although they would this year. However, Angela’s family invited Dwight to come to their cabin in the Allegheny Mountains. It was an offer he couldn’t refuse, so he went. He wasn’t sure what his family got up to over the break, but he ended his with Angela officially as his girlfriend.

Jim didn’t bother eating lunch with his friends when the new year started, which worried Dwight. He hadn’t had a conversation with the boy since he blew up at him before break. Dwight got up from his lunch table and walked over to where the freshmen sat.

“Where’s Jim,” he asked Pam. 

“In the library! He said he wanted to be left alone, so he went there.”

“Every day?” Pam nodded.

“I’ve tried to get him to come here, but he doesn’t want to. I think he’s mad at me, but he won’t tell me what I did!” Dwight rolled his eyes and walked away. He went upstairs to the library, where he found Jim in the corner with a book. He sat in the darkest part of the library, obviously not wanting to be bothered. He hoped Jim wasn’t reverting back to his anti-social ways, he did a good job of putting himself out there during the first semester.

“What’s wrong with you,” Dwight asked. Jim looked up from his book but said nothing. Dwight tried again. “I heard you’re taking pre-calc this semester. Congrats, I didn’t take that until my junior year.”

“None of my friends are in it,” was Jim’s reply.

“That’s fine, you’ll have other opportunities to see them, like at lunch. Why don’t you eat with them?”

“I dunno, I feel like a third wheel. It’s awkward. I’d rather be alone.” 

“Why? Because everyone is dating? Are you really that sad about it? Why don’t you try dating, I’m sure you’d have no trouble finding a girlfriend.” Dwight had overheard numerous freshmen, sophomores, and a few juniors talk about how hot Jim was. It seemed his depressed demeanor was a turn on for most of the girls, making him more popular than he was the first semester. It was weird though, hearing people talk about his little buddy as being hot or sexy. Jim was still a child, and Dwight just couldn’t see it.

“I don’t like them,” said Jim angrily. “They always bother and harass me! I don't know how many times I have to tell people no! I hate it here.”

“Well, you’re gonna be a third wheel unless you open yourself up to dating. I don’t know what more to tell you.”

“I hate high school. I don’t want to come back next year. I want to be homeschooled.” Dwight raised his eyebrows in concern. That wasn’t what he was expecting to hear. 

“Why? You’re doing well, your grades are great, and everyone loves you. What’s your problem?” Jim looked at him for a long time before speaking.

“Everyone here is mean. It’s always about putting others down or bullying others to make themselves feel better. No one really likes me, it’s about whether I can help them with their homework, or tutor them, or if I can play this sport and help the team out, or if I can date her and help make her popular. The people I care about are otherwise preoccupied and I just feel that I’m being left behind and I don’t know how to play catch up. I have to be something I’m not to please others, and I hate it!”

Dwight was sick of Jim’s whining. “No one’s bullying you, Jim. You don’t even know what that means. I was bullied because I didn’t fit in and I was too nerdy for most people. Oscar is bullied because he’s homosexual. Michael is bullied because he’s weird. Kevin is bullied because he’s fat. That’s real bullying, the fact that you don’t want to get up in the morning because you’re afraid of what awaits you at school. You don’t deal with that. You’re not being bullied because you’re cookie-cutter conventional. Instead of trying to make the best of what you’ve got your crying over hypothetical situations that don’t exist. And for the last time, no one owes you their time, you jealous brat! I don’t care how angsty or bitter you get. Grow up!”

Jim looked like he had something he wanted to say but instead chucked the book in his hand at Dwight’s head. He stormed off, leaving a shocked Dwight behind.

Dwight didn’t talk to Jim for the rest of the year. If the boy still had any expressed doubts over high school then he kept them to himself. He started sitting with his friends at lunch again although he still looked uncomfortable. He didn’t rejoin the basketball team but instead started running cross country. Dwight ran cross country too, but they did their best to avoid one another. Jim even started dating Karen, although he caused quite a stir when he abruptly dumped her during a class trip to New York. Overall Jim was having a good high school experience, at least on the outside. 

He found Jim talking to Oscar a few times, but he was never sure what was up with that. They didn’t take any classes together, nor were they in the same clubs. Whenever Dwight approached the two Jim would storm away, annoyed. It seemed that “moody little bitch” was less of a side effect of puberty and more like Jim’s default personality. Whatever, Jim wasn’t his problem anymore so he didn’t ask Oscar about what they talked about.

Their families still had dinner together, but Dwight stopped going. Instead, he had dinner with the Martins. They were nice people if a bit judgemental. It was to be expected, Angela came from a long line of ministers. He loved Angela and could see himself being with her forever. She was lovely, and while she had a mean streak she was nice to him. That’s how he knew she was the one. Plus she was hot, smart, and firm; he knew she’d make a good Schrute. 

The Halperts came over on the eve of prom to take pictures of Dwight and Angela and see them off. Jim accompanied them, looking like he’d rather be elsewhere. He took pictures of the couple, mostly because his parents forced him to. Dwight got the feeling that their families were trying to force a reconciliation, but Dwight honestly wanted nothing to do with him. He could tell it was the same for Jim.

“Jim! Now you take a picture with Dwight! Stand next to him,” said Jim’s dad. Jim shook his head.

“Why would I do that, I don’t give two shits about Dwight’s prom!”

“Jim, do it!” He huffed and stood next to Dwight, as far as could without being out of frame.

“Get closer. Dwight put your arm around Jim’s shoulder. Smile!” They did so so the awkward moment could be over faster. Dwight looked at the photo later; from an outsider's perspective, the two still looked like close friends. He scoffed and hoped the Halperts wouldn’t print it off.

Jim didn’t bother coming to Dwight’s graduation or his going away party. That was fine with Dwight; he had grown to resent the boy as much as he resented Dwight. So he was shocked when he found a gift later that night addressed to him from Jim. There was a note on top that simply said I’m sorry in Jim’s handwriting. His parents must have brought it with them because he hadn’t seen Jim at all.

He ripped off the wrapping and found a photo album. He opened it. The first picture was of a young Dwight holding a newborn Jim. He was scowling down at Jim while Jim foamed at the mouth. The pictures were of the two of them, growing up together. Some of them were vacations, while others were from them hanging around Scranton. There were close to a hundred pictures, and a DVD with some videos of them. The final picture was the one they took the night of Dwight’s prom a few months ago. Dwight pulled it out of the album to toss out as it didn’t belong with all of their other happy memories. However, he noticed something written on the back of the picture.

Dwight,

I’m sorry I’ve been such a jerk. I shouldn’t have thrown a book at your head, that was mean. I’ve just been dealing with a lot lately and I’ve been having a hard time processing it. That’s not an excuse though. I’m sorry I kept bothering you too, I guess I did want your attention. I hope Penn State is fun for you. Good luck!

Jim

Dwight didn’t know what to say. He slotted the picture back where it came from and looked at the album again. There was a picture of a skiing trip their families took when they were younger, with baby Jim dressed like a star. Dwight bit back a laugh. There was a picture of Dwight and Jim both wearing their new glasses. A picture of Dwight trying to teach Jim how to ride a bike. A picture of them trick or treating, Dwight dressed as a Sith Lord and Jim a pumpkin. A picture of Dwight and Jim bathing together, Dwight looking over it while Jim grinned at the camera. A picture of Dwight in a hospital bed with Jim, after he had to get a fuck ton of stitches on his leg. Dwight smiled again. Jim had been grounded when they got to the hospital, all of his friends sent home. He begged his mom to let Dwight stay though, and he did. He ended up staying in that bed with Jim until he fell asleep and the hospital kicked him out.

He thought about the events leading up to them taking Jim to the hospital. Jim trying to climb a tree like a dumbass. The beehive Jim made, set to explode when Larissa got too close. Having to carry Jim back half a mile. Jim looking up at him with so much love that it made Dwight momentarily uncomfortable. Jim telling Dwight he loved him, and Dwight saying Ugh, fine! If it ever becomes possible then I promise to marry you. There! Does that please you?

Dwight put the album down and grabbed his phone. Oh yeah, he had promised Jim he’d marry him. Luckily Jim forgot all about that incident, just as Dwight assumed he would. He’d never have to keep that promise anyway, gay marriage wasn’t legal and neither of them were gay. 

Still, he couldn’t let things end on a sour note between them. Jim had apologized to him, which was very grown-up of him to do. Dwight now needed to apologize, because on further reflection he hadn’t been particularly kind to Jim either. Jim was going through something, and he had written him off, even when Jim tried reaching out in his weird way. He texted Jim.

Dwight: Meet me at the IHOP near the expressway tomorrow morning at 7 am.

Dwight was leaving at 11 am, which gave him plenty of time to air out his grievances with Jim. Hopefully, they could move past this.

Dwight popped the DVD into his laptop and watched it. As he suspected it was a ton of home videos spliced together. The clip that stuck out the most was one of him forcing Jim to walk. Not only was he the catalyst to Jim’s first steps, his name had been the boy’s first words too. It was so sweet to the point it brought tears to Dwight’s eyes. They had a lot of history, and Dwight really couldn’t let it end this way. 

He checked his phone again and saw he had a text from Jim.

Jim: Okay

They’d work this out.

Dwight was so exhausted from the night before that he didn’t realize he overslept his alarm. 9:30 am the bright letters flashed. He ricocheted upwards; he was two hours late to his meeting with Jim. He tried calling Jim, but he wouldn’t pick up. He texted him, but Jim left him on unread. Jim was obviously upset with him, and he had every right to be. Dwight just botched his apology, and there was nothing he could do.

He got up somberly and began getting ready. He drove to the Martin household, where he was picking up Angela. He helped her put her bags in the trunk of his truck before pulling off. He had to get Michael and Oscar next.

“What’s this,” asked Angela, looking at the photo album Jim had given him.

“Jim made it for me, as an apology for the last year.”

“That’s generous of him. Did you accept it?”

“I...I was supposed to meet him this morning for breakfast, to talk you know, and I overslept. He won’t answer my calls or texts.” Angela tsked, more as a reaction to Jim’s childish behavior. 

“He’s being childish, he knew you weren’t standing him up. He could have called and checked. I wouldn’t be surprised if his parents put him up to it.” Angela shook the book in her hands.

“He’s fourteen. And maybe he didn’t. If he had done the same to me then I would assume it was out of spite too.”

Michael and Oscar lived in the same subdivision, making retrieving them easy. “What’s this,” Michael asked as he and Oscar climbed into the truck.

“A photo album Jim made for me.” Both Oscar and Michael perked up at this. They had both expressed their opinions on the dissolution of Dwight and Jim’s friendship, saying Dwight should try to reach out to him again. Neither thought the lie about failing math was that big of a deal either. A bit weird, yeah, but in all the years they knew Jim he always had a penchant for theatrics; it just added up.

“Are you guys friends again? This is a nice gift,” asked Michael hopefully.

“No...I kind of stood him up today. Now he’s ignoring me. I feel bad now, I really didn’t consider he was having a hard time in school, I thought he was just being a crybaby. He told me he wanted to drop out and I told him to shut up,” admitted Dwight.

“You still have time you know,” said Oscar. “We could turn around and you can at least say sorry. Do you really think you can leave without it?” Dwight debated it. Being an hour late for check-in wouldn’t be the worst thing ever. Dwight turned the truck around and drove to the Halpert household.

He jumped out of the car and ran up the stairs to the door. He banged on it loudly, hoping Jim would answer. He did. When he noticed Dwight he moved to close it back, but Dwight stuck his foot between the doors so Jim couldn’t.

“Leave me alone, Dwight!”

“Jim, I’m so sorry. I overslept, I wasn’t trying to set you up. I’m sorry.”

“You’re an asshole and I don’t believe you. I had to catch the bus there, and then I sat there like an idiot for two hours before I realized you weren’t coming! Then I had to catch the bus back like a loser.”

“Jim, I really overslept! I tried calling you but you wouldn’t answer. I wouldn’t bother coming here now if I was setting you up.” Jim begrudgingly allowed Dwight inside the house.

“I forgot my phone at home, I was kind of in a rush to catch the bus,” Jim admitted embarrassed. Dwight smiled at him lightly and took a seat on the couch. Jim followed him. 

“What did you want to talk about? I don’t wanna hold you up,” said Jim looking at Dwight’s truck out of the window.

“I’m sorry. I should have been there for you during the school year. Instead, I was an asshole. I don’t want our friendship to end because of it.”

“It’s fine, and I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have lied to you! I shouldn’t have gotten upset at you either. You’re right, school isn’t that bad, I just need to suck it up.” Dwight leaned over and hugged Jim, who returned it. 

“Can we be friends again,” Dwight asked. Jim nodded.

“Are you gonna call me while you’re at school? Don’t forget me!” 

“I swear I won’t. I’ll call you as much as you want me to.”

“Everyday then. I wanna hear all about college and how fun it is!” 

“Will do. You have to tell me if you’re having a hard time too, I’ll drive back and kick anyone’s ass if they bother you. I’m serious.” 

Jim laughed and said, “How? I think I’d have to save you.”

“Please, you’re a bag of bones Halpert, while I have my awesome karate skills. Obviously, I have to protect you.”

Jim walked Dwight back to the door. He stared at Dwight forlornly before saying, “Dwight, can I tell you something?”

Dwight opened his mouth to reply, but the horn of his truck went off repeatedly. Angela was rushing him out. Dwight smiled at Jim and said, “Can you text me? Or I’ll call you when I settle in tonight. I’m in a bit of a rush.”

Jim looked crestfallen but smiled tightly. “That’s fine too.”

Jim did text, but Dwight never got around to calling, too caught up in the whirlwind that was his freshman year.

Chapter Text

Dwight hustled across campus, late for one of his classes. It was getting harder to navigate around campus, ample tour groups for prospective freshmen littering the roads. Dwight got trapped behind a large tour group, who were checking out one of the libraries. He hated these tour groups even though he totally went on one when he was applying three years ago. They just took up so much space! And they walked around like chickens with their heads cut off. 

“Is that Dwayne Schruty I see,” Dwight heard someone yell. He turned around despite knowing that wasn’t quite his name and looked for the voice. In the crowd of rude perspectives was Tom Halpert. Trailing behind him was a thoroughly embarrassed Jim.

“Dwight! My man! How have you been! It’s been forever!” Tom pulled Dwight into a bear hug. It had been a while, since Dwight’s high school graduation three years ago. Dwight hugged him back.

“Hi Dwight,” said Jim shyly. Dwight broke away from Tom and pulled Jim into a hug. It was awkward, but Dwight wanted to do it. He hadn’t seen or heard from Jim since the day he left for school. They fell out of contact, again, although this time around Dwight did his best to keep tabs on Jim. He followed him on all of his social media, although he didn’t actively engage with them. Jim seemed happier, going off of his Instagram and Snapchat, and didn’t appear to be struggling in school.

“Dwight, what are you up to right now? We’re gonna blow this popsicle stand and get lunch,” said Tom. “You should come with us!” Dwight needed to get to class, and he told Tom this. “Come on, Dwight! You can skip class once! I did all of the time and I turned out alright! Besides, when was the last time you saw your buddies the Halperts? Jim has missed you!”

“C’mon Tom, stop wasting his time. He’s busy,” murmured Jim. He avoided Dwight’s gaze, and bashfully watched the ground. Dwight found it cute.

“What the hell? Sure, I can skip. The teacher uploads the lectures anyway.”

XXX

“...and that’s it for me. What brings you two up here,” asked Dwight, polishing off the rest of his hoagie. Jim and Tom sat across from him, picking at their food.

“Jimbo here is applying to Penn State! I’m so proud of you little man,” said Tom, ruffling Jim’s hair.

“Oh my god,” said Jim embarrassed. Dwight smiled at their antics.

“Jim, tell Dwight what you plan on studying!”

“I’m applying to both Art and Architecture and Engineering.” Dwight raised his eyebrow.

“Wow, you’re double majoring? What are you trying to do in the art school? Architecture? Or fine arts?”

“Theatre.” 

“Acting?”

“No, theatre studies. Playwriting and whatnot.” 

“Oh wow! Are you any good,” asked Dwight. He felt like a creep for asking, but Dwight already knew this, from his years of watching Jim grow on social media. He played along, not wanting either to know he had been cyberstalking Jim instead of talking to him like an actual person.

“I’m alright….”

“No! He’s great,” shouted Tom, eliciting glares from people at other tables. Jim slid down in his seat as far as his long legs would allow. “He’s the best! He’ll be the next David Mamet, the next Tony Kushner, the next Neil Simon! He’s gonna be huge! I’ve got so much faith in him! You’ll be seeing his name on Broadway in ten years’ time!” Dwight laughed at Tom’s enthusiasm. Tom wasn’t a liar, nor did he coddle people. Jim must have been that good.

“So playwriting and engineering. Those are two interesting choices.” Jim opened his mouth to speak, but Tom cut him off.

“He should be focusing on playwriting, but Gerald would blow a gasket if he did that. I think Jim’s better cut for it. Engineering’s too demanding for it to be something double majored in; they’re hoping Jim’s forced to pick between the two.”

“Well, you’ll pick theatre, right,” asked Dwight. Jim shook his head sadly.

“They want me to do engineering, so I need to make double majoring work, otherwise I can’t do theatre.”

Tom jumped up from the table and said, “I’ll be right back! I see one of my old frat brothers over there.” He sauntered away leaving Dwight and Jim alone.

Dwight took the time to really take in Jim’s appearance. He had grown a lot over the past three years. Gone was the awkward, moody fourteen-year-old Dwight knew. Instead what sat before him was a handsome young man. Jim was much taller now, taller than Dwight, but only by a little. He still forwent his glasses and wore contacts in their place. He wasn’t as skinny as he was before, and was leaner than anything else. Dwight noticed he had nice lips, plump, and always slightly upturned. He didn’t wear his hair shaggy anymore, favoring more trendy haircuts, although Jim’s Instagram told Dwight that he favored dad hats more than anything; Tom or his parents must have forced him to not wear one today. Overall, Jim was attractive. 

Not that Dwight was attracted to him, no.

“How’s school treating you? Is everything okay?” Jim nodded his head fast.

“Yeah! School’s fine, although I’m glad to be almost done! Ugh, it’s been such a ride, you wouldn’t believe…” Jim began outlining some of the crazier things he, Pam, Roy, and Andy has gotten up to over the past couple of years. Dwight listened, enthralled. Jim always had a way with words, years of pranking and smooth-talking afforded him such. He had no doubt Jim was a good playwright because he was such a good storyteller.

“And why don’t your parents want you to study theatre?” It seemed so unlike the Halperts to not support Jim, but maybe things had changed. His parents didn’t mention anything being different with them, but still.

“They don’t think it’ll lead anywhere, that I’ll be unemployed once I graduate. They also think it’s pretty gay, and that I’m living up to stereotypes by going into it. Not a lot of people actually become the next David Mamet, I mean, David Mamet isn't really David Mamet anymore. I’d be lucky if I became a script editor somewhere. Still, I want to do it!” 

What thought Dwight.

“What,” Dwight asked aloud. Jim realized what he said and tried changing the topic. 

“Are you planning on grad school, Dwight? You only have two years left!” Dwight wasn’t having it.

“What does that mean, Jim?”Jim looked at him guiltily but remained tight-lipped. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” Jim still wouldn’t say anything, and just fidgeted with the cutlery in front of him. Dwight sighed. He couldn’t force Jim to talk about anything he didn’t want to talk about. He didn’t have that privilege, not anymore.

“I’m applying here for grad school. I really like it here, and I think I’d rather have my masters before going to work, I think it’d be harder to do later. Besides I can get sch—.”

“I’m gay,” Jim mumbled out. He looked truly embarrassed having said it, so Dwight grabbed his hand to try to comfort him. Jim snatched it back. 

Ouch. “I...thank you for telling me! It must have been hard. Who else knows, if you don’t mind me asking?” He had never seen Jim mention it on social media, so he must have not told anyone else.

“Hmm, my mom. Tom. Oscar. And you.”

“Oscar? Oscar Martinez?”

“Yeah, he helped me out quite a bit when I was still coming to terms with it, I guess.” Dwight felt his stomach drop.

“How long have you known?”

“...since ninth grade, maybe eighth?” Dwight felt ill. Since ninth grade? Jim had been struggling with this since his freshman year, and Dwight just told him to suck it up. Jim tried confiding in Dwight a few times, and he brushed him off. Jim was going through an actual crisis, and Dwight told him he didn’t have real problems. Jim hadn’t been an awful friend in his freshman year, Dwight was.

“Jim, I’m so, so, so sorry!” 

Jim looked at him in shock. “Why are you sorry?”

“I should have been there for you! I’m sorry you had to go through this alone! I’m sorry if you ever tried telling and I rebuffed you! Did you? I’m sorry!” 

Jim neither confirmed nor denied. “It’s fine Dwight! I was a brat in ninth grade, I didn’t even want to be around me. So I can understand you not wanting to either. Besides, you were busy with college stuff, I shouldn’t have expected you to drop everything to cater to me.”

“I should have picked up on something being wrong. I was so focused on myself that I didn’t realize that you needed a friend. I’m sorry.”

“Well, whatever, it’s in the past. Don’t worry about it!” Still, Dwight couldn’t shake the feeling that he failed Jim. 

“Jim, I want to be there for you in college. I know we said before we’d stay in contact, but I truly mean it. Call me, text me, FaceTime me if you need anything. If you do come here then I can help you with your engineering courses too. I just don’t want us to fall out of contact again, y’know, not be friends.”

Jim gave Dwight a big smile that he found frankly adorable. “Yeah Dwight, I’d like that.”

Dwight kept his word and stayed in touch with Jim throughout his senior year of high school. They texted every day and Jim snapchatted him all the time. Dwight showed Jim some of the projects he was working on, like sustainable farming measures or exhibitions some of his work made it into. Jim for his part would read stories and plays he’d written to Dwight over the phone. He’d send pictures of arts and crafts he’d made, confiding to Dwight that he secretly like making slime and clay sculptures. He wasn’t particularly good at either from what Dwight could see, but Jim said the activities helped him relieve stress. “It’s your dumb brothers’ faults,” Jim huffed. “I got forced to help them with a science project using clay and that’s how it started!”

Sometimes Dwight would hang out with Jim when he went home. He didn’t go home often, but when he did, he made sure to sneak off to see Jim. Neither of their parents knew they were friends again, mostly because they were still working on repairing their relationship. It made no sense to announce that they were friends again if they couldn’t sustain it. But Dwight believed they could. Talking to Jim felt like the easiest thing in the world. It was like they hadn’t drifted apart for years, like their problems never existed. 

Being with Jim made him feel a way he didn’t when he was with his other friends. He loved them all, dearly, but it didn’t compare to the way he felt about Jim. The way he felt about Angela didn’t even compare to the way he felt about Jim. He couldn’t put his finger on what the feeling was but when sitting next to Jim in a park overlooking all of Scranton, Dwight could only think of how everything felt right. He didn’t want the moment to end.

“Are you still dating Angela,” Jim asked from his seat in the snow. Dwight sat beside him, freezing but content. There was no heat nor emotion in Jim’s question and was phrased in such a way that Dwight believed he was genuine in the intent behind it.

“Kinda? We’re on and off a lot. Right now we’re on but that could change by the time I get back.”

“That sounds like fun,” Jim said.

“In what universe? It’s stressful as hell.”

“I dunno. I guess I think dating in general would be fun? I haven’t dated anyone so I’m not sure. It’s nice that despite all of that you guys still seem to really like each other. I want that type of relationship.”

“Didn’t you date Karen?”

Jim replied with a scoff. “That wasn’t serious. At least not to me. I spent most of the month we dated avoiding her. She always wanted to kiss and have me feel her up and stuff. Then one day she asked if we could take things further. How much further could we move from “not doing anything”? She wanted to have sex and I realized I definitely didn’t want to do that. At least, not with her.”

“So you haven’t dated anyone else then? You haven’t even had your first kiss? How cute.”

“No. It sucks when everyone around you are having life events that you can’t participate in because you’re too afraid about how people will react. Most of my family and friends don’t even know I’m gay, Dwight, how would it look if I came home with a boyfriend?”

Dwight sat quietly and contemplated what Jim said. “Why haven’t you told everyone if you don’t mind me asking? You told me and we weren’t speaking for years.”

“When I broke up with Karen she started a rumor that I was gay. Or I guess she just told the truth, but she didn’t know that. It didn’t really bother me since I already knew high school was nothing but petty drama like that. But some of my friends heard it and reacted to it funny? I dunno, it made me think they wouldn’t be comfortable with me anymore if I told them. So I haven’t. And of course, it got back to my parents. Dad didn’t take it well even though I told him it was just a rumor. Pete and Larissa didn’t either. I think they’d hate me if I came out. Tom was the only one who wasn’t weird about it. The only reason mom even knows is that she hardcore questioned me about it and I wouldn’t say she was happy with the truth.”

“I don’t think anyone would hate you if you came out, Jim. Tom’s been supportive, as has your mother. I won’t tell you you have to but I don’t think you should beat yourself up over it either. They love you. They’ll always be there for you.”

“Eh. You never know when someone will deem you unworthy of their love and time. People say they’ll always be there for you, but nothing on this Earth is guaranteed.” Jim stood and dusted himself off before walking away. Despite the calmness behind the words Dwight couldn’t help but feel that Jim was talking about him. Guiltily Dwight stood and followed Jim, the night over.

Dwight heard knocking at his door. There shouldn’t have been anyone here since the students weren’t moving in until the day after tomorrow. It could have been another RA but most knew to text him before coming over. He didn’t take well to unannounced guests.

Dwight opened the door to find Jim grinning at him cheesily. He launched himself into Dwight’s arms prompting the other boy to marvel at how well Jim fit against him. Not that it mattered. “What are you doing here Jim? Move-in isn’t until Friday.”

“My parents got it wrong! They thought it was today and drove me up here. Since it was a four-hour drive Housing just let me stay. I’m so happy to see you, I’d hate to be here by myself! I live down the hall from here! Are you my RA, that would be so cool! I’m glad I know someone in this dorm, everyone else lives elsewhere and I don’t know how to navigate campus yet—.” Dwight slapped a hand over Jim’s mouth. He was happy that Jim was back to being chatty around him after their fallout but the boy had the tendency to talk his ear off.

“No, the hall is split into two by the corridor there,” Dwight said while pointing. “You should have a different RA, Danny Cordray. Did he not help you move in?” Jim shook his head. Dwight sighed and led Jim by hand to Danny’s door. Dwight personally hated Danny Cordray. The two were the exact same major—environmental engineering— and therefore competed for having the best grades, the same internships, and the same jobs. Dwight was happy they didn’t compete for the same girls at least; he was frequently with Angela (and a few other women during their off periods) and Danny got up to whatever, Dwight didn’t care. Of course, they’d both be RAs in adjacent halls. He got to Danny’s door and banged on it as hard as he could with his free hand. 

“What the hell Dwight,” Danny yelled without checking to see who was knocking; the disdain was mutual. He opened it up and came face to face with Dwight and Jim. He glared at Dwight before his eyes landed on Jim. Jim gave him a flustered smile that he returned.

“Oh, who are you? A friend of Dwight’s?”

“Yeah, I am. I’m Jim Halpert, I live in your hall. I moved in today, sorry if I inconvenienced you,” Jim mumbled shyly. Danny fully exited his room at Jim’s demure behavior, suddenly interested in him. Jim took a step back to accommodate Danny in the hallway and ended up knocking his back against the wall behind him. “I’m okay,” he mumbled despite no one asking him. Danny gave him a full-blown smile.

“Wow, okay. No, you’re fine, I didn’t even know you were here! You must have moved in quietly.”

“Yeah...we were pretty quiet,” Jim replied awkwardly. Dwight rolled his eyes at the exchange.

“What the hell were you doing to not notice, Cordray? You don’t even have name tags on the doors. Are you taking this job seriously?”

“Chill out Dwight, I’m working on it.” Danny turned his attention back to Jim. “I’m sorry I didn’t help you get situated, Jim. I’m still trying to get everything in order for move-in. How about this, I was going to make my name tags with the laser cutter in the architecture building later today, do you want to come with me? I’ll make you a special one.” Jim opened his mouth to answer but Dwight cut him off.

“Absolutely not. You don’t have any authorization to be using the laser cutter to begin with, it’s only for architecture students. I won’t allow Jim to get caught up in your shenanigans before the semester even starts.”

“But I want to see it,” said Jim. “It’s not like I’m doing anything.”

“You can help me check the rooms in my hall to make sure they’re in order. Then we can go out for dinner.”

“That’s lame Dwight,” Danny cut in. “Jim can come with me and do something exciting and then have dinner with you later. I’d like to get to know my future ward.” Jim looked at Dwight with big, pleading eyes, begging Dwight to allow him to go with Danny. Dwight wasn’t sure why Danny was suddenly interested in hanging out with a student in his hall but he didn’t want to stop Jim from making friends; he didn’t want his freshman year of college to be a repeat of ninth grade. He sighed.

“Fine. Don’t let Jim use the cutter you imbecile. Jim, don’t let this pea-brained dumbass talk you into using the cutter.”

“Uh, alright, I won’t! Do you mind if I stop by the restroom first, Danny?”

“Of course! I have something to ask Dwight anyway.” Jim gave the two of them a gummy smile before walking off in search of the bathroom. “It’s the other way, he’s going the wrong way,” Danny said.

“Jim’s a big boy, he’ll figure it out. There’s one at the end of my hall anyway. Now, what did you want?”

“Nothing. How do you know him?”

“We grew up together, why?”

“Just wondering. He’s cute, but I’m sure you knew that since you grew up together.”

“Ugh, he’s not cute. He’s annoying, he talks too much and plays around too much. At least for me. He’ll wear you down soon enough.”

“We’ll see,” Danny stated cryptically. Jim came back and stood by Danny, awkwardly fidgeting his legs. Danny smiled at him again. “You ready,” he asked. 

“Ye-yeah. I’ll see you later Dwight!” Danny clapped a hand on Jim’s shoulder and led him away.

Dwight found the whole exchange bizarre. It didn’t sit right with him, but he couldn’t understand why. He walked back to his room, fuming over the turn of events. He couldn’t place it and so chalked up his indignation to Danny’s presence. It made enough sense.

Jim was acclimating to college well, or so Dwight thought. The students in Jim’s hall liked him and often participated in his inane pranks. Dwight had gotten multiple complaints from the students in his hall about the happenings in Danny’s hall. However, Danny seemed to have a soft spot for Jim and thus never called him out about his childish behavior. 

Jim seemingly got along with people in the theatre department too and Dwight would sometimes see him having lunch with what were very obviously theatre kids. He supposed that Jim was a theatre kid himself, and although he routinely annoyed Dwight, he wasn’t that annoying. That annoying was someone like Andy who Dwight was a thousand-percent shocked to find out wasn’t a theatre kid. Or at least, not a good enough one to get into the program.

Jim still hung out with his high school friends. Jim was particularly inseparable from Pam even after all these years. So why did Dwight get the feeling Jim was isolating himself from people?

“Dwight, what are you talking about,” Jim asked when Dwight confronted him about his lonerisms. He sat on Jim’s bed while he watched his friend do homework. He hoped Jim’s weird roommate wouldn’t come back anytime soon.

“You seem distant from your friends. Is everything alright? You can tell me anything.”

“I’m fine, Dwight. I like being alone sometimes. It’s not a big deal.”

Dwight was dubious. “You aren’t struggling with anything? I swear I won’t judge you.”

“I could be doing better in my intro to engineering class,” Jim muttered. “And...I guess it’s hard to continue lying to people. Especially Pam. I want to tell her I’m gay but…”

“But what?”

“I’m nervous,” Jim admitted. “I don’t want to lose my best friends over something I can’t control. But I don’t want to be closeted my entire life either. It’s hard.”

“So you think isolating yourself will help? So you can cut and run if something goes wrong?”

“For someone who claimed to not judge me, you're judging me pretty hard.”

Dwight sighed. “I don’t want you to be alone anymore, Jim. I think about when you were a freshman and how you were struggling. How if I pulled my head out of my ass I could have helped you. I don’t want college to be a repeat of that.”

For a brief moment, Dwight saw a flash of contempt in Jim’s eyes toward him. It went away as fast as it came. Sighing, Jim came and laid on his bed with Dwight. “Fine, I’ll try not to be alone. I think I’ll come out once I find a boyfriend. Maybe if I’m in a relationship me being gay will be more palatable to people?”

“You underestimate how much your friends love you.”

“Yeah, we’ll see.”

Jim’s roommate walked in on them like that, the two of them sharing Jim’s twin bed. He awkwardly stood in the doorway and watched them.

“Am I interrupting something, fellas,” he asked, a bit eagerly. “I have no problem with homoerotic love. In fact, homosexuality was prevalent in the ronin-class of Japanese society. I’m currently studying that in one of my courses. That said, I’d appreciate it if you’d use the sick signal we’ve discussed if you’re getting frisky, Jim.”

“I never agreed to stretch out my socks for some outdated ritual to let you know I’m having sex. If that ever happens I’ll text you. And if I ever see a sock on the door, Gabe, please know that I’m ruining your one night stand, so have sex elsewhere.”

Gabe chuckled oddly and shuffled to his bed to stare at them. Dwight got the hint to leave.

“Well if you need help with anything just tell me,” Dwight said to Jim. “I’ll see you later.”

Dwight reserved a study lounge on his floor for both him and Jim. When he arrived at it he found Danny sitting with his arm around Jim’s shoulder, consoling him. “What’s wrong,” he asked, sitting his laptop next to Jim’s.

“I’m failing one of my classes. I bombed the exam and I know it won’t get any better,” Jim sniffled. Danny rubbed circles into Jim’s back which Dwight found off-putting. Danny was fucking weird.

“I’ll do whatever I can to help you,” Danny said. “I know engineering can be hard, and on top of that, you’re double majoring. You have so much on your plate. Let me be of assistance.” Dwight snorted. He remembered this trick well. Due to Jim distancing himself from his friends he must have felt lonely and wanted attention from other sources. And Danny was a gullible idiot. It made perfect sense to lie to him over Dwight because Dwight wouldn’t fall for it twice. “Why are you laughing,” Danny asked. “Jim’s worried about failing eng-one-hundred and you’re laughing?”

“Oh please, Jim pulled this stunt when he was a freshman in high school too. He was lonely so he lied to me about failing algebra so I’d tutor him. Months later I found out he actually was doing so well in the class that he broke the grading scale. He just wants attention.” Danny looked at Jim strangely.

Jim kicked Dwight in the knee, hard. Dwight fell over onto the couch Danny and Jim were sitting on. “You fucking asshole,” Jim shouted. “I am failing! I can’t believe you’d even bring that up!”

Dwight grabbed Jim’s laptop off of the table and used Jim’s stored passwords to log into ANGEL. In the intro engineering class, Jim had a whopping sixty-one percent in the class after getting a fifty-six on the exam and managing barely above average grades on the homework. His attendance grade was perfect though, so he was going to class. His failing stemmed from ineptitude with the subject. “They’ll round your grade at the end of the semester,” Dwight said helplessly. “You just need to stay above fifty percent and you’ll get at least a C.” That would happen if Jim didn’t continue getting the grades he had now. Realistically, Jim’s grade would spiral and he’d end up with a non-passing grade of a D-plus. Danny looked over at Jim’s grades and sighed softly; he probably thought the same thing as Dwight.

“A C? That’s awful,” Jim said. 

“This is college, kid,” Danny said dryly. “You can kiss the idea of a four-point-oh goodbye. Especially in STEM and especially when you’re double majoring. You just need to pass.”

“Well, what did you guys get in eng-one-hundred,” Jim asked.

“An A,” Dwight and Danny said at the same time. Jim cried harder.

“Look, I’ll tutor you,” Danny said. “I still have my notes from class and I’ve tutored other people on the subject. Let me help you.”

“You’re busy,” Dwight said, speaking in place of Jim. Something about Danny’s offer wasn’t sitting well with him. “I’ll tutor Jim. We’re already free at this time anyway. I had a better grade in eng-one-hundred than you did.”

“By like a hundredth of a decimal point, Dwight.”

“I’ll ask my parents to hire a tutor,” Jim said. “And I’ll go to office hours more. I don’t want you guys to waste your free time helping me. It’s fine.”

What a change from high school Jim that was. “I want to help you,” Dwight insisted. “I promised you I would before you got here, remember?”

“It’s fine,” Danny said at the same time. “It’s no problem, really.”

“Ah, okay...you both don’t have to help me.”

Dwight whipped out his phone and checked Jim’s calendar for his availability. Danny pulled his laptop onto his lap and did the same. Unfortunately, Danny’s schedule lined up more with Jim’s, much to Dwight’s chagrin. “That’s that. We can start tomorrow, Jim,” Danny said. “Take a mental health day tonight, you deserve it!”

“If you need any more help or are second-guessing what this idiot says then come to me,” Dwight said. Jim nodded, got up, and left. Dwight turned to Danny. “If he fails then it’s on your head, jackass.”

“He won’t fail, because I’m helping him. He should be so lucky.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means his grade wouldn’t improve in the slightest bit if you were the one tutoring him. You’re unbearable and hard to deal with. I don’t know how he does it,” Danny said while packing up his things. “I’ve always wanted to hang out with Jim. He seems cool. Unfortunate how it came about but I’ll make the most of it.”

“Don’t get a big head. He’s only around you because you offered to tutor him.”

Danny shrugged. “He didn’t seem to mind me consoling him earlier,” he smiled before leaving.

“Me and Oscar are going out,” Jim started. Dwight whipped around in his seat so fast that he almost dropped his laptop. “Tonight,” Jim added with a small smile.

“Jesus, Jim! I thought you meant you two are dating.” 

“I could tell,” Jim giggled. “But no, he’s taking me to this bar in town. It’s a gay bar, maybe I’ll meet someone there?”

Dwight raised an eyebrow at Jim. “Jim, you’re nineteen. You have no business in a bar.”

“It’s a bar-slash-restaurant. I’m allowed in the restaurant. Besides, I have a fake ID if I want to drink.” Jim pulled the fake out of his back pocket and showed it to Dwight. Dwight snatched it from his hand and examined it.

“You shouldn’t have this, Jim. You can wait until twenty-one to drink and go to clubs.”

“Did you?” Dwight didn’t respond. “Then why do I have to,” Jim huffed.

“Because I’m telling you shouldn’t. Cancel with Oscar, I don’t want you going to a bar and getting drunk.”

Jim took his ID back and frowned at Dwight. “So what, you’re gonna make sure I don’t go out tonight? That’s lame, Dwight.”

“Maybe I will,” Dwight replied. “I don’t want you breaking the law is all.” Jim gave him a dirty look before leaving the study lounge Dwight had reserved for the two of them.

That went well Dwight thought.

XXX

Dwight didn’t actually have the power to force Jim to stay in. He hadn’t heard anything from Oscar about Jim canceling either, so he figured the boy didn’t heed his advice and still went out. So Dwight was thoroughly shocked when he knocked on the door of Jim’s dorm and he answered.

“Hello,” Jim said annoyed. He stood in the door so Dwight couldn’t get in. “Here to make sure I don’t sneak out?”

“I kind of figured you would have already,” Dwight admitted. He pushed past Jim to enter his room and sat on his messy bed. Jim sat back at his desk and continued to work on one of his ugly play-doh sculptures. Dwight watched him work for a while, alternating between sticking bits of clay onto his blob and pushing his glasses up. “Why not study if you’re so bored?”

“What are you, the fun police,” Jim snapped. Dwight put his hands up.

“Is that actually fun? You’re just kneading play-doh.”

“It’s a nice alternative to going out and definitely better than doing homework.”

“You could be using your time in a more productive manner...”

“Wow, you are the fun police! I have to study even on a Saturday night!” Jim got up from the desk and flopped down on his bed. He shoved Dwight off with his feet as hard as he could. “Get out, I’ve decided to be productive by sleeping!” He then buried his face into a pillow to drown out the sound of Dwight’s voice.

“Jim, look. I didn’t mean to ruin your night. I don’t understand why you’re so eager to go to a bar. It’s nothing special. Once you turn twenty-one you’ll see how unfun standing around and drinking can be.”

“That’s why you’re drunk every weekend,” came Jim’s muffled reply.

“That’s different.”

“It isn’t. You’re a dick. I was looking forward to meeting other gay men but instead, I’m stuck inside my dorm room when even my weird-ass roommate is out partying. Why are you so against me meeting other people?”

Dwight took a deep breath. He didn’t consider that maybe Jim was more interested in meeting other gay men than drinking. He did feel like a bit of a dick now that he thought about it. He wasn’t aware of the LGBT community on campus and how to get plugged into it. Jim probably knew even less. So maybe tagging along with Oscar to a gay bar was Jim’s initiation into the community.

“Well, you can go, but only if you don’t drink.” 

“Ah yeah, I won’t drink, just cuz you said so,” Jim said sarcastically. “Thanks for the permission, dad.”

“Maybe I’ll go with you,” Dwight said casually. “Make sure you don’t get into any trouble.”

“No need. I’ll text Oscar and see if he’s still up for it.”

“I don’t mind. I want to support you in your first endeavor into the gay community. This is like a christening for you, I want to be there when it happens.” Jim looked at Dwight strangely and cringed.

“Uh, sure? I’m gonna get ready then, I’ll meet you in the lobby in thirty minutes.”

“Yeah. See you soon.”

XXX

The bar was more lowkey than Dwight thought it’d be. It was small and had a restaurant on the first floor. Jim and Dwight ate dinner before heading to the bar on the second floor. Jim’s fake ID wasn’t the least bit convincing. However, his nervous demeanor garnered him sympathy so the bouncer still let him in. 

“Haven’t seen you before sweetie, first time here,” asked the bartender. Jim nodded nervously. “You and your boyfriend are cute.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Jim mumbled out, making the bartender laugh. Dwight rolled his eyes and put his back to the bar.

“What can I get you fellas then?”

“I want a Jack and Coke,” Dwight said and gave the bartender his card to start a tab.

“I want that too,” Jim said. The bartender snorted and went to make their drinks.

“So, are you gonna mingle now,” Dwight asked. “That was the entire point in coming here, right?”

“Yeah...how do I do that?”

“Seriously, Jim? Just walk up to someone and flirt. Have you never flirted before?”

“I haven’t had a lot of practice,” Jim said briskly. “I don’t know anyone else who’s gay except for Oscar.”

“Well, find someone you think is attractive and say “hi”. Give off an air of confidence that’ll make them think, “Wow, this guy is the alpha dog, I just gotta know him”. Then they’ll all submit to you and you’ll have a boyfriend by the end of the night. Or at least gay friends.”

Jim looked at him as if he were dumb. He couldn’t get any words out as the bartender returned with their drinks. Jim picked up his and took a sip. “This isn’t very strong.”

Dwight drank his and found it decently strong. He then took a sip of Jim’s to compare. There was absolutely no alcohol in Jim’s drink. From the corner of his eye, he could see the bartender winking at him. “It tastes the same as mine.”

“Ah. Maybe I have a high alcohol tolerance?”

“Yep, that’s probably it.”

Dwight spent the night trying to talk Jim into talking to other men. He didn’t think it was possible for Jim to have such low self-confidence but here they were. He had an excuse to not talk to every person Dwight pointed out, saying things like, “What if he doesn’t think I’m attractive? What if he likes older men? What if I’m too tall? Blah blah blah…” He understood Jim was nervous but wasn’t the point of coming here to meet people? He’d never do that if he clung to Dwight. He found himself tuning Jim’s newest excuse out and scanning the room. There seemed to be nice men around, some who kept throwing glances in Jim’s direction. Dwight supposed his presence did as much to deter men from talking to Jim as it kept Jim from talking to others. 

“Maybe we should leave,” Jim said. “This isn’t working. I’ll work up the courage and come back one day.”

“Jim, we’ll leave once you say hi to at least one person who isn’t me or Mitch,” Dwight said gesturing to the bartender. Dwight scouted out for a man Jim hadn’t mentally rejected. He noticed a tall brunette with his back towards him. He was ready to send Jim to him when the man turned around.

Danny Cordray.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Dwight said abruptly. He grabbed Jim’s hand and dragged him down the stairs and out of the bar.

“What was that about? Did you see someone you know? That’s why I told you you didn’t need to come!”

“Shut up, Jim. You wanted to leave and now we’re leaving.” The two took a bus back to their dorm. Dwight wasn’t sure why he felt uncomfortable about seeing Danny. The man had been making him uncomfortable all semester. He’d gone from passively hating Danny to outright raging whenever he saw him. He didn’t understand why. “I guess he’s gay,” he mumbled aloud. It made sense why he never knew Danny to date women, not that he was interested in Danny’s dating preferences, to begin with. 

“Who’s gay,” asked an irate Jim. “Are you making fun of me?”

“Shut up. I’m not talking about you, I’m thinking out loud.”

“Whatever.” Dwight continued to watch Jim, who was staring at his phone. Dwight was happy that he had gotten Jim out of the bar before Danny had noticed him. They were spending enough time together as was and Dwight was acutely aware that he felt jealous of Danny’s friendship with Jim. He didn’t want Danny potentially stealing Jim away from him, and that seemed likely if they knew the other liked men. That led to the chance that the two would start dating. Dwight didn’t want that.

“Are you thinking of going back,” Dwight asked.

“Maybe. I do want to meet people. Maybe a bar isn’t the best place for that?”

“There should be LGBT organizations on campus. Look into them.” Dwight knew Danny wasn’t in any LGBT orgs, too busy with their engineering clubs and RA duty.

“Thanks, dad, I’ll do that. And that’s for coming with me. It would have been super awkward if I went by myself.”

Dwight ruffled Jim’s hair. “No problem, kid. I’d do anything for you.”

Dwight stood outside of Jim’s dorm room listening in on an argument he was having with his parents over the phone. The semester was drawing to a close and Jim needed to break it to his parents that he didn’t want to continue on with engineering in the new year.

“I’m barely passing my engineering classes, it’s too hard. Even if I weren’t double majoring this wouldn’t be a good fit. It’s like everything I’m learning isn’t registering, I don’t even remember half the stuff after I take exams on it. It just doesn’t stick. I don’t like it!”

Dwight couldn’t hear the Halperts’ response but from the odd shrill he could hear in Jim’s voice he could tell it wasn’t good. 

“Is he done yet,” asked Gabe, bored. Dwight almost leapt out of his skin at the younger man’s appearance; he hadn’t known Gabe was standing behind him.

“What are you doing here?”

“I live here too, you know? Is he done yet? I don’t wanna be collateral damage in his argument.”

“Don’t be presumptuous Gabriel, Jim doesn’t give you that much thought.”

Gabe scoffed but shuffled by the door, afraid to stumble into an awkward situation by going in. Danny chose that moment to open his door and mosey over to the two of them. Dwight rolled his eyes. Danny could never mind his own business.

“What’s going on,” Danny whispered, concerned about Jim. He leaned next to Jim and Gabe’s door and heard faint yelling coming from the other side. He cringed. 

“Jim doesn’t want to major in engineering anymore and his parents are upset,” Gabe supplied unhelpfully. “I think they might stop paying for him to come here.”

Both Danny and Dwight’s faces fell at that. They knew Jim’s parents wouldn’t be happy with him changing his major, but to disown him? It seemed a bit extreme. Dwight didn’t think they’d be the type to do that. Dwight reached for the doorknob to talk sense into Jim’s parents but Danny beat him to the punch. He entered the room and gently took the phone from Jim’s hands. Jim looked up at Danny in confusion.

“Hello Mr. and Mrs. Halpert,” Danny said sweetly. “I’m Danny Cordray, Jim’s RA. I’m also the co-President of the engineering society here and Jim’s tutor…”

Dwight sat next to Jim and rubbed his back. A small smile graced his tear stricken face. They both listened in on Danny’s conversation with Jim’s parents, anxious to see if he could persuade them to think differently. Gabe sat on his bed, resting his head on his hands, equally as enthralled by the conversation. After a while Danny passed the phone back to Jim, his lips drawn into a tight line. Jim presses the phone to his ear and Dwight pressed his ear to the other side of the phone.

“Hello,” Jim said timidly.

“This doesn’t mean anything, Jim,” Dwight heard Mr. Halpert roar. “Stick with engineering or you’ll have to drop both majors in favor of something else. We are not paying for you to get a degree in something so useless! Do you think money grows on trees? A dumb degree like theatre will get you nowhere. And then what will happen? You can’t come back here if being a writer doesn’t work out!” He hung up before Jim could get another word out. Jim sighed dejectedly.

“So, do you think they’ll give me a new roommate or will I be in the room all alone,” Gabe asked after a while. The room’s other three occupants shot him a dirty look and he got the hint to shut up.

Dwight wanted to spend the winter break looking for an apartment close to campus for after he graduated. But for some reason, he felt compelled to follow Jim back to Scranton for the holidays. When he arrived he hung out with his parents for a day before taking Jeb and Mose ice skating down on the pond right outside their property. Dwight wondered if Jim would like ice skating too.

He didn’t immediately rush over to the Halperts house because he knew he’d end up there due to their Christmas tradition anyway. But he had gotten used to seeing Jim every day in some capacity again so going a few days without it was strange.

Eventually, Dwight and his family ended up at the Halperts’ house for Christmas dinner. Having not visited their home since before Christmas his senior year of high school, the Halperts were shocked to see Dwight standing in their living room. “Dwight, what a surprise it is to see you,” Mrs. Halpert’s voice rang out. She grabbed his coat from him as Mr. Halpert pulled him into a bear hug. From the corner of his eye, Dwight could see Jim watching the scene.

“Jim, get over here,” Mr. Halpert called. “It’s been so long since you’ve seen Dwight!”

Jim rolled his eyes. “Dwight was the “friend” who brought me home, dad.”

Their parents all gasped at that, not knowing they were on speaking terms again. “I thought you came down with Roy and Pam?”

“And listen to them make out for four hours? No way.”

Dwight broke free from Mr. Halpert’s grasp and said, “I’m the RA in the hall adjacent to Jim’s. We see each other pretty regularly.”

“Every day, multiple times a day,” Jim added.

“We eat dinner together.”

“And study…”

We’re best friends Dwight wanted to add but didn’t in case Jim didn’t feel the same way.

Dinner started off lowkey but quickly devolved into an awkward affair. Jim and Dwight’s fathers questioned Jim about any potential girls in his life. Flustered, Jim denied having any women in his life outside of Pam. Mr. Halpert urged Jim to date while in school because it’d get harder when he started his career as an engineer. Mrs. Halpert gave Jim a knowing look that Dwight couldn’t decipher but instinctively didn’t like. Tom must have felt the same way.

“When would he find the time,” he asked, bored. “You can’t expect him to date when he’s double majoring. And barely passing at that.”

Mr. Halpert’s mood deteriorated at the mention of Jim’s grades. “Why is it that Dwight can do well in engineering but you can’t, Jim?”

“Because Dwight is smart and I’m not,” Jim replied jovially. “You know me, I’m a big ole dummy.”

“ No , it’s because your attention is elsewhere. You’re not struggling in any of your liberal arts classes. You’re not too busy to hang out with your little buddies either. You need to buckle down and try harder, Jim. You’re not applying yourself! Do you know how hard me and your mother struggled because we didn’t go to college? I'd kill for the opportunity to go to university and make something of myself. Do you know how much you could make as a chemical engineer? Now, compare that to what the average playwright makes. The answer is simple.”

“Then why don’t you go to school for engineering and let Jim live his life,” Tom asked. 

“I just don’t understand! You wanted to be an engineer when you were younger! What happened?”

Jim groaned and turned an even brighter shade of red than he already was. “I said I wanted to be an engineer once. If I knew I’d be locked into it for the rest of my life I wouldn’t have said anything.”

“Why can’t you just like it,” Mr. Halpert asked dejectedly. “Dwight likes it! I thought you liked everything Dwight liked!”

“In Jim’s defense, he’s not very good at it,” Dwight started. “He does try. Me and a classmate were able to raise Jim’s grades to passing scores but I fear if he continues down the path he’s going he will fail.”

“Then he needs to study more,” Mr. Halpert shot back.

“Please don’t take this the wrong way,” Dwight said, eyeing both Jim and Mr. Halpert. “But his brain is operating at max capability. He can’t do any better than he’s doing. It’s just impossible for him.”

“Hey,” Jim squeaked out, having absolutely taken it the wrong way.

“What is the ratio of stress to strain in a material loaded within its elastic range,” Dwight asked Jim. Jim started sweating under his collar as all eyes darted to him for an answer. Danny tutored Jim on these basic concepts multiple times, and when Jim came to Dwight, too embarrassed to admit to Danny that he still didn’t understand, he’d help him too. 

“Uhh…”

“Think hard,” Dwight implored.

“Yield strength?”

Any other time Dwight would chew Jim out for getting something so simple wrong, but he refrained from doing so. Jim being painfully wrong was proving Dwight right. “No, dork. It’s the modulus of elasticity. It’s basic physics.”

“I was always better at chemistry.”

“What dimensional property of a material refers to the deviation from edge straightness?”

Jim sighed bitterly. “I dunno.”

“Camber.” Dwight directed his attention to Jim’s parents. “Jim is good at math and chemistry but that doesn’t matter when he doesn’t know how to apply those skills in an applicable manner. He just can’t. It doesn’t register in his right-brained, liberal arts-minded head. He’s only taking the weeder courses and he’s barely managing to pass. There’s a high possibility he’ll fail the other weeder courses next semester and then can’t major in engineering anyway. Then that’s a waste of his time, your money, and frankly my time as one of his tutors. Or he could skirt by in those classes only to declare an engineering major and continuously fail at the higher level classes once I’m too busy to tutor him. Since he’ll be failing he’ll have to take spring and summer courses to repeat classes instead of getting internships like his peers. He'll thus look less competitive on the job market. He’ll graduate with an unsatisfactory GPA and work at a low-level firm who’ll pay him peanuts since he’d be a shit engineer. And that’s if someone hires him. And then the likelihood of Jim actually succeeding in engineering is low. He’d be fired after his probationary period is over and no one would hire him again. You can continue to pressure him into doing engineering but I guarantee you, if Jim can’t tell the difference between yield strength and elastic modulus then he won’t do well in life.”

Some of the people at the table let out shocked chuckles at Dwight inadvertently roasting Jim. Jim, for his part, looked less embarrassed as Dwight’s rant went on and was full out beaming at his parents when Dwight was finished.

“Don’t be too happy,” Mr. Halpert sighed. “We’ll talk about this later.”

For the rest of the night, Jim was extremely happy.

When the new semester began Jim was no longer expected to double major. “You better be a hell of a play writer,” Jim’s father told him before they left. The smile from Christmas dinner never left Jim’s face.

They ran into Danny once they got back to the dorms. Danny was creepy like that, always lurking around corners and down corridors like a ghoul. 

“You don’t have to tutor me anymore, Danny,” Jim called the moment he laid eyes on Danny.

“Oh! Why is that?”

“I will no longer be studying engineering, thank God.”

“I did a much better job than you of convincing Jim’s parents that engineering was a poor fit for him,” Dwight said gleefully. Jim glared at him.

“Well, Danny tried. I think all of our efforts influenced my parents,” Jim said pointedly. Dwight rolled his eyes. After Danny started tutoring Jim he became ultra-defensive of his RA. If Dwight even breathed in Danny’s direction the wrong way Jim would get upset. Hopefully, this behavior would stop now that Danny was redundant.

“Okay,” Dwight said irritably.

“So it’s just theatre now,” Danny asked. He had to be dumb or deaf, or both, Dwight decided. If Jim dropped one of his two fields of study he only had one left? Instead of calling Danny out for not listening, Jim laughed. It sounded fake to Dwight’s ears but Danny smiled back. Dwight huffed uncomfortably; Danny and Jim always got weird when he was around the both of them.

“Jim, go put your stuff away so we can get dinner,” Dwight said.

“Oh, okay!” Jim spun on his heels to go to his room before turning back around. “Danny, are you free? You should come with us!”

That was the worst idea ever. Danny seemed to think so too and said, “I’m a bit busy. Maybe we can get lunch tomorrow?” Dwight didn’t the way Danny said “we” although Jim apparently did. He nodded eagerly.

“Okay, that sounds good. We’ll see you later!” Danny nodded before giving Dwight the look and walking off. What the hell? Jim scurried off to drop his bag off and came back to Dwight, a goofy smile on his face.

“Are you that happy to be getting lunch with Cordray,” Dwight grouched.

“Uh, yeah? This is the first time I get to hang out with him where our conversation won’t be engineering related.”

“And what? You want to continue hanging around him? He doesn’t offer much except engineering knowledge that’s inferior to mine.”

“Yeah. I’m not too sure how he feels about me, but I consider him a friend!”

Somehow, that made Dwight upset. He wanted nothing more for Jim to have many friends since Dwight thought Jim deserved the world. And maybe Danny could be someone Jim could relate to on the topic of sexuality if they ever came out to one another. But Dwight didn’t like the idea of his friend going any further than friendship with a guy, especially if that guy was Danny Cordray. However, he couldn’t tell Jim who to be friends with and he didn’t want Jim to be upset with him lest they fall out again.

“Oh. I hope you two have fun,” Dwight said. Jim smiled and bumped shoulders with Dwight.

At dinner, Dwight couldn’t stomach his food.

Danny and Jim’s friendship flourished despite their lack of similar studies. If Jim wasn’t with Pam, Roy, and Andy, and he wasn’t with him, then he was with Danny. Dwight preferred it better when Jim was being a creepy loner in his room. But he couldn’t deny the fact that Jim seemed insanely happy these days. Dwight didn’t want to ruin that.

Dwight and Jim sat in Dwight’s dorm room, watching a movie. It was Dwight’s birthday but he had grown up not celebrating birthdays and therefore had no real plans for the day. He’d get drinks with his friends tomorrow, but for now, Dwight wanted to spend time with Jim. Jim had brought him a giant cupcake that might as well have been a regular cake and tater tots. If Dwight celebrated birthdays then that was the best gift anyone could have given him.

Jim was gracious enough to allow Dwight the opportunity to pick their movie. He decided on District 9 since it was a) amazing and b) Jim had never seen it. They were watching the movie and eating his giant cupcake when someone knocked on the door. Dwight’s mood soured a bit thinking it was Danny looking for Jim, or to perhaps ruin his night. He resolved to ignore the person at the door until they left. However, they kept knocking. Sighing, Dwight got up and answered the door. On the other side was Angela, leaning against his door frame. She wore a pink peacoat that Dwight noticed looked thin. It was January, she had to be freezing.

“Hello, kitten,” he said automatically. She gave him one of her rare smiles.

“Hey, Dwight. Can I come in?” Angela slowly opened her coat and flashed Dwight a glimpse of what was underneath. She wore a set of yellow, lacy, crotchless lingerie panties with matching garter belts and nothing else. As fast as she opened her jacket, Angela closed it and hid all of her good bits. She smiled lecherously. “Happy birthday, big boy.” She pushed past Dwight and entered his room, shrugging her coat off as she went. Dwight’s short-circuited at the sight of her breasts, so bad that he didn’t stop her.

“Uh, hey Angela,” Jim said, sounding a mix of shocked and amused.

Angela didn’t even scream. The color drained from her face and she stuttered.

“Ohhh, I see you two had plans,” Jim said with a grin. He lept off of Dwight’s bed and exited the room. “I’ll see you later Dwight, happy birthday!”

“Huh,” Dwight said once his brain caught up. By the time it did, Jim was long gone and Angela was crying in the middle of his room. One problem at a time… “What are you doing here, Angela?”

Angela dried her eyes, slowly recovering from the humiliation of having exposed herself to Jim. “I wanted to surprise you for your birthday,” she mumbled.

They were off for the moment and had been since the end of November. But it seemed like Angela wanted to be on again. Usually, by this point in their breaks, Dwight would be missing Angela and her body. But during this last break, he hadn’t cared. He still loved her, sure, but it was a friendly kind of love at this point, where he could fuck his friend. And while that personally sounded like an amazing relationship to have, he didn’t want it with Angela anymore.

“You should have called ahead. And worn clothes…”

Angela started to cry again. Dwight hugged her. He knew how self-conscious she could be. “But it wouldn’t have been a surprise.” She fiddled with the hem of his shirt and tried to pull it over his head. Dwight gently grabbed her hands and lowered them, taking his shirt along with it. “Why,” she asked stiltedly. “You don’t want me?”

Dwight didn’t. He couldn’t understand why he felt the way he did towards Angela now. Not when she was standing in the middle of his room in nothing but a thong, her perky breast barely hidden behind her hair. She was still attractive to him, so fucking attractive, but something changed. And it changed long before their latest break up. Maybe at the start of the school year. Whatever the reason, Dwight was still physically attracted to her but not emotionally. And emotional attraction was just as important to Dwight as physical attraction. “I don’t think we can keep doing this, Angela. I can’t keep breaking up and getting back together with you. It’s not healthy for either of us. We should remain strictly as platonic friends.”

After Angela calmed down, Dwight called an Uber for her and gave her a button-down to fashion into a dress. Once she was gone, Dwight went to look for Jim, hoping to continue their movie. He walked down the hallway to Jim’s room but paused in front of Danny’s door. It was wide open because Danny was the RA on duty that night. On his bed sat Jim, watching a movie with Danny on his laptop.

“Uh, hey,” Dwight said awkwardly. “I was just looking for you.”

Jim’s eyes brightened at the sight of him and the look he gave him made Dwight’s throat feel dry. “Oh wow, done already? That soon?”

“Nothing happened. Do you want to finish our movie…?”

“Yeah!” Jim jumped up from Danny’s bed to leave but Danny grabbed his hand to stop him. 

“Whoa, we didn’t finish our movie either.”

Dwight felt a bit paranoid that Jim was finishing District 9 with Danny. “What were you watching?”

“ Moulin Rouge. Can you believe Danny hadn’t seen it before?”

Dwight smiled. He hated musicals but since Jim liked them he watched them with him all the time. “I can, actually. No one else on the entire floor cares about musicals besides you.”

“That’s not true, Nate at the end of the hall is a stage production studies major.”

Danny snorted under his breath. “It’s fine. I look forward to finishing it with you.”

Jim moved to follow Dwight but let out a loud, body-wracking yawn. “Let’s go, Dwight.”

Maybe you should go to bed,” Dwight said. Despite saying that, he kind of wanted Jim to stay up with him.

“It’s your birthday, let’s finish your movie. I can sleep later.”

It was one-thirty-seven am. Angela had been there longer than he thought and it was no longer his birthday. “...it’s fine. It’s a new day now. Get some rest.”

“Awe, are you sure? I don’t m—.” Jim’s sentence was cut off with another loud yawn. “—ind?”

“We’ll finish tomorrow. Go to bed.” With that, Dwight turned on his heels and went back to his room, feeling irritated and upset at both Angela and Danny for reasons he could not understand.

Dwight didn’t miss the fact that Jim didn’t go to bed but instead stayed and finished his movie with Danny.

Valentine’s Day came soon after. Every year, whether they were on or off, Angela and Dwight spent the day together doing things. Fun things, things Dwight would miss but wasn’t in the mood to pursue. There were other avenues for Dwight to pursue, avenues not readily apparent to him but there nonetheless. And while the hot, wild sex they had on this day was sorely missed, the awkwardness that accompanied the cool-down periods weren’t. Thus, Dwight was solo on VD.

“Dwight, open the door,” Jim called the other side. He had long forgone knocking like a normal human being and had taken to yelling his name until he answered. Dwight got up to allow Jim in. Jim greeted Dwight with a hug, as he usually did. Dwight hugged him back, holding Jim longer than what was deemed friendly. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Dwight. I got you something!”

Jim broke away from the hug to pull his surprise out of a plastic bag. First, he pulled out a large box of chocolates that had Star Wars characters on it. Then there was one of Jim’s ugly clay sculptures shaped like a heart (Dwight would never admit it to Jim, but it had to be the cutest thing Jim had given him to date), and a small package of homemade cookies. There was another bag of cookies that lacked decoration, along with small packets of frosting on the side.

“Ta-da,” Jim said, pressing his gifts into Dwight’s hands.

“You didn’t have to get me anything, Jim.” Fuck, I should have gotten Jim something!

“I didn’t have to but I wanted to.” Jim plopped down on Dwight’s bed. “What did you get Angela?”

“Nothing. We’re not together.”

“Yeah, but you guys are always not together. And then you are.”

“This time is a bit more permanent. We’re done for good.”

Jim frowned deeply at that. “Oh. Are you happy with that?”

“It was my idea, so yeah.”

“Aww. I figured you didn’t get her anything since you’re a dumb heterosexual so I brought you cookies to decorate and give to her. But since you’re not together I guess you can just eat the extra cookies.”

Dwight rolled his eyes. “Have you gotten anything today?” Surely men and women who didn’t know better were clamoring after Jim. Dwight couldn’t understand why anyone wouldn’t although the thought of people wanting Jim upset him.

“Nobody likes me, Dwight. Don’t worry, no one will steal me away from you.”

Dwight sputtered at that. “What? No! I want you to find someone so you’ll leave me the hell alone. You come to my door like a stray cat looking for tuna.” Despite that, Dwight felt at ease that no one liked Jim or was too cowardly to make their intentions known to him. Jim was right; Dwight wanted to occupy all of Jim’s time undisturbed. Jim having a boyfriend meant he would no longer be Jim’s top priority. Dwight even found himself getting bitter when Jim ditched him to hang out with his other friends. He just wanted all of Jim’s attention, was that too much to ask? “I didn’t get you anything so how about I take you to dinner? We can go to that nice steakhouse. I’m sure they’ll have openings from all the couples who broke up before making it to the restaurant.”

“Ooh, sounds fancy, Dwight. Am I to assume this is a date,” Jim asked with a waggle of his eyebrow.

“I—,” Well, yeah. I guess this is a date, Dwight realized. And he didn’t hate the idea of taking Jim out on a date. If Jim was going to date someone then it made sense that Dwight be the one to date him. It made perfectly good sense. They were always together. Even when he was a child Jim liked to cling onto him. Why should it be different now that they were both adults? Dwight thought back to when a ten-year-old Jim declared he was going to marry Dwight. Would that be so bad? Dwight wouldn’t mind being married to Jim if the option ever presented itself. Sure, they’d have to move to Massachusetts or New York, but Dwight wouldn’t mind that. Or maybe they could one day get married in Pennsylvania. Right on Schrute Farm.

Fuck. Dwight loved Jim. And the realization of that didn’t frighten Dwight as much as he thought it would. Spending the rest of his life with Jim didn’t seem daunting to Dwight the way it did with Angela. It felt right. He already spent most of it with Jim anyhow, might as well spend the rest of it with him too. Jim was the avenue Dwight wanted to explore. And he wasn’t afraid of that journey.

But Dwight was getting ahead of himself. Heart beating wildly, Dwight said, “If you want to think of it as a date then I won’t stop you, Halpert.”

“Well, let’s go. Our bromantic dinner awaits us.”

They walked out into the corridor by the stairwell, chatting amongst themselves when they ran into Gabe. “Dude, there’s a big ass package waiting for you downstairs,” Gabe told Jim.

“You didn’t think to get it for me?”

“I’m not your slave, man. Besides, it was huge! You gotta get it yourself.”

Jim looked at Dwight worriedly before breaking away from him to check his mail. Dwight, lost in thoughts about how to confess to Jim, didn’t notice Danny joining him and Gabe.

“What’s going on,” Danny asked.

“God, why are you here,” Dwight ground out.

“Uh, this is my hall, cunt. If you don’t like it then go back to your hall.”

“Fuck off, Cordray, this is the area around the stairwell. It’s not my fault you have the hots for me and can’t keep away.”

Gabe chuckled awkwardly and said, “Jim has mail and we’re waiting for him to check it.”

Danny huffed indignantly. “You don’t have to stand in the middle of the hall and act like you own it to do that.”

“Forgive me for not welcoming your company, Daniel, but your presence is unwarranted. Your entire life is, actually.”

Jim came back from the mailroom carrying a giant bear on his back. The bear was wider than Jim was and almost as long. Jim looked insanely excited at his gift. “Dwight, look! I have a secret admirer!”

Dwight trained his face to not look disappointed. “Oh? That’s nice. Did they leave a card?”

Jim nodded his head rapidly. He held the card out in his shaking hands so Dwight could read it. Danny snatched away before Dwight could reach for it. Danny started to read it aloud.

“Dear Jim,

I’m sorry to approach you in such a cowardly way. I could not gather enough strength to find you as I am. However, I’d be remiss not to bare my intentions with you on such a lovely holiday so this is the best that I can do.

I watch you from afar, mesmerized by how you light up a room. You bring joy to everyone around you and I find myself wanting to be in your orbit. I am unable to resist your mien yet I am also unable to show myself to you. One day I hope we can meet on the same footing and in equal standing and can be together the way I know we should.”

How corny. Still, Jim practically vibrated in place from excitement. It was dampening Dwight’s mood.

“No one signed it,” Danny said, flipping the card over. “Any idea who sent it?”

“No, but I’m sure she’s nice,” Jim said, trying not to give too much info about himself away to Danny.

“Still, they could have done a bit more. If I were sending you a giant bear, it’d come with an invitation to dinner too. Maybe a movie.” Danny handed Jim back his card, who took it gratefully.

“No, this is nice too! I really appreciate it. No one’s ever gotten me anything for Valentine’s Day…”

“Come on,” Dwight said, annoyed. “I got you stuff before!”

“Yeah, the little card and sucker everyone else got!”

“I’m taking you out to dinner right now, aren’t I?”

“Ahh, so you two have a date,” Danny asked inquisitively.

Dwight wanted to answer yes, Jim had a date with him and that Danny needed to fuck off to the pit of hell he climbed out of. Before he could, Jim said, “It’s not a date! We’re just going as friends!” Jim awkwardly shuffled around Danny before running down the hall to his room, Gabe in tow. Dwight and Danny stared at each other.

“Hmm,” Danny said. “Have fun with your friendship dinner.”

“You have fun being alone for another year, loser.”

“Who said I’ll be alone this year,” Danny replied cryptically. Dwight narrowed his eyes at him.

“Whatever, asshole.” When Jim came back they went off for dinner. They weren’t able to get into the nice steakhouse like they wanted and had to settle for Applebee’s instead, but Jim seemed to enjoy himself nonetheless.

Dwight wasn’t able to work up the courage to come out to Jim right then and there. But it was okay, he had plenty of time. Especially if Jim’s admirer was a scaredly as he was.

It would work out okay.

After Valentine’s Day, Jim became cagey and distant from Dwight. When pressed about it, Jim had a multitude of excuses to explain his behavior and frequent absences. None of which Dwight bought. He even asked Pam about Jim’s behavior and she was just as lost as he was. Apparently, Jim had been canceling plans with his friends too.

“I think Jim has a girlfriend,” Pam said excitedly. “I don’t know why he’s hiding her from us. It’s a bit hurtful but…”

“But what?”

“I’m happy for him. He hasn’t dated anyone since Karen. I was starting to think he was asexual. Or maybe Karen turned him off from women. I just wish he’d tell us what’s up.”

Please, Jim was turned off from women long before Karen Dwight thought. Dwight knew the problem wasn’t Jim having a girlfriend. But Dwight was worried that the problem stemmed from Jim dating. Jim might have gotten a boyfriend and the thought of that was making Dwight sick. At least he was spending less time with Cordray too, which brought Dwight an inordinate amount of joy.

“Dwight, I’ve just been busy with school,” Jim whined when asked. “I swear I’m fine!”

Dwight rolled his eyes. He felt like he had to force Jim to hang out with him these days. Sure, he hung out with him once or twice a week, but that felt like Jim was throwing Dwight peanuts of his time compared to how much they used to hang out. To add insult to injury, Jim looked really good. Dwight had to belatedly admit that Jim always looked good, but damn. He was really hot. He put a decent amount of effort into his appearance, depending on what time his classes started and what he had planned for the day. But nowadays Jim looked nice every day like he was meeting someone or showing off. Dwight couldn’t help the jealousy he felt at the prospect of losing Jim to another man. However, Dwight didn’t know how to make his feelings about the situation known without sounding like a massive dick.

“Pam thinks you’ve got a girlfriend,” Dwight said evenly.

“I know. I keep telling her I don’t but she doesn’t believe me.”

“She’d believe you if you came out to her.”

Jim slumped in his chair at that and started fidgeting nervously. “I know I have to one day, but I’m afraid. She’ll hate me, Dwight, I don’t know what to do.”

“Pam loves you, Jim. I don’t think she’d ever leave you.”

Jim gave Dwight a spiteful look before chuckling darkly. “Whatever. It seems like I’ll be telling her sooner rather than later.”

Dwight couldn’t make out why Jim looked at him like that, nor the change in mood. Uncomfortable, Dwight said, “That’s good then. I promise you nothing bad will happen.”

“Yeah,” Jim mumbled. “Let’s hope.”

Months passed with Dwight and Jim falling into their new routine. They’d hang out once or twice a week, or whenever Dwight could catch Jim. Jim, to his credit, was busy with school along with a host of other arts-related activities. But Dwight (and Pam, and Roy, and Andy, and Gabe, and begrudgingly Danny) all thought Jim was dating. Jim positioned that he was not dating but just stressed from school. But whenever Dwight asked Jim what he could do to help him, Jim would gently rebuff him.

So Dwight was shocked when he received a terse text from Jim asking him to meet for lunch. When Dwight arrived at the restaurant he immediately noticed Jim’s shoulders relaxing before tensing back up. He looked insanely tired too, although that might have been from studying for his finals. How ever a theatre kid studied for finals. Dwight slid in the booth across from Jim. Despite his nervous demeanor, Dwight couldn’t help but think Jim looked hot as hell.

“Why do you look like shit,” he asked instead.

Jim scoffed and pushed his hair away from his face. God, he was so beautiful. If Dwight didn’t shoot his shot now then someone else would. “I have something to tell you, please don’t be mad at me!”

Begging wasn’t something Jim did often, at least not seriously. Dwight leaned forward to show he was listening. “Shoot.”

“Me and Danny...we’re dating…”

Dwight couldn’t help the deep intake of breath he took at that. So much for shooting his shot. He hated Danny so much for daring to like Jim. But not as much as he hated himself. If he had realized sooner that he liked Jim then maybe he would have had a chance. You don’t know if Jim ever felt that way about you Dwight thought bitterly. He refocused his attention on Jim, who looked like he was about to pop a vein at Dwight’s lack of a response. “Congrats!”

“Really? Is it okay,” Jim asked worriedly.

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“...you guys don’t seem to like each other,” Jim whispered. “I’m sorry, Dwight. I’ve kind of liked him all year. I was shocked he liked me back and just went for it. I didn’t think about how it might affect you…”

“You’ve wanted a boyfriend for a while now. I’m happy you’ve finally got one.”

They smiled at each other although it was strained on both their ends. Jim picked at his hair, then his nails, before settling on ripping the napkins in his hand into tiny pieces.

“Jim, tell me: what’s wrong with you?”

Jim looked so distressed that Dwight wondered if he accidentally murdered someone. He was near tears. Dwight should have been the one near tears, the boy he loved was with the man he hated. Shouldn’t Jim be happy?

“Remember when you said you’d help me with anything,” Jim asked anxiously. Upon further inspection, Dwight could see some of Jim’s light-colored hair on the table. He wondered if Jim had been pulling it out.

“Yeah.”

“I don’t wanna be closeted anymore. Help me.”

Dwight wasn’t sure how he could help Jim. Wouldn’t Danny be better at this? They were the ones dating, if Jim came out it should be with Danny’s support and not his. “I’m not sure what I can do for you.”

“I dunno either. Can you be there when I tell people? I thought I could do it alone but I ran into Kelly and Ryan earlier…”

“And what?”

“...they laughed at me,” Jim whispered. “I need to tell Pam and Roy before Kelly and Ryan beat me to the punch. What if they hate me, Dwight? What if they tell my parents before I can? I’m scared.”

Dwight’s heart broke for Jim, it really did, because even while being in love with Jim, Dwight would never be in the position where he had to come out as gay. He generally had more confidence in himself than Jim did and wouldn’t be as affected if his peers didn’t take it the right way. Plus, Dwight knew for a fact that his parents would accept him if he were gay. Jim already had an inkling that his parents wouldn’t be okay. But what could Dwight do? This wasn’t like him talking Jim’s parents out of forcing him to study engineering. If they didn’t accept homosexuality then what could Dwight say to make them accept it? The same went for Jim’s friends. “...I don’t know what I can do for you…,” he repeated.

Jim went stone-faced. “Oh.”

“Yeah. Maybe Oscar could help? Is Danny out? Maybe he’d know how to proceed.”

“You’re right. I should have asked them first. How stupid of me.”

Jim stood up to leave and put down enough money for the coffee he drank before Dwight arrived. 

“Where are you going,” Dwight asked.

“I need to finish my final script. It’s due at midnight so I should hurry up.” 

Jim rushed out of the door before Dwight could get another word out. Dwight raked his hands over his face before getting up and exiting the restaurant himself. He wasn’t sure how, but he managed to ruin things between him and Jim, again.

End Part 2

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

“No,” Dwight told himself on the drive back to the dorm. He drove aimlessly for a few hours trying to reflect on where he went wrong in their conversation. He figured it out: he was a fucking asshole. He promised Jim he would help him with anything. Dwight didn’t need to know the first thing about coming out to give Jim emotional support. He was a cunt for not realizing that was all Jim wanted. In a moment of undue resentment toward Danny, Dwight had pushed away the most important person to him. 

Jim.

Dwight balanced a Cold Stone Creamery ice cream cake and a pizza in one arm as he rapped on Jim’s door. He didn’t answer. Dwight couldn’t be sure that Jim was alone in his room, or that Jim was even home, but he needed to make things right. He used the room key he duped when he was on front desk duty to get into Jim’s room. Luckily Gabe wasn’t there. But guessing by the large lump under the sheets, Jim was in the suite.

“Close the door, Gabe, God!”

“It’s me.”

Jim sat up at that and Dwight hit the light switch so he could properly see Jim. His eyes were red from crying. What a friend Dwight was. He sighed and kicked the door shut before depositing the pizza on Jim’s desk and the cake in the mini freezer.

“How did you get into my room,” Jim sniffled.

“I made a key.” He expected a snide remark from Jim but instead, he was greeted by silence. “Who have you told so far?”

Jim shook his head.

“Who should we start with?”

“I thought you didn’t want to help me?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to help because I do. I didn’t know how. I still don’t, not really. But I can support you so you don’t have to do this alone. You asked me that as plain as day and I was still too hard-headed to see that.” Dwight settled on the bed next to Jim and pulled him into a hug. Jim awkwardly hugged him back. “Why did you come to me first?”

“Because you’re my best friend.”

“I thought Pam was your best friend.”

“She is. But so are you.”

“Any reason you didn't go to Danny first? Don’t feel pressured to answer if you don’t want to.”

Jim buried his face in the crook of Dwight’s neck. “He’s already out and mentioned he didn’t want to date someone closeted. I want this to be a serious relationship so I need to do this.”

Dwight hated Danny. “Well, I’m here now. Who should we tell first?”

They decided on Jim’s father. Dwight reasoned that since his mother and Tom already knew they could help him through it if he took the news badly. Jim argued back that his mother wasn’t comfortable with him being gay herself. Regardless, telling Jim’s father was the highest priority along with telling Pam so he needed to be first or second.

“Dad, I need to tell you something,” Jim said over the speaker. Dwight held Jim close as a show of comfort. He tried not to focus on how nice Jim felt beside him.

“What’s wrong, Jim? You sound out of breath. Are you dying?”

“...no,” Jim replied meekly.

“Please don’t tell me you’re failing theatre. I suffered through enough Sondheim and Cole Porter for you to know what you’re doing.”

“Everything is going well at school, dad.”

“Well, what’s up kid?”

Jim looked ready to back down and give up. Dwight gently rubbed circles in his back and implored him to continue. With a deep breath, Jim said, “I’m gay.”

The line was dead silent on Mr. Halpert’s end. Dwight was afraid that he had hung up on them. 

“Dad, please say something.”

“...”

“Please don’t hate me,” Jim sobbed. “Just forget I said anything. I’m sorry!”

Mr. Halpert sighed. “I’m shocked, Jim. I didn’t think you’d be this way. Although the signs have always been there.”

“Are you mad at me,” Jim hiccuped.

“...I am, a little. This is distressing. I always envisioned you with a young, pretty wife, two kids, and an amazing career. It looks like you’ll have none of that now.”

Dwight was offended on Jim’s behalf and steeled himself to call Mr. Halpert out. Jim spoke before Dwight could.

“Okay. Let’s pretend I didn’t say that. Okay?”

“I need time, Jim…”

“Please don’t hate me,” Jim whispered into the speaker, but by then his father had already hung up.

XXX

Time for Jim’s dad was the four-hour drive from Scranton to University Park. Dwight spent that time consoling Jim who bawled his eyes out over his dad’s rejection. Dwight couldn’t help but notice that Danny never visited Jim. Sure, he may have not heard him crying but Dwight thought there’d be more effort involved if your boyfriend lived right across the hall from you. Still, Dwight eventually managed to calm Jim down with pizza and Netflix. He was getting their ice cream cake when his phone rang.

Mr. Halpert

“It’s my mom, I need to take this,” Dwight told Jim. Jim nodded from under his fortress of blankets.

“Yes, Mr. Halpert,” Dwight answered stonily once he was far enough from Jim’s room.

“Dwight,” he replied, a bit panicked. “Can you let me in?”

“In where?”

“I’m at the back of the dormitory. Can you let me in?”

Dwight met Mr. Halpert at the back door. He stood outside in his pajamas and a Carhartt jacket. He had a pitiful looking balloon that read Congratulations! tied to his wrist along with a Kroger bag full of candy. Dwight stepped out of the way and allowed him in. 

Mr. Halpert walked the halls to Jim’s room in silence, seemingly familiar with the route despite only being in the dorm once, nine months ago. He didn’t speak to Dwight further than a “thank you” for allowing him in. He didn’t know that Dwight knew too. But maybe Mr. Halpert figured he was the first person Jim told in general. 

He barged into Jim’s room without knocking, catching his son stuffing his face full of frozen cake. Without warning, he pounced on Jim enveloped him in a bear hug.

“What are you doing here,” Jim asked through tears.

“I had to see you, Jim. Had to tell you it’s alright in person.”

Dwight left the two of them to cry it out for a while as he straightened out his room for Mr. Halpert to sleep in. When he came back to Jim’s room, he found the Halperts tearing into the candy Mr. Halpert bought while trying to arrange themselves comfortably on Jim’s tiny bed.

“Get over here, Dwight,” Mr. Halpert called, holding up a bag of Sour Patch Kids for him. “Where’s your roommate?”

“He’s out raving and doing drugs,” Jim deadpanned. He patted an empty space beside him for Dwight to sit on. Dwight joined his surrogate family.

“So close to finals? That doesn’t sound smart.”

“Well, he’s a Japanese Studies major and we know that doesn’t involve real studying, so…”

“I don’t think you’re in any position to say anyone’s major is useless,” Dwight replied.

“At least I do stuff! Do you want to read a short story I wrote for my final, dad?”

“Of course, son.”

And they spent the rest of the night listening to Jim read his story. Tomorrow would bring new challenges and bumps in Jim’s coming out story but for tonight Dwight was determined to make sure Jim knew he was loved by two of the most important people to him.

Chapter Text

Dwight found himself in the presence of Danny Cordray more often than he was comfortable with. Jim would often make plans with Dwight and then allow Danny to tag along. From how angry and tired Danny was of these stunts Dwight could tell many a date between the two had also turned into group sessions. Dwight knew that Jim wanted him and Danny to get along now that he was dating Danny but the scheme Jim was trying to run was annoying. He told Jim as much.

“Jim, don’t invite me out if it’s just a ploy to force me to hang out with Cordray. Especially since I end up playing third wheel to your dates.” And God did he play the third wheel. These awkward meet-ups never stayed awkward for Danny who could monopolize Jim’s time in ways Dwight couldn’t. Not only was he irate with being a part of Jim’s weird throuple, he was jealous too. Painfully jealous. He’d rather not have to witness it if he couldn’t have Jim in that way and Dwight didn’t care if it made him a “nice guy” for thinking that.

“I just want you two to get along,” Jim said bashfully. “You guys are so similar! I don’t understand why you don’t like one another.”

“It’s because we are similar that I hate him. We study a specialized field. We’ve competed for practically everything since we were freshmen.” Including the same boy, Dwight thought. He continued, “We want the same things, at the same time, and have the same goals. With how specialized we both are within our majors it’s only natural there’d be some hostility between us, especially when what we do is so similar that him getting a job is me being out of a job.”

“You’re engineers, there has to be plenty of jobs. I’ll have a harder time finding one than you guys but I’m still friends with people in my major. Live in the moment and worry about your peers being competition in the future.”

“That just means you're nice, if not naive.”

“No, it means I’m not jaded,” Jim replied.

“Whatever, I would prefer not to third wheel your and Danny’s dates. Can you please keep us separate?”

“Fine.”

Dwight smiled slightly at that. “Okay. Do you want to get dinner?”

“Can’t.”

“Danny?”

“Nope, Pam.”

Jim eventually came out to his family and friends. He had his parents' support (although Mrs. Halpert seemed upset at the idea Jim wouldn’t give her biological grandchildren) while Tom had always been Jim’s biggest cheerleader. However, things were strained between Jim and Pete and Larissa, the former more apathetic than anything else while the latter had been outright hostile about it. Their family was currently divided on the topic of Jim’s sexuality. He’d been extremely hurt by his siblings’ reactions but otherwise, Jim was doing okay in that regard. He still spoke to his parents every other day and Tom still visited him. He wasn’t completely shunned and that seemed good enough for Jim.

As Dwight expected, Jim’s friends were supportive. He’d been with them for a length of time almost as long as he’d been with Dwight, there was no way they’d abandon him. Most of them, at least. The real drama came from the dissolution of Jim, Kelly, and Ryan’s friendship. Jim waited all of eleven hours between telling his dad and telling Pam he was gay, afraid that Kelly and her big mouth would out him before he got the chance to himself. Kelly and Ryan swore they would never do that. Jim pointed out the reaction they gave him when he told them in a stress-induced breakdown and how Kelly made plans after that to hang out with Pam solo. That never happened, Pam and Kelly only hung out in their large groups and Jim found it shady. Ryan used the opportunity to vent about how much he hated how Jim was always the center of attention and how he was dissatisfied with his relationship with Kelly. Kelly claimed innocence while pissed that Ryan tried throwing her under the bus. She argued that she needed to talk to Pam about something “only girls would understand” and so requested the meeting. So the three weren’t friends anymore and Dwight wasn’t sure they would ever be (at least, Jim wouldn’t be friends with them). All in all, it seemed like none of them outgrew their high school antics.

Still, Dwight never intruded on Jim’s time with Pam. He knew how much it meant to Jim that Pam still loved him. Besides, the possessive side of him was smug that other side of Danny, Jim hung out with him the most.

“Let me know when you’re free then,” Dwight said. “And for the love of God, don’t bring Danny.”

“I won’t! But you have to promise me you’ll get along with him?”

Dwight huffed. “Yeah, I’ll try.”

“I’m serious, Dwight. I really think Danny’s the one. And you’re like my brother. I need you to like him if this relationship is gonna work.”

Dwight wanted to tell Jim that it wasn’t going to work, ever. Even if he put his differences (or similarities) with Danny aside, Dwight would never be happy that anyone who wasn’t himself had Jim. But instead of saying that, Dwight said, “Sure.”

With that, Dwight’s senior year came to an end. He graduated with honors and ample financial aid for graduate school. His family drove up for the graduation as did the non-homophobic splinter of the Halpert family. They and Michael got lunch after the ceremony and spoke about Dwight’s plans for the future. He’d get his Masters, go to work for a few years, before going back to school for his Ph.D. in environmental engineering and moving on to lab work on how to utilize and manage limited land and agricultural resources. It was boring but it was what Dwight wanted to do.

“You’re so smart, Dwight,” Jim said. “I have no doubt you’re going to come up with all sorts of cool, sustainable farming techniques for the future.”

Dwight was really happy that Jim chose to spend the afternoon with him instead of Danny. It truly warmed his heart that Danny was alone. It was what he deserved.

Dwight was happy for his new beginnings yet sad at the same time. Most of his friends were graduating too and leaving on top of that. Angela had gotten into a graduate program in Michigan and would move in a few days. Phyllis was going to a different school in Boston while Stanley planned on moving to Florida. Oscar would be around and Michael hadn’t yet graduated, but it wouldn’t be the same without the whole gang there.

In fact, Dwight had a “date” with Angela for dinner. It was supposed to be easy and casual, two friends saying goodbye after everything they’d been through. Some part of Dwight would always love Angela and hoped they wouldn’t drift apart. But the pragmatist in him believed this would be the end of the line for them. At the very least, Dwight wanted to end their relationship—romantic or platonic—on a high note. 

“What are your plans after this,” Jim asked.

“Me and Angela are getting dinner later.”

Jim waggled an eyebrow at Dwight. Dwight learned some time ago that Jim honest to God shipped him with Angela and was upset they weren’t together. “Is it because of me,” he asked at that time, “my being here hasn’t ruined things between you two, didn’t it?”

Yes, it did. But that didn’t matter.

“I hope everything goes well for you two!”

“It’s not happening the way you expect it to. I’m just saying goodbye.”

“Dude, that sucks. Are you really giving up on the girl of your dreams so easily?”

“You’re overstating things. Angela’s hardly the girl of my dreams.” 

Wow, if only high school Dwight could hear him now.

“Whatever happens, I hope things go well for the two of you. Angela’s a nice girl.”

“I don’t get your obsession with her.”

Dwight didn’t ask Jim what he planned on doing that night, he had a good idea that Jim would be meeting up with Danny. As nice as the idea of Danny being all alone was it was still his graduation too.

State College had few fancy restaurants and even fewer fancy restaurants that students were expected to afford. He took Angela to the nicest one within his budget. It was fairly crowded, which made perfect sense because of graduation, and he had a hard time hearing Angela. She had to repeat every sentence and lean in close just so he could hear. It was frustrating to her, Dwight could tell because it was frustrating to him. By the time the restaurant quieted down enough for Dwight to gain some clarity something else cropped up to distract him.

Roughly three tables down and four tables to the left were Danny and Jim. Again, it wasn’t surprising that they were there: it was a nice, cheap restaurant and Cordray deserved to have his achievements celebrated with someone he loved. But still, with it waved right under his nose Dwight couldn’t help but feel bitter and angry.

Dwight walked Angela back to her apartment. “This was nice,” he commented as he watched her unlock her door.

“Was it really? You didn’t pay me any attention,” Angela steamed.

“You know I couldn’t hear you.”

“Please, you were too busy obsessing over the fact Danny is dating Jim.”

Dwight rolled his eyes. “That’s not true.”

“I have eyes, Dwight! You really let some dumb rivalry and misplaced overprotectiveness come between your last dinner with me? You couldn’t even pretend to engage with me? Pretend you care or that you’d miss me as a person or have some interest in my life? I didn’t expect anything but your friendship but you couldn’t even give me that for two hours. You’re a piece of shit, Dwight, seriously.”

Angela slammed the door behind her before Dwight could get a word in edgewise.

On the long walk back to his dorm, Dwight reflected over the night’s events. Had he really ignored Angela? He could recall bits and pieces of their conversations and remembered the almost robotic replies he gave to her. If his friends had done that to him Dwight wouldn’t have cared. He would have naturally assumed they had something troubling them and needed time to process it. It didn’t seem like something worth getting upset about. But it didn’t matter what he thought, Angela was clearly hurt by his behavior enough to cut him off. 

He hadn’t realized he was so obvious about his contempt for Jim and Danny’s relationship.

Dwight’s body felt leaden and tense by the time he arrived home. He wasn’t sure who to talk to about this kind of thing. Maybe a therapist could help him process his inappropriate relationship with Jim and why he thought he deserved something from him. Maybe they could help him understand how he got to the point that staring at Jim seemed like a better option to him than paying attention to one of his oldest friends. Maybe they could help him understand why loving Jim felt so emotionally exhausting when it hadn’t for anyone else he’d been with. 

But first, he just wanted to tell someone. So he called Michael, hoping he’d understand.

Dwight decided on staying in State College for the summer. Once the school year started he’d be a graduate student and a teaching assistant on top of that. He wanted to spend his last summer before hell with his friends and earning a bit of money doing freelance work. While he’d miss his parents, he had no reason to go home. So he rented an apartment, moved out of his dorm, and buckled down.

Dwight’s apartment was nice. Sure, it cost an arm and a leg, which was an arm and a leg more than his free RA housing. Sure, it was a bit far from campus and he had to pay extra money for a parking pass. Sure, it’d be a hassle going to and from class and work back to his house, especially if he was tired or drunk. And sure, he lived with Michael. But it was his. That was all that mattered to Dwight. He had something that was his and that made him happy, especially since he didn’t have much that was his these days.

Dwight hoped he could use the summer to get over Jim. It wasn’t fair to himself to pine over a boy he’d never have. It wasn’t fair to his and Jim’s relationship either. He was causing himself mental strain by being around the boy and while he did his best to not show his discomfort, he was sure Jim would eventually clue in. It was an idea that Michael had come up with and good ideas were hard to come by with him. It was worth a try.

The distance would be good! Dwight only developed feelings for Jim when he came to Penn State anyway so being away from him meant the feelings would go away too. At least, that was how Dwight assumed it would work. Maybe he’d hook up with a few women over the summer too. He was never bad in the one-night stand department and a nice little fling would soothe his soul. 

Unfortunately for Dwight, fate never worked in his favor.

“...so I think I’ll stay here for the time being,” Jim finished. 

Dwight gasped like a fish, words unable to describe how utterly defeated he felt in the face of life. Did Jim seriously need to be here this summer? What happened to him going home and spending time with his family? He had a detailed plan on making his siblings love him again that he wanted to enact and he definitely couldn’t do it unless he was in Scranton! He couldn’t even question Jim because his mouth wouldn’t fucking work! Why did God hate him? Was it because Dwight didn’t believe in him? Wasn’t God supposed to love all of his children? Dwight knew he was right in thinking organized religion was a fraud; he had his proof right there.

Jim stared at Dwight, stealing fries from him every once in a while. “I’ll miss you while you’re gone,” Jim tried.

“I’m staying here,” Dwight finally got out. There was no point in lying about his whereabouts even though he seriously considered it. “I’m going to work and party before school starts and I’m too busy to.”

“Wow, you’re such a good friend,” Jim said drily. “You weren’t planning on telling me you weren’t going back to Scranton?”

No. “It was a last-minute decision. About as last-minute as yours, apparently.”

“Do you have accommodations?”

“Me and Michael have an apartment. You?”

“The writing workshop will give me housing.” Dwight watched as Jim brushed his hair out of his face before smiling at him. Dwight hated when he did that. “I’m glad we can be together this summer.”

“What are you going to do about Pete and Larissa?”

“Eh. Danny told me the onus was on them to come around to me and not the other way around. I agree.”

Of course, Danny talked Jim into staying on campus. Danny had a job working for the university in one of the research facilities and would be setting up base in State College for the time being. Of course, he’d want his boyfriend. Dwight just hoped he wasn’t a pessimist and Danny told Jim out of kindness and solidarity and not because he wanted his booty call around.

“Oh, cool.”

Jim wore an uneasy expression on his face. “Can I see your apartment?”

Dwight didn’t immediately answer, causing Jim to outright frown. “Only if you want,” Jim amended. “You seem a bit busy and I don’t want to intrude.”

Dwight’s chest tightened. This is what he feared: his pain about his situation would start to reflect in his mannerisms and Jim would pick up on it. He didn’t want to be the cause of their relationship deteriorating again. “No, I’m just tired from moving. You’re always welcome at my place, I can’t believe you’d question that.”

Deep down, Dwight didn’t want it to be true but it was. By the end of the night, he was giving Jim a spare key to the apartment, in case he ever needed somewhere to stay.

Gay marriage had been legalized.

It wasn’t something Dwight thought about because it wasn’t something that pertained to him outside of making a snarky joke to his homosexual friends about now being able to experience divorce. But as he worked his way through his contact list he realized that A) he didn’t know many gay people and 2) Jim kind of deserved better than a half-baked, half-offensive joke.

He waited for Jim outside of his workshop to break the news to him. 

“Hey, Dwight,” Jim said cheerfully. “What are you doing here?”

“Do you not want me here?”

“I’m always happy to see you,” Jim said honestly. “I’ve never had someone wait for me after class though. What’s up?”

Dwight was sure Jim was joking. But still, it made him happy that Jim was happy to see him. He pulled his phone out to show Jim the news article.

“Oh, I already saw this,” Jim commented. “You came all the way here to tell me this? I thought you had to work?”

Dwight was an idiot. Of course, Jim knew. This was the top news story, it would be for weeks to come. Everyone knew but in his excitement just to see Jim Dwight forgot all logic. All Dwight could do was make a remark to save himself from embarrassment. “I figured we could get married now.”

Jim let out a strained laugh. “What?”

“We can get married now, just like you wanted,” Dwight repeated.

Jim stared at him with wide eyes, blocking the doorway and forcing his classmates to mill about in the room or shove past him. “Huh?”

Saving himself meant more to Dwight than giving Jim a paramount explanation did. “Aren’t you eloquent? You’ll get far in your field with your basic vocabulary.”

“Dwight,” Jim deadpanned. “If this some poorly thought out homophobic joke of yours then I’m going to smash your head into that brick wall.”

Realizing Jim truly didn’t know what he was talking about Dwight gave up. “Remember when you fell out of a tree and I caught you right before you busted your thick skull open? And I had to carry you home? You asked me to marry you. Well, you demanded it, actually.”

“I did not!”

“You did,” Dwight insisted despite the argument being irrelevant. What was he hoping for, Jim to remember, go, “oh, that’s right!” and leave Danny for him? Dwight wouldn’t even do that for Dwight in his imagination. “You told me I had to because I treated you better than I did everyone else and...Andy was there. He can confirm this.”

“Oh my God, really? Jesus, I was such an asshole of a child.”

Dwight smiled. “Yeah, you were. Remember, you were in the tree because you wanted to prank—.” Dwight shut up; the less said about Jim’s homophobic sister the better.

“Yeah, I remember that and you carrying me back. I don’t remember the conversation…”

By now, all of Jim’s classmates had left, moving past him with some laughing at his embarrassment and the “cute” story. Jim played with the hem of his shirt, pulling at loose threads and wringing his hands around bunches of fabric.

“It’s never a good thing when you’re nervous,” Dwight commented.

“I don’t remember that,” Jim reiterated.

That was a given and just Dwight’s luck. “Well, whatever. It’s not that big of a deal. When I saw the news I thought of you, is all.”

Still, Jim looked deeply disturbed. “That sounds awkward. Sorry.”

“It happened so long ago, Jim. Who cares. It was kind of cute.”

“No, I must have made you uncomfortable. Dwight, I’m really sorry.”

Dwight rolled his eyes. “Seriously, it was years ago. Friends say that to friends all the time.”

“Not friends of the same sex.”

“Again: who cares?”

Jim’s eyes reflected a bit of clarity at the conversation as if he realized something or had something of substance to say about their otherwise banal conversation.

“Did you ever realize?” Jim asked solemnly.

“That you were gay? No, I never realized. I thought you were in love with Pam for the longest time, actually. Even up until you told me I still figured that down the line you’d end up with her.” 

“That’s not what I meant,” Jim cut in. He tugged at his hair and looked everywhere but at Dwight. “I’m so embarrassed to say this. It’s embarrassing! Ugh.”

“Cut to the chase, Jim. There’s no time for your dramatics.”

“I used to have a crush on you,” Jim rushed out. 

Dwight tried not to look taken aback but he was. “When?”

“I dunno? It’s hard to pinpoint. I don’t remember telling you you had to marry me but I already liked you by then so I don’t doubt I said it.”

Dwight’s heart beat wildly. Of course, they liked each other at different points in their lives. Nothing was ever simple and easy for him. And why would it be? What would Dwight have done if he knew Jim liked him when he was ten? He would have likely ignored Jim’s feelings if he didn’t outright ignore Jim. At the time, Dwight didn’t have any romantic feelings for Jim. Even with his deluded imagination, Dwight had to contend that nothing would have happened between them.

Dwight realized he hadn’t responded to Jim’s confession. To ease the boy’s suffering he said, “I didn’t know. You did a good job of hiding it.”

“Yeah. But I don’t like you anymore,” Jim blurted. Dwight winced; Jim was driving a spike into his heart, even if he didn’t realize how Dwight felt. “I stopped liking you in high school.”

Oh. “Your freshman year?”

“Yeah...we just grew apart and then you started dating Angela and I figured I never had a chance, that you never saw me that way.”

Dwight could read Jim well enough, well enough to know he was lying. Likely, Jim gave up after their fallout. Maybe he gave up after Dwight went to college. Regardless, Jim said what he said solely to spare Dwight’s feelings.

There was nothing Dwight could do. It was too late for him.

Instead, he pulled Jim into a hug. “How could you ever stop loving me? I’m incredible.”

Jim snorted. “Whatever, Dwight.” Jim sighed. “Thank you for not being upset with me.”

Dwight hugged him tighter. “I wouldn’t be mad at you for something like that. I love you, Jim. And, if you want, I could always marry you to make it less awkward.”

Jim pulled back, eyes lit. “No way, asshole! Honestly, I don’t want to get married, it seems miserable.”

Dwight snorted. “You’ve decided Danny isn’t the one?”

“Oh, please. I love Danny. I just think marriage is a bit meaningless. If it means something to him then yeah, I’ll consider it. But we haven’t even been together that long.”

Long enough for Jim to fall in love with Danny though. “Well, you have a good head on your shoulders. And you know, the offer always stands.”

“Don’t worry, Dwight. I won’t boggle you down with a homosexual marriage to me. I wouldn’t want to cramp your style.”

Jim dismissed himself for his next workshop session, leaving Dwight reeling. Little did he know how badly Dwight wouldn’t mind Jim cramping his style. If anything, Jim was his style. 

Dwight picked up his broken heart and went home.

Not much changed after Jim’s admission, Dwight wasn’t sure why he expected something would. Did he want Jim to magically regain his crush on Dwight, fall head over heels in love, dump Danny, and run off into the sunset with Dwight? 

Yeah, that’d be pretty nice.

But, alas, life didn’t go the way Dwight wanted.

Instead, he got a girlfriend, Isabella. She was cute and fun and a friend of Pam’s. They had similar interests and she was studying engineering. She got his weird sense of humor and jived well with his personality. She put out. Dwight fully planned on having a fun summer with Isabella. If things went smoothly maybe he’d imprint his odd crush onto Isabella.

Jim approved of her which was…. Yeah. Dwight kinda wanted Jim to hate Isabella the way he hated Danny. He wanted Jim to be jealous and bitter and vie for Dwight’s attention whenever they were both around. He wanted Jim to feel a fraction of the pain he felt one the regular, to understand Dwight’s emotions in all of their spiteful, evil glory.

Instead, Jim planned double dates.

“I know you don’t wanna be around Danny but a double date is different than just the three of us together, right? It could be fun.”

Jim wanted to take a weekend trip to Ohio. There was a theme park he wanted to go to and a water park not that far away from it. He planned everything, taking money from Danny, Dwight, and Isabella for the lodging and weekend passes. He mapped out the route they’d take, what rides they’d ride, and at what time was the best time to attempt them. He stocked up on liquor with his fake ID. Jim was well prepared for their double date.

Danny drove. The car was silent for the brief drive over to Isabella’s sublet and Dwight wished she’d spent the night at his place, just to spare him from being the third wheel for five minutes. To Jim’s credit, he obviously picked up on Dwight’s discomfort and didn’t engage with Danny but not talking to his boyfriend wasn’t going to change the fact that said boyfriend was there, to begin with. Once Isabella boarded the car Dwight let out a sigh of relief. He entertained himself by chatting with Isabella and streaming their favorite anime on his shitty phone. With his headphones in Dwight could pretend to be oblivious to his crush sitting inches in front of him.

The waterpark was nice. Jim got a shared room for himself and Danny while Isabella shared one with Dwight. That was perfectly fine and what Dwight expected. They went to their respective rooms for a break before they’d go downstairs to swim and eat. Danny claimed he was tired and for once Dwight didn’t think it was a ploy to monopolize Jim; the drive over had been around five hours and Danny tackled it by himself.

“Can you help me get into my swimsuit,” Isabella asked, kicking off her skirt and panties the moment she stepped into the room. She pulled out a one-piece that looked like she’d have to pour herself into it to put it on and was highly inappropriate for the family-friendly establishment they were at. It was smokin’ hot. And, from what Dwight could see, Isabella waxed in preparation for the trip.

It took a long while after Isabella’s clothes were fully off for the swimsuit to get put on.

Isabella was one of the better sexual partners Dwight had had if not the best. Yet he kicked himself mentally when his first thought post-coital was ‘I hope Jim didn’t hear us’. First, Jim and Danny were three doors down across the hall, and second, what a strangely demeaning thought to have. He helped Isabella into her swimsuit (which had a hidden zipper that made it seamless to get into; Isabella was a little minx) and washed before meeting with Danny and Jim to swim.

The water park was large and crowded but nevertheless, the four had fun. Dwight was skeptical a water park at the height of the summer could be fun; there’d be nothing but elementary school children and their disgruntled parents around. Fortunately, he was wrong. Maybe the fun stemmed from the fact they experienced the park as a group and not broken into their respective couples meaning Dwight got to hang out with both Jim and Isabella. 

Eventually, they toweled off and explored the arcade before getting dinner. “Did you guys have fun?” Jim asked Dwight and Isabella.

“I totally did!” Isabella started. “Where did you hear about this place? I wouldn’t think to come to Ohio.”

“Some friends have been here and recommended it. I figured we deserved a vacation away from campus and it wasn’t too far.”

They chatted here and there mindlessly, the conversation never staying on one subject. It was the first time in months Dwight felt at ease around Jim and the first time he’d ever felt comfortable around Jim and Danny as a couple. Plus, he’d had a great time with Isabella. Maybe she could be the one for him.

“Remember when we went to Montage Mountain?” Jim directed at Dwight. “I was probably eight then.”

“Yeah, you fell and skinned your knee and cried bloody murder. The lifeguards thought someone was drowning from how loud you cried. I had to walk you back to our table and bandage the scratch for you.”

Jim chuckled. “Come on, it wasn’t a scratch, my entire knee was bleeding!”

“It was a scratch and a superficial one at that. You just wanted attention.”

Jim looked contemplative. “Maybe. Maybe I just wanted you to save me. You were always doing that.”

Dwight took a sip of water, trying to get rid of the dryness in his throat. Eventually, he had to answer. “If you stopped being so helpless I wouldn’t have to. Man up, Halpert.”

Jim laughed harder. “Whatever. You like helping me. That’s why you gave me a key to your place. And thanks, by the way, because I let Gabe rope me into being roommates again and I’m starting to regret it.”

“You have a key to Dwight’s place?” Danny asked. Dwight hadn’t noticed he and Jim were lost in their own world while Isabella and Danny conversed among themselves. Danny was apparently tuned in enough to their conversation to hear something he didn’t like. “Why do you have a key to his place?”

“I mean, why not?” Jim asked. “I spend a lot of time with Dwight, he’s my best friend. It kinda makes sense, you know?”

Danny’s lips were pressed into a thin line and he looked at Dwight with pure hatred. He turned to Jim, trying to dissipate the tension he caused but it wasn’t enough because Jim looked extremely put off. Even Isabella’s back went rigid at the change in atmosphere. “Oh, I think it’s kind of inappropriate,” Danny laughed. “For what reason would you need a key to Dwight’s place? Are you handing out keys to your dorm room to anyone ole person?”

“Are you really comparing a dorm room to an actual apartment?” Jim asked, astonished. Based solely on Jim’s reaction Danny had never gotten angry or jealous with him before. It made Dwight happy. “It’s just for emergencies, chill out.”

“What emergency?”

Jim frowned. “I don’t know because nothing’s come up yet. Are you seriously upset that Dwight gave me a key to his place? I have a key to yours too, should Dwight take offense with that?”

“That’s different—.”

“It isn’t. I have a key to a loved one’s place and that’s all it is.”

Dwight was appalled that he got to bear witness to what was probably Jim and Danny’s first fight. It was amazing, incredible, outstanding, and iconic. And it was over him too. Dwight felt so special! Even better was Danny muttering something under his breath, audible to only Jim only for him to snap at Danny to 'shut the fuck up'. It was so beautiful.

For Dwight at least. Jim and Danny ended up leaving the buffet while Isabella was left painfully confused about what just transpired. 

“Why was Danny so mad at Jim?” Isabella asked later. They’d found an empty jacuzzi when they’d left dinner, away from any prying ears or angry couples who might’ve been listening. “If Jim can have a key to his place why can’t he have one to yours? And I thought they were roommates at first, is Danny someone you grew up with too?”

It seemed obvious why Danny was mad at Jim but then Dwight realized Isabella didn’t know Jim and Danny were together. Dwight wondered how she never picked up on that seeing as how Jim nor Danny tried hiding it. Their hotel room was the same one bed room as theirs. But while Isabella might have been a friend of Pam’s she wasn’t a friend of Jim’s. And if she couldn’t discern that Jim was in a homosexual relationship with Danny then it wasn't Dwight’s place to tell her.

“Danny’s just an asshole. Ignore him.”

“Ah. I hope it isn’t too awkward tomorrow. I wonder if they’re still fighting?”

The demon in Dwight hoped they were so they could break up and he could make his move. But his demon was evil and Dwight didn’t wish ill on Jim. “Probably not. It’s not like Jim to be mad about anything for long. Danny either.”

They went back to their room. Walking by Jim and Danny’s room Dwight heard a strange sound. It was faint, really faint, but it sounded like the squeaking of a bed frame. Isabella touched his forearm, guiding him into the hotel room. She tried to run his hands across her breasts but Dwight resisted.

“We probably shouldn’t,” Dwight said bitterly. “The walls are thin and everyone can hear us.”

The rest of the trip went without incident. In fact, it was quite fun. Apparently, Jim and Danny’s makeup sex session went swimmingly. The trip went so well that afterward, Dwight found himself double dating with Jim and Danny a lot. All summer long was nothing but date after date after date after date. The strange thing was Isabella requested these double dates. Danny and Jim were a lot more fun to be around than Roy and Pam, she claimed. Even stranger was the fact Isabella didn’t think they were double dates. She still didn’t know Jim and Danny were dating! She thought they were two close yet sometimes vitriolic friends who were always together and knew how to have a great time. And Danny and Jim were none the wiser, taking the dates at face value.

Dwight was in hell.

Slowly, the summer that Dwight wanted to spend away from Jim ebbed away into autumn, and with it came a new semester. Now that he was working as a teaching assistant Dwight didn’t have as much free time as he used to. And now that he had a girlfriend who either wanted to fuck, chill, or help with homework Dwight found himself with less one on one time for Jim than usual. Dwight wasn’t sure how to feel. This was what he wanted, sure. No Jim and a girlfriend. But things weren’t clicking the way they should have, leaving Dwight with the strange sense of emptiness he had whenever he slept with Angela last year before he knew it was because of his feelings for Jim. If anything, his love tragically intensified due to the strong longing he felt.

He resolved to continue limiting contact with Jim, at least until his crush went away. He might have not been able to get away with it during the summer but now that everyone was in class he had the feeling he could. Plus, as long as Isabella made plans with Jim and Danny it wasn’t as if he was totally cut off from Jim.

Sometimes Jim texted him asking to hang out and to catch up. He’d send Jim back pictures of the assignments he was grading or a project he was working on. Sometimes he sent pictures of Isabella laid out on his couch, hoping Jim got the hint. Sometimes Jim wanted to invite himself over. Dwight had to gently reprimand him and remind Jim that the key was emergencies only. Sometimes, Jim whined to Dwight that he didn’t want to double date, he just wanted himself and Dwight to meet.

Jim: We don’t have to invite Danny and Isabella this time lol 😊

Jim: I’m getting sick of always being around Danny lol, save me

Jim: I love him and everything but I’d rather hang with you

Jim: wyd?

Dwight would ignore Jim’s texts or wait until it was either too late at night or when Isabella came over to answer. Eventually, Jim stopped texting so often. Now, they spoke in their group chats but never one-on-one.

Maybe by Thanksgiving Dwight would be over this?

Who was he kidding, Dwight would never get over Jim. Dwight was upset with himself. What was he doing wrong? Why couldn’t he get over him? Why couldn’t Isabella be enough? He toyed with the idea that things weren’t working out with Isabella because he was gay. But Dwight’s attraction to women never felt misplaced. If anything, Dwight wasn’t attracted to men; Jim was his exception so it couldn’t be that he was gay, no. Maybe Isabella just wasn’t the right woman for him. But Dwight was a coward and couldn’t bring himself to end something fun and exciting.

So he continued to take the coward’s way out, hoping that by Thanksgiving, no, the Christmas break he’d be over Jim.

Jim managed to corner Dwight one late October evening. Dwight sat alone in the booth of his favorite restaurant. He should’ve known better to be alone at a haunt Jim also enjoyed. But he was so hungry after doing his group project that he went to eat on his own.

Not even five minutes after he sat down Jim slid into the seat across from him. Now Dwight felt trapped. With nowhere to run Dwight subjected himself to his fate and looked his crush in the eyes.

Jim was as casual as ever, back leaning coolly against the restaurant booth with an arm draped over the side. He looked hot as per usual but something about seeing Jim in lighting not also reflecting off of Isabella and Danny made him shine even more. Dwight felt that painful squeeze in his chest that he liked to tell himself was heartburn but was more of the aching kind and let out a shaky breath. He could get through a conversation without the veil of Isabella and Danny and all of their other mutuals shrouding him.

“Wow. I’m so shocked to see you here, Dwight,” Jim said sarcastically, looking at the menu as if this restaurant weren’t their usual spot. “You’ve been so busy I figured you learned how to photosynthesize and stopped eating.”

Ouch. Dwight deserved that dig. “Jim! How are you? It feels like we haven’t spoken like this in a while.”

“That’s an understatement.”

Jim smiled at Dwight, a tense smile like Dwight was making him uncomfortable, like Jim wasn’t the one who cornered him. Dwight gave a hesitant smile back.

“Yeah. I’ve just been so busy. I’m sorry.”

“No worries. I know you’re teaching and stuff,” Jim waved a hand dismissively through the air. “It’s nice to be able to catch you.”

“Come on,” Dwight chuckled, feeling nervous under Jim’s glare. “I saw you last week.”

“At a game night with ten other people there. That doesn’t count.”

Dwight sighed knowing Jim was right. “That’s factually true. Still, you know how it is. Or wait until you’re in grad school if you don’t.”

“Hm.”

They chatted, catching up with one another without their partners around for once. It was strange because Jim was chilly. Cordial and interested in their conversation, yeah, but he was cold. And passive-aggressive. Dwight felt like he was inconveniencing Jim by talking to him even though Jim was the one bothering him. Dwight tried keeping the conversation flowing, and for lack of things to talk about, brought up Isabella. Jim pulled an overly exaggerated face to let Dwight know he fucked up. 

“What’s that all about?” Dwight asked.

“It’s bad enough you don’t want to be around me without her. Now you have to center every conversation around Isabella too?”

Dwight was shocked. “What are you talking about? I’ve barely talked about her!”

“You literally won’t shut up about her. Am I asking too much of you to focus on me?”

“I’m sorry,” Dwight apologized. “You’re right. I’ve been a bit distracted lately.” Unsure what to say, Dwight asked, “How are you?”

Jim looked at him strangely and with one glance into Jim’s hazel eyes painted a story Jim would never tell. Hurt. Resentment. Disappointment. Distrust. Apathy. There wasn’t a single positive emotion Jim felt toward Dwight.

“Dwight, listen: I won’t force you to hang around me anymore. You’re obviously uncomfortable around me and can’t bring yourself to meet with me without Isabella third-wheeling somehow.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Dwight interjected. “She isn’t even here!”

“It sure feels like she is.” Jim placed the key Dwight gave him—the one he never got the chance to use—onto the table and slid it to Dwight. 

Why did it feel like Dwight could do nothing right? “Jim, stop. You don’t make me uncomfortable. I don’t want us to stop being friends either.”

“You have a strange way of showing someone they’re valued,” Jim stated. He put enough money on the table to cover his meal, got up, and left. Dwight quickly put money on the table too and followed Jim out.

The evening air was chilly and despite being in a popular part of town, no one was around. Dwight never realized how out of shape he’d recently gotten. They were pretty much the same height and yet Dwight had a hard time keeping up with Jim’s stride. Once he was close enough, Dwight dragged Jim back by his collar, forcing him to stop.

“Let me go,” Jim shouted, trying to shrug Dwight off of him.

“No! Why are you acting this way?”

“Me? What’s wrong with me? Dwight, you’ve been avoiding me for months. Months. You only see me when Isabella decides she wants to see her token gay friends. Otherwise, you don’t call, you don’t text, you don’t do anything!” Jim let out a deep breath and when he inhaled it came out as a shudder as if he were holding back tears. “You didn’t even say anything to me on my birthday. I wasn’t expecting you to throw me a surprise party or anything but I wasn’t even worth a text message? That was when I realized you weren’t busy. You had time for everyone else except for me. You just don’t want me around.”

“There’s no excuse for me missing your birthday,” Dwight said. He’d been so in his head that he hadn’t realized he missed Jim’s birthday. That was inexcusable behavior. “I’m sorry. I’ve been in my head a lot lately and I’ve been inadvertently taking it out on you. I literally cannot apologize to you enough.”

Jim shook his head. “No. I’m not playing into this shit again, Dwight. You’re just a shitty friend. You can dress it up however you wanna dress it up but the fact remains that you suck.”

“I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings. I swear I'm not purposely avoiding you.”

Jim stared at Dwight, eyes wet with tears that weren’t falling. “I’m not hurt because you can’t hurt me. I already knew from experience you’d throw me away when you grew bored of me or moved on to better things or friends. I guess I’m disappointed you turned on me so quickly this time. Figured I’d provide more utility to you this go around.”

Dwight tried thinking back to what Jim could be referring to. He remembered losing contact with Jim when he went to college. He felt bad about that, he did, but he figured Jim had gotten over it. Dwight’s mistake. But he had to dredge through his memories to think about what the alleged first time was. Dwight had been a little distant with Jim before he had started high school but that was normal. Jim was a ten-year-old and Dwight was fourteen. At the time it felt like a bigger age gap than there physically was. But Dwight tried looking at it from Jim’s perspective. His best friend and crush slowly stopped spending as much time with him, no reason given. Maybe Jim didn’t understand that Dwight had different interests than him now, didn’t understand that he was in elementary school and Dwight was in high school and that was so different. Why would he understand? Dwight just assumed he would so he never bothered to explain. Instead, he expected to Jim understand Dwight’s annoyance whenever Jim tried tagging along with him or whenever he embarrassed Dwight in front of his new friends.

But no. All Jim saw was Dwight abandoning him whenever he got new friends or a girlfriend. All he saw was Dwight giving up on him. Now Jim wanted to cut his losses now that he perceived Dwight as repeating history. And Dwight couldn’t blame him.

“Jim. I never meant to hurt you. I was a selfish kid who didn’t stop to think about how my actions affected other people.”

“And now you’re a selfish adult stuck in his ways,” Jim shot back. “Whatever. It doesn’t affect me all that much whether you grow up or not. Bye, Dwight.”

With that, Jim stepped off and out of Dwight’s life.

One way for a crush to end is to get together with the person you were crushing on. Another way was to get over the crush entirely. The last way was for your crush to hate you so much that he never wanted to be around you again and you couldn’t help but respect his decision because you treated him like shit and didn’t deserve his love so all the love you felt dissipated and only left bitter, bitter shame. 

Something like that. 

Dwight wondered who else he was a shitty friend to. Actually, he didn’t need to think hard. Angela hated him too and he absolutely deserved it. Dwight was starting to learn that he could not look outside his own needs and notice the pain he caused his loved ones. 

Speaking of “loved ones”, Isabella was currently in his apartment trying to get him up and out of bed. Dwight found himself caring less and less about Isabella which wasn’t fair to her since she did nothing wrong except be with a man who loved another man. She didn’t need to be another casualty of Dwight’s selfish behavior.

“Let’s go out and do something,” Isabella whined. “You’ve been moping in bed all week. You won’t even tell me what’s wrong.”

“Jim doesn’t want to be friends anymore,” Dwight let out. It was the first time he’d said it aloud and uttering the words felt like driving a knife through his heart anew.

“Oh,” Isabella replied. It was cold and distant like Isabella was gleeful over the fact their friendship fell apart but she had enough sense not to sound happy about it. For the first time since Isabella arrived two hours ago, Dwight rolled over to look at her.

“‘Oh’ what?’”

“Nothing. Did he say why?”

It hurt too much to think about how shitty of a friend Dwight was. “No reason was given.”

“Well, it’s for the best, right?” Isabella started. She tried massaging Dwight’s back but her hands felt like claws scraping at his flesh, malicious intent apparent just from her fingertips. “Jim wasn’t the best influence on you anyway. Nice kid and all. But, you know.”

“What are you talking about?”

Isabella pressed a kiss into the crook of Dwight’s neck that felt like acid. He sat up and shrugged her off of him. Isabella drew her lips into a frown as if she couldn’t understand why Dwight didn’t follow her. 

“You know, the thing with him and Danny?”

Dwight stared at her. “What thing?”

“Come on, Dwight. You guys were so close. You had to know Jim and Danny were...together.”

Oh, so she did know. Dwight wondered when it clicked for her. Isabella wore a smile, a bright one like all of the smiles Dwight had become accustomed to over the past five months. But the way she spat out together told Dwight everything he needed to know about how Isabella viewed Jim. Dwight remembered how Pam knew Isabella. Dwight met Isabella at a graduate school fair because she liked to think ahead and wanted to know if it was worth staying at Penn State (not that Dwight even at the time, anyway). But Pam was an art major and Isabella was in engineering. There was no real way for them to cross paths unless they came together from a different mutual friend. No, Pam and Isabella knew each other from church. And while Pam was an open-minded ally it was apparent Isabella didn’t hold the same opinions.

“Yeah, what about it?” Dwight gritted out.

“I think while you’re sad that you lost your best friend in the future you’ll see how much better you are without him.”

“You tell Pam this too?”

“No.”

Hmm. “Because Jim will influence me with his gayness, right?”

When Isabella didn’t say anything, Dwight found himself growing belligerently upset. How long had she known Jim was gay, harboring ill feelings toward him while smiling in his face? What was wrong with her? “Why did you want to hang out with Jim and Danny if you hate gay people?”

Isabella had the audacity to look affronted. “I don’t hate gay people! People should be free to date whoever they choose to. Danny and Jim were fun and they didn’t really force themselves on other people. They were really chill unlike a lot of gay people who are always running around half-naked in makeup and stuff. A better example than most.”

Dwight wouldn’t tell Isabella about how Jim went to a pride parade over the summer. That would break her poor, bigoted heart. “A better example of what?”

“I don’t want to debate with you in bad faith,” Isabella replied stonily. “Obviously you don’t agree so we should drop it.”

“No, I’m willing to hear you out. This is something I need to know about you if we want to progress any further.”

Isabella looked conflicted, likely because she knew she held unpopular opinions. Her eyes watered as she blinked her big eyes at Dwight, looking for a way out. When Dwight didn’t fall for it Isabella let out a deep sigh and started her spiel. “I think people can date whoever they want. However, they should know what they’re doing is against God. If you like men that’s okay! They’re living in sin though. But it’s not too late for forgiveness. Like, God will forgive people if they give themselves to him. I like Jim and Danny a lot and just want what’s best for them. I think they have that ‘here for a good time, not a long time’ mentality. But where does that leave them in the afterlife? These are things people have to think about too!”

“So this has been a long ploy to recruit Jim to your church?”

Isabella looked confused. “No! I was hoping with a lot of positive influence he’d eventually come around.”

“Around to what? Vagina? He doesn’t like women!”

Isabella began to cry. “This is why I didn’t want to talk about it! I’m entitled to my opinions! It’s not like I’ve ever hurt Jim. I like him!”

“You literally just said you were happy he’s out of my life, like five minutes ago. Implied he might turn me gay.”

“That’s not what I meant! Jim is stubborn and stuck in his ways! That’s not the kind of person you need to be around. What if you start behaving that way? You’ll hurt yourself and others if you can’t learn to change and become adaptable.”

Jim’s words about Dwight being stuck in his ways rang in his head. It was a trait multiple people noticed in him? 

“Are you mad at me?” Isabella asked him.

“You think I’m not?”

“Should I leave?” she asked more demurely. Dwight nodded.

Isabella moaned and groaned while collecting her things to leave. Dwight, ever the gentleman, walked her to the door.

“You know something,” Dwight started. “Jim said I was stuck in my ways. You think I picked that up from him?”

Isabella seemed unsure where the conversation was going. She probably thought this was the end of them but if Dwight was asking her a casual question then that boded well for their future, right? “I think that’s a bit rich coming from him. But yeah, I guess you did. I don’t think you’re stubborn though.”

“You think I’m capable of changing?”

“Yeah. The fact that you noticed you need to change something is a good start. Maladaptive people don’t recognize that.”

“Yeah,” Dwight agreed. “I’m thinking I need to shed extra weight.”

“Oh! I think you look great already. But if you want to work out I go to the gym every Tuesday and Thursday.”

“Hm.” Dwight reached into Isabella’s front bra cup and pulled out the spare key he gave her (he apparently liked to pass them around like candy). She giggled, taking it as a pass at her. “There, I think I lost one-hundred-and-twenty pounds of weight.”

Before she could protest Dwight slammed the door in her face.

It took him a week after his breakup to do it but Dwight did it.

He called Angela.

“Hi,” Dwight meekly let out, surprised Angela answered him.

“Dwight. Hello.”

Angela’s tone was clipped, of course it was. They hadn’t spoken in almost six months. Dwight hadn’t tried to, figuring Angela was through with him. But now Dwight was figuring that maybe that was a misstep and was the real nail in the coffin for their friendship.

“How are you, Monkey?”

Dwight could hear Angela’s frown on the other end. “Don’t call me Monkey, Dwight. We aren’t dating.”

“Yeah, but I gave you that nickname before we started dating. Speaking of which, are you seeing anyone?”

“So you called for phone sex, right?”

“No! Not at all, I just wanted to say hello. Perhaps that question wasn’t the best lead-in.”

“You’ve said hello so goodbye—.”

“Wait, Angela, don’t hang up,” Dwight quickly rushed out. He pulled on his shoes and exited the apartment, careful to be quiet enough not to dispute Michael. “I miss you. You were a good friend to me and I treated you unsatisfactory for the last few months you were here. I apologize.”

Angela didn’t say anything for a long time and Dwight thought he missed the click of the phone hanging up. Instead, Angela sighed and said, “Okay. I accept your apology. You hurt me but I think I expected too much from someone I wasn’t in a relationship with.”

“No, you expected bare minimum human decency from me and I still couldn’t measure up. I one-hundred-and-ten percent understand why you hate me.”

“Oh, Dwight...I don’t hate you…”

Dwight and Angela chatted for two hours, just catching up with one another. Dwight had to admit he’d been distant with her since Jim came to Penn State. He couldn’t lie and pretend Jim was crazy for saying Dwight slowly ghosted people in favor of different friends. He did it to Angela under the guise of their rocky romantic relationship. But even when they were together they were still friends. He sucked so bad.

“Tell the truth. Why’d you call me?” Angela asked.

“I missed you.”

“What made you realize that?”

“I’m learning I don’t properly show people the way I feel about them. You’re a dear friend to me, Angela. I wanted you to know that.”

Angela let out an amused snort. “Jim’s upset with you.”

That surprised Dwight. “How do you know that?”

“Jim told me.”

“You talk to Jim? Since when were you friends?”

She laughed. “I don’t know? I think sometime after I flashed him I guess.”

Dwight didn’t know what to say, not wanting to unload his problem with Jim onto Angela. Luckily for him, Angela spoke first.

“How do you plan on fixing that, Dwight?”

“Not sure. I don’t think he wants to hear from me. I just need to learn to do better in the future.”

“Maybe. But I think Jim wants to hear from you, even if it’s a send-off to your friendship.”

Jim seemed pretty through with him. “I don’t know how,” he admitted.

“Come on, you can do it,” Angela coaxed. “You called me and admit it: I’m way scarier than he is.”

Dwight laughed. “That’s...not incorrect. I don’t know how to approach him. I’d also have to get through Danny first who’s probably creaming his pants that Jim cut contact with him. He finally won something.”

“Cordray’s a loser. Don’t even worry about him yet. Just focus on talking to Jim. You’ve known him for twenty years. There’s nothing you can think to do to get him to come around?”

Dwight had a few ideas he was scared to implement.

“I’ve faith that you can fix this,” Angela told him. “Don’t bother calling me back until you’ve done so.”

Dwight drove home for the weekend. Everything he needed for his apology was in his bedroom and the dusty attic of the farmhouse.

Dwight left the gift with Gabe. Dwight was afraid Jim spent most of his nights with Danny. Gabe, being the biggest blabbermouth ever, told Dwight otherwise. “Yeah, he's here most of the time. Honestly, once I came home to him telling Pam he and Danny weren’t doing too great. They might be headed to splitsville soon!”

Yay.

Danny was one less thing to worry about, not that he was a high priority. With the understanding Jim would eventually get the gift, Dwight waited. He left a note on top for Jim to contact him once he got it, even if it were to tell Dwight to fuck off (again). Jim didn’t owe Dwight closure of course, but it’d be nice to get it.

Dwight waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Dwight left the gift in mid-November and it was currently March. He lost hope around Christmas and started to pick up the pieces of his broken heart in February. It was his own fault.

Dwight applied to a summer study abroad program in Germany. Being out of the country sounded swell to him. Maybe he’d get it right this summer and get over Jim. Maybe he’d fall in love with his motherland and stay there permanently. He wasn’t sure yet but he was up for the adventure.

He was accepted in April, due to leave in late May. He packed his apartment up and started putting things into storage. Michael wanted to move in with his girlfriend Holly and Dwight couldn’t afford the apartment by himself, if he was coming back at all. He packed every inch of the life he built in State College into four boxes and stacked them neatly by the door. Anything coming with him would later go into his duffel bag. 

Dwight packed his fifth and final box. He packed up textbooks he’d no longer need and books he’d never re-read. The last book on his shelf was the photo album Jim gave him before he went off to college. Dwight sat on his bed and opened it. He looked over all of the memories they’d made together, capstoned by his prom picture. If he hadn’t been so needlessly cruel then would he and Jim still be friends? Maybe, maybe not. There wasn’t a point in dwelling on something he couldn’t change.

He left the album out to be in his duffel bag to Germany. He took the boxes down to his car and loaded them in. He didn’t really feel like heading over to the storage unit and wasn’t in a rush to, not when he wouldn’t leave for another week. He went back inside to look over the album. He was watching the accompanying video when he heard a knock at the door. Figuring it was Michael after forgetting his key, Dwight left the laptop playing on the coffee table while he answered the door.

On the other side was a pink-faced and frazzled Jim.

“Are you about to leave?” Jim wheezed out. He looked pitiful and ready to cough up a lung. It was enough impetus for Dwight to invite him in. He left Jim on the couch while he fetched him a bottle of water.

“I…,” Dwight didn’t have any words for what was happening. He doubted he’d ever see Jim again outside of maybe an awkward Schrute-Halpert Christmas dinner. Yet here he was, in the sweaty flesh, working hard to make sure Dwight didn’t get his rent deposit back. When he didn’t know what to do or say Dwight used humor as a crutch. “You’re gonna stain up my couch with all of your sweat.”

Jim immediately jumped up and stood awkwardly in the middle of the room. “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”

The joke didn’t land. “No, I was trying to be funny. I’m sorry. But why are you here? Is someone chasing you?”

Every word came out with a wheeze. “I saw the boxes in your car! I ran all the way here.”

“I’m only on the third floor. Didn’t you run cross country in high school? You’re so out of shape that you can’t make it up the stairs?”

Jim shook his head and then downed the bottle of water Dwight gave him. “No,” he said once he finally got his breath. “I came from Danny’s place.”

Danny lived on the other side of town. What did Jim have to say that he ran a 10k just to get here? “What’s up?”

Jim looked as lost as Dwight currently felt. “I broke up with Danny.”

Oh. That was good news and Dwight hoped Danny was crying his little, black heart out. But he wasn’t sure what that had to do with him. “I’m sorry to hear that?”

Jim opened the backpack and pulled out the gift Dwight made him. He held out his hands to show it to Dwight, as if he’d never seen it before, before clutching it to his chest.

“Dwight, I’m sorry! I’m just now getting this,” Jim exclaimed.

“Just now? I left it for you back in November.”

Jim looked ashamed, angry, and appalled like he couldn’t believe the words about to come from his mouth. “Danny took it. Gabe gave it to him to give to me and upon seeing your name on it he opened it and read it. Then proceeded to hide it from me for months until I found it under his bed.”

That was a new low, even for Danny. But it seemed like he got his just desserts in the end. “So you weren’t ignoring me?”

“I mean, I was. But I wouldn’t have if I’d seen this.” Jim opened it up and stared at it. “It’s so sweet.”

Dwight made a photo album just like the one Jim had given him. The difference was Dwight used entirely different pictures. They had a lifetime of experiences with one another, Dwight had no need to repeat the same memories as Jim. His album was the more updated of the two. For the two years they didn’t speak, Dwight drew poorly done drawings replicating what they’d each done at the time and tried to humorously find a common thread in what they were doing. Everything after the start of Jim’s senior year Dwight took from social media, loaded it to a USB, and took it to Walgreens for printing. The most recent photo was of Dwight and Jim in line to ride a rollercoaster at the theme park, before Dwight decided to self-sabotage their friendship. Isabella and Danny fucked off to whatever pit of hell they belonged in, leaving the two of them to enjoy each other’s unadulterated presence. On the back of that photo was a simple message.

I love you.

He left it up to Jim’s interpretation if he ever read it. But Dwight meant every possible interpretation of the phrase.

“I’m glad you liked it,” Dwight finally said.

Jim put his bag on the floor and sat on it, taking Dwight’s joke to heart. Dwight sat on the couch and patted the cushion next to him. Getting the hint, Jim sat next to him. As if he finally noticed the noise in the background, Jim fixated on the laptop screen in front of him. A small smile blossomed on his face once he realized what it was.

“This is the DVD I made you?”

Dwight flushed a shade similar in color to Jim. “Yeah, it is.”

“Isn’t funny how we were both looking at basically the same thing?”

“Yeah...it is.”

Jim watched the video silently as Dwight watched him. Eventually, his eyes found their way back to Dwight’s. “Dwight, I’m so sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing to me?”

“For leaving you waiting,” Jim said. “If I’d seen this I would have come to you then. You probably felt like shit once you realized you weren’t going to hear from me.”

“That’s not something you should apologize for. Danny’s a dick.” Dwight let out a chuckle to break the tension. “Well, I did tell you Danny was the worst. You could apologize for dating him, to being with.”

Jim opened his album and pulled out a photo. It was the one of them at the theme park. He held it so the message was facing Dwight. “I’m sorry I dated Danny,” Jim said seriously. “You were right, he is the worst. He’s a jealous asshole whose idea of a good time is peacocking around, trying to intimidate everyone around him instead of loving me. You pegged him correctly.”

“You seriously don’t have to apologize for that.”

“‘I love you,’” Jim read off. “What do you mean by that?”

“Everything,” Dwight replied honestly. “I love you as the kid I grew up with who I was so close to that he was practically my fourth sibling. I love you as my best friend who tolerated me bitching about stuff that was completely out of his depth and yet he listened without judgment. I love you as the person who was strong enough to walk along a path not everyone agreed with. I love you as the person I missed out on.”

Jim slotted the photo back into the album. “I felt really hurt when you started to avoid me. It was plain as day you couldn’t stand to be around me alone so you hid behind Isabella and other people to not face me. When we were younger I was hurt when you ignored me but at least when I got older I gained the perspective that I was probably an annoying tagalong to someone just learning to express himself. I didn’t hold it against you. I hated you in high school because it felt like you outright abandoned me. But I looked at it differently. You were in college and I was in high school. You were an adult and I was a child. We were so different then. It was natural to drift apart. But I guess after we reconnected I internalized the resentment I felt toward you for all those times I wasn’t good enough. I was happy to be with you again but I was also waiting for the shoe to drop.

“I didn’t stop to think about why you were avoiding me, all I saw was you living up to the negative expectation I had of you. I even thought it was because I told you I used to have a crush on you.”

Dwight was stricken. “I’d never hate you for that, I’m so sorry I made you think that.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t try figuring out why you were avoiding me,” Jim said. “You might have been hiding a cancer diagnosis for all I know! What if you died, Dwight? I would have been the worst friend ever.”

Dwight rolled his eyes at the dramatics. Good ole Jim. “You didn’t do anything wrong. If I’m being honest I started to avoid you because I had a crush on you and couldn’t stand being around you. I thought putting some distance between us would alleviate the crush but I ended up making things worse.”

“Had?” Jim asked. “You had a crush on me?”

“Yeah.”

“Where is it now?”

“Where’s what?”

This time, Jim rolled his eyes. “The crush. Are you over me?”

Dwight didn’t see a point in lying. “No. Not really. I still love you.”

Jim smiled and entwined his hand with Dwight’s. “Good, I love you too.”

“You’re just saying that.”

“I’m not! I did get over you in high school, I really did. But once you started avoiding me I felt some sense of longing that was more complex than me missing my best friend. I think that was part of the reason why I wanted to end things. I wanted a clean break from you in all aspects.”

Dwight leaned over and kissed Jim on the lips. The kiss was short, sweet, and chaste yet communicated all of the hidden feelings they both shared. When Dwight pulled away Jim’s face was redder than it had been when he first came in. By how hot he felt Dwight surmised his face was just as red.

“So now what?” Jim asked. “Angela was saying you were moving to Germany? You leave today, don’t you?”

“No, I leave in a week,” Dwight replied regretfully. It seemed a shame to leave things like this, just when he maybe got a boyfriend. He had the mind to reject the study abroad and look for an apartment elsewhere. That would reflect poorly on him professionally though and three months wasn’t that long. Dwight had waited for Jim for the past year, three months was nothing on that.

“Let’s have fun for your last week here. Then we can talk about us when you get back?”

Dwight smiled and pulled Jim in for a hug, wanting to savor the moment. “Yeah. Let’s do that.”