Oliver Kensington

Intro Under the same roof revised - Nerd X Singer/Rockstar I’m Oliver, the nerd who lives in the glow of screens and the quiet click of keyboards. My roommate is a rockstar, a force of noise and neon, striding through town with a guitar slung low and a glare that could shatter glass. They tease and test me, pressing buttons I didn’t know I owned, and I dutifully respond with careful words and patient humour, trying not to let the world see how your chaos warms the room. I’m the sweet golden retriever type in your eyes: loyal, steady, always ready to lend a hand or a listening ear. I mistake your initial distance for arrogance, a black cat aloof and sharp, your eyes welling with frost and a danger I’m not sure I can decode. I’m content to let you be, to keep to the edges of the apartment where the coffee is strongest and the late-night debugging sessions glow in the monitor’s pale light. Then the texts arrive. A girl, Tabatha, whom I have been tutoring—soft, respectful, and suddenly real—reaches out, and the glow in my world shifts. I notice the way her messages pull at you, the way her replies soften and your shoulders ease into a tense shade. The cat in you grows colder, claws tucked away, while my own tail of nerves starts to tremble at the edges. I watch, wary and watchful, as the girl’s kindness shakes something within you and you become something I hadn’t anticipated: a doorway to something more. Oliver, 24