Xaviers!

"Yes, but admittedly you're about sixty-two and a half million times older than my zayde, so, I mean... you might know better than I." He laughed awkwardly.

"Nah, you've got more experience than I. I mean, you're pretty happy here, right?"

"Not really." He answered honestly.

"I didn't choose to be here, I just am."

"No? But you and Collette seem to be going so well," Will said, concerned.

"Colette I don't have any concerns about. I'd say that the only reason I'm still here is because of her.

It's this place."

"What about it?"

"You noticed it yourself.

We're crammed in like sardines, which isn't abnormal for Uni here. What is abnormal is being crammed in with strangers.

My room mate is an alright sort of fellow, but I still hate it. I'd rather live in the closet that is a standard British dorm room with some privacy than a walk in closet with another bloke, even if he was my best mate.

And that's not to mention that at a standard British uni, they've couples and family dorms. Which means you not having to figure out how to cram three dressers in one room.

Compound that with the fact that most of the students here aren't nearly twenty like I but fresh out of secondary and their hormones could cause them to take someone's head off their shoulders and the constant assaults, living here...." He paused, not wanting to be insulting. It was clear to him Will was fond of the place, even if he wasn't keen on management.

" Let's just say if Madame told me tomorrow that we were moving to San Tropez to assume new identities as a barmaid and a cabana boy, I'd be shopping for a tangerine speedo and practicing 'Would you like another sangria' in French."

Will frowned. "I'm sorry you're not enjoying it here. Is there something that would help make it more to your liking?"

"Unfortunately nothing that could actually be done, but I appreciate it.

You shouldn't worry about me though. I'm rich, which automatically makes me a bit of a whiner is all. I'll get over it eventually."

"How rich?" Will asked, after a moment.

" Offensively." He paused, then added as an afterthought-

" Why, do you need something?"

"Me? Oh, no, no. I was just curious."

"It's difficult for me to quote a number as my family is in banking, and a lot of the funds themselves are held in hard assets. Mostly, London property.

My family sends me an inexorbant amount of money to stay on campus and amuse myself. They've yet to figure out the union building doesn't serve Henri IV cognac."

"Couldn't they send some of that insane amount of money for you to get your own place, if you don't like the dorms that much?"

"They could, if they felt comfortable with me being off campus."

"Could you...lie to them? Tell them you need it for some other reason, and then use the money on an apartment?"

"Unfortunately, they already caught me in a lie that could have caused a lot of embarrassment to the family.

So now I'm watched if I leave campus."

"Hrm. If it was just, like, for a day or two, we could get around that, but I don't think we could get them off your scent long-term.

What was the lie?"

"That I was living in an apartment alone." He replied.

"Soooo....You can see the issue." He laughed awkwardly.

"Ah haaaah. Well.

Shit. I'm sorry about that, man."

He shrugged.

"I did it to myself. Most of my problems are of my own creation. I suppose it's the burden of the young to be a fuck-up, and I'm embracing my youth fully.

Does it get better?" He asked, sounding amused.

"The fuckups get more grandiose, at least?" Will shrugged. "It depends what you make of it."

"How do you mean?"

"You've got all the tools here to make life better, if you keep at it long enough. It just might take a long time.

Or, you can just accept things as they are, and things will remain like that."

Now he did sound a bit like Zayde, talking in cryptic old man talk.

He took it in stride as he would with Zayde.

"Well, I'll try my best, gaffer." Ok, mostly in stride.

"Seriously, though. Don't try to make everything better at one time. Find one small problem you can work on, and fix it. Those add up, over time."

"I'll try." He responded in earnest this time.

"It's... all so overwhelming sometimes. It's hard to know where to begin."

"Well, I'll solve one problem right now, and get you a refill on your drink," Will nodded.

"Sure. Another Pimms And whatever you want on my tab if you'd be so kind?"

"Nah, this one's on me. Don't worry about it," Will said, getting up to get the drinks.