It used to be that I could eat peacefully in my couch, watching this or that on the television. It used to be that I could come home and have food in my cabinets, well what little food a college student could afford. Not anymore though.

I first met him when he fell asleep leaning against the door to my dorm. I woke him up when I opened the door in the morning and he fell at my feet. His eyes were groggy with sleep when he looked up at me and asked if I came here often.

I shook my head with impatience as I was late to work and oh so gently shoved him out of the way. When I got back from my minimum wage job he was still sprawled in front of my door, but this time he was wearing clean clothes and had a sandwich in his hand. When I asked him to move he scrambled out of the way and then tried to follow me into my dorm. Turning, I gave him my best death glare which he promptly broke out laughing at telling me that I looked constipated, ah the charm of college boys. I rolled my eyes at him and trudged into my room. He followed me in despite my glare and began rummaging through my fridge. I was taking off my boots when I saw him doing this and threw one at his head. He picked it up and said, "You know it's not raining, right?" and tossed my rain boot back towards me.

His name was Owen.

So it began, I came back from work or class or hanging out with my friends and Owen would be sitting outside my door. I had no idea where his dorm was or even if he had one. He was always there. He stole my keys one afternoon and gave them back the next morning, when I came home that afternoon the door was unlocked and he was sitting on my couch watching Beauty and the Beast eating my bag of chips and drinking from my bottle of orange soda. Owen had made himself a copy of my key and try as I did I couldn't get him to give it back. Since he had his own key he would let himself into the dorm in the mornings as well, that is up until the point where he just started sleeping on the couch.

His stuff began appearing in my room too. Pairs of guy pants started turning up in my laundry, not to mention socks, shirts, and boxers. I would hold up the offending objects at arm's length, wondering how the hell this got here and Owen would waltz through the room and grab them from my outstretched hand. His shoes could be found all over the room and so could his school books. On more than one occasion I would grab a cell phone from the counter, not bothering to look at it, only to find later on in the day that it was his.

I gave up trying to get Owen to leave; instead I focused on trying to get him to pay for the food.

He had these funny quirks that drove me mad, like the way he would drum his fingers on the counter as he ate cereal in the morning or when we would watch a movie. He would tickle me in the morning until I begged for mercy, gasping for breath, and the he'd step back looking mighty pleased with himself. He sang in the shower, loud and obnoxious, seeing as he had absolutely no talent, until I screamed at him through the door to stop before I murdered him. He'd laugh and continue on anyway, singing the Beatles or Simon and Garfunkel at the top of his lungs.

Owen called us friends and I called him a moocher. My friends told me he liked me as more than just a friend, I told them they were crazy and changed the subject.

He became a permanent figure in my life, and in my room. Then I started dating Jake.

Jake was a co-worker of mine, and he had been asking me out for awhile before I agreed to go to dinner with him. It went on from there until I brought him back to my room to hang out and watch a movie. Owen was there, making microwave popcorn and watching Beauty and the Beast for the millionth time. He didn't know I had a boyfriend. He was shocked to say the least, but regrouped and shook Jake's hand. I could tell something was wrong, his eyes didn't look right.

As the days passed Owen's stuff started disappearing, I no longer found his clothes in my laundry, his shoes all over the place, empty cabinets, or him in my dorm. I was surprised to find that I missed him. And as time went on and I didn't see him, missing Owen turned into an empty spot inside me that ached whenever I saw something that reminded me of him, like the cover of Beauty and the Beast. I needed him and it me drove crazy.

Jake was annoyed that I was so bothered by the fact the Owen wasn't around anymore. He put it on himself to try to distract me from missing Owen by calling me all the time, showing up at my dorm, taking me out all the time. It got on my nerves how clingy he was being and I told him to cut it out. He went to a party, got drunk and slept with another girl. I found out through Owen.

The night that Jake went to the party, Owen showed up at my door. It was around 2 in the morning. He didn't let himself in, just knocked on my door until I opened it. When I saw him I caught my breath. He looked tired, but the same. His dark hair hung in his eyes, it was too long again, he needed to get it cut back a little. He told me that he saw Jake with another girl, giving me a hug as he did. He smelled like coffee, Owen always drank too much coffee. I had never hugged him before, he used to try to hug me all the time but I always ran away. Now I wrapped my arms around him as he held me close, relishing in it. He pulled back, much to my dismay, and peered at my face, seeming surprised that I wasn't upset over the fact that Jake had cheated on me. Not only did I not care what or who Jake did, but I had forgotten what he had told me after being so close to him.

Owen shook my shoulders a little, telling me again about Jake and I shook my head a little before interrupting him and telling him I didn't really give a damn. That stopped the shaking of my shoulders. He stepped back a few steps until he was leaning on the wall on the opposite side of the hallway. I leaned against the wall on my side before inquiring where he'd been the past few weeks. Owen shrugged and told me he'd been around but busy. I nodded and accidently blurted out that I'd missed him. He started smirking. I had missed seeing him smirk, he couldn't sing, he couldn't cook, but he could smirk, that and drive me up the wall.

He kept looking at me and his smirk didn't lessen any when I started blushing. It only grew. However I didn't look away and so we continued to stand in the hallway, him smirking and me blushing, looking at each other. Eventually my legs started protesting and I slid down the wall, not looking away from him. Owen sat down on the other side of the hallway. Neither one of us looked away. That is until Jake came down the hallway. He had his hands in his pockets and his head was hanging slightly. When he saw Owen and me sitting in the hallway his head shot up.

Jake asked if he could talk to me in private. I said no thanks, that I was fine where I was. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Owen smile at that. I told Jake that I was sorry that I was such a bad girlfriend, because I really was. I said that I was sorry but I didn't want to see him anymore and that he knew why. He apologized that he cheated and wandered back the way he came. It was a good breakup, no hard feelings on either side. I preferred breakups without drama.

Then it was just Owen and I again. He got to his feet and I scrambled to mine, fearing that he would leave. No such thing. We were standing on opposite sides of the hallway when he told me that he couldn't do it anymore, granted I was rather confused at what he meant. Owen shook his head, causing his hair to go back into his eyes. I hated it when that happened. He said that he couldn't be my friend any longer, that he wanted more than that. My heart skipped a beat in my chest when he said that. He crossed the hallway, standing in front of me; I could feel his heat as he stood no further than two inches away. I stood there staring at his chest until he slid his fingers underneath my chin, lifting my head to look at him. His hair was in his eyes, I couldn't help myself and I raised my hand and pushed it back behind his ear. He caught my hand with his and color rushed into my face, he was close enough that I could feel his breath on my lips, and in a subtle move, he caught my lips with his.

Heat pooled into my stomach as Owen tangled one hand in my hair and wrapped the other around my waist. My hands went up around his neck and into his hair. He pushed my body against the wall, and followed quickly, effectively closing any space that may have been left between us. His lips caressed mine, intensely and growing more so as he ran his tongue against my lips before deepening the kiss, he tilted my head to a better angle and continued his assault on my mouth. My knees almost gave out as the kiss became more passionate. Finally we parted, gasping for breath. Owen smiled down at me, drumming his fingers on the wall. I smiled back at him.

He leaned his forehead against mine, our noses touching, and kissed me gently before pulling back and saying that he had wanted to do that since I threw my rain boot at his head. I laughed at him and reached behind me, opening the door. I walked in and he followed, holding my hand. Soon his laundry was mixed with mine again, his shoes all over, but there was a lot more kissing involved when we watched movies together.

Owen was back in my life for good this time, and I wasn't going to try to get him to leave, just try to get him to pay for the food.