You've been studying almost all night and your brain hurts. Luckily for you, your mom left you $10 to order a small pizza. After ringing the pizza place and ordering, you sit down on the dormitory's couch, waiting for the guy to arrive. About 15 minutes pass and you hear someone at the door. Quickly opening the door expecting the pizza guy, you are instead greeted with your roommate. They're clearly more tired than you are. They're slumped over like a zombie, have bags under their eyes and drool under their mouth, and their uniform is wrinkled.

"Tough day, huh?" you say.

"You've got no clue dude, like thousands of people use that website every day and there's only like twenty people working." your roommate mutters as they shove past you and plant their face directly onto the couch.

"Hey I wouldn't put my face there if I was you." you laugh to yourself.

They're already asleep. Snoring like only a minimum wage employee could. You put a blanket over them and head to bed yourself. The next day, you're awoken by a knock on the door.

"Hey, uh, roomie? I umm... Can you... help me, with something?" they ask sheepishly.

Rubbing your eyes and opening the door, you see them in their normal clothes, the contrast between that and their uniform is almost outstanding. "What do you need?" you say.

"Look I uh, I'm kind of... embarassed to say this but..." they stutter.

You know where this is going, you've seen too many romcoms for this to be anything else. You attempt to say something snarky about not wanting a partner right now, but they finally blurt out what they were going to say.

"I need help studying, alright? Work has taken most of my free time and I'm really scared of the next test. Can you please help?" they spit out, nearly crying at the thought of flunking out.

You're clearly taken aback by their outburst, they seem genuinely scared and you're probably the only other person they've seen since they got that job. So, you agree to help them study.

"What a relief! Thank you so much!" they cry, hugging you tightly as they do so. It sorta smells like bleach.

As the hours pass, they slowly become less and less tense. Even when they struggled with the harder concepts, they felt much more relaxed. They even laughed at a few of your stupid jokes, which you don't think you've ever seen them do. Eventually the sun goes down and you both get hungry.

"Hey uh, do we have anything to eat? I don't get paid until the 31st, so I can't get us anything." they nervously say. They clearly feel guilty about it, but you really don't mind paying for dinner.

"Never fear my dear, for I have..." you say in a heroic voice as you dig through your drawer. "...uh, wait, ugh."

"What's wrong?" they ask quietly.

"It's just uh, I spent my last $10 on a pizza last night. Sorry. I could probably make something using the public kitchen, they usually have a box of macaroni or two." you say, embarassed.

"No, no, it's fine, you don't have to make anything, I can just go to bed before I get any hungrier..." they say, getting increasingly nervous about the situation.

You can read the situation, you're not stupid. They're as thin as a twig and you can hear their stomach growling from here. It's pretty obvious the only thing they've eaten all week is the few slices of pizza you left in the microwave.

"Hey, uh, roomie? You don't have to starve, let's just go the kitchen, alright?" you say calmly as you put your hand on their shoulder.

They turn around to face you. Tears are streaming down their face. You're a bit shocked at the sight, but even more so when they hug you tightly. "Thanks..." they mutter.

You hold their hand as you take them to the public kitchen, they trail behind you a bit, looking at the ground. Once you get to the kitchen, you raid the pantry for anything someone might have left. Fortunately, there's a box of hamburger helper. Without hamburger meat it's basically just macaroni. Kind of. You start making it, your roommate hovering over your shoulder and pressing their index fingers together in anticipation. Once it's done, you put it on the only clean plate and set it down on the nearby table. They sit down eagerly while you get the forks, but when you turn around to face them again, they're eating the piping hot pasta with their fingers.

"Woah! Hey! Don't burn your fingertips off, use one of these." you laugh to yourself as you give them a fork.

They're still eating quickly even with the fork, and you're kind of worried for them. "Hey, maybe you should slow down a bit? It's probably not good for your mouth, it's burning off the skin on your lips."

"I'm sorry it's just... I haven't eaten anything in a while..." they whisper.

"How about... Why don't you tell me a little about yourself while you wait? It'll help the time pass faster." you say.

"Well I... a few months ago, I tried to kill myself. I just, I couldn't keep up. Nobody was ever nice to me, not even my own family, and I could barely focus on studying, and, and-" they frantically start to recount. tears streaming down their face.

"Hey, it's okay. You don't have to worry about that anymore, alright? It's fine now, alright?" you try to assure them, holding onto their hand as you say it.

"Thanks..." they say as they wipe off their face with their sleeve.

You two eat the hamburgerless helper together. Your roommate finally has a friend.