Since I can't indent, every time a line is skipped it signifies a new paragraph. Please comment and critique.
“Turn on the game, Mads,” Chad said, kicking his feet up and resting them heavily on my coffee table. I took one look at Chad’s mud-caked sneakers and shoved his size thirteen shoes off of the smooth surface. It had taken me a few months’ salary to afford the furniture in my living room and I wasn’t about to have Chad wreck it. Chad rolled his eyes and took a swig of his root beer, which he always drank. It was like one of those things you just remembered Chad Higgins for; that he loved root beer and loved sports. I clicked on the television and Chad cracked up at the sight of my favorite channel, MTV, where a sixteen year old girl was rocking her newborn baby. I switched it over to ESPN faster than Chad could blink. The Yankees game was on and Chad got pumped up because the Yankees were playing the Red Sox. I quietly sat up, but Chad didn’t notice. He was too busy pumping his fists. Right as I stepped into the kitchen Chad called out, “Hey when are the rest getting here?” Gritting my teeth, I stuck my hand back through the doorway, all five of the fingers waving in the air. I swiftly grabbed a few bottle of root beer, several cans of soda, and a bag of Lay’s plain chips. As an afterthought, I loaded up on candy and Dean’s French Onion Dip for the chips. Having my friends over sucked sometimes, because it meant that I had to supply all of the food. As soon as I laid down the chips, Chad dug into them and popped open a root beer, even though he already had half of his soda left. “You’re a real pal, Mads,” Chad mumbled through a mouthful of Lay’s as he spooned dip with a chip. Before I could reply, or I guess before I could think of a reply, the doorbell rang. I breathed a sigh of relief. Chad, the most annoying of our tight knit group of five, was the only one I couldn’t handle by myself. I twisted open the silver door knob and there stood Charley, Arno, and Lucian. Charley, my best friend, stuck out her tongue at Lucian, who gripped her fingers in his hand. I stuck my finger in my mouth, fake gagging. Charley and Lucian had been going out for a year now and it was driving Chad, Arno, and I crazy.
“Chill, Maddie,” Charley coaxed, stepping inside and shrugging off her light-weight jacket. Luc kicked off his fancy designer shoes and the couple walked into my living room to go watch the game. They left Arno and me standing there, awkwardly assessing each other. Arno looked great in his waiter attire; a black button up with loose black jeans that clung to his narrow hips. His dark brunette hair was slicked back with what I guessed was water and the wavy locks that normally fell in his face were pushed away. “Maddie, Arno, are you coming or what?” Charley shouted from the living room and then erupted into giggles. Arno bobbed his head as if gesturing for us to go. We walked in together and instantly Arno collapsed on the couch; tired, I supposed, from a day’s work. Charley and Luc were snuggled close on the love seat and Chad’s feet had returned to the coffee table. I sat next to Arno, resting my head on my hand. “What are we going to do today, crew?” Charley exclaimed, jumping up from the loveseat. Charley was a ball of energy and she couldn’t stay still for a moment. Luc looked slightly ticked that Charley had stood up, but his grimace subsided when Charley grabbed his hand, yanking on his muscular arm. “Let’s go dancing!” She yelled, twirling under Luc’s raised arm. Luc smiled, but Arno, Chad, and I rolled our eyes almost simultaneously. In the four years that we’d known Charley, her favorite thing to do was always dancing. She had danced since she could walk all the way through high school and she’d given it up to go to Johns Hopkins for her undergrad. We’d all met our freshman year and now that we all had our bachelor’s degree, we’d reapplied to Johns Hopkins in the hopes of becoming doctors together. Now it was summer, which meant no classes and nothing to do. Chad sighed but then nodded; as did Luc. Charley beamed at me, twirling a strand of blond hair around with her finger. For a genius, Charley often acted like a blond bombshell. Chad nodded his head again, this time in my general direction. Luc just stared at me encouragingly, as if it would help; him just looking at me. Then Arno shot me a smile and winked.
“Come on, Maddie, it’ll be fun,” Arno said as he waggled his eyebrows. I wanted to say no more than he would ever understand. Charley looked at me; her lips formed in an ‘o’ of surprise. Of course, I knew it was because she was the only one that knew about my ‘thing’ about Arno. “Please? We can dance, have a few drinks,” Arno added, looking at me with his dark grey eyes. He was so sweet and unknowing; with no clue about my ‘thing’ for him. Arno was always a romantic without trying to be. The boy was ever-so sweet and he had no clue how every little thing he did made my heart melt. “I might score a hot Scandinavian chick with a thing for waiters. . .who knows?” He also knew how to ruin a mood. No matter, I had already made my decision.
“Fine. . .but Charley and I need an hour to get ready.” I said, glancing at Charley who raised her eyebrows. Then, I tacked on the words, “at least.” Then, the room erupted in groans and moans. Arno averted his eyes to focus on the baseball game while Chad ate another chip. Luc reluctantly let Charley go and we went up to my bedroom to get dressed.
I’d met Charlotte Sommers the first day I arrived on the Johns Hopkins campus. We shared a dorm with a particularly studious girl named Anya Heights who claimed the single bed room for herself. Therefore, Charlotte (the name I knew her by then) and I were left with the double room. Within a week, we became the best of friends. We shared Reese’s Pieces and Big Gulps from the 7-Eleven down the street, talked about boys, and helped each other with our hardest homework. By our sophomore year, we’d color coordinated our comforters and room colors, hers a bright orange and mine a hot pink. Charley and I were at the soda machine one day and we were complaining about the dollar it had stolen from us when Chad came up. He made a big show of pounding on the machine and when that didn’t work, Chad inserted a dollar; treating us both to Diet Cokes. We became friends with him and were at dinner a few weeks later when we met Arno and Luc. The five of us were inseparable after that, watching movies together, eating dinner out, and just goofing around. In our senior year, Charley and Lucian started to date and they were still going strong. It was one of the reasons she and I were no longer roommates and I had bought my own apartment; she’d moved in with Luc. Charley was the only one who knew about my crush on Arno. Arno was tall, muscular, and slim with a killer bright smile and gorgeous hair. He had the most stunning eyes and I was head-over-heels for him; not that he knew. Even though I’d dated a few guys in my freshman, sophomore, and junior years of college, I still had this nagging feeling that Arno and I were meant to be together. That resulted in my not going out with anyone my senior year, until I met James Hyde at The It (our favorite dancing location) and made out with him by the bar. James and I lasted a total of two weeks together after our mad make out and now, four weeks later here I was, graduated and loving a boy who I thought would never love me back.
Once I'd finished getting dressed, Charley giggled and said, "He actually convinced you!" She pulled a brush through my long sun-kissed blond hair and laughed again. "Without Arno we would be watching the annoying game." Charley scoffed and added in a whisper, "poor Chad thought he could get you to go." Even I thought this was funny and as she took out my straightener, we laughed. "You know if this 'thing' with Arno doesn't pan out I could always set you up with Chad. I think he li---" She began but I cut her off before she could finish.
"Don't finish," I instructed, giggling and Charley exhaled. In an exaggerated way, she waved her hands around and sighed.
"Fiiii-uhne!" Charley said, the words echoing off the walls. She picked up my mascara and stroked it across my eyelashes.
Charley finished my make up in record time and we were off to The It. Luc and Charley sat in the front of Luc’s Jeep with Chad, Arno, and I shoved in the back. Chad sat on the left, looking out the window at the passing scenery. I sat in the middle and Arno was on the right. For once, I was happy that Chad had long, muscular legs. It gave me a reason to scoot closer to Arno.
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