Young Writers Society

James hummed and nodded. So, it was the football team then. The team that probably hazed her. He never understood why that was a thing, or why they were even allowed. He'd heard too many horror stories of hazings gone wrong... he was just glad Jerica seemed to be in one piece, at least.

"Well, I'm not that sporty either, so, we at least have that in common," he said. "I prefer to be active in other ways."

"I'd like to hear about that sometime," Jerica smiled at him, wondering why he was still walking next to her. She stopped in front of Rek's apartment, "Welp, this is me, thanks again!"

She tried the door and wasn't sure whether to be relieved or anxious that it was unlocked. It was nice that she got in easily without having to go to the main office -- but this meant Rek was home. And it might be too much to hope that she'd make it all the way to the bathroom before he heard her and rushed out for an interrogation.

She pushed the door open and hesitated. Rek didn't have to rush anywhere. He was already sitting squarely in the middle of the couch that faced door and looked up when she opened the door.

His eyes widened and he jumped to his feet. "Dear gods!"

Jerica quickly shut the door behind her before their drama could spill out into the ears of her neighbors.

"TELL. ME. WHAT'S. GOING. ON!" He wasn't quite yelling, but it was close. He was glowering, but it didn't mask the fact that he was incredibly concerned.

"I will." She looked at him in desperation. "I swear I will, Rek, but can I shower and nap first? I feel like crap."

"You look like crap."

"Thanks," she said sarcastically, stepping forward to her stack of stuff stacked on beside the couch.

He sighed. "Fine, get some rest. But we are talking about this later."

"Okay. Love you."

Elias watched as Carter went neck-and-neck against Kayla. And, naturally, he cheered for the girls. Because they were cuter.

Carter was this close to winning, but it was like Kayla had played Rainbow Road one too many times to lose. When she won, she got up from the couch and started cheering, playfully teasing Carter.

Elias laughed and got up to grab some beers out of fridge. He had a feeling tonight was going to be a long night.

Kayla was still reveling in her win, and Brittany was sitting next to Carter while petting sleepy Nugget. Stephanie followed Elias to the kitchen, leaning forward on the kitchen island with her elbows.

"Nice place you both have," she commented.

Elias looked back at her before opening the fridge. "Oh, I don't live here. I live across the hall, though."

"Oh, you don't?"

"Nope." He grabbed a six-pack out of the fridge and set it on the counter beside her. "This is Carter's place. And James's. You haven't met him yet, but I think you girls would like him. He likes chickens too."

"Oh cool, cool," Stephanie mused, hesitating to lift one of the bottles.

She was probably a freshman or sophomore and technically too young to drink, but ehh, whatever. She could have it if she wanted it. He took out the magnetic bottle opener from the fridge and slid it across to her.

"Maybe show me around?" she asked, grabbing it. "Maybe we can play some music."

Elias grinned. "Hey, good idea."

He grabbed the six-pack and set it on the table in front of Carter. "Where's that one speaker?" he asked, and then Carter simply pressed a button on the remote and the surround sound system of the apartment turned on.

Sick. He had forgotten that Carter had a sweet Bluetooth setup.

Elias took out his phone and connected it to the system. He opened up Spotify and searched some random "Basic Girl" playlist to set the mood. It wasn't that hard since Mel stole his login info and played these playlists all the time.

Stephanie had just begun to ask him what kind of music he listened to, but he had turned the music up high and drowned out her voice.


The walls vibrated around them as the beat dropped, and Nugget instantly woke up from the noise, screeching and flapping out of Brittany's hands into Carter's face.

Elias simply bopped his head to the beat.

James had been doing fine with earplugs in, reading at his desk, trying to get a head start on homework. But then they started blasting music through the speakers.

James let out a long, deep sigh as he looked up from the book on his desk and stared up at the wall, blankly. It was only 3pm. There was no good reason to be blasting stupid party music at 3pm, on the first day of school, on a sunny day when they could easily go outside at a park and annoy people there. But James knew better than to go out of his room and yell at Carter, or all of the people Carter invited.

This was why Carter paid a bulk of the rent and utilities. So he could do stuff like this - and James knew the drill. If it was too loud, and he needed quiet to work on homework, he'd just get out. There were places he could go, and the place he went most often was the library.

With one last sigh and a shake of his head he closed his laptop, closed his book, and started stacking things into the backpack. Earplugs, headphones, and might as well bring all of his homework with him, if he was going out.

James slipped on his shoes and threw his backpack over his shoulder, and opened his bedroom door, getting hit with a wall of sound. He closed his door firmly behind him and marched through the hall, and through the living room to the front door.

"Hey, James! Did you meet Kayla?" Carter asked, shouting so he could be heard. He was in the middle of playing Mario Kart, and though he was talking to James, was staring at the screen in focus. Another girl had a controller - who James assumed was Kayla, maybe - was sitting on the couch beside him, leaning in.

"Elias! Introduce him to Brittany and Steph," Carter said, still consumed by the game.

At that point, James was already at the door, but he paused, looking back at the other two girls. They weren't in the game - but they had drinks in hand.

Drinking... at 3 pm. James hoped they didn't have classes for the rest of the day, but he couldn't force them to make responsible decisions for themselves.

"I'm going out," he announced (though it was obvious) as loudly as he could be bothered, which wasn't much. He decided not to say where.

"Wait!" one of the girls said, shouting over the music - he had no idea who it was, but she was next to Elias. "This one's James? The other roommate?"

James didn't even want to know what Carter and Elias had said about him. He put his hand on the doorknob, turning it.

Jerica gasped, waking up with a start as music blasted from the next apartment over. For the love of the gods! She put the pillow over her head and slammed her face back into the mattress.

Rek had chided her into drinking another Gatorade and taking some Advil before he let her nap, but the nap hadn't been near long enough to suit her, even if her headache was mostly better.

She groaned loudly. It seemed like it was coming from the apartment that she'd seen James disappear into. He didn't seem like -- must be the frat boy roommate. She glanced at her phone. It was too early for music this loud. It was barely even 3 pm. And she'd only gotten like 2.5 hours of sleep.

Pot Kettle, I suppose.

She laid still for another moment, but the beat of the music blasting from the other apartment grated on her nerves. It wasn't fair for them to be having this much fun. Or to be interrupting her sleep to do so.

Jerica ripped her blankets -- well, Rek's blankets, he'd let her take his bed -- back and jumped out of bed. Screw it. She'd be that neighbor and make them hate her the very first day. She didn't care, if they were going to be those neighbors that disturbed her sleep right in the middle of the day.

She stomped down the hall, not even bothering to put shoes on.

Rek was still on the couch, seeming a bit annoyed as well. He looked up as she approached. "Hey."

"Mm." She jerked her fingers through her hair, throwing it up in a messy bun as she walked.

"What are you doing?" he asked uneasily.

"Not sleeping, apparently," she grumbled. "Gonna go find out why."

"Jer!" he sounded alarmed. "No. Don't get into a fight. It's literally the first day!"

She ignored him and stepped into the hall, storming towards the next apartment over. Rek threw down his book and started after her. She got to the door and went to knock loudly, but her fist only barely scraped the door before it yanked open and James was standing in front of her.

Her glare instantly softened. She couldn't be mad at him. But, it looked like he was leaving, so he must be annoyed by all the noise too. "James!"

"Yeah!" Elias said loudly over the music in response to Stephanie pointing James out. "The one who likes chickens!"

He didn't get a chance to introduce James to her because he was already beelining out the door. Elias was quick to follow, and he peered out in front of him when James had opened the door but didn't move. His lips slipped into an entertained grin.

"Jessica!" he exclaimed. "Hey, I haven't invited the others yet. Did Carter invite you? No matter, come on in! We got music, beer, food, and a chicken."

He motioned for her to enter.

Meanwhile, Stephanie poked James on the back.

"Aww, are you leaving?" she asked.

James stopped, inching back a step from the door when he saw Jerica standing there, right in front of his face.

"Oh, Jer--" was all he got out before he was suddenly surrounded on all sides, with Elias talking over him and the girl whose name he still didn’t know poked him. He smiled politely, but it was strained.

“I have homework,” he said through the grit-teeth smile before turning to Jerica.

“Sorry for the noise, Jerica,” he said to her. “I have a pair of noise cancelling headphones you can borrow if you want.”

He looked behind her, feeling a little nervous, being trapped.

“Hey James, I didn’t know you were friends with the sassy jock chick!” Carter shouted. “Don’t just stand there, bring ‘er in!”

James glanced behind him and looked to Jerica with an expression quite easily read as: “I’m very, very sorry for all of this.”

Jerica hesitated. This hadn't at all been how she expected this interaction to go. Now, she suddenly felt like the jerk -- even though they'd been the ones to wake her up.

"No, no, it's okay," she said, flashing a smile at James. "Don't worry about it. Sounds like you're having a good time."

She knew he wasn't. He looked like he was in the process of running away when she showed up. She would have offered to let him hide in her -- Rek's -- apartment, but it was too loud, too.

She looked past him as the boy on the couch shouted at her. Clearly the roommate, based on James' earlier description. "Eyy, you must be Frat Boy!"

Carter was just about to cross the finish line. He was in second, and he saw a blue shell darting for Kayla in first place. He backed off just enough to escape the blast and zoome past her, stealing first.

“Yes!” he shouted, jumping out of his seat and falling back into it.

“Noooooooo!” Kayla protested. “The blue shell!”

She flopped dramatically onto the couch, wiping her hands down her face.

Carter decided to call back to Jerica by the front door. He watched as James slipped out past her and then waved Jerica in.

“Please, Frat Boy is my stage name. Call me Carter.”

"Jerica." She strode in and stopped in front of Elias, putting a finger in his face and giving him a pointed look. "Jerica."

None of this 'Jessica' bull -- she wasn't that basic.

She reached past him and took a beer from the six-pack and flipped the top off.

"Jerica!" Rek stopped just inside the door, looking at her disapprovingly.

"Rek!" She pointed at him, more introducing him than acknowledging him.

"You're not honestly planning to stay."

They both knew she was.

"Shhh." She thrust the beer into his hands. "Less talky, more drinky."

She grabbed another beer and started towards the couch. "You the roommate, Carter?"

Elias shrugged when Jerica only gave him her name as a greeting. Didn't I say that? he asked himself, then diverted his attention to this new guy in front of him. He looked grouchy, but Jerica gave him a beer and seemed to already embrace the party. A friend of a friend was also his friend, so that was enough evidence to welcome him in.

"Hey man, come on in!" Elias said, pulling his shoulder into the room and then closing the door behind him. He pushed the dude next to Stephanie who had seemed disappointed that James had left. Elias made a mental note to text James a related party pooper meme later.

"Hey man, this is Stephanie," he said over to him, then brushed him off and talked to Stephanie instead. "Actually, I don't know this dude at all, but I'm sure he also likes chickens, so you two could hit it off. Also, where is my phone..? Oh, never mind, found it. Anyways, I'm going to text a bunch of people, so I'll be right back."

He began walking away mid-sentence, waving behind him as he ducked into one of the man caves so he could text without distractions.

What he would do for some Adderal right now... Maybe he should get tested..? Hah. As if.

Anyways, meme.

Oh wait, no, first, text.

But the meme will also be text...

Right, time to text people to come over. Right right right.

James patted the defeated Kayla on the back, and she rolled her eyes.

"At least I beat you at rainbow road," she muttered.

"A wonderful victory," Carter said with a smile, before turning to Jerica again. He waved her over, patting one of the many open spots beside him on the giant, L-shaped couch.

"It's rare that I'm the one referred to as 'the roommate,'" Carter joked. "But yes, that's me. I assume you two--" he glanced at Rek, by the door. "--Are our next-door neighbors?"

"Sorry, Carter, James already won my heart. You can't top a Chick-fil-A bribe, Roomie." She flopped down on the couch with a smirk. "And yeah--"

A yawn cut her off.

"We live -- and nap -- next door." She looked at Rek and patted the cushion on the other side of her from Carter.

"No thank you," Rek said awkwardly, offering Stephanie a polite smile as he crept away from her. College girls weren't exactly his thing.

Rek finally sat down next to her and started to relax, taking a sip of his beer. Jerica took a long drink of hers. "But this makes up for it. You frequently party in the middle of the afternoon?"

Carter shrugged. "Afternoon, evening, into the night. Only hours off the table are early morning because only divorced dads who can't see their kids and wine moms drink at 8 in the morning."

He lifted a beer can in Rek's direction as if to toast, but he didn't toast to anything. He took a big, long chug before setting it back down.

"So... James bribed you with Chick-fil-a to be friends? Seems a bit extreme, but I'm glad to see he's finally making them somehow. He's always been averse to making them."

"Well, I guess it wasn't a bribe so much as a pity meal." Jerica settled back into the cushion behind her, smirking at Carter's commentary. "I have had a bit of a rough first day."

Rek snorted next to her. He clearly wanted to get into it with her, but also didn't seem to want to get into it just then.

"I went to a party last night, and it got a bit, heh," she explained as she turned back towards Carter, gently rubbing at the bruise on her face. "Intense. James felt bad for me, I'm pretty sure, and gave my hungover ass a lift and some food. Probably more charity than friendship. But I'll be friends with anyone who gives me Chick-fil-a." She held her beer up. "Or booze."