Page 6

In our freshman year, when Nina and I were roommates staying at the dorms, Claudia and Lily had also been rooming together across the hall from us.

One day, during the orientation week, I had left the door open, and they both came over to introduce themselves.

All four of us were glued to each other for the rest of the week, always waiting for each other before heading out for the next activity.

By the end of the orientation, we had already formed a group chat.

The proximity, ever since, had only increased our friendship with one another.

Even as our sophomore year came, and all of us had been living off campus in different apartment buildings, we still made time for each other whenever we could—especially if any two of us were free, while being on campus.

‘We’re pregaming with Fireball, by the way,’ Claudia said, once our group hug finally came to an end.

‘And we also brought pizza!’ Lily gestured to the bottle of whiskey and the two boxes of pizza sitting on the kitchen island.

Once Nina was ready and joined us in the living room, we finally indulged in the pizza, catching up on the happenings of the past week.

We hadn’t seen each other all summer, but that didn’t slow down the messages from flooding our group chat, updating each other in real-time about anything that had happened in the last three months.

But nothing beat seeing each other in person, and I took a moment to soak it all in.

Finishing off the last slice of pizza, I cleared away the boxes and pushed them to the side. I placed it in full view, to make sure we’d bring it with us on our way out later to throw it down the garbage chute. Nina took out four shot glasses as Claudia opened our pregame drink of choice.

Pouring out the whiskey into shot glasses, we each took one and raised it as Lily proposed a toast.

‘To a new semester!’ We clicked our glasses and drank—all of us wincing from the taste.

We took one more shot before leaving the apartment and made our way to the party.

Even though the invitation might have said the party was starting at 8 p.m., it had already been in full swing by the time we arrived—just thirty minutes after the said time.

We asked the Uber driver to drop us off a few houses away, as cars had already been filling up the driveway of the venue.

The sound of music got louder as we got close, the ground thumping along the beat of the song that was playing.

Upon reaching the front door and stepping inside the house, the smell of alcohol and sweat welcomed us.

We slowly squeezed our way through as we headed to the kitchen to get some drinks. There, we were met by the sight of the track team casually hanging out.

Lucy, another junior on the team, was the first to see us.

‘You guys made it!’ she said, giving each of us a hug when we were within an arm’s length. Once the others realized who Lucy was hugging, they all greeted us too.

‘It’s nice seeing you all again,’ I told them.

During the first semester of my sophomore year, when Nina and I had just started rooming together off-campus, one of my classes ended late—almost at the same time as Nina finished her training.

So, I always hung back around campus, waiting for her before we headed back to the apartment together.

Usually, I would stay at the library or the coffee shop while waiting for Nina’s training to be over, then meet up with her at the entrance of the track field later.

Some members of the track team would occasionally hang out to grab dinner together after their training.

Seeing that I had been waiting for Nina, they asked if I wanted to join them.

Initially, I thought of bluntly rejecting, for fear that it might get awkward, since I was neither on the track team, nor a college athlete myself.

But with much persuasion from Nina, I had decided to take the offer.

And I’m glad that I did, because they had ended up being some of the coolest people I know, accepting me into their friend group with open arms.

Since all my classes ended early last semester, I usually went home by myself, instead of waiting for Nina. Even then, they would still invite me whenever they wanted to have dinner together, and I just ended up meeting them wherever they decided.

The party was only getting louder with more people coming in through the front door every few minutes. I was leaning against the kitchen counter, with a beer-filled red solo cup in my hand, when someone decided to take the empty spot next to me.

I looked to see who it was and was met by an unfamiliar face.

‘Hey,’ he greeted me, smiling.

‘Hey,’ I greeted back, my mind trying to recall if we’d ever met before.

‘I’m Aiden,’ he introduced himself, holding out his hand to me.

‘The new roommate of the house.’ The house he was referring to was where the party was happening in full blast. This place had been the go-to spot for the track team to throw their parties, considering almost everyone who lived here was on the team—unofficially making it the track team’s house.

‘Nice to meet you.’ I shook his hand. ‘Are you on the track team as well?’

‘Nope. Just your average college student.’

‘Same here,’ I said, raising my cup. ‘What made you decide it’ll be a good idea to live with the track team and their wild streak of throwing parties?’ I asked, gesturing to the chaos that had increased tenfold since we got here.

‘The rent was good,’ he shrugged. ‘And I have my own bathroom. Plus, I get the whole house to myself while they’re at practice. If that means I’ll have to put up with their wild parties every now and then, I’ll take the offer.’

I chuckled lightly at that, because that’s definitely a perk of living together with a college athlete.

Don’t get me wrong; I love Nina to bits and pieces, but I also love having some alone time while I chill in the living room and cozy up on the couch with a good book in my hands.

So, the solitary time Nina gave me when she was off to training has very much been appreciated.

‘So, the pros outweigh the cons?’ I teased him.

‘Pretty much,’ he replied, his tone matching mine. ‘And they did warn me they were going to throw some parties throughout the semester. But as long as it didn’t happen on weekdays, I’m okay with it.’

Our conversation came to a stop when Nina suddenly appeared in front of me. She snatched my cup from my hands and placed it on the countertop.

‘You can continue talking later, it’s time to dance!’ She grabbed my hand, taking me with her in the direction of the music.

‘I’ll see you around,’ I told Aiden before letting her drag me to the dance floor.

It was a little over 10 p.m. when I started reaching my tipping point for the night.

It had been nice seeing and catching up with people after the summer break, but I could already feel the last of my social battery being drained out.

There were days when I could continuously talk to everyone and hang around until hours passed midnight, but there were also days when I just wanted to go home early and be in my bed.

That night was one of the latter.

I was standing in the corner of the living room, my place of solace for the last fifteen minutes, when Nina came up to me after finishing her round of beer pong.

‘Hey, you okay?’ she asked, with concern in her voice seeing the tired expression on my face.

‘Yeah, I’m fine,’ I gave her a small smile. ‘But I’m reaching my limit for the night, so I think I’m just gonna head back to the apartment.’

‘Oh, sure,’ she said, her eyes looking around the room. ‘Let me go find Claudia and—’

I cut her off. ‘You should stay. You deserve it after this week’s training.’

‘Are you sure?’ she asked, hesitantly.

‘Hundred percent,’ I reassured her. ‘Go and have fun; I’ll probably head straight to bed once I reach the apartment.’

‘Okay,’ she replied, her tone still contemplative. ‘But promise you’ll text me the second you step foot inside our apartment.’

‘I promise,’ I told her, holding out my pinkie finger.

She laughed when she saw what I was doing, but sealed the pinkie promise anyway.

I went to search for Claudia and Lily, along with the members of the track team I was familiar with, to tell them I was leaving. I hugged each of them goodbye before heading to the front door of the house.

Blurting out numerous excuse me-s as I squeezed my way through the crowd of people blocking the way to the entrance, I finally emerged victorious on the front porch of the house, taking a deep breath to recompose myself.

Even though the girls and I had taken an Uber to the party, the new apartment that I shared with Nina wasn’t too far.

Our last apartment building was merely a few streets from our new place.

It was barely a thirty-minute walk, twenty if I walked at a faster pace.

I was pretty sure I had already sweated out all the alcohol from the dancing, but my skin still felt a bit warm.

The cool night air only made it more inviting to walk my way back to the apartment.

As I was walking down the front yard, willing my mind to recall the route back to my place, I didn’t realize I had barely been focusing on my path until I accidentally bumped into something.

Or, rather, someone.

A hand immediately reached out and grasped my arm, steadying me from a fall.

‘Oh sorry. Didn’t see you there,’ I apologized to whoever it was, my mind still reeling from the collision.

‘Clara?’ the person asked, in a voice that sounded oddly familiar to me.

But that might have just been my mind playing tricks with me.

I finally looked up to see who it was.

And turns out, my mind was, in fact, not playing tricks.

The person standing before me, was none other than the star athlete himself, and my potential partner for ASL class.

Colton Reed.