BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! I hit the snooze button as I awoke. 6:45 am. Another day, another Monday morning, another day in the life of college at Nathan Bridge University. I groaned as I closed my eyes and tried to get another few minutes of sleep. Moments like these were when I wished I chose my classes to start later on in the day instead of the morning.

A couple of minutes passed and my radio alarm clock began to play the morning’s radio broadcast instead of beeping.

“And now we have Connie! Welcome to the show-” I turned it off for good and sat up. My best friend and roommate Riane was already out of bed. She was at least a morning person. I got out and slipped on a pair of khakis as I walked a few yards over to the bathroom. I jiggled the doorknob. Locked.

“Hold your horses.” Riane called out from the other side. I could hear her brushing her teeth.

“Why do you have to lock the door if you’re only brushing your teeth?” I asked grumpily.

“Chill out Larson, brushing teeth can be a very intimate and feminine thing.” I rolled my eyes at her sarcasm.

“Well hurry up!”

“Not my problem you can’t get up earlier.”

“This is early!” Riane didn’t answer as I heard her spit into the sink and turn on the water. I waited two minutes before she finally unlocked and opened the door.

“You could use a new face.” Riane commented as she walked by me, her silky dark brown hair whipping my face. I ignored her comment as I went inside and locked the door. After answering nature’s call, I washed my face and brushed my teeth. For some reason I thought of when Riane locked the door. I stared into the mirror, examining my face. My hair could use a little work. It was starting to grow down past my neck. At least my face was clean. No stubby facial hair, no strong signs of acne, and I had to say, I had the perfect nose.

As I unlocked the door and walked out, I glanced over at Riane, who was just putting on a t-shirt. For a nice face, she could’ve afforded to dress to match.

“Why don’t you get some nicer clothes for once?” I asked her as I looked around the floor for a pair of clothes.

“Why don’t you stop wearing the same thing three days in a row?” She remarked. I didn’t answer.

“Today is NBU’s 50th anniversary. They’re gonna be celebrating it all day.” I commented.

“What’s your point? Riane asked as she put textbooks into her backpack.

“We could just ditch our classes and have fun. You know a bunch of people are going to do the same.”

“I have a midterm in my socio class Larson.” Riane said seriously. “I’d like to, but I can’t.”

“Just go to that class and ditch the other ones.” I said as she put on her glasses and slung her backpack over her shoulder.

“I’ll join up with you after my classes are over. See you later.” She unlocked the door and headed out. Some best friend. Sharing a dorm together was a pretty good idea, but Riane tended to make going to class top priority a little bit much. Classes were important, but it wasn’t like she had to go to every single one.

“Great..” I said to myself. “Maybe I should go too.” I thought about it as I looked at my textbooks strewn out over the floor. Drawing 244… Italian 202… and Economics 220. Should I bother going?

Nah.

Leaving my backpack and textbooks behind, I grabbed only my wallet and keys as I headed out of the dorm. I locked the door behind me. As I headed for the elevator I could hear Riane’s voice in my head.

Oh come on! It’s only three flights of stairs! The only handicap you have is laziness! Bah. My finger hovered over the down button for a moment. With a sigh, I lowered my arm, turned around and headed down the staircase.

She would’ve been proud.

As I stepped out of the Bridge dormitories, I could feel the presence of the celebrating students, giving the air a feeling of a carefree jovial day. Across the expansive grassy lawn, numerous booths were set up. They offered prizes, scholarships, trips to study abroad and booths just for fun. There was a booth with a banner that said “Drinking Club” which caught my eye. As for my ears, they attended to the sounds of the rock band playing on a makeshift stage in the middle of the campus. The band had set themselves up in front of the university library, a large building situated under a concrete foundation to keep itself steady.

I wandered around looking for a booth that could bring me some immediate form of entertainment. Change the World… no. Booby Wald for Student Senator!... no. Anime Club… nice cartoon they’re showing, but no.

After browsing for about a minute, I stopped at the Alpha Omega Epsilon kissing booth. Some of these girls were kinda cute!

I stepped behind another guy who leaned over as an attractive brunette planted one on his cheek.

“Aww come on!” HE protested. “Can’t give a hot one like me right here?” He asked pointing at his kisser.

Hey wait a minute.

“Sean?”

“Larson?” The tall lean boy turned to face me. “Holy shit dude! What’s up?” He put out his right hand. We slapped hands and hit each other’s knuckles.

“Can’t get any so you’re at this booth?”

“Hey man, shut up!” He said as he moved his hand through his short blond hair. “You’re here too! Besides these girls are into me.” He winked at them and some of them feigned flirtatious giggles which, Sean was too dense to notice.

“That’s wonderful Sean. You’re skipping class too?”

“Nah. My class doesn’t start until noon.” He turned away from the sorority girls and faced me. “You’re ditching aren’t you? So you can kiss these girls?”

“Ha!” I scoffed. “I just saw you so I stopped to say what’s up.”

“Looks like you’re standing in line dude.” He laughed.

“Fuck you.”

“Hey man,” he whispered as he lowered his voice and leaned over towards me. “You fuckin room with Riane, don’t you?” I glared at him as I anticipated his words. “Forget these chicks, just go for her!” I rolled my eyes and scoffed.

“Fuckin A, man! She’s my friend!”

“She’s a fuckin girl. You have a dick. She’s cute! You can’t tell me you haven’t fucked her at least once!”

“No way man!” I shouted. He was pissing me off with his stupid comments.

“You’ve at least thought of it. Don’t lie to me that you haven’t.” I shoved him.

“Go fuck yourself Sean. I already told you, she’s my friend!” He threw his arms up, his small round blue eyes widening.

“Your loss. You’ll regret it when she finds some other guy.”

“Not with her attitude…” I mumbled. “Doesn’t even try to be more feminine.”

“Whatever. I’ll see you around Larson.” He said as he slapped my back and made a sexual gesture with his hands.

Trying to put Sean on the back of my mind, I scrolled through the other booths. I came across once again to the Drinking Club. I examined the booth thoroughly. All over the wooden stand, pictures of different alcoholic beverages were pasted on, a large picture of a bunch of drunk looking teenagers as a mat for the booth table.

“Sup man?” One of the curly haired booth members nodded his head at me as he rubbed his unshaven face. “You twenty-one and enjoy drinking?”

“Yeah, just turned twenty-one a little while back actually.”

“Tight dawg.” He said as he nodded his head some more. He handed me a flyer. “Twenty bucks a semester lets you in on exclusive membership!”

“What do you do exactly?” I queried.

“Uhh… we drink?” He said with sarcasm and raised eyebrows. The other members of the booth laughed.

“No shit, you guys should be doing something special though for charging for membership.”

“We go to some really tight bars and drink some good shit dawg.” He said nodding his head again. “Jack Daniels, Corona, Mojito, all that good shit at 15 discounts at select clubs and bars!” I thought about it. Eventually, the membership would pay for itself.

“Sounds good…” I said with slight hesitation and thought. I looked over the flyer. “First meeting tonight at the NBU Sports Grill?”

“Yeah… come by if you want to join. Tight shit man!” I nodded slowly as I waved at them and walked off looking over the flyer. Drinking club… it didn’t sound that bad. Hopefully there was no sort of drinking binge as an initiation or something..

For another hour or so, I scrolled the booths. Sadly none seemed to interesting. I looked at the time on my cell phone. 10:52. Riane would be getting back to the dorm around this time. I headed back to the Bridge Dormitories and headed towards the elevator. Forget her trying to make me sound lazy, I was going to take the elevator.

“Figures Mr. Handicapped.” Perfect timing. Just as I was about the push the button. Of all the times for Riane to come back. I turned to face her.

“I took the stairs on the way down this morning.” I remarked.

“Wonderful.” She said sarcastically. “As illustrated by you in front of the elevator door.”

“Whatever Riane.” I grumbled as I rolled my eyes and started following her up the stairway. “Hey, put your books away and let’s go hang at the festival thingy.”

“I really must study.” She began to say.

“Oh come on, let’s just hang out a little while!”

“You’ve already seen everything.”

“But not with you.” This made her pause for a moment. She seemed to consider this.

“Alright.” She said. “Just a little while.”

“Nice.” I said as I gave her an exaggerated thumbs up. “Time to chill!” She laughed.

“You should really take your studies more seriously Larson.”