Elias and his friends had been drinking for a few hours now, midnight long past, but they were nowhere near stopping. It was the first time in a few weeks they were able to get together like this to sit and relax, adult responsibilities taking up most of their time, and with graduation near they had a lot to worry about in the near future.
"Elias! How do I change the song, it's not bumpin enough!" Dominic had started pregaming even before they got together, his nervous demeanor replaced by a more confident, and even louder, alter ego who had no concept of how to be quiet.
Elias turned to Monika with a small grin, "Let me deal with this dummkopf for second."
"Take your time, I'm not going anywhere", she replied with her own grin and took a sip of her spezial. He still couldn't tell why she answered like that, but his buzzed mind was preoccupied. Elias walked to the living room from the kitchen, looking for his phone to teach Dominic how change music. As he walked in, Giles came up behind him and caught him in a vicious bear hug, lifting his not so meager frame from the ground.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Elias struggled but couldn't get out of the large man's grip, falling limp instead and relaxing, waiting for an answer.
"You should spend more time with your friends, mon ami, your girlfriend will still be here tomorrow." He stated this in a mocking yet matter of fact tone, which made Elias roll his eyes but suppressed a small grin from spreading.
Elias' friend group was very eclectic, made up of Russians, Americans, French, British, and fellow Germans. The University had a large international presence and plenty of scholarships, meaning folks from all walks of life intermingled, which is how he was fortunate enough to meet this lot.
"She isn't my girlfriend blödmann," Elias replied with another eye roll and a huff, after which his voice gave a fake annoyed inflection, "we were having a discussion that you so rudely interrupted."
"Yeah yeah yeah, now come, sit, Alexander and Lera passed out after their twelfth round of vodka, so now we need someone else to talk to," Giles said, nodding his head to the love seat in the corner of the room, where the two Russians were passed out on each other. It looked adorable, but the snoring broke the moment. Giles lifted Elias over the couch and placed him in between the Brits. Mark, ever quiet even when drinking, gave him a curt nod while Seamus gave him a swift slap on the back.
"What do you want me to talk about?" As Elias finished that sentence, Dominic gave a look to all of their friends, and all of them chanted in unison as if on cue.
"STRASBOURG, STRAUSBORUG, STRAUSBOURG!"
Oh god not this again, I thought I already told them this.
Monika walked out of the kitchen and leaned against the column, waiting for him to start his story, a playful smirk on her lips. Normally he would have shied away from discussing it in front of her, but the few lagers he had made his confidence shoot up a tad. He drew a deep breath and began, "So I was a young freshman, barely here a month, when I found out they offered trips to Strasbourg for the weekend…"
He continued on, and not even a minute into the story everyone was chuckling, and a few minutes after it had grown into laughter, and by the time he got to the incident with the sweet shop, there were tears in their eyes and they were all gasping to catch their breath between heavy chuckles. Even Monika had joined in with a few giggles.
"God Elias, are we not the luckiest people in the world to know someone like you?" Giles had said so in between breathes, but with a genuine smile behind it. It made Elias' heart happy, and he smiled a goofy grin at everyone, then he spoke aloud.
"A toast! To everyone in this room! Thank you for being here, I wouldn't have any other friends in the world! Here's to graduation and all that lies ahead! Prost!"
"A vontre sante!"
"Prost!"
"Cheers mate!"
No matter what would happen to all of them when they left, one thing was for certain. Elias loved his friends, and they loved him.