Lister arrived at Alex's room just after seven-thirty with a six pack of Leopard lager. "You made it! Nice one!" Alex greeted him, "First one here, too."
"Who else is coming?" Lister asked politely. The chances of him knowing anyone were pretty slim. Alex reeled off a few names and, as he'd suspected, they were all people he either didn't know well or didn't know at all.
"Hey, you brought Leopard!" Alex beamed, "I didn't think anyone else liked this stuff!"
"Brutal," Lister grinned, "More for us." Alex took the cans and stashed them in the fridge, "You want to stick some music on while I sort out some snacks?" he called, waving his arm vaguely in the direction of a stack of CD's piled messily in one corner of the room. Lister wandered over and sat cross-legged on the floor, browsing through the pile while Alex hunted for crisps behind him. "You like Rasta Billy Skank?" he asked in disbelief, pouncing on an album he recognised.
"Oh, yeah," Alex looked up; "Back in art school me and my mate Tom used to spend hours skiving off our lectures listening to that." He smiled broadly, "Ah, the memories..."
"I went to art school!" Lister said brightly, "Well...for a bit, anyway. Kinda dropped out."
"Me too," Alex replied confidentially. They grinned at each other.
Another album caught Lister's eye and he picked it up with a smile, "N-Sync – The Greatest Hits?" He held it up accusingly.
"You're not into retro music?" Alex asked innocently. Lister raised an eyebrow. "Oh, sod off!" Alex laughed, "My ex-girlfriend left it here ages ago, alright? It's not mine!"
"Whatever." Lister dropped it as though it was something distasteful.
There was a knock at the door; "Never mind. Forget the music," Alex said, "The guys are here and the game will be starting in a couple of minutes anyway." He went to the door and let in his friends. Lister stood up and Alex did the introductions. They all seemed friendly and accepted Lister into the group without much ceremony; and a few minutes later they were all piled onto the sofa and surrounding areas waiting for the game to start. Alex came and sat beside Lister on the sofa, with the pack of Leopard lager between them.
It was a good night. In fact, it was a great night. They drank, they shouted, they cheered, they threw peanuts at the screen. To Lister, it seemed almost surreal. It was all so terrifyingly...normal. He couldn't remember the last time he'd just hung out with other people this way. In fact, he couldn't remember the last time he'd hung out with anybody outside of the posse.
At the end of the night, Alex stopped him as he and the rest of the crowd started to drift away back to their own rooms. "This was fun. Next week they're showing the Sheffield-Portsmouth game to decide who'll be against the Jets in the play-off," he reminded him, "You want to come over again?"
"Yeah, sure!" Lister felt inordinately happy at the invitation. He'd never much felt the need to be part of a group, but his acceptance by Alex and the rest of the guys this evening meant more than that. To him, it was a sign that despite everything he'd done in the past few years, he wasn't weird. He was still normal. Normal enough to be able to make friends with normal human people; and that was very good to know.
"Brilliant," Alex grinned, "If we can make this a regular thing my roommate might just decide not to come back!"
They laughed and Lister made the walk back to his quarters feeling as though he were walking on air.