"My god, I can't fucking stand that guy!" Aki was raging on our way back to her dorm.

"Sayer upstage you again?"

"Yes!" She clawed her nails through her hair. "He thinks just because his parents are psychologists, he's already got his medical degree! Fucking douchebag…"

"Don't worry about beating him. He just needs people to know he's smart."

"I can't," Aki fiddled with her keys to get her dorm open. "We've been paired up for the latest project."

"Shit. That just plain sucks."

"I know!"

She kicked her door open to throw all her textbooks on her bed and desk.

Lise was at her desk, headphones on. Good, I was hoping she'd be here. I mean, she was always here. Come to think of it, I'd never seen her out and out before.

"Lise?" Aki knocked on her desk to get her attention.

"Huh? Oh, didn't see you there, sorry!" She pulled off her headphones, music blaring out. I didn't recognize the song, but I did like the beat. Kinda techno?

"S'okay, we're headed to the dining hall and then out to bowling, you in?"

"Oh um…bowling?" Her eyebrows knit together. Eyes roving across her desk.

I snuck a peek while she was mulling it over. Homework, of course, thumbnails. Lots of them. All of a teapot that she had upside down on her desk. Weird.

But there were also more anime-esque drawings too. Like her posters all over her side of the room. But she'd drawn the ones littered across her desk. I didn't recognize the characters, but I liked her style. The hands were looking pretty good, but then again I was no artist.

"Okay, that's enough deliberating. You're coming with us."

"Wait, but I have-"

"It's Friday, and it was more of a rhetorical question. Let's go!"

Aki gave Lise just enough time to grab a wallet and jacket before dragging her out the door. I'd eaten at the cafeteria Aki was taking us to before. After the remodel it was way nicer than any of the cafeterias at my school. Aki usually just swiped her ID twice for me. Lise's face was looking a little pink, and she watched Aki hand over the ID and sweep through the lines like a hawk.

"You okay?" I asked her when we both decided on pizza.

"Yeah, just didn't know the…rules…"

"Rules?"

But she was already following Aki to the table she'd claimed. I didn't quite understand what she meant. You went to the cafeteria, paid for food, and got food. Like a restaurant but way less nice.

"Tell me about how your classes are going. Mine suck right now, and I want you to get your shit on the table before I stink it up with mine," Aki demanded as I sat down beside her.

"Oh, well, I'm liking my astrophysics elective. I-"

"Not you," Aki shushed me with a dismissive flick of her hand. "Her."

Lise paused over her pizza. "Me?"

"Yeah, spill the tea, girl!"

"Um… I like my Multi-Mediums Art class. I think I'm making some friends?"

"What happened to unintentionally making friends?" I raised an eyebrow.

She shrugged, polishing off her own pizza. "Makes it easier to get through the class if you have someone to talk to."

"And study with. That's how I passed my American History class."

"Well, you had to. Your teacher was so boring, I got contact sleepiness just from waiting outside to get to lunch together."

"Oh yeah, eight AM classes are brutal," Lise nodded, sipping at her soda. Her free hand tugged on her side ponytail.

I swallowed my last bite of pizza thickly. Her hair was really pretty, a dark blonde. On the shorter side. My fingers itched. I wanted to know if her hair was soft too.

Aki elbowed me hard. "Ow!"

"Whoops, almost dropped your pizza."

"He totally would have if he didn't eat pizza like a weirdo."

"I do not!"

"Like a taco, right?" Aki snorted.

"Not this again," I rolled my eyes. I wiped my hands on a napkin and downed my water. Needed to hydrate for bowling after all. "I like the crunch."

"As long as you get to eat pizza. My mom used to dab the pizza grease off our slices at Costco."

"Seriously?"

Aki broke into a laugh. Snorting over her night coffee. "But you were kids, right? That's when you can handle some extra grease!"

"Or the hot dog and soda," Lise broke into a small smile. Glad she could roll with Aki's sharp tongue. Aki wasn't mean just…a little blunt at times.

"All right, losers, who's ready for bowling?"

"Me!"

"Not me," Lise's smile disappeared.

"Again, rhetorical," Aki repeated. "It'll be fun!"

"But…I'm not…very good…" Lise hadn't moved despite Aki shoving me not so subtly out of our booth.

"Oh, neither are we. It's about hanging out and having fun, which you desperately need."

"No I don't!"

"Yes, you do. I live with you, and I'm barely home, but even I know you don't leave unless it's for class or groceries. Let's go."

Aki zoomed off to hand over her dirty dishes to the kitchen. I hung back.

"You don't have to come with us if you don't want to," I told Lise quickly. I didn't want her to feel pressured to hang out. I definitely didn't want us to come across as creepy. "Aki is just a little…"

"Aggressive?"

"Um…I guess? But she's an ambivert who has had a lot of experience with making and losing friends. Our group has been going to college so long together that we're used to it, and she really cares even if it isn't obvious."

"Because I'm mean?" One corner of Lise's mouth turned up.

"I think her meanness is compatible with yours," I smiled too.

"Come on people, let's go!" Aki clapped her hands together impatiently. "Those pins aren't gonna knock themselves over!"

/

"All right, that's kiddie bumpers for everyone," Aki sat down at the lane we'd been given.

I grabbed the computer to put our names in. "Watch us get gutter balls anyway."

"You're so talented," Aki teased in a drawling, valley-girl voice.

Aki snagged a black, flowery pattern bowling ball from the back rack. The place we chose had the bowling balls on a large shelf behind all the lanes. You could chose which ball you wanted. My favorite was the blue galaxy one.

"Orange, that's no surprise," I said, noticing Lise's choice.

"It is?!"

"Your half of the room is covered in orange."

"Oh…" Lise turned pink; it was really cute… "Right."

"You're up first, space boy!" Aki brought me back to reality.

I shook my head and readied the bowling ball. Aiming my shot up like I was better at bowling than I actually was. Instead, I decided to bend down and roll the ball.

"Lame!" Aki called out through her hands.

"Wait for it!"

My bowl made it to the end of the lane. Crashing into the crowd of pins.

"All right, eight pins!"

"But now you have to hit the last two, remember?"

I readied my ball again, aiming more this time. "All right, spare here I…come!"

My ball slid across the lane. Slowly rolling for the last two pins. But at the last second it curved and missed entirely!

"No!"

"Better luck next time," Aki snickered, shoving me out of the way for her turn.

"Like you could do better!" I teased back, taking a seat.

Lise sat in silence. Her foot bouncing on the polished wooden floors. Picking at her fingertips. Then playing with her hair. Was she nervous about bowling? Or were we making her uncomfortable?

Fuck. Was I being creepy? I bit at my thumb. What should I say?

"You okay?"

"Yeah…" But her face reddened still. "Just don't go out like this often."

Crap. What should I say to that? Did she want to go home? Were we peer pressuring her or something? Why was I so bad at this?

Wait, bad at what? We were just friends, hanging out. No pressure. This was supposed to be fun.

"Well…um, I'm glad you came out with us. We can suck at bowling together?"

She smiled again. A real one with her whole mouth. "Thanks, this is fun. I think I just need to stim a little…to feel normal, ya know?"

I blinked at her. Stimming? Maybe that's what I did with my thumb and when I needed to bounce my leg. I didn't realize those things had a name. "Yeah, I think I do."

"Let's go, Lise! Beat my spare!"

"No promises," Lise laughed nervously, but got up to take her turn.

We ended up playing three rounds. I was hungry again and caved to grab some fries halfway through. Which, of course, Aki mooched off of, and got Lise to when she admitted she was craving some salt. She refused to join in on the beers Aki and I bought though.

Aki ended up defeating us easily. Even with the bumpers our scores were pretty low. But it was fun to bowl and get a little tipsy with friends.

"Good game, guys," Lise smiled again. "It was fun."

Aki looked up from her phone. "The guys wanna meet at Mulligan's. Apparently it's been a bad week for everybody, and we need to blow off steam."

"Sounds good. I could use another decent beer."

"Nah, I wanna splurge and get a cocktail for once," Aki sighed. "Stupid Sayer and his stupid parents are going down this semester!"

"Let's get that alcohol in you a-sap," I joked. I leaned over the plastic chairs, tugging gently on Lise's ponytail. "You wanna come with?"

Instead of blushing, her face seemed to get paler. "To a bar?"

"Yeah, you can drink. It's legal."

"I know…"

"We know the bartender too. He seems grump, but he's actually really nice."

Lise looked at Aki, who nodded. "We can totally squeeze you in. The guys would love to meet you too." Her brown eyes revealing the warmth and kindness Aki truly had inside her. She might be a little mean on the outside, but she did genuinely like having Lise as a friend.

"Oh um…" My eyes met Lise's for a half a second. She looked away quickly. Pink back in her cheeks. "Maybe next time?" She grabbed her jacket and stood up.

"Not that this wasn't fun! I just um… I'm good for the night." She waved at me, already turning away.

"See you later?" Lise adjusted her bag's strap and the zipper of her coat.

"Yeah, see ya." Aki waved her off.

"You're so blowing this," she grinned evilly at me.

I returned the grin with a glare. "Not funny."

"All joking aside," Aki's face grew unusually serious. Like when she was in classes. "I think she just needs time. We're kind of a lot."

"Yeah…" I let out a long sigh. "I do think being friends is better right now. I will have to get my shit together next year to pass Lit."

"Already on it. Now that she's more comfortable with us, we can introduce her to the guys on game night."

"Great idea! Also that we started slow. The guys are a lot…"

"Especially on game night," Aki chuckled. "But come on, you promised me a cocktail."

"Whoa, I did not promise to foot you bill!" I raced outdoors after her to ensure she would not be lying to Blister that night.