A/N: Alright, again, sorry about the speeding through an entire year. things will kind of start to slow down now. But if i start getting too speedy with my timing let me know.
Also, sorry for the massive delay, I have been caught up in school and having to get ready for graduation in June.
*You think I would've learned to really push myself after I got my first degree, turns out, I didn't haha. Begin panic mode* This is my temporary escape!
Summer was coming to an end and students were beginning to take over the campus for another year. Parties were already being planned for the first week and every home football game.
"Ashley! I'm glad you are here. Okay, so, I hope you don't mind but we kind of picked our rooms out already." Emily was a very organized person. In a general comparison she was the Monica-type from Friends. Emily showed Ashley the room she was left with.
"Honestly, I would've picked this room anyway." The girl's apartment was on the third floor of the complex. It was open facing the parking lot, so they didn't have to worry about maneuvering around walls while moving things up the stairs. Ashley's room was in the front of the apartment with a view of the parking lot and the open walkway. The back of the apartment only had a view of a really torn up field and another apartment complex. Emily said she made her decision based on where the sun would come up in the morning and choose the opposite side of the apartment. "Leave it to you to get all intelligent in your choice of room." They laughed and both noticed Emily's parents hauling a few of Ashley's things inside.
"Whoa, I guess we should start moving stuff in huh?" Emily and Ashley walked down to the truck Ashley had rented and started grabbing odds and ends. After an hour of moving, thanks to Emily's parents and boyfriend, they got everything into Ashley's room. "Well, Trey and I are going to get some food if you want to join us, moving worked up quite the appetite!"
"Thanks but I think I'm going to try and get this all put away, or at least out of the middle of the room." Ashley stood in the only empty area of the room looking overwhelmed by the amount of stuff she was planning on cramming into her room.
When Emily and Trey left Ashley first set up her stereo and started blaring her My Chemical Romance cd. Dancing around her room she didn't notice the person standing in the door way thoroughly amused. She turned to dig through a box when she nearly fell over the pieces of her bed noticing the person.
"BROTHER! First, I'm glad you are here, and secondly NEVER do that to me again! Not cool dude." Tim, her new found twin came walking in and hugged her apologizing for his sneakiness.
"So, glad I'm here huh? Does this have anything to do with the fact that you're bed isn't put together? Or did you just miss me over the summer?" Ashley bowed her head in shame.
"Um, both?" She smiled innocently. "I mean I can put the bed together but it's hard to do by myself, and this mattress is a beast to lift all alone. But if you aren't manly enough, or strong enough to do this then..."
Tim puffed up his chest and pretended to be one of those muscle guys on ESPN's World's Strongest Man Competitions.
"Don't worry Ash, I got this. I'll have your bed together before you even empty that box over there." He pointed to a medium sized box that said CLOTHES on it.
Ashley, being the competitive one, grabbed the box and stood in her closet.
"Ready, Set-" "WAIT! Tools, did you bring tools for this? 'Cuz if you didn't this isn't fair, I can't put it together with brain power." Ashley walked behind Tim and pulled out a shoe box, digging through it she found the two tools that he would need.
"Okay, Ready?" Tim nodded. "GO!" Ashley tore open the box and dumped the contents on the floor. "Done." Tim looked at her with a smirk.
"You know what I meant jerkface, hang that up or I'll get Emily in here and she'll Monica you until this room is in one functioning piece. Trust me, it's not pretty, Trey did that to me last year when my closet was a disaster. As amusing as Emily is about this, it's not fun with all of it is directed towards you. Ashley laughed at her internal image of the situation but then her face dropped when she put herself in Tim's shoes. "Exactly, get back to work!" Tim got up and put in another CD to start the plan with new music. "Vampire weekend should get you pumped, and now you have to put away two boxes before I'm done."
Ashley ended up finishing before Tim did and helped him finish screwing in a few of the pieces. They lifted the mattress and slid it onto the bed, both of them falling onto it afterwards.
"Ugh, moving sucks, things need to unpack themselves. Bonus if they can clean themselves too."
"This isn't beauty and the beast. Even if you sing "Be Our Guest," nothing happens, I tried it when I was younger. I was a sad panda that day."
Ashley banged on her window as she saw Emily walk by signaling her to come to her room when she got in.
"Hey guys! Looking pretty good in here. I see you dragged Tim into your unpack fest. OH, by the way, Trey and I were talking when we were eating and decided we are having a party downstairs since you guys are unpacked already. He's picking up alcohol later so if you guys want something specific let him know soon. Invite anyone else you want as well. I'm going to be in my room getting ready then head downstairs to make some food for tonight, I'll let you know when I leave Ash in case you're still stuck in the unpacking chaos." Ashley thanked her and got up from the bed to finish putting the rest of her clothes away and deciding what to wear to the party. Tim busied himself pulling out Ashley's DVDs and looking through them.
"We need to seriously have a movie marathon night, and you REALLY need to increase your dvd collection, this is depressing."
"Shut up and just unpack them. Also, this box over here is the TV stand I was responsible for buying for the apartment collection, can you take it out the living room and see if Em wants us to put it together now or do it tomorrow?" Tim did as he was told. Ashley managed to get all of her clothes out and put away in their proper places, not the floor. She started thinking about what she'd want to drink and if she felt like inviting anyone else over to the party. She was about to call Aiden and Alex when she realized that she'd never really spent time with her new friends and really wanted to take the time to get to know them and allow them to get to know her. They all had lived in the same dorm and knew each other very well, Ashley was the outcast of the group. She made a mental note to call both boys tomorrow and see what their schedules were for the semester.
"Hey Miss Space-a-lot, I put together the tv thing and Emily said she was going to head down in thirty minutes to start making pizzas and Trey is going to head out soon too so... he'll probably get vodka and beer, but if you want something else, or some kind of mixer, I'll buy."
"Well, I can't really think of anything off the top of my head. Cranberry juice with vodka sounds good. But then again so does beer, I'm not too picky yet, open to options. I guess this means I should jump in the shower and wash this grossness off of me. See you in an hour?" Tim nodded and left to take a shower too and go with Trey to get alcohol.
AT PARTY
"Alright everyone, I'm here now, we can start partying!" Ashley announced, walking through the door. She was glad she was already on a "knock first, then enter" basis. As she walked in the smell of pizza made her stomach growl.
"Ash, I can hear your stomach over the tv, what did you eat today?"
"Um, half a bagel and a bag of M&M's this morning. That's about it." Emily gave her a very motherly look. They hadn't known each other for very long but Emily picked up on Ashley's eating habits, or lack thereof.
"Here, you can be the taste tester for my pizzas." Emily handed Ashley a plate with a few different squares of pizza.
"Mmmm mis is soo good." Ashley spoke with a full mouth, devouring the pieces on the plate while Emily watched, amused by her animalistic behavior. "Sorry," She swallowed. "These are all really good, well except the sausage one, but I've always hated the taste of it, though this isn't terrible."
"Well, thanks Ash. You look fancy this evening." Ashley was wearing dark jeans and a black and white tank top, she brought along a red zip up hoodie in case they went outside and she got cold. Her hair was up in a ponytail with the ends slightly curled.
"Fancy? Jeans and a tank top? Thanks Emily. So, who else is coming?" Emily named off a few people Ashley met at a party before the summer, and a few other people she didn't know that were friends of Trey and Tim's. "Cool, well I'm going to go bug Tim, holler if you need any help, I'm not much of a cook but I can cut pizza pretty well." Ashley found a spot on the couch next to Tim who was deep in a game of Madden against Trey. Yells, screams and a plethora of expletives erupted when Tim's player scored a touchdown in the final seconds of the game. Trey tossed his controller to the side and walked in the kitchen to help Emily with the final touches on the food.
"Wanna play?" Tim grabbed the discarded controller and handed it to Ashley, starting a new game, Bears vs Eagles, Ashley being the Eagles. "Not who I expected you would pick but alright."
"One of my ex-boyfriends in high school loved the Eagles, so by default I had to watch their games, and kind of became a fan, besides, I have this version too so I know who the good players are." They started their game and by half time most of the other people had shown up and were now watching the surprisingly close game between the two. Music had been turned on somewhere between first and second quarter but neither Ashley or Tim heard it, they were glued to the screens.
Every one decided to place shot bets on the game, loser had to take a shot of the winner's choice at the end of the game and anytime they said to for an hour afterwards. This applied to anyone who took sides on the game as well.
The game ended 38-24 in favor of Tim who chose Jack Daniels as his shot of choice. Ashley grabbed a 20oz of Coke from the fridge and held it tightly in her hand for the next hour always prepared with her chaser whenever Tim called "Loser Shot." Luckily, Tim was pretty lenient with her, although some of the "fans" took shots on their own to increase their buzz.
The night went on with several drinking games and video games being played. Ashley ended up getting pretty drunk and Tim told her to sleep in his bed instead of trying to walk up the stairs to her apartment but Ashley managed to drag herself upstairs anyway. She still hadn't made her bed, but found one of the sheets she'd unpacked and pulled it over her before passing out around 4 A.M.
"Dude, you got it bad don't you." Trey said to Tim as they sat in the living room each having one last beer for the night.
"No, we're just friends man. We have a lot in common, and it's good to know that there's someone like that out there. No offense to you guys but, obviously our tastes in certain things are different. Ashley though, she's by far the coolest girl I've ever met."
"You should ask her out, take her to that movie you keep talking about. Last kiss or whatever it is with that guy from Scrubs. How cool would it be if we, as roommates, were dating roommates. I already have Emily, now you just have to get Ashley. It can't be that hard, I've seen the way you two interact, it's crazy."
"Trey, you're drunk, go to bed." Tim sat in his seat pondering the idea of him and Ashley. It didn't seem like such a bad thing. Maybe Trey was right, maybe he would try to work up the courage to ask her out. Even if Ashley was way out of his league, ridiculously attractive and could most likely get any guy she wanted.
"Dammit Trey!" Tim said to himself as he trudged to his room hoping to sleep off the inner battle but still not writing off the possibility of being with Ashley.