Laughing as they made their way inside the girl's dorm Zoey, Lola, James, and Michael all talked about their most recent class. It had been a little awkward the first couple of times with James and Zoey being together but they both talked about it, a few times actually, but they didn't want their feelings or past relationship to disturb the group's dynamic. James accepted Zoey's feelings for Chase and was happy for them. He had been on a few dates during the summer and was talking to a new girl at PCA. Zoey was glad he was putting himself out there, he deserved someone special in his life.
Before the year ended last year, the guys had all talked and it was decided Michael, Logan, and Chase would be roommates again. James was living now with Vince in their own room with a member of the basketball team. The guy was hardly ever in the room with them though, so it was almost like he wasn't even there. They could barely remember his name half the time.
School had only been going on for a few weeks now, but they already had a group project that was due at the end of the week. The four of them all had class together and quickly gathered together when it was announced this would be a group assignment.
"I can't believe we already have a project to do," Lola groaned, one hand loosely holding onto the strap of her bag.
Michael nodded in agreement. "School has just barely started. This has got to be against the law somewhere."
"Sadly, there's no law that says when and how much homework a teacher can give." James laughed at his two friends and their very obvious detest for their latest assignment. He was happy that even after he and Zoey broke up, he could still hang out with such a great group of people.
"Hey guys hold up for a minute," Zoey called to her friends, running up to the water fountain that was just around the corner from their dorm. Shrugging off one strap of her bag she reached inside and pulled out a pink spray bottle. Unscrewing the cap, she started to fill up the small bottle from the fountain.
"Good idea," Lola walked up to her friend and took out her own blue spray bottle. "I gotta fill up too." she put the small blue plastic device in the center of the fountain and let the water fill up the bottle.
The two gave each other a confused look, silently hoping the other would have an explanation for what was happening. "So, what up with the spray bottles?" Michael asked, hoping he would like the answer.
This time it was the two girls who gave each other a look, but instead of being confused, it was exasperation. Wagging their fingers for the boys to follow they lead them to their dorm and opened the door. Taking two steps in they looked around for a brief second before sighing and pointing at the bunk beds. James and Michael stepped inside, following the direction of where they were pointing, and groaned at what they saw.
Lying down together on her bed were Quinn and Logan, wrapped up in each other's arms as they made out on the green sheets. The curly-haired boy was halfway on top of her, one arm around her waist while the other was behind her head. She had both arms wrapped around him, one on his lower back and the other wrapped up and resting on his shoulder. It was obvious their focus was on each other because they didn't even budge when the door opened. They had no clue there was an audience watching them.
Giving each other another look Zoey and Lola readied their spray bottles and let loose. Hitting mostly Logan.
"Hey!" the couple screamed at the water hitting them. All but crawling over his girlfriend, Logan fell to the floor, groaning at the impact. Jumping to his feet he shook his head of the water now in his hair and glared at their attackers. "What is wrong with you people?"
"Well excuse us for not wanting to see you two sucking face every time we walk in here." Lola cried right back, her spray bottle aimed and ready to fire again if she needed to. Or wanted to.
Zoey, being the most sensible of the group, set her bottle and bag down by her bed. "We told you before, this is our room, and we expect you to follow our rules." She crossed her arms as if daring him to fight back.
"Sorry guys," Quinn sat forward on her bed, taking out a cloth from her bag to wipe away the water from her glasses. "We didn't hear you come in or else we would have separated."
"No, we wouldn't." Logan scoffed at the idea of stopping to kiss just because other people were in the room.
"Dude," James lightly scolded him, shaking his head at his friend's attitude. "You gotta respect the girls."
Michael nodded, smirking to himself. He enjoyed seeing his self-centered friend getting sprayed with water like a misbehaving cat. "I'm just sorry that we didn't think of doing that."
Rolling his eyes Logan walked over to the dresser to grab a grey washcloth out of Quinn's drawer. "We hardly ever make out in my room."
"So? There are a lot of other moments when spraying you with some water would work." Michael laughed, enjoying the teasing he was doing to his friend.
Finally lowering her spray bottle but still not letting it go Lola decided enough was enough. "Exactly," she marched over and took the washcloth from his hands. The grey cloth that she knew was his and not any of her roommates. "You're always in here and we're getting tired of it."
"Lola!" Zoey chided her friend for her harsh words. When said girl looked over at her she gestured to their roommate who now sat on her bed, looking guilty and uncomfortable. Groaning softly, the aspiring actress knew she had messed up and was mad at herself and at the boy who she believed was the source of all their problems.
Fidgeting in her spot for a quick moment, Quinn stood up and came to stand behind her boyfriend. "Baby, can you and the guys give us a minute? I need to talk with the girls for a bit."
Surprised by this Logan turned around. "But sweetie," he was worried about her. He didn't want to leave her in here to fight with her friends alone.
"She said leave," Lola wasted no time in spraying the back of his head and then the rest of him. Making him scream at her to stop and slowly move away from her friend and out of her room. Soon she was spraying all three guys with water.
"Hey! Why are you attacking us?!" Michael cried, arms flailing about to cover himself.
"What about our project?" James tried to cover himself with his notebook for protection.
"This is just wrong!" Michael let his disdain be known.
They screamed and whined all the way out the door until she shut it in their faces. Sighing for a moment Lola moved to go back to the center of the room but thought about it for a minute and opened the door quickly, spraying the group of three boys one last time. Just for fun. Grinning at their fading whines she finally set her bottle down and came to sit beside Zoey on her bed.
Bringing over one of the colorful ottomans that decorated the dorm room, the resident genius of PCA sat across from her two best friends. "Guys, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize that Logan and I being in here so much was making you uncomfortable." She never intended to make them feel bad or like their room wasn't their own anymore. These two were her best friends and she never wanted to do anything to upset them. "But I promise from now on the only times Logan and I will be in here together is if we're studying or hanging out together with you everyone. This is your room and I need to be more respectful of you both."
Zoey leaned forward, reaching out to grasp Quinn's hand. "We don't want you to feel like this isn't your room either. Look, this is just a huge adjustment for all of us still."
"We're glad that you and Logan are happy together. Even though I still don't understand what it is you see in him." Lola commented, expressing that the relationship between the two still perplexed her.
"We just don't want to see it all the time," Zoey added, trying to say what she needed to say as carefully as possible. "It just seems like ever since school started Logan has been in here constantly."
Nodding in agreement Lola continued with their discussion. "He leaves his stuff in here and he even keeps his clothes and towels and other stuff in our closet and drawers."
Biting her lower lip Quinn gave a quick look around the room and finally acknowledged that a lot of her boyfriend's things were in their room. Some of his shirts were in her drawer, an extra pair of sneakers was next to her shoes in their closet, and even a few of his toiletries were scattered about the room too. "Yeah, I can see how it might be a bit much." She hadn't even realized just how much it was. It totally went over her head that her boyfriend was basically moving in with them. More often than not if they had a break between classes or after dinner, he would be in the room with her, lying on the bed together until it was getting close to curfew, and he was kicked out by the other two living in the room. "Guys, I'm so sorry. I didn't even realize how far things had gotten," she wanted to say she would have put a stop to it if she had but if she was being completely honest, she couldn't be sure that she would have. She loved Logan and always having him with her made her really happy. "I know this hasn't been fair to either of you and I'll do whatever you want to make up for it, but please try to understand. When we were hiding our relationship last year we didn't have the luxury to be together as much as every other couple on PCA. We had to go to Vaccaro to try and have a normal date instead of slow dancing inside of a janitor's closet."
"Wait a minute," Zoey stopped her there. "A date for you guys when you were still a secret was dancing inside of a janitor's closet?"
Lola snapped her fingers. "That's why your clothes reeked of bleach so much. I thought you were doing some weird science experience."
Quinn shook her free hand at that. "Well, half of it was because of the closet and the other half did involve a few experiments that required me bleaching away the mess," she grimaced as she thought of her failed experiments and the cleaning process that came afterward. "But to answer Zoey's question, yes, we would hide away in the janitor's closet or in a bush or somewhere else secluded on campus to try and get some privacy. Which didn't always work out because there were so many people at this school."
"I get that." Zoey sighed, thinking back to her previous relationship with James and her own frustrations with the lack of privacy they experienced. At least with them, their friends realized that they needed some alone time together but for Quinn and Logan, who were hiding their relationship, they didn't get to experience any of that.
"I think Logan and I are just trying to make up for all the lost time from last year when we couldn't be with each other the way we wanted to be." She shrugged, giving them her thoughts on the matter. She wasn't trying to make up excuses or anything, more like just admitting what she felt about it and hoped they would understand that she hadn't been trying to make them uncomfortable on purpose.
Lola sighed, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. "Why do you have to be so sweet and sincere about it," she groaned, reaching over to hug her roommate. "Now I'm no longer mad at that stupid boy for always being in here."
Zoey laughed and joined in on the hug. "Yeah, why do you have to be so nice and honest about it." The three of them laughed as they held on another.
Living with others is never easy. When you have a roommate, you have to be aware of what you do and always check that you're not being a bother. Sometimes it can be little things like leaving your shoes in the middle of the room or constantly having your boyfriend over. That's why they needed to have talks like this, a way to express what they were feeling and thinking about it all so they could all live together without any issues.
Pulling away from the hug Quinn smiled at her two friends. She felt so lucky to have them in her life. "I promise from now on, Logan and I will be much more respectful. I'll talk to him about bringing his stuff back to his room too."
"Sounds good," Zoey liked that plan. "And you guys can still be in here whenever you both want."
"Yeah, even if you're in here being gross and kissing," Lola said, making a face as she thought about them kissing.
"It's your room too and you're allowed to have your boyfriend in here and be gross together." Zoey grinned. "Just know this,"
Both girls reached down and picked up their spray bottles. "We're not giving up the bottles."
Laughing at them and their so-called "weapons" Quinn nodded and shook their hands in agreement with their terms. "Deal."
Now with everything settled they all got up and headed to the door. Quinn being the one to turn the knob saw first that the guys had jumped back from where they had been standing, now backed up against the wall and shielding their faces from any more water that might hit them. "Hey," realizing it was his girlfriend and she wasn't armed, Logan relaxed and walked towards her. "Everything okay?" he looked her over, checking to make sure she hadn't been crying. He hadn't heard any screaming and it didn't sound like any fighting had gone on, but he wanted to double-check and make sure.
Smiling at his worry for her, she placed both hands on his shoulders and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Yeah, we're all good now."
With everything now settled, the six teenagers all walked into the room. Zoey and Lola were sitting on the couch in their room while James took the computer chair and Michael sat on the bean bag in the room. They all pulled out their books and gathered around to work on their project. Quinn pulled open her laptop and laid down on her bed, she had a thesis she needed to start working on. Logan laid down opposite of her, entangling his legs with her as he leaned against a pillow on the end of the bed. Reaching into one of the cubies on the wall he grabbed one of the many gaming systems he had. Opening up the small device he started to play a new game he had just gotten. The theme music just started to play when suddenly a blast of water hit his cheek.
"Hey!" he sat up, hitting his head on the top bunk as he did so. Wiping his cheek with more force than necessary he glared in the direction of his friends and frowned when he saw the spray bottle in Lola's hands. "What'd you do that for?"
"Just cause." She replied back smugly, putting the bottle on the arm of the couch, easily within her reach if she needed to use it again.
Frowning at this, Logan looked at his girlfriend for some backup. She just smiled at him and offered him the cloth she usually uses to clean her glasses. She still needed to talk with him about what she discussed with her roommates but for now, she would just enjoy the time they spent together.