The College JJ Series

waffle fries

Summary: A big presentation keeps you in for the night, but you still somehow end up having to deal with the drunken Three Stooges after their night at the bar.

~

The presentation you were preparing to give tomorrow was worth a third of your grade, so when JJ asked you to come out with him, Pope, and John B for one of their frat brother's birthday, you had politely declined.

Yes, you had finished the project a week in advance, and yes, you had your speech memorized down to the moments when you would take a breath or pause for dramatic effect, but the perfectionist in you wouldn't let you ruin your preparedness with a hangover.

JJ had pouted a bit when you said no, but he understood. He admired your work ethic and your dedication, so he didn't press it at all, and simply told you he'd miss you and that he'd take you out for dinner and margaritas at the Mexican restaurant that didn't card to celebrate crushing your presentation the next evening.

They went out around 9:00, and you changed into joggers and one of JJ's hoodies, tied your hair up in a bun, and got to work. You went through your slides, practicing your talking points for each, and flip flopped back and forth on whether you should put a timer on each slide so it would auto advance or just click through manually when you were ready. You did a dry run in front of your full length mirror, making sure to keep the cadence of your words even and trying not to get too animated with your hands.

All three boys texted you updates throughout the evening (JJ texted you the most, documenting everything with pictures), and you responded back. You were nearly able to keep count of the amount of drinks they had based on the spelling errors in their texts. When the pictures from JJ started getting blurry, you knew things were going south.

It was around midnight, and you were thinking about turning in for the night. You get a text from Pope, an off kilter picture of JJ kissing his cheek.

Stealing my man, Heyward?

Pope
I had him first

You snort and roll your eyes, placing your phone on the charger by your bed. Just to be on the safe side, you turn your phone off silent and crank the volume of the ringer. You couldn't imagine they'd end up in any kind of trouble, but you knew if one of them tried to call and you didn't answer, they'd find their way to your apartment and bang down the door until you let them in.

You drift off pretty quickly, the final preparations for your presentation wearing you out. You haven't even been asleep a full two hours when your phone rings, startling you awake.

"Hello?" you mumble into the phone, fighting back a yawn.

"Y/n, is that you?" JJ asks. There's a lot of loud background noise; voices, indistinct music, the sound of glasses clinking.

"Who else would it be? You called my phone," you say.

"Ohhhh, you're right!" he exclaims.

"Do you need a ride?" you ask.

He gasps. "How'd you know?"

"Wild guess," you reply. "Are you guys still at Crockett's?"

"We're headed to the chicken truck," he says.

You nod. The "chicken truck" aka the mobile Chick-fil-a that sometimes parked downtown on the nights they thought the bars would be packed, was parked right outside of the bar they had gone to according to their social media posts.

"Okay, get your food and stay at the truck. Are John B and Pope with you?"

"Of course they are. They wouldn't pass up the Lord's chicken," he says. There's muffled laughter in the background.