I'm Your Wreck

2- Party's Here

 "That is all wrong, Liam. You need to move your dresser to the other wall," Quinn complained through the phone as I FaceTimed her the layout of my new room.

"It's like a giant game of furniture Tetris," I whined, sitting on the edge of the bed where my long legs nearly touched the opposite wall. "And I suck at it."

"I'll come over sometime this week and we'll get it figured out. The space isn't so bad, you just need to work with it. Are you ready for classes on Monday?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," I assured my sister. "Sports Data Strategy, calculus, and sports marketing on Monday."

"Whose your calc professor? I had Barnaby and he was a total ass hat."

"Uh," I glanced at the schedule I had printed off, taped to the side of my desk. "Wilkinson. Kenji is taking it with me."

Tate University was pretty big, so even though my sister went here a couple of years ago, I wasn't surprised that we didn't have any of the same professors. Especially since I'm getting my degree in sports management and Quinn studied chemical engineering.

"Even with a shitty teacher, I still nailed that class, so you'll let me know if you need any help?"

"Of course you nailed calculus, Quinn, you're a genius."

"Am not."

"It's why you're the Mom and Dad's favorite."

"No, I'm the favorite because I never went through a phase of wanting to pee outside with the dog," she fired back with a maniacal laugh, because she never missed an opportunity to bring that up. Even though I was too young to even remember it, so it feels a little unfair.

When I heard the music start blaring from two floors down, I decided I should probably go join everybody else. "I'm still not convinced that even happened."

"You've seen the pictures."

In the mirror, I smoothed down the longer strands of hair at the top of my head and flattened out my fitted tee. I probably should have put more effort into my outfit, knowing that this was my chance to make a good impression on the apparently hot neighbors, but I was too tired from the move to change outfits again.

So, I wore my tee and a pair of plain black joggers, said goodbye to my sister, and trotted down both flights of stairs.

Walker and Kenji were setting up a beer pong table in the dining room, which lacked any real furniture since none of us had a dining table to spare. Ollie was standing by the TV nightstand with a large speaker, working his phone to play the right playlist.

"Liam, can you reach the ping pong balls? This idiot tossed them up there and now we're fucked," Walker called me to the kitchen where he was straining himself to reach above the kitchen cabinets. I could see the corner of a plastic bag that I easily grabbed without even needing to step onto my toes.

The bag full of balls fell into his arms. "Are there going to be enough people here for beer pong?" I asked. They said they invited some people, but I was just imagining a couple of friends we knew from school and maybe the neighbor girls, if they even showed up.

"We should," he answered easily as Ollie joined the group from the living room, patting me on the shoulder as a greeting.

"How was the internship, man?" he asked on his way to the fridge. "From your Snap stories, it looked like you had a sick time."

"It was incredible," I gushed. "I got to watch the players practice, learned all the ins and outs of the office. Truly my dream job. They didn't give me a for sure answer, but they hinted at being interested in bringing me back next summer too, so I'm hoping it could lead to a real job after graduation."