The Freshman

Chapter Two - Rooftop Games

Emily's POV

"Chris? You're my roommate?" I asked.

"That's why I recognized the name Emily! Nice to see you again... roomie!" Chris exclaimed.

"Yeah... great to see you too."

"So... what about this roof, huh? You can see the whole town from up here..."

"Yeah! So beautiful..."

"'Beautiful'? I can only assume you're talking about me," a guy said.

"I wasn't -"

"I'm just messing with you. I know, I know, I can come on a bit strong. The name's Zack, but you can call me your number one fan cause you are straight-up crushing that look."

"Nice to meet you, it sounds like you know fashion!"

"Well, one of my ex-boyfriends was a model, so... kind of?"

"I'd say that makes you our resident fashion expert."

"Please promise me that means we can go shopping together sometime."

"Ahhh! Only if I get to come too!" our other girl roommate exclaimed.

"Sounds like fun," I said.

"I feel like we're still missing someone..." Abbie said.

"There he is!" Chris exclaimed.

At the far end of the roof, I spotted a guy sitting by himself, looking out at the stars. "Tyler! Enough with the shy nerd act! Get over here and talk to our new roommate!" Zack exclaimed.

"Oh... hey there. I was just trying to see if I could spot Cassiopeia," Tyler said. "The constellations are just a little different here than back home in California."

"You're into stargazing? I used to do that all the time when I was little," Abbie said.

"Oh really?"

"Emily, sidebar," Zack said. Zack pulled me aside. "Okay, just to fill you in, my boy Tyler has a massive insta-crush on Abbie. And I'm making it my mission in life to get those two crazy kids together. Are you with me?"

"You want me to play matchmaker with you? Consider this match MADE!" I exclaimed.

"Glad to have you on board. Let's get started."

As we headed back to the group, Zack pretended to trip, and accidentally pushed Abbie into Tyler. "Tyler! I'm so sorry, I... er... thanks for catching me," Abbie said.

"Any time! Uh... I mean... any time you fall into me! Not... any other time!" Tyler exclaimed.

"This could take a while," Zack said.

"So... what now?" Chris asked.

"I think this is supposed to be a party, right?" I asked.

"Maybe we could start with some drinks?"

"Uh, Emily, I've got a bottle of wine down in my room. Want to help me go get it?" my other girl roommate asked.

"Do we really need two people to grab a bottle of -"

"Just come on! Okay. Confess. You're into Chris, aren't you?"

"What? Me and Chris?" I asked.

"I'm just trying to warn you... I'm pretty sure he mentioned something about a girlfriend."

"What? You mean Becca?"

"That bossy sorority girl we ran into at Welcome Week?"

"Yeah. When we first met, she was, like, Exorcist-level possessive of him."