university ☼ hemmings [a.u]

Five ; I'm not that awful, am I?

Luke watched with narrowed eyes as Michael led the group out of the dorm room, drinks all in hand. Quinn glanced over her shoulder slightly, and Luke relaxed slightly, watching her quickly walk out.

He groaned and threw open the lid of the cooler, grabbing another drink and opening it. He leaned back on the wall beside Cherri and took a big gulp of it.

"Well, that was strange," Cherri noted, taking a sip of her drink as she stood awkwardly beside the frustrated boy.

"Very," Luke grumbled, slamming his half empty bottle on the counter. "I didn't know they were dating. Fuck."

"Do you know him?" Cherri asked, tilting her head to the side as she looked at Luke.

Luke froze up, staring down at the floor below him. His mind drifted to the early years of high school with his old friends.

He'd secretly admitted that he missed Michael and his crowd of old high school friends. Things seemed more carefree back then, not pressured about being popular or maintaining your ego.

Luke let out a breath and forced himself to shake his head no.

"Good. We don't need to be hanging around the emos. Why did James even invite them?" Cherri snorted and took a long gulp of her drink. "Anyway, I'm going to go check out the other rooms. Good luck with your problem!" The girl clumsily tossed her empty can into a trash bag and bent down to grab another out of the cooler.

As Luke watched her stumble off, he felt a twinge of guilt. He sighed and pushed his thoughts out of his mind. He picked up his beer bottle and drank the rest of it, tossing it into the trash. He grabbed another, firmly deciding that he needed to get his mind off of Quinn and Michael.

***

A few hours and a couple of drinks later, Luke stumbled into a dorm room where a few people were dancing to loud music. Luke grinned, immediately recognizing one of his favorite bands, Good Charlotte. He was a little surprised by this music choice, until he realized who was in this room. Quinn and her group of friends were dancing around with a bunch of other people that Luke didn't recognize.

He shrugged and slipped into a corner, and plopped down in a chair, knowing that nobody had noticed him come in.

He took a sip of his beer and sighed, realizing he was drunk. But, not as drunk as he usually was. He could still process and maintain a train of thought for.. wait, what was he thinking about?

Luke shrugged to himself and continued to watch Quinn dance around carelessly, as if nobody was watching. He chuckled softly to himself, finding it interesting how someone so unknown could care less about what people thought of her.

The song ended, and the group of people dancing stopped to catch their breath. Quinn laughed loudly and almost tripped to walk out of the group. She was breathing heavily and noticed the stranger sitting in the corner.

Instead of ignoring his existence, Quinn walked over to Luke with a goofy grin, which Luke found strange. He could tell that she was slightly drunk, because if she had been sober, there would be no way she would be walking over to him.

Luke leaned back in the chair he was sitting at and scrunched his eyebrows. "What are you doing in here?" Quinn asked when she got to him, a wide grin on her face. She was still breathing heavily, beads of sweat lining her brow.
"I could ask you the same thing," Luke shot back without thinking. Quinn closed her
mouth into a tight frown and rolled her eyes.