austin's & co.

chapter o n e

"wake up!" i screamed at alex for what felt like the hundredth time. it was the first day of school, the first day of our senior year. alex seemed unfazed by this as she ignored me (again) and continued to snooze. needless to say, she wasn't a morning person.

glaring at the back of alex's head, i grabbed her covers, got a good grip, and started walking out the door, taking her blanket with me. i dropped them on the floor outside her room and didn't shut the door. if she still didn't get up, i'd be back with a bucket of cold water.

i found myself headed downstairs towards the kitchen. the first thing i saw when i rounded the corner at the bottom of the steps was xander, who ran right into me. i toppled backwards, falling on my butt. xander busted out laughing as i started blushing, but held his hand out to help me up nonetheless. i grabbed his hand and he helped pull me up, a small smile still on his lips.

"i was on my way up there to get y'all up. i made pancakes since it's the first day of school and all." he informed me as i took a step back, this time not falling over. as he spoke, i noticed his bedhead, his red hair sticking in all kinds of directions. it was adorable. he was wearing a light green shirt and some grey sweatpants, what he usually wore to bed. xander's blue eyes looked at me questioningly and i realized that he'd finished speaking and i was just staring at him.

"oh, um, yeah, thanks, thank you. uh, i tried to wake alex up, but you know how she is." i said quietly, trying to stop my face from turning the color of xander's hair. he nodded and smiled a little.

"i know. i'll go get zelda on her. would you wake jessen up? tell him i made pancakes." he said before he called zelda, his dog, and they both ran upstairs, zelda barking loudly. i swear, xander was 25, but that dog was his best friend. zelda brought out the kid inside of xander. i laughed as i heard alex groan and headed around the corner to jessen's room.

without knocking, i opened the door to jessen's room, saying, "jessen, xander made panca—" when i opened the door, jessen was standing up, only in a towel loosely wrapped around his waist. i could see his cute, flat stomach. he looked up and me and i could practically feel myself turning red. "um, well, uh, there's food downstairs when you're, um, dressed." i told him before quickly backing up and shutting the door.

i leaned against the wall outside his door, letting out a breath. i could still picture jessen's wet black hair and his dark green/hazel eyes that seemed amused even when he wasn't smiling as i hurried towards the kitchen.

the smell of freshly cooked pancakes hit my nose and i basically ran towards the fragrance. i registered in the back of my mind eli sitting at the table and laughing at me as i attacked the pancakes, but i didn't really care.

eli was my favorite out of all the people here. him and i were constantly making fun of each other, but he was easier for me to talk to than the others. maybe it was because he was the closest to my age, being only 20. of course, i still got uncomfortable sometimes, but it was better than me saying "um" or "uh" every other word or blushing everytime i saw him. that's how it went with me and all of the other guys, no matter how hard i tried to stay chill.

eli had a head of bright red hair, just like xander, but we all suspected eli's hair would disappear in the next few years. his hairline was already receding and it wouldn't be long before he was bald. until then, he was still attractive. he had blue eyes, like xander, but he was skinnier than him, with more freckles littered across his face, chest, and arms. xander had a small beer gut that he was trying to work off of him. eli didn't, he just had a flat stomach. currently, eli was trying to grow his hair out, since apparently that's the style now — guys growing their hair out like girls. i kind of liked it on eli though.