Rochester Avenue // Luke Hemmings

Chapter 1 - 'You're A Nerd. Who Knew?'

Bleep. Bleep. Bleep.

With my eyes closed, I reached out and felt around my bedside table for my alarm clock and only succeeded in knocking the stupid, bleeping thing onto the floor. I groaned and blearily opened my eyes, finally managing to turn the horrible sound off before picking the clock up and placing it back on the table. With that I turned back over and closed my eyes, preparing to go back to sleep.

"Oh, no you don't." A heavy weight suddenly collapsed on top of me, and I grunted in annoyance. "Come on Noelle, it's time to get up."

"Don't want to."

"No one does, so suck it up and get up." My roommate Jess's weight vanished and I opened my eyes to see her rummaging through my wardrobe. "You know this happens every morning. Your annoying-ass alarm wakes us both up, you refuse to get up, I proceed to jump on you and then I choose an outfit for you."

"That's because I'm terrible at choosing what to wear," I mumbled, slowly pushing the duvet off me.

"No, it's because you're too lazy and also because I'm the best roommate in the world." Jess chucked my ripped jeans, a plain black tank top and a long grey cardigan in my direction, and then continued to put on herself a casual dress and jacket.

"Yeah, sure." I eventually stood up and dressed myself before going into the bathroom to slap on some makeup so I looked somewhat decent.

Once we resembled actual human beings, Jess and I headed down to breakfast where I helped myself to eggs, bacon, sausages, the lot, while Jess stuck to a healthy breakfast of scrambled eggs on brown toast. Jess was sort of a health guru – she went running every other evening and only ever ate healthy meals, while I exercised maybe once a week, or once every two weeks and just couldn't resist the temptation of unhealthy foods. She often tried to drag me to the gym but usually I would pretend to exercise rather than actually exercising.

Tristan, Jess's boyfriend, and Nathan, my boyfriend, soon joined us for breakfast. Nathan kissed me on the cheek quickly, muttering a "morning".

"You look happy," I observed a little sarcastically as he sat down next to me with his breakfast.

He rubbed his eyes. "Professor Allen has been up my ass all week about this stupid project, and the deadline was today."

"And you haven't finished it?" I guessed.

"Hell no. I'll just write some stuff down and hope it's okay. It's not due until the afternoon, so I have some time."

Jess opened her mouth to say something, but Nathan interrupted her. "I know what you're going to say. I should have done it the night he set it and got it done, but I'm just not that kind of person."

Jess merely raised her eyebrows and carried on eating.

"What's on for you today?" Nathan asked me, changing the subject.

I shrugged. "I've got one lecture this morning, then my music group thing in the evening."

"You're still doing that?" Nathan said disbelievingly, and I frowned at him.

"Of course. And I enjoy it. It's the one thing I look forward to – except for getting drunk at the weekends."

"You know, lots of alcohol really isn't good for you," Jess interjected, and I rolled my eyes.

"I don't drink lots. I don't drink in the week at all, unless I've had a really crappy day. You should be thankful. I could be like that dude who turns up to lectures drunk."