Sweet as a Strawberry

13 ~ Sweet as a Cupcake

A/N: My apologies for the wait! I hope you like it :) CUTIEPIEAMY MADE ME LIKE TWELVE THOUSAND COVERS AND I LOVE THEM

Chapter 13: Sweet as a Cupcake

I stood outside the coed dorms, wondering if what I was doing was right. I was about to intervene in Ginny's love life, something she'd warned me to stay away from.

"Hey, Charlie, is it?" a girl in my English Lit class, Fiona, called. "What are you doing here?"

I smiled broadly, thankful to see a familiar face. "I'm just looking for Zach. Do you have any idea where he could be?"

"Well, I think his dorm number is twelve, I'm not sure if he's in though." Fiona looked at me worriedly. "Why do you need him, Charlie?"

I smiled. "I just need to pass on a message from Ginny."

"Oh. Okay. Well, be careful, alright? Zach's been drinking a lot lately, causing a freaking zoo in our dorm."

I nodded and waved goodbye. I knew Zach loved drinking, but was the reason for his overconsumption because of my best friend? I'd have to find out.

People stared at me as I walked through their dorm. I stayed in the girl's dorm at all times, but I'd been in the coed one before. It was a lot bigger, but smelt like men. Not even attractive men, like Ben, but like sweaty undergraduate men.

I knocked on the door marked 'twelve' and heard an unintelligible groan from the other side. "If that's you, Reina, go away!"

I winced. "It's not Reina," I said softly. "It's Charlie."

Ginny and Zach had 'dated' for the better part of a month, longer than I'd ever seen either of them before. Zach had come from my old high school and we were good friends, which was how he met Ginny. She and Zach didn't start dating until this month, though.

The door opened, revealing a shirtless Zach with week-old stubble and a disgruntled look on his face. "Why is it that you take forever between your visits to me?" he grumbled.

I smiled at him and pushed past into his room. The place was a mess - clothes everywhere, bed in disarray, bottles and pizza boxes cluttered on the desk. "Nice place," I commented.

Zach groaned again and slammed the door shut, shuffling over to stand next to me. Even though he smelt like he hadn't taken a shower in a couple of days, I hugged him. I had been so busy that I hadn't talked to him in couple of months, and I'd missed him. He was like a big brother to me.

His arms squeezed me gently and I saw his face light up. "Missed you, pest," he said.

I let go and patted his chest. "Missed you too, now go take a shower, you smell kind of like you've been sitting in a dumpster."

Zach never argued with me, because everything I told him to do was for his own good and he knew that. He grabbed some clothes from his closet before shuffling away. 

While he took his shower, I gathered up all the rubbish and threw it in a big, disposable bag. Then I took all his discarded clothes and dumped them into his empty laundry basket. I had to pinch my nose because the place smelt disgusting.

I took a bottle of air freshener from my bag, always fully prepared when it came to Zach. It seemed like every time I visited him, his room got more and more nasty. He was so lucky that he didn't have a roommate, otherwise the poor guy would've died from the stench.

When Zach entered, his dark hair dripping onto his blue shirt and looking refreshed, his carpet was somewhat visible. I smiled at him from where I sat on his still messy bed. "Hey, Cheesehead," I said. "I did a little cleaning, but you better do the rest, okay?"