echo | wyatt oleff

Chapter 1

"We're finally free"

***

"Dad, is that everything?" I asked as I walked back down the stairs of my new home.

"Yeah, I think so." My dad smiled softly at me as we approached his car. "Be safe, Echo."

"Oh honey, we're going to miss you." My mom turned around from rummaging around in the car boot, and swung her arms around me, embracing me in a tight hug. After a few seconds, she pulled back and gave me a kiss on the forehead, her eyes filling up with tears. Today, I was moving into my dorm, it was my first year of college. Luckily, my friends from back home and I all managed to get an apartment together; we were all living on the same floor, with our own bathrooms and a shared kitchen. For some reason, we were the last floor to move into the building, everyone else had already settled a couple of days before. After a small chat with my parents, they climbed in the car and waved a goodbye before setting off back home, a few hours away.

"Echo, come on!" I heard Millie shout behind me, and I turned around to see her standing in the entrance of our building, bursting with excitement. "We need to decorate our rooms and unpack!"

"I'm coming, Millie." I smiled, walking through the entrance behind her. In our building, there were four floors, we were on the second. We hadn't met or seen anyone else that was staying in the building yet, I was curious as to what they were like. The two of us made it up the stairs to our apartment; it was basically a long hallway, with six doors, one of them being the entrance to the kitchen. Thank god we didn't have to share a toilet. I walked into my room and propped the door open with one of my many bags, and began to unpack.

"Cheer up Echo!" I heard a voice behind me, and turned around to see Sophia grinning. "Aren't you excited? We're finally free, we can do whatever the fuck we want, when we want."

"I am excited, Sophia." I replied, smiling and continuing with my unpacking. "It's just all so new, I don't think I'd be able to do this if I wasn't with you guys... you know what I'm like with people." I sighed, and Sophia gave me a warm smile and a hug. I had always struggled, since I was younger, with socialising. I was just naturally an introvert, I'd rather be alone than with a group of people. I think some anxiety came into play with that, but overall I was just a quiet girl, I kept to myself. I could be pretty shy too.

"I wonder where our first party will be." Millie said, while putting away the things she had bought for the kitchen. Sophia and Millie had been raving on about the parties we would be throwing and going to, they couldn't wait. I didn't mind parties, I did like a drink or two.

"I'm so excited, they're gonna be crazy!" Sophia said. Her and Millie were the loudest and most outspoken of the group, I'm pretty sure both below and above could hear them two talking.

"I'm looking forward to meeting everyone else who lives in this building." Sadie said, sitting herself down on the couch, and I nodded in agreement.

"Me too, I'm surprised we haven't bumped into anyone yet." I replied. Just as I said that, we all jumped at the sound of a knock on our apartment door.

"I'll get it!" Millie practically screamed, jumping up and sprinting to the door, Sophia close behind her. I chuckled to myself and headed to the door too, along with Sadie, to see who it was.

"Hey, we heard you guys below us, did you just move in?" I heard a guy say, and stood on my tip toes to see above Millie's shoulder. There were two guys stood in our doorway; one was tall and skinny, with kind of long, curly black hair and pale skin covered in freckles. The other stood next to him was slightly shorter, with tanned skin and brown hair, also kind of curly. The both of them weren't half bad to look at if I'm honest.

"Hey, yeah... we moved in today. Do you live upstairs?" Millie answered him, I could tell she was trying to hold in her excitement.

"Yeah, I'm Finn, this is Jack." He said, gesturing to the guy next to him, who flashed a smile. "There's a few more of us upstairs."

"Oh cool, nice to meet you. I'm Millie, this is Sophia and Sadie." Millie began, pointing as she introduced. "And that's Echo." I gave them a small smile, making quick eye contact with Finn, before I looked away, a small rush of anxiety waving over my body.

"Cool, nice to meet you guys! We're having a party tonight, you guys are more than welcome to come." Finn smirked, and I caught him looking Millie up and down.

"What time? We'll be there." Sophia reassured them.

"As soon as you hear music, come and knock, it's begun." Jack said, as the two of them turned and began to walk to the stairs. "Oh, and bring your own alcohol!"

***