The Only Constant Is Change

I'll Pay You in Hugs

'How did froyo go? Plz tell me there even WAS a froyo meet up??' Lauren's text reads. You smirk. How did froyo go? Froyo went pretty damn well…

"Why are you smirking to yourself? Should I be afraid?" Nathan asks, glancing back and forth from you to the road as he drives towards your house.

"My friend was just asking how froyo with you went, I guess she saw the tweets."

He smiles, glancing over at you again, "So how did it go?"

"Oh, it went well I guess," you reply nonchalantly, " I mean, I only invited some creepy guy I just met the other day over for dinner… no big deal."

"Hey, watch it. I'm only coming over because you promised me food." he declares, turning into your street.

"In that case," you retort, "It went terribly, and I'm really secretly wishing you were Ryan Lochte."

"Hey, that was mean! I'd tell you to get out and walk home, but my gps is telling me we're already at your house." he laughs, pulling up into your driveway. He turns the car off, pulling the keys from the ignition and sliding them into his pocket. You reach for the door handle to let yourself out, but he stops you, yelling "WAIT!"

He gets out, hurrying over to your side of the car and opening the door for you.

"Two manly moments in one day… I think I'm doing preeetty well so far," he chuckles, helping you down from his SUV.

"Yeah, if you keep it up Nathan, you might just beat Lochte on the manly scale." you wink at him, making your way up your driveway.

"Ouch, burned."

---

"I'm hooooooome." you yell into the hallway as you kick off your flipflops next to the door.

"We're in the kitchen, bitch!" comes the snarky reply of one of your roommates, Cassidy. You grab Nathan's hand, tugging him down the hallway and into the large kitchen.

Seated at the large glass table is a your other roommate, Ian, a tall, lanky business major with an effortlessly messy head of light brown hair and green eyes. As you and Nathan enter the kitchen, he looks up from his bowl of cereal and nods in your direction. He pauses as he spots Nathan behind you, nodding again, "Oh, Nathan, hey. I haven't seen you in a while. Congrats on the olympics."

"Haha thanks man. How's it going?" Nathan nods back.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Ian, you know him? And Allegra, what the hell is Nathan Adrian doing in our house?" Cassidy interjects, her lithe form emerging gracefully into view from behind the fridge, holding a bowl of salad.

Ian laughs, taking in Cassidy's look of utter surprise, "I'm on the water polo team, Cass. Think it's inevitable that we run into each other from time to time since we use the same pool…"

"Yeah, but… Allie, what?!" Cassidy gawks, head tilted in confusion. She's standing in the middle of the kitchen, looking scandalized that you hadn't informed her that you'd be bringing home an Olympic athlete for dinner.

"Don't worry about it Cass. Just a friend." you shrug, going to the fridge and pulling out the container of pasta salad you had prepped that morning.

Snapping out of her dazed trance, Cassidy shakes her head of loosely-curled brown hair, glancing one last time at Nathan before shrugging, "Okay. I'm having a few people over later though, just a heads up."

"Yeah, sure." you mumble, pulling out beer and wine from the fridge.

"A few? Last time you said that you had like 40 people 'over' and they destroyed the house." Ian groans, "Whatever though, I'm going to Hannah's later… don't expect me home."