An Irvine Christmas

CHAPTER 4-Nights at the Apartment

"I'm home Astrid!" I yelled as I walked through the door.
"Took you long enough! Oh...you brought your friends." She glared at me.
"Well you know we always go to someone's apartment after work and they were complaining that we never go to mine so here we are." I smirked at her and handed my friends a beer. I walked them into my room.
"Can we go to the roof?!?" Parker exclaimed as he saw the fire exit out my window.
"Sure y'all can head up I'm gonna see if Astrid and her friends wanna come."
"Ok meet you up there!"
"Yo Astrid we're headed up to the roof if you wanna bring your friends and hang out you can." Astrid looked annoyed at me with all of the band staring at there drinks and trying not to pay attention our little fight.
"Nah we're good, have fun!" She forced a smile as I turned around and headed up to the roof. Yea I should be sitting there talking and meeting her friends instead of hanging out with my "bad influence friends" but this is what I'm best at.
"Shouldn't you be meeting the people your going to be stuck with for two weeks?" Mac asked once I sat down in one of the lawn chairs we always keep up here.
"Yea I should be but I'll meet them tomorrow and I'll have time for the next two weeks to get to know them."
"Snowboarding by yourself doesn't sound like getting to know them." Parker stated. He was right but that's just how I am. I used to be excited to meet and spend time with new people but that has slowly disappeared through the years.
"Yeah, yeah, I know." I rolled my eyes and drank my beer. We talked for a long time none of us paying attention to time. Until we heard Parker's boyfriend screaming for him from my window.
"Parker it is way past normal time!" We all looked down at our watches to see it was 1:45. Parker started to freak out and ran to his boyfriend to say sorry 100 times like he always does. Everyone else slowly rose up out of there chairs and climbed back down and into my window.
"Bye Phoenix see you in two weeks!" Parker yelled as he was being dragged out of my apartment by his boyfriend. Everyone else said their goodbyes as they left the apartment. Until it was me and Zac left. I saw that Astrid's group was still here. Normally Zac would start making moves once everyone left but now he had a whole group of people watching him so he didn't.
"So uhh...Phoenix." He paused and looked at the group of people sitting in my living room talking.
"I was serious about the whole snowboarding group. Practice starts this week but since you will be away I can talk to the boys and you can try out the week you come back."
"Yea that sounds great!" I said
"Ok great I'll talk to the boys! There gonna be so excited!" Zac kept looking at the group of people. He really wanted to make a move but nobody really knows about Me and him except his brother because he caught us one night making out in Zac's room. He then told the rest of our group. But Astrid has no clue and if she did she would kill me and torcher Zac.
"Dumbass you didn't follow me home." Mac said as he walked back in and looked at his brother.
"Yea that was kinda the point I had to talk to Phoenix."
"Sure, let's go! See you Phoenix." He said with a wink as he dragged his brother after him. I shut the door and realized I had no more excuses to avoid Astrid and the group of people in my living room.
"Phoenix! Come here and meet everyone!" She hopped up excitedly. I turned around to see everyone's eyes on me.
"Everyone this is Phoenix my roommate and best friend." She gestured toward me. I did a little wave to the group. That's when someone started pounding on our door. I did a little half run half walk thing to get to the door. I didn't want to seem as excited as I was to not have to talk to the group of random people.
"Phoenix! Thank god your home!" It was Mrs.Peterson with a bat in hand ready to beat someone.
"What's wrong Mrs.Peterson?"
"I think someone stole my goldfish again!" She yelled. She scanned the hallway to look for anyone with a "stolen" goldfish.
"Come on Mrs.Peterson let's go look for your goldfish." I said as I moved her back to her apartment.
"I'll be back in a few!" I told the group of people staring at Mrs.Peterson like she was an insane person. I walked Mrs.Peterson back into her apartment and walked right to her fish bowl.
"Mrs.Peterson he's right here!" I told her as I pointed to her bright orange goldfish.
"Oh my god there he is! Thank you so much Phoenix you can always find him for me!"
"Mrs.Peterson I'm going away for two weeks so if you need any help go to apartment 1007. Ok! And ask for Zac or Mac they will help you with anything you need."
"Can you right all that down sweetheart?" She asked as she watched her goldfish swim around. I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote it down for her I stuck it right above her fish bowl so hopefully she will see it.
"I have to go now. Goodnight." I said as I walked out she didn't say anything, all she did was watch her fish. That's when I ran into someone in the hallway.
"That's the second time today!" The person exclaimed as they held me steady so I wouldn't fall.
"Yea sorry." I looked up to see it was the guy with the red hair and bandanna.
"Did you find the lady's goldfish?" He laughed. Wow his laugh was cute.
"Uhh Yeah I did." I laughed and looked down at the floor.
"You must be a good goldfish hunter." He laughed again. Why is his laugh so cute?
"It's kind of a daily job. So you know I've gotten pretty good at it." I winked and laughed at my joke.
"I bet you have. I guess I'll see you tomorrow goldfish hunter." He waved goodbye and followed his group of friends down the stairs.
"You sure will" I whispered to myself
"I heard that!" Astrid yelled as she sprinted back into the apartment knowing I was running after her to beat her ass. She sprinted into her room and locked her door. I gave up and decided to start packing for tomorrow.
"So you ready for the trip?" She questioned as she leaned against my doorway eating a croissant. I threw my pillow at her which almost made her drop her croissant.
"Stop! I could have dropped my croissant!" She squealed as she ran into her room. I pretend to run after her but stopped to get my pillow. I finished packing, took a shower, and hit the hay.