The Beautiful Game

Chapter One - Lou

    "If you don't get your ass up, I'm going to smother you to death."

    Ella, my roommate, stands at the foot of my bed. I drag my head up from the pillow on a groan and swipe my blonde hair out my face to survey her hazy form through my tired eyes. Her curvaceous hip is swung out to the side, her red manicured hands resting on either side, fingers tapping restlessly. Her perfectly waxed eyebrows are lifted, watching me expectantly. "You promised!" I bend my elbow to rest my head on my hand.

    "When and what did I promise?" She gives me a look that totally says, 'are you serious?'

    "Last weekend! Saturday night! I asked you about coming to the Frat party and you said yes."

    "I was drunk! You can't hold me hostage to anything I say after I've had pretty much a bottle of gin to myself!" Ella comes and plops herself on my bed, her sweet perfume washes over me.

    "Lou, I swear to Zeus, I will never talk to you again if you don't come to this party with me." I roll my eyes at her overreaction; I've heard that line before, Ella couldn't stay quiet even if her life depended on it.

    "What's so important about this party anyway?"

I glance over at my alarm clock and see that it's past 9pm. I'd gotten in from the library and crashed at about seven, I'd been working myself to the bone recently. Studying and working at the coffee house just off campus, evidence of how quick I'd fallen asleep came in the form of half an uneaten grilled cheese sat on the other side of the bed.

    "It's at Alpha Sig."

Before I can help it, my lips begin to pull into a grin. Of course. Alpha Sig was the fraternity that housed pretty much the University of Michigan's entire football team. One particular football player had Ella's interest. I was impressed, Ella hadn't been interested in just one guy since I'd known her. We'd been roommates for almost two years, in the whole duration, she's told me time and time again: 'college is full of boys Lou, I'm not settling for anything less than a man.' Ella spots my smile and swats at me; I duck and hide under my duvet.

"Do not laugh at me!"

    "I'm not laughing!" I'm lying, I'm definitely laughing, and she knows it, she starts laughing too.

    "Ok, you know what? I'm not embarrassed!" She looks into the mirror on my desk and fluffs her dark curls. "Yes, Marcus will be there. Yes, I like the thought of seeing him and maybe, just maybe, climbing him like a tree." I continue to laugh whilst I sit myself up against my headboard. "Also, let's face it. You have zero social life." I open my mouth to argue with her, but she's not finished. "Me and Kate do not count. Getting ridiculously drunk, eating Chinese, and crying over the Notebook for the hundredth time with your roommates doesn't count as a College social life."

    "Well forgive me for wanting to hang out with my best friends whenever I'm not working or studying." I pick at the scabbed burn on my hand, courtesy of the coffee machine at work. Ella halts my picking and puts her hand over mine.

    "Hey, that's not what I meant. You know I love you guys and I love being in our apartment more than anything. But, Lou, you've been working so hard and we're never going to get this time of our lives back. Once you're in Medical school you'll never get the chance to get fucked up and groped by some loser in a Frat house again!"

     "Ah yes, what a tragedy that would be."

     "Please Lou. Pleeeeasseee."

     "You can stop." I squeeze her hand and shimmy my butt out of the bed, standing and stretching my arms above my head on a groan. "I'll come if it'll stop you from babbling."