Lola
“Babe!” Alex is tackled by a tall boy with bright red hair, who seems extremely excited to see her. I mentally ‘aw’ but remain standing quietly behind them.
Soon enough, they pull apart and the boy immediately stands in front of me. “Who’s this?” His voice is timid, his stare intimidating.
I feel like shrinking back into the wall behind me, but I hold out my hand like a forty year old business woman and clear my throat.
“Lola.” I need to take classes on how to be a normal human being, forget English and Psychology.
Alex interrupts from behind her boyfriend, “This is my new roommate. She’s silent, but deadly.”
Before I can interject or remove myself from this situation, Alex’s boyfriend grabs my hand and pulls me into him. He gives me one extremely long hug, before pulling back slightly and looking down at me. Through his lengthy eyelashes, his vivid green eyes study my face before he smiles. “I’m Michael. Pleasure to meet you, Miss Lola.”
His accent is different from anything I’ve ever heard but then again, I haven’t spoken with many Australians before.
He kicks the door behind him with his foot, and it opens to reveal room similar to ours with two teenage boys hanging off of the furniture.
Their heads twist in my direction and a tanned boy with dark hair – a streak of blonde running through it – jumps to his feet. “Calum,” he mumbles, approaching me. He looks to Michael questioningly, and Michael puts a hand on my shoulder. “This is Lola, she is Alex’s new roommate.”
The boy that had been sitting next to Calum appears beside him, his hair a mess of curls and his smile wide. “How come you got a roommate?”
Alex shrugs, “I guess they sorted the rooming situation out.”
She must notice my confused gaze because she turns to me and chuckles. “Last year – our first year here – I didn’t have a roommate for the entire year. There was a problem with the number of rooms and the number of girls, so…”
I nod, “Oh, so I’m your first roommate?” It makes me feel a little better that I’m not the only one that isn’t used to having to share a bedroom.
She grins, “Yeah!”
The boy with the curly hair reaches his hand out to me and his smile gets even wider – if that’s possible. “I’m Ashton, it’s nice to meet you Lola. It’s so cool to have another person in our little group,” he makes a fist and waves it about in the air and everyone laughs.
“Finally another girl,” Alex adds. She pauses for a second, turning to look at me and then inspecting each of the guys. “Where’s Hemmings?”
Calum chews on his lip. “Uh, when I left I saw Josh walking towards our room so… I think he’s, uh” he glances at me briefly, “You know.”
Gay? Is the first thing that comes to mind but I don’t voice it because I’m not sure I want to offend anyone just yet.
Everyone in the room seems to shift uncomfortably and share anxious glances.
Just as I’m about to make up some bullshit excuse so that I can get out of the tension in this room, the door opens and yet another boy walks in.
Calum clears his throat and Ashton’s eyes widen – I’m guessing this is the ‘Hemmings’ they were talking about just now.
A boy with a blonde quiff of at least three inches walks straight past us all and falls back onto one of the beds in the room. His bright blue eyes travel around the room until they stop on me, and he cocks his head to one side. “Who’s this?”
I have to get used to this introduction thing. “I’m Lola, Alex’s roommate.”
“Hmmph,” he hums and falls backwards again.
Michael rolls his eyes, “That’s Luke – he’s Calum’s roommate,” he moves closer to me and lowers his voice, “Take no notice of him.”
“Shit,” Luke jumps to his feet and moves so quickly that before I can blink I’ve been knocked to the floor as he runs out the door.
Alex sighs before holding out a hand to help me up. “I’m sorry about him – he’s a cool guy when he’s not… when you get to know him.”
Everyone’s shady behaviour around this ‘Luke’ guy makes me think something is going on, but I’m new to the group so I guess I’ll have to wait to figure that one out.
Ashton breaks the silence, turning to me. “The group’s meeting tonight at Dave’s, you should come. I gotta get going but, I’ll see you later?”
I nod, “Sure.”
Alex gives Michael a kiss on the cheek before she grabs my arm and pulls me out the door after Ashton, dragging me in the direction of our room.
A question pops into my head, “What’s Dave’s?”
Alex chuckles and shakes her head, “You’ll see.”
hiiiii yes thanks for reading if u are reading this is v boring but it gets better, promise :-----)
