Senioritis 3

Code Blue

Ned and Peter had been playing Knockout City for nearly three hours now, a huge bowl of popcorn between them both and two empty cans of beer hidden in Ned's bottom drawer.

It was a Saturday afternoon, and Peter had been studying for his Linear Algebra midterm before, but he needed a break. Li Mei had also helped him study at his shift this morning so he was feeling pretty confident about it.

"The other team has a bomb, dude...we're screwed." Ned said, tapping furiously on his controller with one hand while attempting to put some popcorn in his mouth.

"Ned, they're throwing more stuff, dodge it!" Peter exclaimed, equally as engrossed in the game.

"I'm trying." Ned said, tilting his head slightly and biting his lip. "And you're a shit partner, Peter - James and I would be on the next level by now."

Peter liked playing video games with Ned because it reminded him of old times. They'd bonded over the activity when they met in middle school. Ned would bring over new games to Peter's apartment back then, and they'd play all afternoon. May would make them lunch and provide them with snacks. They really had nothing to worry about.

Now they were in college. And midterms existed. And...relationships. And getting jobs, and being responsible and just trying to survive.

Peter was having dinner with Gwen's parents tonight and he was kind of nervous. He'd said hi to them on FaceTime when he was with Gwen the other day and they seemed nice. He just didn't want to embarrass himself or say anything stupid.

As for MJ...Peter hadn't spoken to her at all since the argument, but he was planning to apologize to her eventually. He'd taken some time to think about it, and he really didn't want to fight with her. It made his heart hurt to see her moving on with Miles but he still really cared about her, and cringed at the way he had acted last week.

He really only heard about her through Miles, who never failed to mention her in conversation at work. It was always incredibly amusing for Li Mei and excruciating for Peter. Apparently they'd recently watched a movie together in his room, and made out, and had a deep conversation, and MJ is so smart, and MJ is so funny, and they just really gel well together, you know?

Peter couldn't stand Miles but he'd never say that to MJ's face, obviously.

"Hell yeah, we made it!" Ned said now, throwing his remote down in triumph. "Next level, baby!"

There was a knock on the door and it opened. Brad stood there with his clipboard in hand as usual, swinging his ID tag around his neck.

"Hey guys." he said. "Whatcha doing?"

"Just video gaming." Ned said, putting some more popcorn is his mouth.

"Cool, cool." Brad said, looking around their room. "I'm just doing a mandatory random check for any alcohol...and it looks like I don't see any...so we're good. Thanks guys."

Brad was literally the g.o.a.t, because Peter and Ned knew full well that Brad knew he had a floor of a bunch of alcoholics. Apparently he'd walked in on Katie and her roomate like three times with empty bottles of gin just sitting there, but he didn't actually see any alcohol, so he didn't report it.

"Have you guys done the rest of your roomate agreement thingy?" Brad said, pushing the door open again with his foot.

"Yeah, we did." Peter said.

"Great." Brad replied, clicking his pen and sticking out his tongue as he scribbled something down on his sheet of paper. "Did you guys talk about what time you want your room to be quiet?"