RUSH

Ch. 27: Sidetrack

"You're still parked," Eric retorted while roughly tousling my hair, which earned him a harsh pinch on the torso.

Eric let go with a yelp, grumbling under his breath while rubbing at his side. "You giant bully..." He was going to try something again, but then a couple walked past my car, both frowning at us. Eric had the decency to look somewhat embarrassed, even if he did try to fight me again.

I turned on the car and pulled out of the parking space before he could try to force me into another headlock, rolling my eyes when he opted for changing the playlist on his phone, which was boldly connected as the primary device to my car's Bluetooth. "You got a phone upgrade out of it, didn't you?" I reminded my friend, trying to suppress a laugh.

Eric rolled his eyes. "That's because your parents adore me. As they should."

I rolled my eyes, though he wasn't necessarily wrong. They always gladly invited him to all of our gatherings, and they even encouraged him to tag along on our family trips, covering his expenses like he was one of their own. Which, that did remind me... "Mom asked if you're sure about not joining us this weekend."

Eric sulked a bit at the reminder, shaking his head. "I wish... I need to stay on campus to meet up for a group project, though," he lamented, shaking his head in annoyance. "I hate teamwork. We had all semester to work on this, but they kept procrastinating on their parts until the professor declared there'd be no extensions. And now, five weeks after the fact, I have to babysit a bunch of idiots or they might not get it done by the due date."

I nodded my head, understanding too well how stressful it could be to work with others. At least when they were lazy. Typically, I didn't have any issues intimidating others into getting their share of the group projects done, though. "Did you tell the professor?"

"I ain't no snitch," Eric retorted, though he did seem to at least consider it. "I do plan to hunt them down all over campus if we don't have it completed by Sunday, though."

I chuckled while slowly halting for a red light, suddenly frowning when I realized we hadn't eaten yet and it was getting pretty late. "Are we eating on campus or should I stop somewhere beforehand?" I asked while pointing towards the nearby burger joint.

Eric sighed. "Campus is fine. But can we go get Ricky first?"

I nodded in agreement, glancing back before signaling right, shifting lanes just in time to turn towards Ricky's apartment complex, which was thankfully nearby. "Does he know you're coming to kidnap him?"

Eric just nodded while texting away on his phone. Then, he let out a loud, dramatic sigh while turning to look at me. "Bro, Bennett totally made that up," he abruptly stated, as if we hadn't already changed topics about five minutes prior. "But that doesn't mean all hope is lost."

I huffed. "Shut up."

"To be fair, I didn't see him on his phone at all yesterday, so maybe he's being forreal," Eric debated with himself, suddenly narrowing his eyes as he realized something. "Wait! How the hell am I going to text him about the party, then?"

"Can we just... not talk about this right now?" I asked through gritted teeth, wishing to just take Bennett at face value. There was no way that overthinking about this would help. And besides, I didn't like the idea of distrusting Bennett, especially when I had no real reason to.

"Why?"

"You're giving me a headache."

"Hey, jerk." Eric poked me, scoffing once more when I didn't pay him any attention. "Why are you mad at me again?"