The Homecoming Benefactor

2 | the bin

"Where's the bin?" Timmy asked Araceli to give him directions before leading Bryce into the house. When they returned, they had the bin lifted over their heads, and I could see how muscular Bryce's arms were. If my secret admirer was real, I sure hoped it was him.

"After we take this to my dorm, should we go grab dinner?" I asked this in hopes that Bryce would tag along.

"Yeah, sure," Araceli replied. "Waffle House?"

"Waffle House sounds great," Bryce said.

Bryce was coming with us. I had to mentally prepare myself to not fall completely head over heels for him right away.

"Heck yeah, I'm texting the group chat," Timmy exclaimed, taking out his phone.

The group chat was the six of us from math class: myself, Araceli, Timmy, Nick, Devi, and another girl named Martha (we called her Mattie). Everyone said they could come to Waffle House, so we had a party of seven, They were going to hate us.

Araceli and I got into the back of Timmy's truck and headed to the dorm. As Timmy and Bryce unloaded the bin out of the truck bed, I decided to introduce myself.

"I'm Francie, by the way," I said awkwardly. "Short for Frances. It's not really short, I guess, but it's my nickname."

Why am I like this?

"Well it's nice to meet you, Francie-short-for-Frances," Bryce replied. "Bryce isn't short for anything."

I smiled, realizing he had found humor in my gaffe. As he laughed, I noticed that he had dimples, and I made a mental note. I'm not normally the type to instantly have a crush on someone, but something was different about Bryce. Something was almost too perfect.

"So, what is this box for?" Bryce had no pain or strain in his voice as he carried the box into Hayes Hall's back door. "A party?"

I laughed and shook my head. "I'm the homecoming chair for Eta Pi. This is all the stuff we need for the competition."

A lump formed in my throat when I realized what I had said. How was he supposed to respond to that when his frat refused to work with us for the competition? I had just made things really awkward.

"Nick just texted me and said he wants to ride with us to Waffle House," Timmy said. "He's meeting us outside Hayes in a few minutes."

I was glad that Timmy broke the awkwardness with that, but I also felt like it would be even more awkward to fit five people in Timmy's truck. His Ranger was on the smaller side and barely fit four with all of the random stuff he had thrown around in there. Five was going to be a nightmare. Luckily, Waffle House was only a five minute drive from campus.

After setting the bin down in my room, we all headed back downstairs to meet Nick. When we saw him on the sidewalk, Bryce made a face like they had met before, but neither of them said anything.

"This is Bryce," Timmy said, introducing him to Nick. "He's working with me on that psych project I was telling you about."

"Oh, I know," Nick mumbled, crossing his arms.

"Nick, you're being weird," Araceli scoffed, pretending to punch him in the shoulder. "Let's go eat already!"

We all piled up in the Ranger, barely able to close the door. Timmy and Bryce sat in the front, while I sat in the back between Araceli and Nick. I don't know how I ended up stuck with the middle seat.

"You can't make me ride like this on the way home," I cried. "I call dibs on the front seat."

"You act like I have cooties or something," Nick jested, rolling his eyes. "I'll take the middle on the way back."