𝐑𝐞𝐝 𝐑𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞

R E E D

"Don't be a poor winner." He mimics me, sticking his own tongue out.

"Dude, your tongue is so long," I say, turning his chin to the side so that I can see his side profile.

"You know what's at the top of the list of things I don't want to talk about? The length of Xander's tongue." Farris drawls and I shrug.

"Fair enough. Yours is no competi—" I'm cut off before I can finish my sentence with Farris's arms wrapping around me, dragging me towards him, pinning me down so that my upper body is in his lap with my legs knocking into Xander's, and his hands digging into my ticklish sides all in one smooth motion.

I cackle and squirm, thrashing to get him to stop but too breathless to speak the words. "My sides...hurt...so bad." Tears escape my eyes and I manage to glare at him, still giggling and squirming to get away. Finally, I manage to buck enough to slide myself onto the ground, not at all gracefully and landing hard enough on my tailbone that the noise echoes in the room.

"Fuck. Reed. You okay?" Farris asks, serious enough to call me by my name, sliding onto his knees behind my back so that I can lean against him. My hands push into the floor to take some of the weight off and I groan.

"Help me stand up, this position sucks." I reach a hand behind me and use his strength to pull me up; Xander's already standing and facing me with his arms out. "I'm fine. Just wishing I did more squats." I huff out a laugh, sending appreciative glances to them both and walking around the room, the pain dulling slowly. "Yeah, I'm good. False alarm." I grimace and slowly reclaim my seat on the couch with nothing but a slight twinge of pain.

The guys are hesitant to let it go, but eventually, they sit and do their best to distract me. "Got any plans tonight?" Xander asks, handing me back my controller after I'd dropped it but I wave him off.

"The usual. A frat party." I say and he purses his lips.

"With Charlotte?"

"No, with Soap MacTavish." I give him a look, rolling my eyes. Xander likes to pretend that Charlie's fascination with him is one-sided, but he brings her into conversation almost as much as I do, and she's my closest girl friend.

"You sure you're okay?" Farris asks, obviously still concerned.

"Thank you for your concern with my ass, but it will live. Promise." I laugh, biting my lips and he just rolls his eyes.

"Thank god, or we wouldn't have any reason to have you over anymore." He drawls and I smack his controller out of his hand. Xander kills him with a slide shot and I cringe at the replay.

"Cheekiness gets you killed," I say matter of factly, nodding. 

Slowly, my eyes start to droop from the excitement and I lay across Farris's lap, stretching my legs out across Xander's and curling up on my side, back to the tv. "I'm gonna nap."

"Yeah, we got that." Xander laughs, resting his hands on my calves. "Shit, you're still freezing." He says and reaches over with his monkey arms to grab a blanket and drape it over me. I blink up at Farris and smile with my eyes closed, my hand resting on his thigh and using him as a pillow.

"Night, Fare," I say as a hand removes my glasses and brushes my still-damp hair off my face, and tucks it behind my ear, the soft touch making me hum contentedly.

"Night, Buttercup."

"I'm not wearing that," I say firmly, sending Charlie an unamused glance. She's entirely unaffected by my look and continues to push her selection at me, used to getting her way.

"Sure you aren't." She says nonchalantly, but her mischievous green eyes say otherwise; rolling my own, I snatch the hanger from her grasp and throw it on the bed, stripping down to my underwear to put it on and wincing at the pain in my tailbone. I remember when we were first assigned as roommates and the idea of getting undressed in front of anyone, especially Charlotte Alexander the British soccer prodigy, was terrifying. But now she's Charlie to me, and though she's no less perfect on the outside, I know that she's not the Charlotte that everyone thinks she is.

"This shirt is missing some stuff," I tell her, looking in the mirror at the black shirt with a neckline that cuts from my left shoulder to underneath my right arm, baring my collarbones and arm. Not to mention the fact that it's ridiculously tight against my larger chest and cuts off two inches beneath, baring my entire stomach.

"And that's why you have high-waisted jeans. One arm isn't scandalous, Reed." She bares a small, encouraging smile and my shoulders drop from their tensed position.

"Alright fine, but I'll wear my own."

"You're not even that much taller than me." She says, changing into her own outfit for wherever we're ending up tonight. Charlie has a habit of being invited to every imaginable party thrown on or off-campus, and dragging me along with her. "Hey! I see that face you're making. You agreed to tell me if I push too far. You know that I don't care if you show up in your teddy bear pj's right? We can stay. Let's stay." She rambles, shrugging out of the tight, short blue skirt she just slipped into, leaving her with just a loose white t-shirt.

"No. No, that's not it. We're going. Pajama party tomorrow for sure though." I grin at her and she narrows her eyes, looking for a hint of a lie. Charlie seems like a party animal because she thrives on being around more people rather than less, but if I ever need a night in, she doesn't hesitate to compromise, unlike me who puts up a fuss every time she wants to go out. "It's going to be fun. Put your clothes back on." I struggle to slip into the tight, light-wash jeans that haven't been worn since last year.

"Holy shit, your ass looks amazing in those." She says and I laugh, turning around to look in the mirror and raising my eyebrows.

"I feel like I'm going to rip the seams, they're so tight." I groan, slipping a black belt with a big silver buckle through the loops. "I'm kind of scared to see what that skirt looks like in the back." I joke and Charlie rolls her eyes, doing a slow, teasing spin for me. We both burst into a fit of giggles.

"I know, it's so short, but you know how hard it is to find anything cute that fits properly." She groans, looking at the very short hem of her skirt.

"What if we cut the front. Like a little slit on your thigh. It would make it a little looser." I suggest and her eyes light up.

"Yes. Let's do it." She grabs scissors and hesitates for a second before making the tiniest cut. Tilting her head, she lengthens it a bit and looks up at me for my opinion.

"That looks really cute," I say honestly and she sighs with a smile.

"Okay good, I think so too. Almost ready?" She asks and I nod. I'd already straightened my hair and Charlie left hers in the high ponytail that it was in earlier, pieces of blonde hair falling out but somehow managing to still look put together.

"I hate you and your hair," I grumble as we sit down to slip on our sneakers.

"You love me and my hair."