Moving day
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Pulling along my two suitcases, carry-on and pillow I lazily stumble through the airport. I had flown from Sydney to Washington State and had the pleasure of experiencing a top of 2 hours of sleep.
After completing high school in Australia I decided to follow in my older brothers footsteps and apply for Washington State University. My parents weren't the strictest, they want us to follow what we love- for my brother that was sport and for me, it was design.
I missed my brother- Noah. It's been three or so years since I've seen him. He's currently starting his senior year and finally, I caught up to the whole 'college' part of my life. I didn't want to attend university in Australia, I remember Noah's passion for moving to America, joining a fraternity and attending WSU and his fascination of that convinced me as a young kid that I wanted to follow his footsteps. Well, expect the fraternity part.
I loved my brother, and if he thought college would be amazing for him and I, then I of course believed him.
Now finally, after 3-4 long years I'm finally seeing my brother again.
I pull out my phone and send Noah a text.
Me:
Hey, just landed. Where tf are you !!
I locked my phone and looked around the terminal.
Noah:
Watch out
I widen my eyes at the text and almost fall over when a body collided with me and squeezed me into a hug.
"Hey little duck." Noah greets me, his voice sounded so different. He appeared to have lost most of his Australian accent. Me, being overwhelmed with emotions, hug him back and burst into tears.
"Hi dorkface." I say with tears in my eyes.
Noah pulls me out of a hug and stands in front of me. I drop my bags as he holds onto my shoulders, staring at me.
"Oh my gosh! Look at you! Who are you and what have you done with Ariana." He gasps, tucking some of my brown hair behind my ear. He pinches my cheek and I quickly slap his hand away, I try and show annoyance at him but a small smile creeps onto my face. I quickly wipe my tears away and look up and my big brother.
"You've grown so much! I'm gonna have to make sure no one dares to put a finger on my beautiful little sister." He brings me into another hug.
"Hey no way, I can take care of myself. I'm not little anymore." I pout and fold my arms, a long wavy piece of my hair falls into my face and I attempt to blow it away- obviously not succeeding.
"You'll always be my little duck." He pokes my cheek and takes my pink fluffy scrunchie from my wrist, stands behind me and uses it to tie my hair in a low ponytail.
"I could've done that." I frown.
"I've missed you so much. I'm so excited to see you again." He ignores my previous remark and smiles at me.
"Me too. You don't understand how many nights I cried in my room with a bottle of wine as I looked through photos of us." I chuckle as he helps me with my suitcases.
"Why are you drinking!" He snaps.
"Because I'm 18 and if you forgot I can legally drink at 18 back home..." I snort at him.
"Oh. Right." He chuckles. We walk to where he parked and he puts my bags in the car.
Noah gets in the car and begins to drive.
"So where abouts am I going to stay?" I ask him, breaking the silence after driving for about 20 minutes in the darkness.
"In a room..." He chuckles nervously.
"What Noah..." I question. I can tell that he's hiding something.
"Well, uh. I haven't been completely honest with you Ari." He taps on the wheel of his car.
"Noah..." I groan, letting my head fall back into the car seat as I close my eyes.
"Well- first of all it's not a little house, it's- uh... a really really big house..." He begins, okay... that's not too bad.
"And, well. There's like, give or take, twenty to forty guys living there." He cringes and moves closer to the door. Oh fuck. Spoke too soon.
"What!" I scream. Who is he kidding? Protective brother my ass! He makes his younger sister- who also happens to be a freshmen- live in a house with 20 to 40 guys. Nineteen to twenty-two year olds. Some almost 4 years older than me. Horny alcohol, drug, party and sex loving men. Oh dear god.
"Please tell me there are other girls there...." I pray
"There are..." I sigh in relief. "When there are parties and they sleep with one of the guys." He finishes his sentence.
"I'm going to be the only girl living in a fucking frat house with twenty to forty men! Are you kidding me!" I scream. "Why didn't you tell me!"
"Because you would have never came Ari! I knew I had to hide it. I was more fine with you staying with us because you'll be on the third floor next door to me. Also because I didn't expect you to look like that after all these years." He admits.
"Ew Noah." I scrunch my face in disgust. "The only thing different is the addition of these bad boys." I motion to a pathetic excuse of boobs.
"Uh- okay." He adds.
"Um. Thanks. Is this getting weird or like? You're my brother man." I remind him.
"Am I not allowed to complement you? I'm shocked as fuck that my little sister grew up into a beautiful woman. Now I have to trust my friends that they won't make a move on you? I didn't expect this." He rambles. I'm taken back by his compliments.
"Well puberty did you well as well Mr. Pecks." I poke his chest and he bats my hand away.
"Not while I'm driving Ariana." He scolds, running his fingers through his messy brown hair. "But thanks."
We turn onto a street and pass Washington State University. I stare out the window and gape.
"It's massive." I gasp and turn to Noah. "I'm scared."
"Why are you scared Ari?" He asks as we continue down the road.
"This is just a huge deal in my life and I never expected to be here." I tell him and slouch into the car seat.
"It gets less scary. You just got to be open and make friends and it'll be better. Just have fun." He mouth pops and stares at me.
"Eyes on the road shithead." I snap at him as he chuckles lightly at me.
"I'm glad to see your still the same Ari I grew up with." He smiles sweetly.
"Are we there yet." I groan after we pass the University.
"Pretty much. Look to your left." He tells me. I turn and look out the window and my eyes catch a humongous illuminated house.
"You've gotta be kidding me." I gape for the second time. "How?"
"Well with that many guys in one house contributing to rent it's pretty easy to have." He shrugs. Fair enough.
We approach the house and Noah pulls into a spot which I assume is his "special spot". I hesitantly get out of the car and grab my stuff from the boot.
"Welcome to your new home Ari." He smiles.
"Oh lord." I breath deeply as I admire the large glass windows. It's surprisingly modern and fascinating to just stare at.
"Hey, it'll be okay. Seeing as though it's so late most of the guys will be either asleep or out." He tried to soothe me. "I'll introduce you in the next meeting."
"And that is..." I ask, tugging at my shirt.
"Tomorrow afternoon." He tells me. "Let's go inside yeah?"
I shuffle behind him and quickly link my arm at the elbow with Noah's as we entered the house. It was surprisingly clean for a frat house- oh and big.
Three guys occupied what I assumed to be the living room as they talked and laughed with each other.
"Boys." Noah greets them with a nod.
"Woah Noah, who's this." The light brown haired one asks.
"My sister. We talked about this." Noah groans.
"Thought you said she wasn't the best looking, I think your judgment is a bit off." The black haired smirks, looking at me up and down. I quickly hid behind Noah, I don't usually feel like 'shy' but this guy was very intimidating.
"Zayn." Noah hissed.
"Sorry brother. I can't help but be honest." Zayn shrugs before turning back around on the couch.
"Ari, this is Zayn, Jacob and Ethan. They'll make you feel comfortable and safe in this house. Won't they." He eyes Zayn.
"You're all good here. Make yourself feel at home, most of us don't bite." The curly, light brown haired one- Ethan, smiles sweetly at me.
"That's reassuring." I roll my eyes, finding my confidence and standing next to Noah again.
"Are you sure bringing a freshie here was the best idea?" Jacob speaks up.
"I thought the same thing." I groan and look at Noah. He patience was slimming by the second and I gave his arm a reassuring squeeze. Probably wasn't the best time to put in my input.
"I'm going to show Ariana here to her room. We will leave you to it." Noah nods to the boys and grabs my arm, taking me towards the staircase. As we get there I quickly turn my head and lock eyes with Zayn, his eyes continue to rake down my body. I scowl and hug myself closer to Noah.
We go up two sets of stairs to the third floor of the house.
"This one is my room." Noah gestures to the room first on the left. "And this is yours." He walks me to the room straight next to it. On this level there were 2 other rooms, which made me feel significantly better.
"The rooms up on this level each have a walk in wardrobe and en-suite. I know that sounds fancy as fuck but this section is for the Presidents and Vice Presidents of the fraternity." He says as we open my door. My room was decently big, with a big window on the side and a queen bed sat against the wall. And of course along with other furniture, including a desk, drawers, mirror, beside tables....You know, the usual stuff in a room, expect for the mini-fridge that sat in the corner of my room. The room was mostly white with a couple of hints of grey, copper and black, I was pleasantly surprised with my new room.
"Did you do this yourself?" I ask as he shakes his head with a laugh.
"A couple of the other guys- my closer friends helped." He says and we walk inside, Noah shuts the door and locks it behind him.
"Oh and every room has a lock so don't be afraid to use yours." He laughs at me, chucking me a group of keys. I squint at him, eagerly.
"One key is for your room, one key is for the house and the other key is for my car. You're all good to use it until your car gets shipped here." He smiles sweetly at me.
"Thank you Noah. At least when I don't want to deal with the boys I don't have to leave my room. I've got my bathroom connected and a mini-fridge I can stock with food." I realise. I suddenly feel a whole lot more comfortable in this place. Maybe it won't be so bad after all?
"I recommend keeping whatever food you buy in your room, unless you're okay with your food being constantly stolen." Noah laughs.
I set my stuff down in my room and sit on my new bed.
"Anything else I should know about this fraternity?" I ask Noah.
"Well, some people don't really get along here. There's a couple of guys I'm not very fond of, but that doesn't matter. My closet friends here are probably Jonty, Kaleb and Evan now but I started this fraternity with a couple of friends. As you know I'm Vice President of Kappa Sigma Gamma, the other Vice President is a guy named Seth and the President is Harry." He pauses.
"Seth is a alright lad but I will warn you now, there's no way in hell I'm letting you have any sort of connection with Harry. Yeah he's one of my best mates, but hell he's trouble. I'm not gonna let him hurt you." He tells me as I nod slowly. "Actually scratch that, you're not allowed a boyfriend at all nor allowed any relationship with a guy from the frat house."
"What!" I jump up from the bed and let my jaw fly open. "So you're gonna put me in a house with 20-40 or so guys and say all of them are off limits! You can only be so protective Noah, it's my life and the only thing you can do to control it is if you make sure I'm safe and away from harm." I tell him, annoyance tickles in my words. He stands up and head over to me, holding me into a hug.
"That's the thing, I don't think any of the guys here will ever treat you right. I want you safe and having a connection with anyone here won't ever do anything good." He kisses my head.
"Okay Noah." I sigh, letting me breathe out in relief. "No promises." I wink.
"Not the correct answer but sure Ari. I'll let you get settled in, you must be exhausted. At tomorrow's meeting I want you downstairs at 2pm sharp. And that's an order." He chuckles lightly before walking out my room.
"Okay Noah." I roll my eyes and smile back at him.
"Don't forget to lock the door, and if you ever need me I'm right next door. Goodnight, I love you." He blows me a kiss as I chuckle at him, allowing a yawn to escape my mouth.
"Goodnight big bro, I love you too." I walk up to the door and wave at him as he enters his own room. I close the door softly and lock it behind me.
After finally settling in I decide to unpack tomorrow, it's too late for this. I grab out a long sleeve button up shirt and pair it with a pair of plain black underwear and slip under the covers of my new bed. I sigh in content at finally being able to lay down and spread out, basically closing my eyes and falling straight asleep.
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Hey guys, I know this is another book but I really wanted to write a book like this.
Who's excited for Harry's entrance into the book? I am!!!!
Have a good day guys
Tash x