my past life

•1•

"I'll see you after class then?" I ask him.

"Ya, man," Nick says. "You down to play some basketball?"

"Duh," I say. "I'll see you later, man."

"See ya." Nick walks away and I go to my locker to grab out my books for my next class. Today is my first day of junior year of college.

College life is amazing. I'm completely free from my family and I can do what I want. I also get to party all the time which is always a plus.

"Edwin!" I turn around to see Brandon and Austin walking towards me.

"Hey, guys," I shut my locker and we start to walk down the hallways.

"What's up?" Brandon asks. "Any plans for after class?"

"Basketball with Nick," I say. "You guys can come play too."

"We will be there," Brandon says.

"Do I have to come?" Austin asks. "I have no problem going to every game to hype you guys up, but going to practice is not my cup of tea."

"It's not even actual practice, man. It's just playing around and having fun," I say. "You can just screw around with us."

The guys and I play basketball for the school. Season starts next month, so we try to get as much practice in as we can by ourselves. We practice two hours a day with our coach and usually another three by ourselves. Basketball is super important to us. The four of us are the best on the team. Austin isn't into sports though. He's really good at art.

He groans, "I'll bring my stuff to paint."

"Figured," Brandon chuckles.

"I have to go," I say. "Mr. Ruckert will kill me if I'm late to his class. Meet me in the gym by like two."

"Okay," Brandon says.

***

"He shoots and he scores!" Austin yells as he walks into the gym with Brandon and Zion. Zion is our other roommate. He is definitely the crazy one of the group.

I chuckle and I shoot the ball again, making it right into the net. "Teach me your ways!" Austin yells.

"Grab a ball and I'll show you."

"Uh, no," he sits down on the bleachers. "I'm just going to draw or something."

"That's what I thought."

Brandon and Zion start to put on their shoes as Nick and I just shoot the ball around for fun.

"I get music today!" Zion yells as he runs to the speaker.

"Bitch," I say. "I'm already connected."

"You're music is ass."

"Bitch," I yell.

He starts laughing and then connects his phone to the speaker. He then starts playing his trash music.

"Edwin's was better!" Austin yells.

"Shush," Zion says to him. Zion steps on the court and starts to shoot around with us.

"Yo, Austin!" Nick says. "What did you guys do in class today?"

"Nothing," he says. "Speaking of that, why weren't you there?"

"I had to show around some new person."

"We have a new person?" I shoot the ball from the three point line. It goes right in.

"Yes," he says. "Her name is, uh, Nicole."