𝐑𝐞𝐝 𝐑𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞

R E E D

My heart pounds as I near the dorm building beside mine, waiting for someone to either come in or leave from the locked doors. While I wait, I check my phone for a message and braid my damp hair back, shivering despite the heat. Smiling at the girl who exits the building and stops to hold the door for me, I enter and head straight for the elevator, because there is no way that I'm taking five flights of stairs after the grueling practice that my team captain just put us through.

Tapping my feet as I ascend, I'm thankful that no one else joins me when I step off on the fifth-floor seconds later. I walk down one hallway, and knock once on the last door to the left, trying the handle soon after to find it unlocked. Rolling my eyes, I shake my head as I enter the room.

"Please be decent!" I call out with a hand in front of my eyes as I jokingly feel my way around the room. Taking my hand off my face, my eyes light up when I spot Xander on the couch with a controller in his hand, his attention on me instead of his paused video game.

"Hey, Rat." He tugs on the end of my braid when I sit down beside him, leaning into him hard enough to push him into the armrest on his other side.

"Sup Xan. Still spending your evening smacking balls?" I grin cheekily and he scoffs, unpausing his video game and resetting it so that I can play as well.

"Still taking them in the face?" He raises an eyebrow but doesn't look at me. I nudge him again.

"Of course, the one time that happens you had to be there to witness," I grumble, accepting the remote that he hands to me, setting up for a hard-core, 1v1 shooting match for us.

"Where's the roommate?" I ask, standing up to get a drink before the match starts. "Coke or Beer?" I ask, grabbing a Coke for myself.

"Water, please!" He calls out and I roll my eyes, already walking over with a bottle in my hands. Xander is the healthiest person I know. No cheat days for this guy. "And Annie's in her room." He says and I choke on a mouthful of the carbonated drink, covering my mouth with my hand as some drips down onto the wood floor.

"Cute." I hear from beside the tv, my eyes darting up to see "Annie" appearing from within his room. I swallow, wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, and then wipe my hand on my short black athletic shorts. Getting a look at Farris's red curls, I snort a laugh again, leaning over towards Xander with my fist held out; he bumps it with his own and I sit down, reclaiming my spot.

"Start it up," I tell Xander and pat the seat beside me, leaning my head onto Farris's shoulder as soon as he sits down on my other side.

"How was practice?" He asks and I answer, eyes fixed on the screen.

"Awful. Charlie's a dictator on the field, and she makes it all look easy which makes it so much worse. Ha!" I get up in Xander's face after killing his character, smiling at the replay of my quick-scope headshot. He mumbles something under his breath that is probably best that I don't hear. "Had me in an ice bath for twelve minutes." I shiver, still recovering from the cold. Farris gets up without a word and returns from his room with a hoodie, pulling it on over my head when I continue to look at the screen instead of accepting it. Wordlessly, he helps me slide my arms through so that I can still play and I give him a quick smile after he pulls it down so that it's covering the hem of my shorts at the top of my thighs.

"Short." He murmurs and I scoff, aiming for Xander again but his character manages to dart away just in time.

"I'm four inches shorter than you. You're lucky I can't wear heels." I mumble and cry out in victory once again when Xander goes down. He tosses his controller at Farris and I stick my tongue out at him. "Don't be a sore loser."