Brothers In Arms

Chapter 41

"Why didn't you ever join the Student Council?" I asked Vincent out of the blue. We were lounging in the common room, waiting for the movie to start. We had gone down early and only Ferret and Mike were there.

"Too much work. They asked me, but I wanted to focus on my schoolwork so I could get into the University. With as many brothers as I have, we need all the help we can get." He looked at me wryly.

"I can see that. Did all of them go? To Uni that is." I looked over my shoulder at him and he looked down at me with a smile.

"All except Riley. He had been working during the last two summers with the construction crew though, so he knew he had the apprenticeship all set." He murmured. I nodded thoughtfully.

"I think Beth has a crush on Alan. Think she has a chance?" I asked with a grin. Vince scoffed a bit.

"She's younger than you, isn't she?" He commented as Nate and Jack walked up to join us.

"Yep, by about two years." I popped my lips and raised my brows. He shook his head.

"It should stay a crush. He's twice her age." He replied dryly.

"Yeah but... He's really hot and she's really smart. It's a good match." I responded cheekily. He gave me a glare.

"He's really hot, huh?" Vince's jealousy was a little hot, I have to admit. I liked to tease him a little.

"Of course. Good genes." I stated matter of factly. He made a face and then tickled me so I squirmed away from him while laughing.

"Alright, enough of that. You're making the single people sick over here." Jack said with a grin. More of our friends showed up and sat with us. Micah came and sat next to me with a hesitant face.

"I'm sorry." He said again. I rolled my eyes.

"I told you, it's fine. We're good. We didn't fight or anything." I replied, again for the nth time.

"It doesn't matter. I should have shut the door before talking about that. I knew you wanted to keep it between us." He moaned as Reggie came to sit down next to him.

"Yeah, well, stop worrying about it. It's done and we're good, so relax. Watch the movie." I pointed to the front where Harold was putting in the disc to watch.

"Are you going to run for council?" Vince said suddenly from my back. I looked over at him with a scrunched face.

"Eh? Do you think I should? You said it is a lot of work." I also didn't think I was popular enough to get the votes, but whatever.

"Just a thought. If you are going into communications, then it would be good on your resume." He commented as the commercials played on the screen.

"I'll have to think about it." I dismissed the thought and settled in when the lights went off.

*

Exams were over. Vincent beat me by 2 points. I blamed that fact on his flirting with his Chemistry teacher. Nobody believed it though. Not after he had maintained the average through all four years of being there.

The Student Council awards were handed out after the banquet for the students in the mess hall. We got to dress in our casual clothes and they had some fantastic barbeque on the menu.

The President of the Council was a big guy. He was taller than Vince even, but he looked really kind. His smile was huge and he seemed really enthusiastic. I figured he would make a really good drill sergeant if he could put on a scary face.

I chuckled at the thought. Vincent looked over at the sound and grabbed my hand under the table. I smiled over at him. The room clapped as another student's name was called up to the front to receive an award.

The boring academic ones were out of the way quickly, and my boyfriend had two on the table in front of him. One for the "Most Hundreds" on their transcript, and the other was for being "Number One, Senior."

I had one on the table, slightly smaller than the one he had, for taking "Number One, Junior." I laughed with the crowd as a rather ruffled guy protested as he moved to the front to accept his "Smelliest Room" award while his roommate face-palmed.

The next one had the President himself protesting as he read the card in the envelope he was given. It was an award for "Strongest Student" and we applauded when he was forced to take the award for a spectacular recorded 300lb lift in fitness class.

"Now for the newest award, and the last award. Can I get Vincent Wright and Alexander Kensington up here?" The President was still grinning and we exchanged a glance. I got up and moved ahead of Vince to get our award.

The crowd was cheering and slapping us high fives as we passed. I heard someone shout, "My ship is sailing!" and lots of laughs followed it. We got to the front and I blushed when I read the front of the award.

"Alright folks, here's your "Cutest Couple" award as requested on more than a hundred ballots!" He waved his hand to present us and Vincent scratched his neck awkwardly.

"Kiss!" Someone shouted, and then was jeered at as half the guys wanted it and half were making grossed faces.

"Go watch porn you dirty fuckers." Vince said with an eye roll. I stuck my tongue out at the guy and flipped them all the bird. The crowd approved and we took our award back to our table with smiles.

"You can keep that. Makes us even." He said when we sat down. I snorted and elbowed him.

"You just don't want to have to carry them." I pointed out.

"You aren't wrong." He replied with a nod.

"It's kind of nice though. I mean, even if some of them were mocking us, it was nice to see how many support us." I was looking at the shiny plastic award with a faint smile still.

"Yeah. There's always gonna be haters. You just gotta surround yourself with bitches who are cool." He motioned to the rest of the table with a grin.

"Who the hell are you calling bitch? Loser." Nate scoffed at him.

"Well... he's not wrong." Jack said with a smile. Nate shoved him. He shoved back. I turned around and ignored it as they started wrestling between the tables and growling threats at each other.

"If I'd known there was an award, I would've voted for them." I commented dryly as I pointed over my shoulder. Alec choked on his water and Ferret made a face as it sprayed across the table.

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