Michael

Jane and I crouch to peer over Cynthia's shoulders at her laptop screen. She quickly scrolls through some rough designs she's come up with over the summer. The university's newspaper, The Green and Gold is desperately overdue for a revamp. The design hasn't been changed in decades and is almost painful to look at. I don't know about you, but I don't want to read from something that looks like it's about to tell me about world wars and famines.

"So?" Cynthia turns around and looks at us expectantly. "Any thoughts?"

"I like the last three, but it's your final say, Jane," I chuckle.

"O-oh right." Jane nods and chews on her nails, looking a bit embarrassed. "I keep forgetting that it's... me in charge now."

I give her a pat on the shoulder. I've been trying to be a good sport about it, but god, I definitely deserve the position as editor-in-chief more than Jane does. She's nice and whatnot, but Mason definitely passed down the position to her just because he had a thing for her. That idiot ended up getting rejected by her anyway. Skill-wise, I'm much better in nearly every relevant aspect.

"I think we should go with the last one," Jane says with a small nod.

We suddenly hear loud, excited shouting and talking. I walk over to the window and curiously peek outside. The sidewalk is cluttered with people dragging their luggage along, all noisily chattering. They collectively create a deep, low rumbling with the wheels on all of their suitcases rolling over the bumpy pavement. It sounds as if they're a traveling earthquake.

Straining my head further out the window, I see most of them are headed towards Vanda Residence, the shitty run-down dorm building the university shoves all the freshmen in. I roll my eyes and shut the window, muffling their cheerful, chirpy tones. I give them one semester at most before the reality of university hits them and they're as exhausted and sullen as the rest of us.

Before I can even get back to work, my phone begins ringing. "Sorry, give me a sec," I murmur. I slip out of the library's meeting room and stand by the stairway.

"Andrea? What's up?"

"Hey Michael, I need a big favour! My sister is moving in today and needs help bringing up her luggage. Can you believe her dorm's elevator is broken?"

"That sounds like a you problem."

I hear her groan. "C'mon, please? You still owe me, remember?"

I roll my eyes and tiredly drag my hand down my face. Accepting favours from Andrea rarely come without consequences. "Ok, fine."

-----

"Alright, that's everything," I sigh in relief as I get Carmen's last bag through the door. My arms feel limp and weak like overcooked spaghetti. Her room just had to be on the highest floor of the building.

I don't understand why she brought this much stuff. Did she just pack up her entire life? When I moved here, I brought one suitcase and a backpack; I'm still doing fine. Her luggage is so fucking obnoxious too. Everything is neon pink and glittery - is she eighteen or eight? I swear the only possible explanation for her absurdly stark contrast to Andrea is that one of them is adopted.

"Yup! Thanks Michael!" she chirps and pulls me into a tight hug.

"Uh, yeah, no problem." I awkwardly pat her back. I admittedly still feel a bit uncomfortable around her. The last time I saw her was last Christmas before Andrea and I had broken up. We stayed with her family, and Carmen walked in on us. That was one of the very few times I've seen Carmen put a hold on her seemingly endless stream of chatter and legitimately shut up.

She bats her long eyelashes at me and touches my arm. "Anything I can do to repay you? How about dinner? My treat." Her normally shrill voice is soft and breathy. It makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

"Uh, it's alright," I mumble and shake my head. "It was just a favour for your sister." Carmen is definitely not the type of person I'm interested in getting close with.

"Hey, are you Carmen?" I hear a high voice behind me.

I turn around and a girl is standing in the doorway with a large suitcase. I try not to roll my eyes. She's blonde, tall, and skinny; wearing a plaid skirt and ripped jean jacket. Pretty much a cookie-cutter girl, looking identical to most of the basic girls I've seen on campus. A stupid number of frat guys were assigned to rooms on my floor last semester. Apparently they had a termite infestation in their frat house and had to move to the dorms. Annoyingly noisy sorority girls were constantly clogging up the halls when they came to visit at asinine hours of the night.

Carmen nods. "Yup!"

"Nice to meet you roomie, I'm Alyssa." She gives her a bright smile and nods towards some black suitcases next to the other bed. "I got here a while ago, this is my last suitcase."

She rolls her suitcase in and I suddenly hop back in pain when the wheels roll over my foot.

"Shit," I hiss through gritted teeth. Is she carrying bricks in there?

"Oh my god!" Alyssa gasps and rushes over to my side. "I'm so sorry! Are you ok?!"

"Clearly not," I groan, feeling my foot begin to burn and throb. Today was a bad day to wear my thin slip on shoes. I gingerly take my foot out of my shoe to examine it. My toes are bright red and starting to swell.

She runs her hands through her hair in distress and grips onto my arm tightly. "D-do you need ice? Bandages? A-a doctor? There's a hospital near-"

I quickly raise my hand to stop her panicked rambling before she begins hyperventilating. "N-no, it's fine. I'll handle it myself." I mumble a halfhearted goodbye to Carmen before meagerly limping out of the room.

"I-I'm really sorry!" I hear her call behind me.

-----

"Don't fucking laugh," I growl as I finish telling Andrea about yesterday's debacle. She's the last person to go to when you're looking for sympathy. If you're looking for someone to be an asshole and make fun of you, Andrea's your girl.

"I'm sorry Michael," Andrea wheezes, clutching her abdomen. "It's just so funny."

I ignore her and continue setting up the booth for The Green and Gold in the school's plaza. I put up the intricately decorated tri fold cardboard display on the table that Cynthia made last night. It's miles better than what the rest of us would ever be able to create. Thank God Andrea managed to convince her to join the team last month. Childhood friends, apparently.  

Orientation day is when clubs do most of their recruiting for new members. It's a huge pain in the ass, but we desperately need to rebuild our team. Most of our team from last semester graduated, leaving Andrea as the photographer, Cynthia as the graphic designer, Jane as the editor in chief, and myself as the managing editor. Not the most structurally sound team.

Before I've even finished setting up our banner, someone comes up to our booth. A wide-eyed, eager looking guy. He's wearing a green lanyard with his student card attached to it, just like all of the other freshmen walking around. "Cole Flynn, nice to meet you." He quickly sticks out his hand to shake mine. "I'm interested in being a journalist."

It's been five seconds and I can already tell this guy's enthusiasm is going to drive me crazy.

"Michael, managing editor," I say calmly and return his handshake. "What are you majoring in?"

"Journalism, of course," he laughs.

"Any experience?"

He gives me a bright grin and nods. "Yup, I was president of the newspaper club at my high school." There's a subtle smugness mixed in with his confidence that I don't like. This kid has clearly never faced the real world before.

For the sake of the club, I decide to let Jane talk to him and I head over to sit down on the grass with Andrea. She's laying on her stomach with her long brown hair splayed across her back. As I get closer, I notice she's photographing a ladybug climbing up a flower's stem. I don't understand why she loves nature and the outdoors so much. There's dirt, germs, and too many bugs.

She glances up at me and smiles before returning to her camera. "How's it going? Any new members?"

I look back at the table. There are a couple people at the booth speaking to Jane and Cynthia. I shrug sheepishly. "Maybe? I hope so at least, we're screwed otherwise."

Andrea sits up and puts her camera back in her bag. A couple stray blades of grass cling to the sliver of pale skin not covered by her short t-shirt. "I'm going to have to leave early by the way," she says as she checks her phone. "I'm volunteering to give a tour of the campus to a freshman today."

I raise an eyebrow. "Why?" Who in their right mind would want to do something like that? I vaguely recall being given that option on my orientation day. You could sign up to be paired up with an older student to show you around and mentor you for a day.

"Unlike you, I like helping others," she scoffs and rolls her eyes. "It wouldn't kill you to be a bit nicer, you know."

"Get off your high horse," I chuckle and nudge her. "We both know you've been as bad as I have." I will neither confirm nor deny that, that has anything to do with my personality rubbing off on her when we dated. Lucky for her, she has enough charm to talk her way out of nearly any situation.

Her phone suddenly vibrates with a text. She checks it and gasps. "Oh crap, I completely forgot I agreed to help out with the photography club's booth too."

She quickly turns to me and gives me a not so innocent smile. I immediately recognize the look on her face - I know exactly what she's thinking. "Absolutely not, Andrea," I say before she can even ask.

"Aw, please Michael?" She gives me her signature puppy dog eyes and rests her chin on my shoulder. "Please? I'll owe you whatever you want!"

I groan and rub my palm against my jaw. Spending the day with some enthusiastic keener sounds like absolute torture. At the same time, Andrea has connections all over campus. Having her owe me a favour could be useful. "Alright, I'll do it," I sigh. "I'd like to make it clear that I'm not happy about it though."

"Thanks!" She quickly takes out her phone. "I'll let her know I have someone replacing me." She sends a text and her phone almost immediately vibrates again. "She said she's at Tim Horton's. Look for a girl in a white dress carrying a blue backpack."

-----

I step inside and feel the cool rush of the air conditioning brush over me. The scent of coffee is extremely faint. It more so just smells like artificial sweetness. I barely manage to get in, weaving through the packs of people grouped together. It's relatively small and crowded compared to most of the restaurants around campus. I scan the room for the girl I'm looking for, and I spot someone sitting by the window who matches Andrea's description.

As I approach her table, she looks up from her phone and we make eye contact.

You have to be kidding me.

"Suitcase girl?"

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A/N:

I would be mortified 🙈

Thanks for reading!