^Picture of Braydon up above:)

*Aris's POV*

I pulled into the cracked and unpaved road leading to the parking lot. Many other cars were parked adjacently already, which meant that I was somewhat late for the day.

       It was already 1:00 P.M. and I was almost positive that Braydon would be already settled in our dorm. I sighed and tugged a bit at the truck keys to yank them from the key port. Instantaneously, the engine stopped rumbling and I slowly pushed the truck's door open.

        "Man, it is sure nice out here." I sighed as I sucked in the fresh Ohio air that surrounded me.

          I opened the trunk and lifted my several bags of clothes into my arms. When I did so, the bags slipped out of my hands and tumbled on to the cement.

        "Shit."I groaned as I ran a hand through my thick brown hair, pushing back the strands of hair that had begun to hang in front of my face.

         "Is everything alright?" A girl with bleached hair and blue eyes asked.

         "Yes." I muttered as I lifted my bags back into my hand.

          "What is your name?"

         "Aris." I replied with a hint of confusion in my voice.

           "I'm Reese." She replied, holding out a hand for me to shake.

          I hesitantly inched my hand towards hers and clasped her hand into mine. I nodded my head at her and smiled.

          "Do you go here?" I asked before realizing how dumb that question was.

         "Of course, why else would I be walking in this parking lot?" She laughed wrapping a loose strand of hair behind her ear, exposing a glistening diamond earring.

           "So, uh. . . are you on the far left in the girls' dorm or the right?" I inquired as I raised my eyebrows.

           "I am on the right. You should come visit-"She stopped suddenly," I mean, we can't exactly do that that in the school. . ."

I spotted a look of sadness spread across her face while the hope in her eyes faded away. I shoved my hands in my pockets and twirled them around inside. I was almost certain that it was some kind of nervous reaction.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that too." I muttered as I looked into her eyes once more, "Well, I probably should head to my dorm now. It was nice meeting you, Reese."

         I couldn't help to notice the small twinkle in her eyes when I said her name," You too." She smiled.

         "Here, take my number." She  pulled out a pen from my pocket and scribbled her number on a Kleenex.

        "I'll call you later." I smiled, waving to her as she ran back to her Jeep.

        I already knew this would slowly turn in to a problem. I can't let myself fall in love with Reese. I promised myself that maybe Mikayla and I would date again and then we would get married.

       I guess that fantasy may have to be pushed aside for the time being.

       ~

      "The hell are you doing here?" Braydon sighed as he shook his head, moving his bangs out of the way to reveal his mysterious eyes.

      "Great to see you too." I said sarcastically.

       "Look we have to get along at some point in time . . . I mean, am I right?" Braydon pointed out as he popped his bubble gum louder than necessary.

        "Well, yeah. I mean we're going to be roommates for a long time." I replied as I threw my bags against the wall.

            I was almost positive I heard Braydon make some weird noise as if he felt uncomfortable or irritated about something.

         "Can you move your fucking bags out of my side of the dorm?" He asked, a look of annoyance on his face.

       Before I could say a word, he chucked one of my suitcases at me and I tumbled to the ground. I looked at my suitcase lying on my stomach and then back up at Braydon who was laughing his head off. He leaned up against the wall and peered down at me.

        "What the hell was that for?" I shouted as I stood up, brushing the dirt from the floor off of my jeans.

        "Mr. Collins and Mr. McCabe, I would like to see you in my office, now." Mr. Lopez ordered.

          My eyes widened in shock as I was face to face with I looked back and forth from Braydon and Mr.Lopez in complete shock. How were the odds so high that our dean would end up walking past our dorm right when that happened.

      "When did he get there?" Braydon muttered, his eyes wide as he looked at me and then Mr. Lopez who was staring at us angrily.

        I shrugged and reluctantly followed Mr. Lopez to his dispiriting office.

        ~

       "So, boys, I have been receiving several complaints from neighbors that you and Mr. McCabe were causing some ruckus in your room. Having to talk to you both in my office is very disappointing considering that this is college, not high school. Thus, this meeting is technically quite irrelevant if you choose to perceive it that way.

       Braydon stifled a laugh but I managed to nudge him before he ended up laughing out loud. Obviously, he took the dean's comment the wrong way.

"Ah, Braydon. . . just like James," Mr. Lopez sighed as he raised an eyebrow at Braydon.

Brayden shifted uncomfortably in his seat and rubbed his forehead while letting out a sigh. Even I knew he despised it when anyone compared him to his older brother James.

"First off, what were you boys doing that could have mad such a distraction to your neighbors down the hall?" He questioned exchanging glances between the two of us.

"All I did was trip on the side of my bed and then I scolded myself for tripping because I'm such a doofus." Braydon replied feeling proud of his response.

"Um, no." I replied flatly.

Mr. Lopez turned to me and gave me a shocked look by my response.

"Well, what do you have to say Mr. Collins?"

"First off he chucked a suitcase at my face-"

"Excuse me? I didn't throw the damn thing at your face! I threw it at your stomach!" Braydon shot back, his hands clenched into a fist almost immediately.

"You know what I mean, Braydon," I responded, trying to calm myself down.

"Continue." Mr. Lopez demanded, already sick of us as it is.

"Look, he threw the suitcase at my stomach," I tried to annunciate the fact that he deliberately threw a fifty pound suitcase at me.

"Stop it, you're so full of yourself, my God." Braydon sighed dramatically as he rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, once I fell on the floor, I shouted at him because I was so confused about why he had thrown the suitcase at me." I finished.

Mr. Lopez stared at me blankly for a moment.

"I'm done." I mumbled since he didn't seem to get the memo when I stopped talking.

"This whole issue seems quite childlike to me. You both need to grow up and stop acting like a group of middle school boys. I do not care if you screw around in college, whatever, you are paying for this, but you cannot and will not disturb your fellow colleagues, understood?" Mr. Lopez admitted as he exchanged glances between Braydon and I.

The two of us nodded ever so lightly, but resumed to sitting silently and motionless. Braydon's eyes traveled over to Mr.Lopez's pencil holder. Making sure he wasn't watching him, he quickly snatched a black mechanical pencil from it and began to play with it in his fingers.

        "Braydon, is that my pencil? If so, please set it down." He spoke as he gave Braydon a miniature death stare.

      Braydon looked at him with his chin up in the air and his eyes locked on his. He still kept the pencil in his hands, making Mr. Lopez more annoyed than before.

         Finally, he had released the pencil from his grip and placed back into the holder.

Mr. Lopez sighed, "Alright boys, since I am almost positive you both don't want to be here much longer, let me close on this message."

I glanced at Braydon and he glanced back at me.

"This is your first warning boys. You reach three, you're done. You're out of this school, got it? Collins, I know pretty much your whole family. If you get into anymore trouble I can easily contact your dad."

"M-my dad?" I stuttered, my vulnerability coming into action once again.

The word "dad" screwed up my speech for a second.

"Your dad." He repeated, not keeping direct eye contact with me.

"O-okay." I stuttered again, all of a sudden feeling so vulnerable as though I was young again.

"Sucker." Brayden muttered under his breath as he squinted at me.

"MCCABE!" Mr. Lopez shouted," I know your parents as well. Watch out."

"Yes, sir."

Right before we had completely exited the room, Braydon looked over at me, a devilish grin on his lips.

"You still suck." Braydon jeered as he tripped me, almost making me fall to the ground.

I quickly revived myself and turned to him, my adrenaline rushing like crazy.

"You sw-"

"Don't even."

     ~

          "This is never going to work out you know." Braydon snarled, twirling the desk chair before he threw his feet onto the desk to stop himself.

        "Says the person who wanted everything to be simpatico between us." I repeated, rolling my eyes along with it.

"Well I said that an hour ago until you had to fall and then Mr. Lopez heard us and all that shit." Braydon replied, pulling out his phone.

"You're impossible." I retorted as I pulled out my phone.

As I pulled it out, I saw there were about five texts from Mikayla and that made me miss her a lot.

     Mikayla:
Well, Cam woke up with a fever this morning. 103.54 was his temp. He was crying this morning begging for you. The kids miss you so much but they did send you this voice memo:)

"Hi daddy! This is Cameron. I have a-a fever. Is that right Mommy? Okay. I don't feel good and I want you to come home because Mommy doesn't do things like you do. She don't read me the books in a silly voice. Pwease come home and visit me, daddy. Rose! Stop doing that, I am sending a message to Daddy and it's mine! Sorry Daddy but I love you and have a good night. . . . . . . hey Mommy? I don't feel so good. Oh, do I have to press this to turn it off? Oops."

I couldn't help but to laugh a bit. I mean, who wouldn't? That was probably the cutest message I have ever received from Cameron before.

"What are you watching?" Braydon asked as he spun his desk chair to face me.

"Nothing." I replied as I texted Mikayla back.

"Yeah, sure. Okay." Braydon answered sarcastically as he returned to whatever the hack he was doing on his phone.

"Hey, Braydon? Is there a meeting or something tomorrow?" I questioned since I blanked out on the fact we were in our dorms, in college.

"Dude, we have school tomorrow." Brayden responded sassily as he gave me a your-so-stupid look.

"Like school-school?" I replied.

"Yes!" Braydon answered, a little louder than before.

"Okay."

"-HOMERUN! WEEKS HIT A HOMERUN!!! Man, I don't think he's ever done that before!"

"Braydon!" I whisper-shouted from my bed.

"What the fuck do you want?" Braydon asked, his tone flat.

"I am trying to sleep and I would love if you could just shut off that damn phone of yours for little while." I groaned.

"Fine. Whatever, but only this once, since tomorrow is our first school day from break. Also, I recommend adapting to music and random youtube videos playing at 2:00 A.M. every morning."

"Yeah, that will not be happening." I sighed as I closed my eyes.

As far as I know, this was going to be a long four years.

~

Guys! Guess what! I updated! (well, obviously lol.) Yayyyyyy! I'm so happy I updated because I kind of did this as a surprise! I suddenly had this brilliant idea for this chapter so I just started writing and this happened!

What do you guys think about Braydon and Aris's attitudes towards each other? Do you guys like the small bits of comedy I tried to fit in here and there?

Also, I haven't heard any complaints but I know I am using explicit language a lot in this book but it is only to make the characters come alive. Once you get to know them more, you'll understand why they act and talk the way they do. Trust me, you'll find out sooner or later.

Please give this chapter a vote if you think it deserves it! Love you guys!!❤️