Awkward (Narry)

ix.

"Jack Daniels, my man." I pat the kid on his shoulder. "You're a hero."

"Yeah, sure." He rolls his eyes. "I'm a hero who's going to get his ass kicked out of this school if you and Tommo have any say in it."

"No, no, no. Listen to me." I lower the bottle in my left hand and pull Daniel underneath my arm. "Lou and I got your back. You can be ascertain."

"You mean certain."

"No, Louis' helping. You need a little ass in there." I laugh at my own joke, and Daniel rolls his eyes again.

"Just give me the twenty bucks for my brother, so he'll stop hounding me."

"Yeah, o'course." I hand him the twenty I had in my pocket. "Spend it wisely."

"It's going to my brother, moron."

I nod. "Right, right. Thanks for the drinks, though. I'll make sure to go easy on you at practice Monday."

"You do that." He waves goodbye over his shoulder, and damn. That kid has got an uncomfortably large sass level for a ninth year. He's going to be a fantastic senior. Bless.

-

"Louis Tomlinson is no fun." I chant over and over again as I enter our dorm room. I'm greeted by my best friend wearing only black underwear and his glasses. "He's doing homework, when he could twerk."

"Your rhyming sucks ass."

"So do you, but you don't see me complaining." I say, tossing the wine bottle onto his bed. He makes a face at me, but takes the bottle without so much as a secondhand glance.

"How much was this?"

"Jack Daniels made me give him twenty. I figured it was worth it." I shrug, grabbing the wine glasses that I smuggled out of my parent's bar downstairs last semester from the bottom drawer of my dresser.

"God bless him. I need this tonight."

"Why?" I hand him a glass and he uncorks the bottle.

"Fucking AP Enviro is killing me, and I'm so stressed. I'm beginning to break out around my mouth, and it's disgusting. I can't eat pizza for weeks." Louis vents as he pours himself half a glass of red wine. "Did you lock the door?"

"Oh, shit- no." I roll off of his bed and flip the bar so that our dorm door is locked and hall monitors can't come in without knocking. "Okay, so. AP Enviro? I thought you were doing well in that class."

"Me too. But apparently, I know nothing about the cycles. I bombed that last test, and it's hurting my grade so much. I've got a 94 now. It's just frustrating." He motions to his own laptop. "I've been online shopping for four hours to stop the pain. So far it hasn't helped, but I've got six new outfits on their way, so that'll be nice."

"Any sales?"

"Fifteen percent off this purse from Hermés, but that's it." He sighs and sips his wine.

I pour myself my own glass, going for the win and filling it nearly to the brim. "You can retake the test, you know."

"But for that, I've got to wait until Monday. This is Friday night. This is right now. Right now, I want to checkout on ToysRUs.com."

"Toys R Us?"

"I just wanna build a fucking Lego Death Star, okay?"

"Dude, same. When that comes in, can I help?" I ask, drinking a little more wine. "I built the Millennium Falcon when I was, like, ten. It's an experience."