Page 9 of The Night We Met

“Rawlins!” My name being shouted halts our steps. I turn and see Liam with his baseball buddies that are also freshmen.

“Who is that?” Sarah dreamily asks as Liam jogs over to us.

A pang of jealousy hits before I throw it away. But it would be weird if my roommate and best friend ever hooked up.

The smile that’s present on his face sends chills down my spine. We’re just friends hooking up. No need for me to go all googly-eyed for him.

“Sarah, this is Liam. Liam, this is my roommate Sarah.”

“Nice to meet you.” Liam says as he throws an arm over my shoulder.

“Likewise. So how long have you two been together?”

My body tenses and I know Liam feels it if his chuckle is anything to go by. “Oh god, we’re just friends.”

Sarah eyes me like she knows I’m not telling her the full truth.I’ll tell you later,is what I mouth to her. She relinks her arm with me and we resume the walk inside with Liam still hanging on my shoulder.

“Fingers crossed this doesn’t last long so we can get on with the rest of our weekend.” Brandon groans as a group of us take our seats in the arena.

Liam leans in, “Party tonight? It’s just some of us from the team?”

“Are any of them single?” Sarah asks and I hold in a laugh as the speaker drones on about how these are the best four years of our young adulthood.

“Hell yeah some of them are,” I hear from Brandon. His excitement for tonight is like an overeager puppy just willing to be out of his crate from the night.

Someone from the row in front of us shushes us.

“Sorry,” our group whispers as we focus on what’s happening up front.

When the speech ends, we branch off from each other as we peruse the selection of clubs and organizations the school hasto offer.

“Any sorority?” Sarah asks genuinely curious.

“Maybe. You?”

She flips through a pamphlet for the school’s newspaper. “I was thinking about it. It would look good on my resume. But being around a big group of girls all the time…I don’t know if I could do it.”

In the twenty-four hours Sarah and I have occupied the same space, I’ve come to notice that while she’s outgoing she’s also a solitary person. While we were with Liam and Brandon I saw a mask slip into place. And until we were around them for longer than five minutes did I see her true self show up.

“My mom was in a sorority. One of the reasons I came here was because of it. Now I’m of the idea that I don’t care if I rush. So how about we scope out a few and see what happens.” Is what I barter with.

“Deal.”

We make our way to where some of the Greek organizations are located. There's a bunch of them.

“This is so overwhelming. Like what are we supposed to look for?” Sarah’s deer-in-the-headlights look is so me.

“I have no clue. Let’s just find some good ones and then get out of here.”

I get lost in a sea of options. Club sports, book club, art club, culinary art club; the options are endless and my head is swimming by the time we leave.

“So what’s with you and Liam?” Sarah mumbles as she puts on mascara.

I could play dumb, but after a few days of living witheach other she already knows me well enough. “We’re best friends. Who now have sex.”

“I knew it!” She fist pumps the air. “God the way he was looking at you on Sunday was so hot!”

“What? How was he looking at me?” My cheeks flame. Not from her knowing about us hooking up. But at the realization that Liam could have been looking at me the way I’ve always looked at him.

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