Chapter 1 – Home Sweet Home

Ben and Nick walked into the furnished two bedroom apartment that was to be their home for the next four years. Ben looked around and groaned. It reminded him too much of the shabby apartments he lived in for those two horrible years of his childhood.

Nick walked in grinning from ear to ear and flopped on the stained yellow couch. “Home sweet home!” he sighed.

Ben sat down next to Nick. “This place is a dump, Nick. How can you be happy about living here?” he asked.

“It’s our dump Benny. Ours! No parents or little sisters tagging along. It’s freedom man!”

“Freedom? I thought you wanted to ask Val to get married. What happened to ‘I’m gonna miss her Ben’? Guess you got your going away present and now you’re ready for some new?” suggested Ben with a smirk.

“Just because I’m happy to be here doesn’t mean I won’t miss her – asshole,” he said still smiling.

“Whatever dude,” said Ben and picked up a pillow off the couch and threw it at Nick. “I get first pick of a bedroom!” he said over his shoulder and ran off to check out the rooms.

“Asshole!” called out Nick as he got up to answer the knock on the door.

Ben walked back in and Nick was talking to two girls.  Two smokin’ hot girls.

“Hey Ben,” called out Nick motioning  him over, “time to meet the neighbors.”  Nick nodded towards the short haired girl, “Emma and Rachael, this is my asshole roommate Ben Murdock. Ben meet Emma Rapp and Rachael Palumbo.”

Ben flashed a smile at the two girls and poked Nick in the arm. “This dump just got a helluva lot better!”

Ben reached out and shook hands with each girl. “Nice to meet you Emma and Rachael. You lived here long?”

“About a month,” said Emma with a thick southern drawl, “we all just moved in durin’ the summer.” Ben could swear she was blushing. It was so damn cute. She was cute.

“Well, Nick,” said Ben smirking, “looks like we have our tour guides for San Myshuno.” Then he addressed Emma and Rachael, “And for the record ladies, I’m not really an asshole, Nick’s just mad because I got the biggest bedroom – the one with a balcony.”

Emma just giggled. It was the cutest thing he had ever heard. Ben wanted to see more of this girl.

Rachael smiled up at Nick and said, “Hey, there’s a party this weekend before classes start at Johnny’s. He lives right next door. If you want to come you can meet a few of the other students.”

Both Nick and Ben replied in unison, “Sure!”

Rachael grinned at Nick. “Awesome! Johnny is in number 302 and we are across the hall in 301. It starts at at nine. See you Saturday!”

Emma turned to Ben. “We’ll meet you boys here so they won’t think you’re crashin’,” she said and grinned at Ben, “Bye ya’ll.”

“Wait,” called out Ben, “Let me see your phones.”

Emma blushed and handed him her phone. Rachael gave hers to Nick. They quickly sent messages to each other’s phones and handed them back.

After the door closed Ben said, “Like I said, this place just got a lot better! I rescind my earlier assessment of this dump. Oh, and you get the room closest to the bathroom so don’t bitch about getting the smallest room. Let’s get unpacked. We have been here all of an hour and we have a party to go to this weekend. And Nick, I think Rachael likes you.”

“Not interested Ben,” said Nick frowning.

“I’m calling bullshit,” said Ben laughing and clapped him on the back. He grabbed a box and started unpacking feeling much better than he did an hour ago.

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