Pre-game

You head up to Christina’s room, where Griffin and Rachel are hanging by the corridor.

Rachel

“Took you long enough to get here,” Griffin says. “You texted me what? Ten minutes ago?”

“Hey, hey, don’t blame me - blame Alex. He needed a study break, so we played some ping pong,” Christina says.

“What, you couldn’t have just brought him up to the room directly for a break?” Rachel says. She laughs at her own pseudo-quip, a loud noise that catches you by surprise.

Christina unlocks the door and invites you into a comfy double. Christina’s side of the room is neat and organized, with binders and bins keeping everything in its proper place. The other side of the room looks like it witnessed a minor explosion occurred, with clothes strewn everywhere, make-up scattered across the desk, and various papers littering the floor.

“Sorry about the mess. Lucy is never in here, but she still somehow manages to wreck her half of the room,” Christina says.

She spends a second working on the small lock on the suitcase under her bed, and then pops the trunk, revealing two-dozen beers. Griffin immediately snags two beers, handing one to Rachel.

“I thought you were caught by Tatiana for having alc in your room,” you say to Christina.

“Yeah. Why do you think I keep ‘em locked up now? I used to keep these beers just lying around, because I didn’t know there were stupid rules against it,” Christina says, tossing you a beer. “How was I supposed to know when my parents let me drink whenever I wanted to?"

You crack your can open and start drinking as Griffin hooks up his phone to the speakers, playing soft rap that serves as nice background noise.

“You must have had great parents Christina,” Griffin says. “Mine were always super anal about it. They would run sobriety tests - ‘walk in a straight line’, ‘say the alphabet backwards’, shit like that - after I came back from parties. So I would always have to come back from parties super late, because I would get smashed as quickly as I could, and then take the rest of the night to sober up.”

“That’s insane,” Rachel says, putting an arm around his waist. “My parents were always chill. I mean they weren’t around much, so it was really my big sister that was the one taking care of me. You know, I’d go out to parties, and she’d be the one texting me, reminding me not to go too hard. I got pissed at her more than once for it, especially since she was a real lightweight. Like really, I was the one saving her ass when she was stuck without a ride home.”

The story reminds you of one of your own, and you jump in.

What story do you tell?

Griffin +5
Christina +5
Rachel +5