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Just my luck, Addie thought. Of course, right when I'm tryna get back to the team before we're up for judging, I crash into some fuckass dude. God, my head hurts. What is this guy's problem? They practically cussed them out mentally, before shaking themself out of their own thoughts.
Ah, right. Back to the present, where Addie was currently in a world of pain. On their hands and knees on the floor, while aforementioned fuckass dude was curled into a fetal position underneath them.
"Jesus. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to run into you," Addie offered, wincing.
"Ugh… you didn't just run into me. You also knocked me on my head. Twice." The fuckass guy hissed in pain.
Addie blinked in surprise before launching into an apology. "Shit. I'm so fucking sorry. I'm just — my team is up soon, and I gotta get back to them."
"S'okay. No harm done, I guess… Gah, I take that back. My shit still hurts."
She shook her head. "Well, you know me. Head's a steel trap."
"I don't know you… and is that really what that's supposed to mean?" Addie heard a sweet sounding laugh before finally getting a good look at the culprit—er, victim.
Her voice practically all but died in her throat. Jesus, she mentally confessed, this person is fine as fuck.
"Of course!" Addie cringed at the evident crack in their voice. "Hey, I'll get off ya now."
Before they could fully push themself up, they heard a whine from the fine-ass guy. "Aww, already?"
She whipped around to stare at said fine-ass guy. "What? You want me to sit right here? On top of you?"
They were giving her a playful, enthusiastic smile in affirmation. "Hey, I'm just enjoying the view. Oh, but don't listen to me, and definitely don't mind our audience." They cocked their head towards the growing crowd of onlookers.
Addie scoffed. "You don't know what you're getting yourself into, buddy. I never back down."
"Funny. I don't either."
She threw them a smirk. "Oh yeah, hot shot? First to break loses!"
In response, they slid her down their things, aligning their hips together. Addie nearly short-circuited, being so close to their face. This guy's hotness be damned, she was going to win!
Not even a second later, Addie heard their name being yelled in the distance, flinching and scrambling to get up.
"Aw, that was quick. Is it bad I was hoping for you to stay longer?" They met Addie's eyes with a languid, easy smile.
"Honey, I'd outplay you anytime… when I'm not about to go compete." Addie confidently tossed her hair over her shoulder. "You're welcome to come watch me kick some ass."
They raised an eyebrow. "Isn't this a dance competition?"
"Semantics. Anyways, I'll catch you later~" Addie wiggled her fingers at them in a wave before leaping away to her team.
The fine-ass stranger couldn't help but let their stare linger as Addie reunited with what they assumed was her team, twirling enthusiastically hand-in-hand with a teammate with vivid orange hair.
Addie had all but forgotten the interaction in favor of their team absolutely demolishing the competition.
They didn't think prodding Anissa to crash her study group with her crush would result in… this.
Addie barely registered Elio's friends in the midst of their fingers flying across the keyboard, trying to crunch out their 10-page essay in one night. However, the loudest thuds known to mankind interrupted their flow. Shaking their head, they exchanged annoyed glances with Cam, Deja, and Anissa.
"I can't believe—" Deja began.
"They're trying their best… I think," Cam interrupted before the situation escalated.
"Their best involves whatever the hell that noise was?"
Addie's eyes flicked towards the offending wall in annoyance before heaving a sigh, irritation turning to tired acceptance.
"Well, it's after 1 AM, so… when I say 'extra', you say 'fries'!" Cam cheered. "Extra!"
"Fries!" Anissa chimed in, locking eyes with Addie, who was tilting their head.
"Addie, you and Aeri want to come with?" At Cam's invitation, Addie smiled, their anxiety of inadvertently inviting themself alleviated.
Anissa began gathering her things to put in her bag. Pausing for a moment, she added, "Maybe we should invite the guys too. Even after… all of the noise."
Addie shrugged. "If it helps, it's late enough so… maybe they'll be worn out! I don't mind either way." They figured a proper introduction, rather than just exchanging names, would let them feel more than confused disdain towards Elio's friends. Sure, they knew Elio himself was energetic, so it made sense his friends would be the same. But, there was a time and a place for everything. And finals season was not the time to be messing around.
After ensuring no belongings were left behind, Cam and Anissa popped in on the boys (and Aeri), extending their invitation. Addie skipped over to Cam's lovingly dubbed frog-mobile while Anissa figured out semantics, giggling relentlessly when Elio agreed to be someone's seatbelt.
The drive towards their favorite local diner was filled with some small talk about artists and music, which Addie filtered out in her tired state. Her interest was piqued by the mention of K-pop, but she already knew Elio was into it, so she returned to staring out the window and kicking her feet.
The neon lights of Extra Fries pierced through the dim night as Cam expertly parked the car, and the persistent sizzle of food welcomed the group of college kids.
"Oh, Nikki~" Aeri sang after spotting her favorite Extra Fries staff, Nikki.
The sound of skates approached their group. "Hey, where've you guys been? Eyy, you brought friends!" Nikki stuck a friendly hand out, moving down the boys' line for handshakes before turning back to the rest of them. "Hey, don't think I forgot about you. You skip visits for a couple weeks and you think you're not getting one of these?" Before they knew it, Cameron all but disappeared into Nikki's arm in a warm, enveloping hug. His attention turned to Aeri. "You in or not?"
Aeri bounced energetically on her toes. "If I run straight at you, will you catch me?" she asked, batting her lashes at the admittedly very muscular man in front of them.
"Well, I'm not holdin' coffee this time, so do it." She leapt energetically into his arms, spinning in a giddy spiral and laughing the whole while, before disentangling and returning to the group.
After Aeri's safe return to solid ground, Nikki's aunt Camilla came bustling out of the kitchen with nothing but energy, despite the late hour. "Is that who I think it is? Cammy!"
Camilla (cough, Mia) proceeded to worry about Cam, pinching cheeks and giving warm hugs the whole while, before Anissa gently reminded everyone they were there for takeout.
Cam took that reminder as encouragement. "I want… the Big One."
"NO." A chorus of stern admonishment rippled through the group, save for the boys.
"Hold on, is this some kind of secret menu situation? What's the Big One?" Elio inquired enthusiastically, wide-eyed.
Nikki sighed, much to Aeri's amusement. "It's the greatest mistake on our green earth is what it is."
Anissa was all too happy to explain to dear Elio. "It's a burger with six veggie patties, vegan cheese between every layer, and all the fixings you can imagine."
"Well, that… almost seems manageable?"
Elio's dreams were promptly dashed by Nikki. "It also comes with about five pounds of waffle potatoes."
Addie dramatically sighed. "Cam. I'm going to kill you if you attempt that challenge again. Y'all microwaved waffle fries for days after. They were SOGGY."
They looked with fervent longing in their sparkling lilac eyes at Addie, but she refused to budge. Cam sighed wistfully. "Aw, alright then. Let's just order the usual." Addie: 1, Cam: 0.
After Mia noted down their orders with extreme, nearly frightening speed, Addie followed Anissa, Cam, Deja, and Elio over to the strength test machine.
"I'll show you how it's done!" Elio exclaimed, all too excited. "Oh, unless—anyone else? You're not going to want to go after me, I promise." He looked around in anticipation.
"Pass. I'll end up breaking my nails," Deja remarked, while Anissa gracefully strode up to the machine, inserted a quarter, then kicked the absolute shit out of the machine.
"Anissa, what the hell!" Cam laughed, while Elio fought to keep a straight face. That boy was about as obvious as the sun he was named after.
Poor lover boy was saved from Addie's ribbing by Mia. "Hey, kids! Order up!"
Said kids gratefully followed the enticing scent of their food, grabbing paper bags and floating back to the frog-mobile. Instead of heading back to campus, Cam elected to take everyone to Halfpoint: what better way to conclude a lengthy study session than with takeout and a lovely view of the night sky?
After setting up in the back of Cam's car, the group of tired students gratefully sat down and opened their takeout bags. Addie took this moment to actually see who they had been "studying" with… if kicking them out to another room even counted as studying together. Her eyes flitted from person to person. There was Elio, who she'd known all too well from dance… a pale personage with light flowing hair and emerald eyes… and a pretty stranger with alluring brown eyes and beautiful dark hair pulled away from their face.
She gasped dramatically, a finger pointed accusingly at the suspiciously familiar, fine-ass guy. "YOU. YOU'RE THE GUY."
Said fine-ass guy coughed, covering their mouth with a napkin. "I'm the what?"
Aeri lit up, clapping in recognition. "You mean the fine-a—"
Addie could not have shoved their hand in Aeri's face any faster. "NO!" they all but screamed.
Anissa blinked as she processed the interaction. "Wait, you ran into Percy at the state competition?" She looked over as Addie had their head in their hands.
Oh, so his name was Percy? Like… Percy Jackson? Addie thought, before shaking herself out of her thoughts.
"Oh. Oh." The fine-ass guy, now named Percy, snapped his fingers in understanding.
Elio looked between Addie and Percy, almost alarmed. "So you… know Percy already?"
A sardonic laugh was heard in response. "Knowing is too generous of a term. He crashed into me at state right before we were up." She glanced over at Percy. "You never told anyone?"
Percy at least had the decency to look embarrassed. "Man, what was I gonna say? 'Yeah, Elio, when I went to go support your performance, I crashed into someone. Bonked heads and everything.'"
"Yes…?" Addie trailed off in a question. "My friends were watching, so obviously I had to explain!"
He groaned. "Nooo… I'll never live this down." It was his turn to drop his head into his hands as Elio dug an elbow into his side.
"You should've told me! You know I'm tight with the dance crew, man."
Addie raised an eyebrow, knowing damn well he just wanted to be closer to Anissa, but she was much too tired to expose him.
Feeling a tap on her arm, Addie turned over to Percy Ja—just Percy. His head was dipped down slightly, his hands clasped together. "Hey, seriously. I'm sorry with what happened, especially since you were about to compete."
She waved a hand. "Don't worry about it. Obviously, I got a kick out of it, and so did the rest of the team. It's no harm done, and besides, we won~"
Percy smiled gratefully. "Yeah, I saw. Didn't know that was you up there with Elio, though. You all did great."
Addie placed a hand on their forehead, feigning outrage. "Don't tell me you'd rather have watched me instead of your boy Elio!"
Thankfully, he took the joke well. "Man, no way. I was watching the whole team perform. Of course I'd always be there for him, just like he would with me, right, Elio?" He lightly jabbed Elio with his elbow to absolutely no response. "… Elio?"
Giggling, Addie leaned in closer to whisper conspiratorially to Percy. "You didn't hear this from me, but… they're probably not listening to us. In their own little world, you know?"
He shot them a mischievous smirk. "Oh, boy, he sure will be hearing about this later then."
"Aw, don't tease him too hard… I take it back. Elio is so painfully obvious and doesn't even know it." She rolled her eyes. "Maybe he'll finally stop pining after her with those big puppy-dog eyes."
"Nah, if I know him, the pleading eyes won't stop."
Addie and Percy lost track of time in their back-and-forth banter (particularly about their friends, who needed to get together already) as they finished up their late night takeout. The rest of the night was spent in companionable conversation as the two friend groups intertwined.
I think I wouldn't mind seeing Mr. Fuckass Guy again, Addie thought.