Freshmen Dorms

Seth glanced up at Ashton wiht a grin. Ashton, clearly catching onto Antonio's wink, threw him a sour look.

"So, anyways," he said hastily, making a note to strangle his brother later, "Lola, we were trying to figure out how to show Jesse a fun time because he's only here for tonight."

"And we can't really stay out, it's supposed to get colder, maybe even snow tonight," Evelyn added from her human prison.

"Hmmm, well. It is cold, there are a lot of cafe's and stuff we can go to that have music and such. There's always the club scene, I would say walking around Times Square and stuff but its pretty cold to do that. The Wax Museum is still open I think, FAO Schwartz, Fifth Avenue we can go shopping. Anywhere you want, I'm just trying to think of stuff that will keep us out of the cold really." Lola said going over places in her head, this was New York they really could do anything.

At the mention of FAO Schwarz, both Seth and Evelyn grinned.

Damn, things were so different back then, Evelyn reflected, shifting weight from one foot to another, but then simply settled for leaning back against Jake again. For one thing, my roomie didn't think I was a slut.

Evelyn highly doubted she'd ever talk about what had gone down in Vegas with Alexis.

"I doubt Jesse wants to go shopping," Ashton said with a slight grin. "Hmm, yeah, the cafes around Greenwich are pretty cool. Some of the music students that go to NYU show up and have open mic nights too."

"We should get Luke to come along," Evelyn spoke up. "He told me he plays at a few cafes part-time and he'd like an open mic night."

"Some of them are Spoken Word," Seth added, smirking. He glanced at Antonio. "We should totally do the beatbox rap thing." Ashton, remembering Vegas, laughed.

Antonio looked at Ashlee and grinned, "And watch Ashlee out rap Seth under the table? That would be epic."

Ashlee laughed, "Dats right! I wear the crown in dis bitch." She said throwing her fingers up in a peace symbol.

Lola and Jake laughed at Ashlee, "God I still can't believe I missed that." Jake said, as he remembered just what was happening when that had went down.

"Ash rapping? Now this I have to see." Jesse grinned.

"She's good," Seth acknowledged. He winked at Ashlee. "How about a duet tonight for the sake of our two seconds of marriage?"

Ashton laughed and then reached over and tapped Lola's arm. "Hey, feel free to sit down. We're not contagious."

"Yeah, I never got to see that," Evelyn exclaimed. "Geez, Ash, you think you know somebody!"

Seth glanced over at Jake, about to say something, and suddenly remembered he'd invited James over. He hesitated and then figured James wouldn't really care if Jake and Evelyn were being all "lovey dovey". Sort of, anyway.

"I never knew Luke could beatbox like that," he said, instead. "You lil town folks clearly know a thing or two." Simply to annoy Evelyn, he grinned at her. "And everyone knows you're hardly untalented, Red."

Evelyn wiggled free one arm from under Jake's arms and flipped off Seth. "You should really quit while you're ahead."

Lola sat down on the arm rest of the couch and leaned over to Ashton, "I don't know sometimes I fear I might catch whatever diseases Seth's mind."

"In my defense I was pretty drunk when I was rapping, so who knows if I'll even be that good again. And Seth our rap duo was dynamic we should have gotten ourselves a record deal after Vegas." Ashlee snorted.

"Seth doesn't understand that concept in his mind, because in his world. Everything is rainbows, butterflies, and alcohol." Jake smirked.

"If sexiness is a disease, then I'm down to die from it," Seth retorted to Lola before Ashton could say anything.

Ashton shook his head. "Oh, speaking of Seth-diseases, you should see Seth's artwork," he said to Lola and Ashlee.

Seth smirked over at Jake. "Yeah, that's what I call provocative art."

Ashton got off the arm rest of the single seater and gestured for the girls to follow him, stepping into the hallway that led to the dorm bedrooms.

"I want to see this but I am somehow afraid," Evelyn said, noting Seth's twinkling eyes. She pulled free of Jake and followed Ashton, who was now standing beside Jake's dorm room door.

"Check it," he said with a snicker, nodding his head at the decorated door. Evelyn glanced at it - and then groaned.

Ashlee and Lola both arrived at the door.


"I think I might cry... its beautiful." Ashlee said sniffling, then nudging Evelyn, "Check out that unicorn."

Lola covered her hand with her mouth, trying to conceal her laughter. "It really isn't that bad, although I'd love to see how Jake gets this off his door. I mean it reeks masculinity." She said to Jake as he approached.

"Yes, yes. Behold my girly door. A Seth Andreasis original." Jake rolled his eyes, he couldn't believe it.

Antonio had then joined in and piped up, "At least he didn't make a wall of clear tape for you to walk into!"

Evelyn was leaning down and examining the rainbow of cusswords. "Very creative," she commented, kind of unsure who the unicorn was supposed to represent.

"Hey, think of it as a safety mechanism, Red," Seth piped up as he walked over to stand by Jake. He nudged the Spaniard. "Now you know he won't be hooking up with some other girl in here thanks to that thing." He pointed at the huge letters in the middle of the door, spelling "JAKE LURVES EVELYN".

Evelyn didn't know if she should laugh or punch Seth for his reckless commentary. She settled for a weak half-smile and edged past the crowd in the hallway to the deserted living room. She sat down by the sleeping beagle on the single-seater, shifting Nova onto her lap. She pulled her cell out of her pocket and absently flicked to her Facebook.

Ashton, meanwhile, cringed and glanced at Ashlee apologetically on Seth's behalf. "So, um, did you get the plastic wrap off your door, Tones?" he asked conversationally.

"I dunno." Antonio shrugged going back to the living room.

Ashlee just shook her head smacking Seth upside the head, "Dork."

"When are we going out!" Jake yelled bouncing back into the living room, he was kind of antsy now.

"Jake seriously you're gonna bring the dorms down." Lola said walking up behind him and smacking him upside the head.

Evelyn had found the pics Haley had uploaded. The ones of her and James back in Ash Creek.

Truth be told, right now she wasn't really aware of Jake's yelling or anything else. She was just caught in a trance, frozen as her mind flew back through millions of memories to her first kiss in the rain. Her first kiss ever, really.

If she closed her eyes right now, she could feel the icy rain sliding all over her skin, sense the goosebumps arising down her arms and back, hear the thunder crashing in her ears, feel wet clothing sticking to her skin, warm hands gripping her face and James' lips on hers.

She snapped herself out of that memory with a shudder.

And now they were planning to go back to Ash Creek. All four of them. Just like old times. Evelyn would be lying if she said she wasn't just a little afraid.

This NYC James wasn't the boy she'd fallen so hard for. But what if he went back home and turned back into that guy? What would she do then?

Evelyn suddenly felt extremely cold, even though the heating in the damn building was way too high.

She stood up, carrying Nova, and put her phone back in her pocket, turning to the door automatically. She almost felt physically sick at the memories surging through her head and she needed to get away and maybe lie down for a moment.

She was kind of tired.

Evelyn headed over to the front door, pausing by an excitable Jake, and cracked a brief grin, but it felt fake right now so she stopped. "Hey, can you open your room so I can put Nova in there? I'm gonna go, I have some stuff to do if we're going out tonight, and I'm kinda tired," she said nonchalantly.

"Okay sure, I'll come get you when we leave." Jake said going to open his door so she could set Nova in there.

"Hey I'll come with you, you guys can bond." Ashlee said to her brother and the guys as she headed to the door.

Evelyn stepped past Jake and knelt down, set Nova down in his pet bed, covering him up with his little blanket and kissed his head before standing up. "Oh, God, she's leaving Jesse with you guys?" she asked as she stopped in the doorway of Jake's room where he stood; she was mildly horrified of what Seth and Jake might do to poor Jesse.

Seth looked offended - or at least as offended as he ever could really be. "We'll entertain him," he said happily. "Plus, James is coming over later, you knwo him, I'm guessing?" he asked, grinning over at Jesse. "So we can have ourselves some testoserone-filled guy time and then meet you guys tonight, say about seven?" he asked, looking over at Ashlee.

"Sounds good to me." Ashlee said not too concerned about her own siblings well being.

"Hey I won't let anything happen to Jesse. And if Seth does anything I'll butcher his hair." Jake grinned.

"Uh oh stuck with all the idiots. I value my IQ so I guess I'll get going too." Lola snorted.

Seth gawked at Jake and placed both hands over his own head hastily, as if to cover hsi hair from anything Jake might suddenly decide to do. "Bitch," Seth growled.

Evelyn stifled a laugh and reached up on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on Jake's cheek. Well, it landed on his jaw because she really couldn't reach higher. She turned and shot Ashlee an amused grin. "Such sibling love makes me realize what I'm missing."

"Hey, don't worry about me doing anything," Seth put in cheerfully. "I'll be too busy consoling Romeo over there while he pines about the lack of Juliet for six hours." Ashton choked on a laugh and figured he'd go start up the PS3 so they had something to do.

He patted Lola's shoulder. "See you at seven." He turned and headed for the TV set.

"Bye." Lola smiled exiting the boys suite.

"Ha ha." Jake laughed and leaned down so he could plant a kiss on Evelyn's cheek. "See you later."

"Yo Juliet, let's go!" Ashlee hollered to Evelyn$

Evelyn stopped glaring and blushing at Seht's comment and followed Ashlee hastily before any more remarks were made. They accompanied Lola to the stairs adn then waved adn continued on to Evleyn's suite.

"So what's Jesse think of Seth?" Evelyn asked after Lola had gone. She took out her suite key and unlocked the door.

***

"Yo, wanna play?" Seth asked Jesse, as Ashton set up a CoD game. "Four players."

"I dunno, he seems to like him. I thought things would have gone differently. So how are things with Romeo?" Ashlee nudged, she was so glad that they were finally together.

***

"Yeah sure." Jesse said going to sit with them and play.

"Who wants to sit this out?" Seth asked Antonio and Jake. He grinned. "You can wrestle for the right to play with me, Ash and Jesse."

"Or they could just tic-tac-toe it," Ashton suggested mildly.

"That's boring," Seth exclaimed. "They should just beat each other up and the one left standing can play!"

***

Evelyn groaned as she pushed open her suite door and entered. "The star-crossed element is over. Can't we drop the Romeo-Juliet reference?" she asked, heading for her room.

"Fine, fine." Ashlee huffed following Evelyn into her room. She went and sat on her desk chair. When she noticed her laptop was open and she saw a photo of Jake and Evelyn on the photo program.

"No way! Is he wearing one of your bras? That's hilarious!" Ashlee giggled.

***

"Its okay I don't really feel like playing Tony can fill in." Jake said going to sit on the couch.

"Yeah, Jake doesn't wanna challenge me cause he knows he'll lose." Antonio said flexing.

"Ooooh, that sounds like a challenge Jake." Jesse smirked, grabbing a controller from Seth.

Jake snorted and shook his head at Antonio, "Very funny Tigger but why don't you sit down before you get hurt."

"Oh look at me now that Jake has a girlfriend he's afraid of a challenge." Antonio teased him.

"You gonna let the kid with the white hair talk to you that way? And disrespect your woman?" Jesse asked feigning offense.

"Jake's gone soft lately," Seth confided to Jesse, sitting down beside him on the ground in front of the TV. "Hell, Evelyn manages to beat the crap out of him and he lets her!"

Ashton rolled his eyes. "Nothing wrong with being mature enough not to beat up someone over a damn game," he reassured Jake. He held out his controller. "Here, I play often enough, you can have a go."

***

"Wha - oh, um..." Evelyn hadn't realized her laptop's camera program was still running. She cringed and hastily walked over, closing it. She'd delete the picture later.

Jake's tranny dress was now her background. Evelyn cringed again. "I hate him," she muttered, struggling not to grin as she hastily reset her background.

"Evelyn Irene Mathesson. Don't try and cover a smile from me! Its okay if he makes you laugh, geez we were only teasing ya." Ashlee smiled getting up.

***

Jake bit the inside of his cheek looking from the guys to Antonio, "Nah Tony can play." He said getting up to go to his room, and on his way he gave Antonio a hard punch in the stomach.

"Ommf!" Antonio grunted, keeling over. "OW! JAKE YOU RUPTURED MY STOMACH!' Antonio wailed as he rolled around on the ground.

Evelyn shook her head, and then walked over to her bed, flopping down on it and kicking off her shoes. "God, I'm freaking tired, I'm not even sure why," she murmured into her pillow. She sighed and sat up a bit. "So, Ash, um, do you still have a thing for Ashton?" she asked bluntly.

***

Seth groaned aloud and put down his controller. "Jake, for fuck's sake, dude, don't start going all emo, sappy lover on us! If i see you scribbling sonnets to Evelyn in your room like some lovesick fag, I'll personally beat you up myself!" he informed the Spaniard, annoyed.

"I'm not, I'm gonna shower!" He said calling back to Seth as he went to his room to grab a pair of clothes to change into after.

***

"Wow that's random." Ashlee really wasn't expecting that at all. As far as her crush for him it sort of faded. She really wasn't into anyone anymore. "Nah, I think it was a passing one. I'm gonna stick it out on my own for a bit."

"But you just got divorced," Evelyn stated with a grin. "Shouldn't you be screwing your lawyer or something? So he'll get you half your ex's stuff?"

***

Seth sighed and turned back to his game, starting it up. "Why he's randomly showering when we're leaving six hours later, I don't get."