I never had trouble making friends before. Okay, maybe that's a lie. I wouldn't say I made a whole lot of friends when I first moved to London. I only really had Emily and whoever I was dating at the time. Probably the main reason I hopped through so many relationships, I didn't like feeling alone every time Emily was busy.

As much as I hate to admit it, Emily probably wouldn't have even gotten so close to me if I hadn't been Derek's sister. I also wouldn't have befriended Sam or Ralph or Sally or anybody else. Derek never had trouble making friends. Seemed like a problem that only I seemed to have. Maybe I would've made more friends if I wasn't always making myself look like an idiot because of Derek though.

Okay anyways, back to the main point, I'm not great at making friends. This is why I was especially nervous coming back to Queens after deferring for the past year to work in New York. Don't get me wrong, I don't regret it. New York was a great experience but now I'm stuck joining college a year after everybody else in my grade. Worst part is, since I took a few classes at community college in New York and some online classes over the summer, I'm a sophomore.

Again, I don't mean to sound ungrateful, because I am really happy that I'll still graduate when I'm supposed to, even though I took a whole year off. But now, I'm considered a 2nd year, which means I can't live in first year housing, so I don't have the advantage of living with people who also don't know anybody else.

Well, I know one person.

Derek.

We had kept in touch while I was in New York, texting and chatting whenever one of us was free. Our schedules didn't always line up well, since I had rehearsals or classes throughout the day and he had practice at night, but that's what was great about texting, he'd respond to all my texts when he was free, and I'd respond when I was free. Also worked out a little better because it was hard to be fighting if we weren't talking to each other at the same time. The whole family had flown down to watch the show, but we didn't really talk one on one then either since I was seeing everybody all at once and only had 24 hours to spend with the entire family.

But I guess we'll make up for that time this year, considering he's the only person I know at this entire school.

Oh, and did I mention he's also my room mate?

—

Knock Knock

The door swings open, and there he is. My step brother with the biggest smirk on his face.

"Casey! Look who finally decided to stop slacking off and show up to college."

"Der-ek! I wasn't slacking, I was getting real world experience AND getting paid for it."

"Hm I don't know Spacey, sounds like slacking to me. Meanwhile I've been here working my butt off at these classes. I think we can officially decide that I'm a harder worker than you."

I rolled my eyes, trying not to give into his bait for an argument.

"Can you let me into OUR apartment now?"

He moves aside and lets me in, taking my backpack from me to "help."

"Derek, I have 3 large suitcases, and you choose to pick up the backpack?"

"Can't hurt my back, precious Hockey goods."

I pretend to be annoyed but I can't hide my smile, while I'm glad I got the experience of living in New York for a year, I had missed my family. Maybe even sort of, just a little bit, missed Derek.

"I already picked the bigger bedroom, but don't worry the other bedroom is closer to the kitchen, so you can still cook all our meals in peace."

"Der-ek!" I yell while going to see if he actually moved all his stuff in, and decide if it's worth moving all his stuff back to the smaller room, or just settling.

"Relax Casey, I figured you wanted the room with the bathroom, instead of having to use the bathroom in the hallway which all our guests are going to be using. I was doing you a favor."

"Oh- well. I guess if I had moved in first I probably would've chose that bedroom too."

When we first started looking for an apartment together, the main thing we were looking for was two bathrooms. It was kind of hard finding a 2 bedroom apartment with 2 bathrooms, but considering that was 50% of our fights back in London, and I was trying to start our friendship on a fresh basis, I knew we wouldn't be able to share a bathroom.

And Derek was actually right, I would've chosen the bedroom with it's own bathroom, even if it was the smaller of the two. I don't know what kind of stinky Hockey friends of Derek's will be coming over and using the bathroom in the hallway so it'd be easier to have my own private one.

He comes in and lays down on my bed while I'm unpacking.

"Derek if you're going to hang out in here anyways, you might as well help me unpack."

"No can do Princess, just here for the company. Anyways, I'm going to go catch up with some friends later for dinner. Did you want to join or sit here by yourself watching some boring Rom Com?"

Wait did he just willingly agree to introduce me to his friends? I thought I was going to have to wait until classes start to meet people in my classes and was prepared for a kind of lonely week ahead of me.

"Sure Derek, that sounds great, thanks."

"Okay just don't wear anything embarrassing or say anything dumb. And stay away from my guy friends, I don't need another Sam situation."

I throw my pillow at him while he's already leaving the room laughing.