College is weird. Legs scrunched close to the coffee table, Arnold leaned forward from the couch, his pen meticulously dragging across the parchment beneath it. He was writing the kind of document where handwriting really, really mattered, so he had to be careful. It was a good thing he was practiced.
For a moment, he found his attention being torn from his work as he heard the lock on the door roll over. His roommate Collin entered their shared apartment, his Quidditch equipment still on after practice. “Hey, Red,” the muscular young man smiled good-naturedly. “What are you up to?”
“Oh, just writing a letter,” he said casually, putting it aside for now. “How was practice?”
“Great,” Collin grinned, lightly swinging his Beater’s bat around him. “We’ve got a serious chance at the championship this year, I can feel it.”
“Cool,” Arnold nodded. “Hey, do you know if Desiree’s still planning on coming over later? Jake mentioned it, but I wasn’t sure if….” He trailed off, noticing a strange look on his roommate’s face. Their whole situation was intrinsically weird, since his roommate’s girlfriend had sorta turned out to be his sister, but they’d gotten used to it. “What?”
“Des, uh, broke up with me,” Collin confessed. “She left me for someone else.”
“What?” Arnold marveled. “Who?”
The door burst open behind Collin, and their third roommate, Smitty, entered in his characteristic cheery manner. Collin rolled his eyes and gestured to their stoner friend.
“Oh my god,” the redhead uttered. “You’re dating Desiree now?”
Smitty’s grin widened. “Yup. Datin’ your sister.” He headed toward his room, and as Arnold’s arm moved up for his hand to run incredulously through his hair, Smitty reached over and high-fived it.
His exist was punctuated by his shutting bedroom door, and the other two guys were quiet for a moment. “...Well, that’s weird,” Arnold said at last.
Collin laughed. “Yeahhh. I mean, it is what it is, right? Anyway, I’m gonna go stash my stuff and hop in the shower.”
“Hey, wait one second.” Collin stopped and looked at him. “Is that a new broom?”
Collin glanced at the broom in his hand, as if to check. “Oh, yeah. Just got it. Newest model they had. Why?”
Arnold grabbed his pen back and a scrap edge of parchment. “What’s the model?”