"You okay?" I asked, frowning.

Rob sighed. "I need a drink – maybe two hundred. So sorry, love." He pulled me into his chest and hugged me. "Blimey – Rach was so wound up," he said as he kissed the top of my head. "I'm pretty pissed off. It's your birthday. I don't know what she thinks she's playing at."

"Oh," I said, also feeling like a bit of a jerk for assuming the worst. When he let me go, I passed him my beer. "Have the rest of this. I have a whole table of drinks."

Tricia appeared beside us with another round of shots. "Rob, you look like you could use a good stiff drink." She passed him a shot glass of clear liquid. "No lemon or salt – we'll take it like the big girls we all are," she said, winking at both of us and tipping back her shot. "Do you want to open my presents before you get too drunk to appreciate them?"

I grinned and put the arm that wasn't around Rob, around her. "Is it possible for me to get too drunk to appreciate them?"

She took my arm and dragged me back to the table and watched as I unwrapped a screen printed t-shirt with a picture of Barbie and the name of the biggest strip club in Ottawa. I laughed and threw it on over the bar shirt I'd put on after coming back from the puppies. The second present was some English Breakfast Tea, and the third one was a homemade book of the one hundred reasons she was glad she had me for a roommate.

Tears pooled in my eyes as I scanned through the scrapbook that she'd made. "Tricia!" I said through tears. "This is – thank you. I wish I wasn't so drunk. I think I might start crying." I wiped away the few tears that leaked out.

She gave me a big hug. "You deserve it – really. You're awesome." Then she whispered in my ear, "And that Tim guy is way hotter in this lighting – is that wrong that I think he's hot?"

I pulled back and tried to look her in the eyes, but I couldn't focus properly. "One word Tricia – no."

She turned her head to the side and said, "It's so wrong it's right? That's what I'm hearing." She gave me a pouty face which she only ever did when she was drinking. "Just introduce me. That's it."

"Ugh," I moaned. I turned to Rob and said, "Tricia wants to meet Tim. Do you want to come over and meet him or..." I trailed off.

He leaned forward and gave me a quick kiss. "I'm going to go see a man about a dog," he said, putting down his drink.

"What?" I asked, scanning the place for a dog.

He laughed. "Toilets. I'm going to the loo."

"Oh," I said, my shoulders falling. "I thought you'd arranged for more dogs. I got excited."

He grinned and kissed me again. "Back in a tic."

I turned to Tricia and gave her a hopeful look. "You changed your mind?"

She shook her head. I took a swig of my beer and wandered over to where Tim was talking to other members of the swim team. I introduced Tricia around, purposefully leaving Tim until last.

Once she was deep into flirting with Tim, I turned to find Rob again. As I turned to leave, Tim grinned at me like the Chesire cat and I rolled my eyes. I doubled back to the drinks table and ran into Faith.

"Hey – where's Paul and his friend? I wanted to meet him," I said, taking another drink off the table.

Faith sighed. "Talking to Lark – still."

"What?" I asked, looking back over my shoulder to see her sitting in a booth with both of them playing quarters, the drinking game. "Do you want me to go get her?"

"No, it's fine. She's actually funny, and I think she's zeroed in on Matias," Faith said, waving me off. "It's your party, you don't need to be policing her. I think she must be one of those girls who is all talk, you know?" she asked, taking a sip of her drink.

"She does like to talk," I conceded, but deep down I wondered how much action she was getting that I knew nothing about. She'd called me the morality police more than once this semester.

Rob came up beside me, beer in hand. "Having a good time?" he asked.

Faith gave him a forced smile. "Lark's got a lot of jokes."

Rob laughed and looked over at the table where Lark sat with Paul and Matias. "Some of them are actually quite funny."

I rolled my eyes. "I think her specialty is guy humor." I looked over at the door and saw Mark, Katie, Ashley and Coach Burton walking into the pub. "I'll be right back," I said, heading over to thank them for coming.

Once I'd told them how much I appreciated them showing up and Coach Burton offered me a drink I declined, he looked at Mark and Ashley with a grim expression.

"Now's not the time – I appreciate that – but, I've caught wind of something Liz, and I'd really like to have a chat about your experience on the varsity team." He looked over my head. "You too, Faith. I'd be really interested to hear how both of you are finding the team this year."

My stomach dropped as I looked at Ashley's and Mark's faces. I was pretty sure I knew what Coach Burton had caught, and anxiety bloomed again in my chest.

"Sure, Coach," Faith said from behind me in a breezy voice. "Whatever you need."

I glanced over my shoulder at her, sure that my eyes must be bugging out of my head. "Yeah," I agreed before turning back. "Just let us know when you want to see us. Please God, not tomorrow."

Coach laughed and patted my shoulder. "No, not tomorrow. But, soon. Before you leave for the holidays for sure."

I nodded and then gestured over my shoulder. "I have to get back to my boyfriend. Thanks so much for coming and thanks for canceling practice. That was – really generous."

Coach smiled. "It seemed easier than blowing a gasket that it was your birthday. Everyone needs to let loose a bit before exams anyway." He moved around me towards the bar.

I stood there for a moment with Ashley, Mark, and Katie without saying anything. Finally, I said, "He wants to talk to me about what I think he wants to talk to me about?"

Ashley grimaced. "Yeah, it's about that. We had to tell him. Too many people were starting to ask questions, and we were starting to get worried."

"Does he know what we did?" I asked, keeping an eye on him at the bar.

"Yes," Ashley said confidently.

"No," Mark admitted at the same time.

"Mark!" Ashley said, hitting him in the arm. "Why didn't you tell him? We agreed to come clean."

I had a feeling I knew exactly why he hadn't come clean, but I didn't want to get involved in this discussion. "I'm heading over there – I hope you guys have a good time. I'll chat with you later," I said, talking over the top of their heated exchange.

If Coach was here, it must be getting quite late. I really wished my watch wasn't so blurry. I found Rob and leaned into his shoulder. He kissed the top of my head and wrapped one arm around me as he continued to chat with Anil and Josh.

"You feeling alright there, Lizziekins?" Josh asked before chugging another beer. He had this uncanny ability to open his gullet and practically swallow a beer whole. Every time he did it, my jaw hit the floor. I didn't know how that much liquid went down a throat so fast.

"Yeah, just getting tired," I admitted, yawning.

Rob laughed. "She's cream crackered." He gave me a squeeze and when I looked up, he dropped a kiss on my lips. "I still quite like being able to do that."

"If I wasn't so drunk, I'd be getting out my translation book." I mimed flipping through the pages and searching for an answer.

"Cream crackered is knackered which is tired," Anil explained patiently. "The amount of time you two spend together should have made you fluent in Rob by now."

"I think sometimes he just uses new words to frustrate me," I admitted and looked up at him. His face was alive with amusement, and I knew I was right.

"Who is Tricia talking to?" Josh asked. When I turned to look at him, I knew how much it cost him to ask me that. It must be killing him. He and Tricia spent a lot of time together too, but she was adamant that she wasn't going to, as Lark always put it, shit where she eats. Josh was out of luck for anything more than a couple random drunk kisses.

"That's Tim from my swim team," I said, feeling terrible when I looked at how she was close talking with him. "He's a flirt," I tried to clarify, but then I wondered if I was making it worse.

"Where's Lark going?" Anil asked, nodding towards the door.

I unwrapped myself from Rob and turned to see her disappearing out the door with Matias. I shook my head. "Her boyfriend arrives in two days," I said, as though that explained why she was leaving the bar with some random guy.

"Right," Anil said, laughter in his voice. "Of course that explains why she's all over guys in bars all the time."

I shrugged. "Where's Tom?"

All three guys went silent, avoided looking at me, and took a drink from their beers.

"Where's Tom?" I repeated, annoyed.

"He went back to rez. Jill was upset after her meeting with Lark and all those other people," Josh said, finally explaining their weirdness.

"Oh," I said, surprised and unsurprised at the same time. Lark had said it was like a bomb going off, but even still it made me a little sad. "I wonder what's going to happen."

"If they're going to fight that viciously, and I heard it's been pretty vicious sometimes, the school can't make them stay in the same room. I wouldn't be surprised if someone had to switch," Anil said, putting his drink on the table. "Anyone want a drink for last round?"

I shook my head. Tricia was still flirting with Tim. How could they possibly have this much in common?

"I think I'm done," I said, gazing up at Rob. "I just wanna go back to my room and collapse."

"As you wish," he said, kissing the top of my head. I checked in with Tricia and then headed back to the residence. I was not looking forward to sorting out all of my problems in the morning.

As we walked back to our residence, I mentally listed off all the things I still didn't know. I had no idea why Rachel had been so upset with Rob; I didn't know exactly what the Coach was going to ask me about the team; Lark seemed to be cheating on her boyfriend just before he arrived; Lark wanted Cal stashed in Rob's room; Lark and Jill were on the outs and Tricia looked like she was about to hook up with Tim right in front of Josh. My head pounded, and I wondered whether a hangover was already setting in or if it was from my overly dramatic life.

Author's Note:

Why do you think Mark didn't tell the coach the truth? Do you think Lark hooked up with Matias? How would you solve the roommate issues?