[Image Caption: Koda and Sebastian in Nick's dorm room.]

When I wake up in the morning, I’m not fortunate enough to be in the same cozy position. I'm hanging out of bed, while Koda is flipped over and curled up against the wall.

I decide to get up since it’s nearing noon. I feel pretty okay, but I'm sure Koda is going to be a wreck. I decide to duck out for a bit and grab us some food. He'll need something carby and greasy when he wakes up.

As I move down the hallway, I see Corinne in the lounge with some of the girls. I hold a hand up and wave at them, but don't stop to chat. I wonder if she's seen Samir at all lately.

I head down into the cafeteria and take my time deciding what to eat since I doubt Koda is even remotely conscious yet. I end up grabbing some burgers and a couple bottles of water.

Back in my room, Koda's eyes are open and his brow is furrowed.

"Headache?" I ask.

"Yup," he says flatly.

I set the food on my nightstand and then open a drawer, getting some painkillers for him. "Here," I say.

He sits up, wincing the entire time. He takes two, grabs the water I brought, and downs them.

I decide not to say anything to him about last night. One, because he would probably be mortified to know how he acted, and two, on the off chance he's still feeling sensitive about me "babysitting" him or whatever. I wouldn't want to reignite those emotions. I'll just make sure to let him do whatever the fuck he wants in the future. Jesus, if I had known he was going to pitch such a fit, I wouldn't have hassled him at all. It's just more work for me anyhow. Worst-case scenario I can just hand him over to the student health center.

I eat my lunch. Koda works on his slowly. I wonder if he'll get sick.

"Does your stomach hurt?" I ask.

"I think I'm alright," he says, but he's abandoned his burger so I'm unsure if he's telling the truth.

I don't know what to do now. There will be more parties this week, but I doubt Koda will be up for it. Then again, he'll probably be annoyed if I suggest we stay in my dorm instead. If he fucks himself up enough times, maybe he'll start to learn his lesson. It sounds harsh, but what else am I supposed to do?

He stands up slowly, eyebrows drawn together. "Ugh…" he murmurs. He kneels by his overnight bag, digging out pyjama pants. He changes into them, ditching the jeans he had on last night for something more comfortable.

He sits back on my bed against the pillow, slowly sipping on the bottle of water.

"Y'know what?" he mumbles to me.

I stare at him. "What?"

"Let's just… get day drunk," he says. "Alcohol cures hangovers, right? A little hair of the dog?"

I smile somewhat wearily. I don't have any hard liquor, but Tyler and I do have a few crappy beers inside our mini-fridge. I stand up and walk to the corner of my room with the fridge, grabbing a couple of generic cans and tossing them onto my bed. Koda cracks one open and starts sipping on it.

"How is it?" I ask.

"S'fine," Koda replies, but he's making a face, so I can tell they taste nasty. Whatever, at least they're cold.

I open one too, but I don't intend to drink this garbage. I just want to eat the rest of my lunch.

I feel bad for Koda. He looks like he's in a pretty sore state. I don't know what's going on with him these days.

"Man, Koda, are you sure you're alright lately?" I ask him.

He side-eyes me. "I'm totally fine, Nick. You know I get pissy when I'm drunk, so… for that, sorry. I know I can get annoying to deal with."

"It's fine, dude, I don't give a fuck," I insist. "I'm just glad you're okay.”

But is he? I don't fucking know. He used to be such a fun drunk, but now he’s always overdoing it.

I finish the rest of my burger and down some more water. I take a sip of the beer I cracked open, and, boy, is it ever foul.

We end up lying around my room all afternoon watching old TV shows on Netflix. It's nice not to have homework to worry about. Everything about college is such a rush, but right now, all we're doing is sprawling out on my floor and wasting time until tonight.

Tyler pops in and out, giving me a funny look each time. I wonder if he thinks we fucked last night. God, I hope not.

He didn't know Koda was going to be staying over again. I probably should have mentioned it to him.

Eventually, the evening rolls around, and Koda starts to seem better. I'm unsure if it's because we rested or we've been drinking all day. Either way, I'm glad to see him peppier.

We watch some sitcom Koda likes. It's kind of stupid, but it's all right. We both have a dumb sense of humour. I want him to be in a good mood for tonight. He's so damn hard on himself sometimes.

We both manage to down a few beers. They’re totally gnarly and hard to swallow, but I don't want to be the only sober one here.

"Down for a party later or wanna chill out here?" I ask.

"Uh…" he trails off, rubbing his stubbly chin. "Dunno. Guess we can go to a party."

"Okay, cool.”

"If you want to," he adds.

"I want to," I tell him, but I guess it's nice he's also thinking about what I want.

I type out a text message to Corinne asking if she knows where the party is tonight. If she doesn't, she'll ask someone else for me. There's always someone in our group who knows where to look.

About a half an hour later Corinne gets back to me. Apparently there's a dorm party being hosted in one of the buildings across campus. It's not as convenient as I would have liked but that's fine. I guess it makes sense that the frat houses would be busy cleaning up after last night.

"Dorm party," I say, handing Koda my phone.

"Nice," he sounds excited, "Those are always more fun."

"Yeah, seriously," I agree.

Still, I don't want to drink much tonight. I think I'll just get high before heading out. I like it more than being drunk. Koda will probably chastise me for it, but I don't give a fuck. If he doesn't want me prying into his life, then he shouldn't pry into mine. 

If I see Corinne tonight, I'll ask her about Samir. She must've seen him around. She'll be able to tell me if he's okay. Then I can finally drop it. I can tell Koda is getting annoyed. He keeps calling me obsessive, but I'm not. I'm concerned. I'm too soft for my own damn good. I want everyone to be happy, and it sucks when they're not.

"I'm gonna go to the caf and grab us some more food," I tell him. "You can play around on my computer or keep watching Netflix."

He nods his head.

"Whatcha feel like eating?" I ask.

"Uh… whatever," he says. "I'm not fussy."

I nod my head and then head out again. I'm glad the cafeteria stays open during spring break for losers who don't go anywhere. If not, I'd be scarfing down Mr. Noodles daily since there isn’t a kitchen in the dorms.

I decide to go for a vegetable plate and some fish. Healthy, right? 

"Thanks," Koda tells me when I get back to my room and hand him a plate of food.

"Sebastian texted me when you were out. He said he had liquor, so I invited him to come by—I hope that's okay," Koda says with a mouthful of fish.

"That's fine," I nod. "Leave it to Sebastian."

"I know, right?" he concurs.

Eventually, Sebastian shows up with a bottle of Polar Ice. Ugh. I really won't be drinking now. It's some of the cheapest shit, so I get why people buy it, but it's rank. Koda looks pleased, though. I guess this is good enough for him.

"Pre-party?" Sebastian asks, sitting with Koda on my bed. He's eyeing all the empty beer cans.

"A little bit," Koda says.

When Koda’s done scarfing his food, he and Sebastian take turns passing the vodka back and forth. I sit at my desk and eat slowly. Watching them drink that shit straight makes me wanna vom. 

"Tasty?" I ask.

"Not particularly," Sebastian says. He snorts and then asks, "So, Koda, gonna get trashed again tonight?"

Koda looks annoyed. "Shut up, man."

"Just wondering." 

Thankfully, he doesn't mention anything about me being mothering or whatever the hell he said to set Koda off last night. I'm not planning on going down that road today and I'd like to stay as far away from it as possible.

Sebastian doesn't have the best track record with alcohol either, to be honest. He can be blunt, and it pisses people off. He's never exactly wrong, but always shit no one wants to hear. He's too fucking matter-of-fact, and people aren't ready to have their personalities critiqued when they've already had five drinks. It's kind of a shocker that he and Koda are even friends, especially since Koda is so uptight. Then again, it's probably circumstantial since they had a physics course together.

Soon, night time approaches, and the sun is long set. They're still passing the vodka back and forth, but it's getting low. 

"Are you guys ready? I'm ready to go," I ask.

Koda hands the bottle of liquor to Sebastian, who screws the cap back on.

"You guys go on without me," he says dismissively, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I'm going to head back to my room."

It takes a particular type of guy to down half a fifth of booze and then choose to go hang out by himself. I guess this was enough social contact for him. He might make an appearance later on, but probably not. For all I know, he could return to his room and start reading or something.

Koda doesn't bother changing, and neither do I. So, after slipping on our sneakers, we head down to the party wearing sweatpants and T-shirts. I'm pretty sure half of the other students will be dressed similarly.

Crappy dance music is playing when we arrive. Typical. Koda gets a beer from the kitchen while I try to find my cousin. I glance around a bit, but I don't see her. Maybe she isn't around yet. It's still early, after all.

I spot a few girls I fooled around with in the past. I give them somewhat awkward waves, not wanting to act like a dick. I also see Gabe, which is a bit of a surprise. He's standing in the corner talking to a taller blonde girl who I've seen around campus before but don't know the name of. I kind of want to say hi, but I'm not sure how to. I feel like it would be awkward.

A moment later, Koda reappears with a beer in hand. He gives Gabe a quick glance up and down when he notices me staring, then smiles at me snidely. "You're not going to disappear on me, are you?" He waggles his eyebrows at me.

I chuckle. "No, I don't think so. That was so long ago, and we've barely talked since then."

"That's too bad," Koda says, but he looks secretly satisfied. I think he's probably glad I'm not going to ditch him.

We end up in a game room and play a few rounds of pool. We end up gathering a bit of attention. I'm pretty good at pool, but Koda sucks, and it's even worse now that he's drunk. He doesn't seem bothered by everyone laughing at his horrible aim. He's laughing along with them. It's actually kind of nice to see him like this again. 

After pool, we head back into the kitchen for more drinks. So much for not getting crazy. We're both so trashed we can barely stand and act like total fools. Koda is telling some story as he hangs off my shoulder, but half of what's coming out of his mouth sounds like nonsense. That alone is funny, so he's got me cracking up.

Corinne appears with her girlfriends sometime after midnight. "You look like you're feeling good," she says, crossing her arms.

"Corinne—" I start, putting a hand on her arm, but I lose my train of thought halfway through.

"Yeah?" she laughs, urging me to continue.

I stare at her momentarily, trying to remember what I was saying.

"Right! Where’s Samir?"

"Oh God, not that again," Koda drones in my ear. "Let it go Nick. Let. It. Gooooo."

"No." I put a hand over his mouth and try to continue. "I mean it—why does no one know where he is? Why doesn't he come to parties? I wanna see him."

The girl who’s standing off to Corinne's left stifles a chuckle.

"What're you laughing at?" Koda sneers, even though the chuckle is clearly directed at me.

"Your friend," she tells him, not swayed by his attitude. 

"He's in his room," Corinne says to me finally. "He's been taking it easy lately. I think his parents are cracking down."

I narrow my eyes at he. I'm trying to figure out if she's lying or not… but I can't. How the hell would I?

"I'm serious," she tells me. "He's fine, so stop worrying about it. I called his brother to check on him, too. So, drop it. Samir would be really annoyed if he knew you were getting your underwear shoved up your ass about this. I'm pretty sure he wants to forget his indiscretion and move on with his life."

"Well, he involved me, so I wanted him to tell me how it fucking ended," I mutter sourly.

"He probably didn't want to get you involved," Corinne snorts. "He had no choice, really. He just wanted to know what happened. The trail led him to you."

"Yeah?" I say with a shrug. "So, he shoulda let me know he got it sorted. I was worrying, man! Any person would've been worrying…"

"Samir's brain doesn't work that way," Corinne explains to me. "He doesn't really care about what other people are thinking."

"What a selfish dick," Koda mumbles.

"That's Samir for yah," Samantha agrees, but her tone is affectionate.

"I guess it wasn't my business…" I relent.

"It really wasn't," Corinne agrees, "At all."

"Whatever!" Koda says with finality, attempting to separate himself from the support of my shoulder and almost falling over in the process, "Why're we spending all our time thinkin' about someone who isn't here and wouldn't even want us to be thinkin' about'm?"

I guess he's got a point there.

"C'mon, Nick," he continues, "I don't wanna talk about Samir anymore."