Another school year over. Freddy was excited for the summer, especially to take his SUMMER CLASSES that he enrolled for. He was also excited to be able to hang out with his friends regularly now.

Which was part of the problem. He hadn’t talked to Red since March, unless commenting on every single one of his social media posts counted as talking to him.

He knew he was being pathetic, but part of him hoped that Red enjoyed that about him.

“Girl, I swear to god if you’re sitting there looking at that man’s Instagram right now,” Victor exclaimed, looking over at Freddy slumped over on the couch looking at something on his phone longingly.

Freddy sighed, “I’m not a perfect person Victor. I can’t just be so nonchalant like you.” He wished so badly that he could be nonchalant, but that just wasn’t in the cards for him.

“You’re a DEVIL! You’re too cool to be hung up on masc dl trade.” It was true, Freddy knew that, but it didn’t stop him.

Freddy got an idea. “What if I try to not talk to him until he talks to me first?”

Victor snorted, “That’s never gonna happen.”

“What, why?” Freddy perked up.

“Because you’re too sad to not text him, and he’s too busy doing whatever the hell he does to even think about you, no offense.” Victor didn’t even look up from his laptop as he said it.

What the hell does Red even do? Maybe if Freddy found out, he could accidentally run into Red, and then Red would have no choice but to talk to him.

Yes, that sounded like a good idea. A really good idea, even…

---

Freddy had somehow convinced Victor and Ellsworth to go with him to Alpha Epsilon Phi, a Jewish frat that Red frequented. He conveniently left out the fact that Red loved going there when he asked Victor and Ellsworth to join him, but it was better that way.

As the group walked towards the very ugly fraternity house, Freddy started to feel nervous. What if Red wasn’t there? What if he didn’t even acknowledge Freddy? Was this whole trip all for nothing?

It didn’t matter, because if that was the case then Freddy was ready to drink so much that Red would be the last thing on his mind.

“Fred, why’d you drink so much at the pre? Are you nervous?” Ellsworth asked.

Fuck, they were catching onto him.

“I just really wanna have a good time tonight.” Freddy blurted out, and he realized how slurred his words were. Maybe he shouldn’t have had that much.

The group went down the stairs to the basement of AEPI, and Freddy quickly remembered why he hated going to frat parties. The music was way too loud, the song playing wasn’t even good, and there was a sea of drunken people and mascots right at the bottom step.

What the hell did he just sign up for?

Freddy looked around, trying his best to spot Red in the crowd. It was AEPI’s end of the year party, he had to be there. He loved AEPI.

Victor eyed him suspicously. “You looking for some dl trade?”

Freddy rolled his eyes back and scoffed, “Is that what you take me for?”

“Yes.”

Well, he really couldn’t argue with that.

Freddy decided he needed to be drunker for this, and went over to the giant gatorade cooler in the corner that he was really hoping wasn’t full of gatorade.

As he broke away from his friends to get to the cooler, he suddenly felt two hands on his shoulders.”

“LITTLE DEVIL!” He heard in his ears. Bingo.

Freddy quickly turned around and saw Red standing right in front of him, swaying. Double bingo.

“Red! I didn’t know I’d run into you here!” He said like a fucking liar.

Red let out a laugh. Not one of his fake, talking to a new person laughs. No, he let out a real, belly laugh that made Freddy blush a little bit just at the sound.

God, he really was down bad.

“You’re grabbing some of Red’s famous juice?” Jesus Christ, he named a drink after himself?

Freddy laughed, “Yeah, I guess so.”

“You’ll enjoy it, trust me.” Yeah, Freddy was really positive he would enjoy some of Red’s famous juice.

---

Freddy woke up in the car with the worst headache he had ever had in his life.

Victor looked over at him and scoffed, “Wow, you’re finally awake.”

Freddy looked around, “What time is it? Where are we?”

Ellsworth handed him a water bottle. “We found you on the road outside of AEPI. What the hell happened to you last night?”

Victor spoke up before Freddy got the chance. “Oh, I’ll fucking tell you what happened. You ABANDONED us last night for some MASC DL TRADE!” He yelled.

Freddy flinched at his volume and drank some of the water.

“Where’s my phone?”

Ellsworth handed it to him, “Here, I charged it for you.”

The first thing Freddy did was check his texts. He did this because he saw he had a message from Red that was sent at noon. It was 4 pm.

God damnit.