“You just want to look like a bigshot, carrying everything in,” Eli says.
“I can carry the pie I made inside,” I insist, reaching for it.
“You dropped the marker Seth threw you on Sunday,” Fred deadpans. “He threw it from a foot away.”
“Everyone knows I’m clumsy once in a while. You guys have weaknesses, too.”
“I’ll never admit to that,” Seth says. “Rule number one for eligible bachelors, underclassmen: always appear confident!”
“Confident and cocky are different,” Fred says, shaking his head. “Also, you do realize you’re talking to two people in a relationship, while the two of us are still single, don’t you? And there aren’t any eligible ladies around for the two of usupperclassmento impress.”
“Must you question me, Frederick?”
“When you’re being more of an idiot than usual? Can’t resist.”
Seth turns swiftly, mouth open with some kind of sassy retort at the ready, and as if in slow-motion, I watch the pie slide across the top of the container of rolls, shooting past its edge and careening toward the ground. It hits at an angle, the plastic top popping off, chocolate pudding staining the ground. We all stop and stare at it.
“The horror,” I whisper.
“Sorry, my dude,” Seth says.
“We can still save half of it,” Fred says, bending to inspect the fallen dessert.
Eli rubs between my shoulder blades.
I lift my gaze to Seth. “Who’s clumsy now?” I ask, louder than I should.
Eli laughs behind his fist. Fred doesn’t hide his laughter. Seth stares at me. “I concede to the sassy Padawan,” he says, dipping his head in a bowing motion. “In this one instance, you can be the Master.”
My irritation slides away. “What?”
“Star Wars,” Fred says.
Seth straightens. “If you tell me you’ve never seen it, we need to fix that as soon as possible.”
I look at Eli. Seems like he isn’t overly familiar with the movies either.
“Okay, movie marathon after the party,” Seth declares.
“Are you guys ever coming—what happened?”
We all turn at Gavin’s voice. The senior captain stands in his doorway, watching us, and strides over with a barely suppressed grin. “Having some difficulty, boys?”
“Just Seth,” I tell him.
“It’s salvageable,” Fred says.
Gavin chuckles. “If you say so. Hey, most of the guys should be here soon, so if you need to heat anything up, go right into the kitchen.”
Fred runs in to grab paper towels while I save all that’s left to be saved of my pie. “Off to a great start,” I say to Gavin, with a sheepish grin.
He shakes his head with a rueful smile. “With this group, I wouldn’t expect anything else.”
Our teammates trickle in over the next half hour. Gavin puts a sign on the door to come to the backyard, and we play cornhole while we wait for everyone.
“Awesome setup, Captain!”
I jerk at Coach Lutz’s booming voice, my toss going a bit higher than intended—into Fred’s gut.
