Braden was sitting on the edge of his bed staring at and through the far corner of the room. The moon etched his surroundings in cool silver hues and sharp weighty blacks. His bed was tightly made. The turquoise carpet had hardly a speck of dust on it. His desk had no paper on it. The closet doors were shut.
He stared at the corner where his pile of dirty clothes sat in the hamper. They were all neatly folded despite being bound for a washing machine. Braden wore loose flannel pajama bottoms with a red and black plaid pattern. His shirt was black and had the stylized letters of some store that he didn't care about.
Braden kept staring. His mind wandered to and fro. His eyes never wavered. Sound from the conversations downstairs filtered through the door that stood ajar at the foot of his bed. It was Friday night and his roommates were pre-gaming. They had rented the house in September when school began. It creaked with the falling leaves and shivered in the winter snows. Now it was recovering with the spring flowers.
There were three guys and five women in all and everyone got along great. Currently they were all in the kitchen drinking except for Braden. He enjoyed hearing the coffee shop din of their laughter, drinks being poured and glasses clinking.
Finally, as if he had been waiting all along for it, something in the conversation downstairs grabbed his ear. "There is no way, have you heard us on the nights where I'm really feeling it?" Zach said.
More laughter.
"Oh and when are you really feeling it?" Shelly said.
"I'm just saying, come Friday night those bed springs aren't squeaking themselves for hours."
There was more laughter and Braden figured this was a topic that sounded interesting so he stood up and took a moment to smooth out his shirt creases. Then he pulled open his door all the way, squinted in the yellow hallway light, and walked downstairs.
The air was stagnant and humid in the kitchen. Braden walked in with a nod to a few people on his way to the refrigerator. He pulled it open and bent over to reach his drink of choice, paused, then smiled when he heard Shelly say, "top shelf, babe."
He saw the beer in the back and grabbed two bottles. He opened them and brought them to the table that they were sitting around. It was a long, beat up, faux wooden centerpiece surrounded by all of his roommates and all of their stories. At one end of the table three girls were crowded around a phone giggling and occasionally disagreeing over which direction to swipe on a possible bachelor.
Braden sat down at the other end with Zach, Lane, Shelly, and Diane. "Braden, tell me something, how long do you last in bed?" Shelly punctuated this pointed question with a swig of her beer.
After living with these hooligans for so many months, Braden dodged the question in stride, "Exactly as long as I need to," he said. The beer was bitter and cool.
"Booooo," Diane said, "See, I told you we wouldn't get an answer out of him." Braden shrugged his shoulders and gave Diane a smile. She rolled her eyes and said, "whatever." Her white tank top clung to her skin. Its straps ran up her back, twisted with the straps of her bra and her shoulder length brown hair then back down her shoulders to where the fabric strained against her pert breasts.
"That's because he can't last a minute," Zach said. He was always one to challenge the manliness of his friends in the name of good fun.
"Projection much?" Lane said.
"Oh ho ho, slow right down mister. Don't think we can't hear you choking the chicken for all of three minutes every night," Shelly laughed and pantomimed a fast masturbation motion over the table.
The far side of the table erupted in laughter at the state of a man's tinder profile picture.
"Braden is probably too clean to jerk off, aren't you Braden?" Zach said.
"No way, he seems like one of those calm on the surface guys with a huge dick and a bunch of fucked up fetishes in bed," Shelly said. Her brown ponytail was coming undone so she reached up and pulled out her hair tie. As she shook out her hair and let it cascade down over her black sweatshirt, Braden's dick twitched in his pajamas and he realized he absolutely should have masturbated before starting his night. This group loved nothing more than to talk about sex and it always left him with a tight lump of desire in his gut at the end of the night if he didn't bring someone home.
"Braden's got that engineering major's dick, he probably knows the exact angle for maximum pleasure and minimum work and sciences his way through every hookup," Lane said.
And so the conversation continued. Occasionally someone from one half of the table would mosey their attention to the other half. Often, someone would go to the fridge to get more cheap bottles of alcohol. Soon the table was covered from edge to edge in empty bottles, cans, cups, chip bags, and crumbs.
They talked about tiresome final assignments and hopeful summer plans. They talked about new love interests in classes and past trysts with fabulous and disappointing lovers alike. Eventually, the topic of each man's sexual fortitude was back on the table. Only now it was heartened by the copious amounts of alcohol sloshing in people's stomachs. Braden's skin was flush and even he felt compelled to defend his manhood thanks to the courage he drank.
"You all know that I chose the bedroom down the hall from you for a reason," he said.
"Oh yeah? And what might that be," Shelly slurred.
"Yeah, what might that be," Lane mimicked. Shelly smacked his pale shoulder hard enough to make him wince.
"I'd be keeping you up night after night if our room's were next to each other and you know it," Braden said.
"You haven't had a good night in months, who do you think you are," Shelly said.
"I ain't no minute man, that's for sure," Braden said, gesturing with his bottle at Zach and Lane to make a point.
"Just whip em out already!" Zoe shouted from across the table without looking up from her phone.
Braden, Zach, Lane, Shelly, and Diane all looked over amused. Zach said, "Player three has entered the game. How is Tinder treating you tonight Zoe?"
Zoe lifted her eyes from the phone in her hands and smiled, "you tell me, champ."