Laney heard her brother had dropped out of college six months ago, but he hadn't moved back home. He still lived with his housemates from uni, probably using up the last of his maintenance loan. Grandma had no idea he had stopped studying, and Laney wasn't sure how to break the news to her. She saw Red sometimes, after lectures had finished, waiting outside the gates, always smoking a cigarette and talking to some girl. He was there right now, but he hadn't come to say hello. It had been three days since she started at uni, and he hadn't even looked for her. Red hadn't even replied to her texts when she had told him that she was moving to Cambridge. Laney looked and saw his red motorbike was parked nearby, her brother was leaning back against a tree, his friends were all standing around him, talking and laughing.
"You're Red's sister, aren't you?" Laney turned to look at a freckled girl with glasses, clutching a bundle of books to her chest, chewing her lower lip nervously.
"Yeah." Laney confirmed, her eyes flicked towards her brother and then back to the girl. "Who are you?"
"I-I'm Nora, I'm in your class." The ginger girl trailed off, waiting for Laney to recognise her, when no reply came she continued, "I'm taking English Lit, I sat behind you in Baird's lecture?"
"Oh, yeah. Right." Laney pretended to remember.
"How's induction?"
"Oh, fine. You know. Just getting used to how big the place is and where to go." Laney checked her phone and looked out the gate towards her brother, he had his left arm around a blonde girl's shoulder, and in his right hand was a fag. He took a long drag and blew the smoke out in a series of rings.
"Yeah, right." The girl chuckled nervously and pushed her glasses back up her nose. "But Red goes here too right, so you must know the place a little bit."
"Not really, I didn't really visit the campus when he started."
"Oh." Nora chewed her lip, "Well, are you going to Revs tonight? If you were... well, I thought we could go together, since we're on the same course. I could give you my number? You could invite Red, too."
Laney put her phone back in her pocket, "Maybe, I don't think Revs is really his thing. That's more for freshers. But sure, I'll ask him." She turned to leave.
"Wait," Nora stepped forwards, "my number."
"Oh yeah." Laney turned back around. She wasn't sure she wanted to be seen with someone like Nora, who dressed like she was about twelve, especially in freshers week, but it couldn't hurt to make some friends. She had only made one so far, Sarah, and the week was already half over. "Just add me on Insta, my tag is LaneyRain."
"This one?" Nora showed her her screen.
"That's the one."
"Okay, thanks. I'll add you. See you tonight, hopefully." And with a smile Nora was gone.
Laney watched the ginger girl walk off campus. She was chubby and awkward, but she seemed sweet enough. The girl made moon eyes at her brother, but that was nothing new. Girls loved his motorbike and leather jacket, and most of all his reputation.
"Hey you," she felt a hand pinch her ass. Laney spun around but it was only Sarah. Laney swung her backpack at her playfully, hitting her on the shoulder.
"Where were you?" Laney chided, "You're skiving already and it's the first week."
"We've been invited to a party tonight. A house party. You know Jake? Well it's his friends party. There are lots of third years going."
"What kind of party?" Laney raised an eyebrow.
"The kind we want to go to. I've got so much gossip for you, come on. Let's walk." Sarah grabbed her arm and marched her off campus, she waved at Red's friend Ken as they walked past. Ken waved back but Red seemed almost not to see them. "What is with him?" Sarah whispered, "Does he hate you or something?"
"I don't know. He's been off with me ever since he went to uni. He doesn't reply to my texts. I'm worried about him."
"Hmm." Sarah gave her a meaningful look. "Well I heard that Red's been doing loads of drugs. Ket, mandy, coke. And he hangs out with some bad guys."
Laney's lips thinned. "I heard about his friends, but not about the drugs." But I'm not surprised.
"A bunch of them got into trouble on campus, getting into fights, and someone was hospitalised."
"Wait, is that why Red dropped out?
"No... Well, I don't think so. Ken didn't know why. But apparently he got a girl pregnant."
"Shit. And?"
"She's not keeping it."
"Thank god."
"But Red's been sleeping around a lot. He's notorious for it, Red's a BNOC."
"What's a BNOC?"
"A big name on campus."
"God, why does he have to be so reckless. It's worse than in school. Honestly he's just gotten worse and worse... and what's he going to do if he doesn't finish uni? I don't know if grandma will even let him come home when she finds out."
"It's probably a phase. Lots of guys go through a phase at uni. They sleep around, they do all the drugs, but they settle down eventually. Don't worry." Sarah gave her arm a squeeze. "Anyway, the other gossip. So Ken's friend John is sleeping with Aiden's girlfriend. And you know Jack? He slept with Cindy from the Sheringham trip, and she was engaged!"
"What? Engaged? When did she get engaged, she must be what? 19?"
"Yeah. They met at school though and got engaged last year. I think it's off now though. Cindy says she's in love with Jack."
Sarah kept talking as they walked back to their halls, Laney laughed and wondered how she had gotten all this gossip already. When they got back to their flat Sarah knocked on the doors of all their flatmates and offered everyone whiskey and cokes. "Party at 55b!" Sarah's voice echoed down the halls. She texted everyone on their floor and the floors above and below saying pres were at theirs and soon their living room was flooded with people.
...
After four whiskey and cokes Laney opened up to Sarah and two girls from another flat. "And I don't know what happened, but he just started distancing himself from me. It was like suddenly he was too old for me and too cool for me. He went out with his friends and he didn't invite me. We used to do everything together."
"Siblings grow apart, that's normal." Yvette from downstairs said, her voice barely audible behind the din of thirty people all chatting inside their apartment. There were people sat on the counter and the floor. All the chairs were taken. Laney and her friends were all squashed together on the sofa.
"I'm sorry you went through that," Ola, from the flat across the hall, said as she poured Laney another drink, "it sounds like you were really close. That must be hard."
"It was." Laney agreed. "It is."
"It's okay. You have us now." Sarah smiled, hugging all the girls together. She was a bit tipsy. "Come on, let's go out. We'll take your mind off it."
"Yes, let's go dancing. Come on, it's freshers week. You only live once." Ola cheered.
"Amen!" Half the people in the flat agreed,
...
Laney had gotten lost at the house party. She had excused herself to go to the toilet after making out with Red's friend, Sam, on the sofa for a couple of hours. Red had ignored her all night, but she had seen him drinking more and more. At first Laney saw Red with the blonde girl, they were making out and then they disappeared for a while. Later Red came back alone and scowled at her and Sam but they both ignored him. Then Red had disappeared again. From the sounds of things there had been a fight in the back garden, a bunch of guys were shouting and she wondered if Red was involved. Her brother always seemed to be wherever the drama was. Laney wasn't going to let him ruin her fresher's week though, her stomach was full of butterflies. Sam was sexy. He was a third year, and he was tall and muscular. Taller than Red. He wore an oversized denim jacket and his white trainers were brand new and totally spotless. Sam had curly dark hair, a ring in one of his ears and his smile was whiter than his trainers. He looked like something between a K Pop artist and someone off Narcos. She was nervous, he had whispered, "Come back to my place?" and she had said "Yeah, just let me grab my stuff." And then kissed him once more and gone upstairs, pausing only to give him one long greedy look and a smile.
Laney went upstairs to look for her bags. She accidentally caught a couple fucking in the upstairs bathroom, mistaking it for one of the bedrooms. Although there was another couple, two guys, fucking in one of the actual bedrooms. Just as she was praying that she hadn't left her bag underneath the two guys having sex she stumbled into a room full of coats. Laney couldn't find the lightswitch, but there was some light bleeding in from the halway. There was a bed underneath the pile, somewhere. She was sure this was where she left it. And then she saw, glistening like a jewel, her blue handbag full of her stuff peeking out from underneath a black jacket.
Suddenly something -- no someone -- had crashed into her and was pressing her up to a wall. At first she thought it was Jonny who had been coming onto her before Sam, then she realised with surprise it was Red.
"Joe?" Laney never called her brother Red even though everyone else did.
"Laney..." her brother smelled of cigarettes and tequila, but behind that all was the more familiar smell of him. Earthy and clean. The way he smelt when they had cuddled under the blankets together at home on summer nights in the garden, looking up at the stars. "It's you, isn't it?"
"What are you doing?" Laney asked, confused. The blonde girl wasn't with him anymore.
Had she rejected him?
"Why are you hiding up here, did you get into a fight? And why have you been ignoring me?" Laney asked, feeling the cool leather of his jacket against her skin and the warmth of his breath on her neck.
"Laney, I'm drunk." He slurred in her ear.
