College had this strange magic: a place where you told your family you were studying, told your friends you absolutely were not, and told yourself that—sure—another night at the bar wouldn’t kill your GPA that much. I knew that routine inside out. My group was a disaster in slow-motion: always behind on assignments, always panicking at the same time, always promising we’d be “better starting Monday.” And yet, nothing and no one could take away our post-dinner beer. Every. Single. Day. We even tried to quit once. It lasted… about twenty minutes. Somehow quitting made everything worse; we were irritable, restless, and—ironically—more stressed about failing exams than usual. So we just shrugged and went back to the bar like the responsible adults we very much were not.

There was me, obviously, doing my best to pretend my life was under control.

Then there was Theodore, blond, boyish, and so sunshine-sweet he looked like he should be catching waves in Malibu rather than suffering through architecture lectures. We called him our Sweet Boy. He pretended he hated it but absolutely did not.

Maggie studied law—future lawyer, future powerhouse—but her energy was more glitter stickers than legal codes. She had this rainbow-soul vibe that made her impossible not to love, even when she showed up late because she “accidentally napped for three hours.”

Christian… well. Let’s just say confidence wasn’t something he lacked. Playboy charm, engineering student, probably flirting with three people at once at any given moment. Depending on life’s direction, he’d either become a brilliant engineer or somehow monetize his face and become… something else entirely.

And Klaus, our gentle chaos. Tall, golden, and glued to his bike like he had no concept of mortality. Chillest of us all, mostly because he had a company waiting for him at home and was studying economics with all the intensity of someone choosing a sandwich.

We were not normal. Not even close.

At some point Maggie had a thing with Theo. Then with Klaus. It ended without drama, which was honestly miraculous. Then there was that trip where I slept with Chris. No drama there either. We were held together by terrible humor, questionable decisions, and enough sexual tension to power the whole city if someone ever figured out how to convert it.

And now? Me and Maggie were moving in together. Which meant the boys would be around constantly. Of course.

Christian stood in the doorway like a disapproving parent. “Damn girls, no beer in this house,” he declared.

Right behind him, Klaus walked in carrying two full packs of beer like offerings to the gods.

I looked at Christian. Maggie looked at Christian. Theo snorted. Chris threw his hands up. “What? I said no beer. He didn’t listen!”

And that was us: a mess, a disaster, a questionable collection of twenty-somethings stumbling toward adulthood… but somehow, weirdly, exactly what we needed.