ndrew Foster arrived in front of Unit 7A with a puff. He spent the last 15 minutes trudging up the stairs, dragging his suitcases behind him. All those years of living with his parents, condensed into two suitcases. When he first told his parents that he was going to leave the nest and live in either the dorms or rent a room in Sterling Ridge, he wasn’t expecting to live in a place like this.

With a name like The Sterling, you would imagine their elevators to be working. But alas, Andrew walked into the lobby, got greeted by the concierge and was met with disappointment. The concierge, who introduced himself as Daniel, offered to take his suitcases upstairs for him, but Andrew’s pride was not about to take the hit.

He could do this himself. 7 flights of stairs? No problem.

The 18-year-old slumped against the door of his new residence and pulled out the piece of paper he had printed in his childhood home from his jeans pocket. The paper still readable albeit wrinkly and crumpled after undergoing the exercise together with Andrew.

“Cormac DeLuca Jr., a senior at UoW,” Andrew mumbled under his breath. “Okay, you got this, Drew. Big smile, warm hug? No, no hug. A handshake.”

Andrew dusted himself and righted his clothes, his dad always said that first meetings are always the most memorable ones. His ensemble consisted of a nice pair of black jeans his mom got him for his 16^th birthday, a denim jacket and underneath that, a white tee with a math pun printed on it, solidifying how much of a nerd he is.

He took a deep breath and pressed on the doorbell. The walls and door were apparently soundproof as he couldn’t hear a thing, unlike his childhood home where the doorbell would echo throughout the house and be heard from the front door, he could even hear his neighbour’s doorbell.

Andrew waited for what seemed like an eternity before the front door opened and he was first greeted by the pounding bass of a Macklemore song, the bass so boosted that he staggered backwards slightly, bumping into his suitcase.

His eyes refocused and they stopped on a girl who was half a head shorter than he was. Andrew was a hundred and one per cent sure that this Cormac person was a guy, a 23-year-old man. The boy furrowed his brows and lifted the paper to his face once again.

Unit 7A, The Sterling – Cormac R. DeLuca Jr. The paper read. There was a picture of said Cormac and the girl looked nothing like him. Judging from his last name, his roommate sounded Italian. Not… Asian, and certainly not a girl.

The double major looked back at the girl whose lips were moving but he couldn’t hear anything past the blaring hip hop coming inside the unit. “Pardon?” he yelled back at the girl.

The girl turns to look over her shoulder and screams, “Alexa! Stop the music!”

In an instant, the music died, and Andrew’s ears were safe from Macklemore. He was amazed that the neighbours, Unit 7B, hadn’t come out complaining about how loud the music was. He put away the fact that the soundproofing system in his building was impeccable for another day.

“You a freshman?”

The girl’s voice snapped Andrew out of his daydream, and he nodded. “I am, and I think I might have the wrong place. Are there two Sterlings in this area?”

She chuckled, “No, this is the only one. Who are you looking for?”

“I’m looking for a Cormac DeLuca Jr., Unit 7A.” Andrew looked back at the piece of paper just to doublecheck. He hated being wrong.

The girl laughs, almost a hysterical laughter that made Andrew worried, what had he got himself into. But before he could utter out another word, the girl was once again screaming into the place.

“Cormac! You have a visitor!”

The silence that followed somehow felt eerie, like the calm before a storm. Seconds after, he could hear footsteps pounding against the timber flooring of the apartment. The girl stepped sideways in a fluid motion and a giant of a man filled the doorway.

Andrew instinctively stepped back, his height wasn’t something to laugh about, standing at 179cm tall, he was regularly the tallest person in the room, but this beast of a man made him feel small. The man must be pushing 190cm tall.

“Who are you?” the man snarled.

The shorter male raised his hand slightly and compared the black and white photo to the man standing menacingly in front of him. The face in the photo looked a little younger than the face in real life, and other than the scruff his roommate had grown in those years, it was an identical match. Those cheekbones don’t lie.

Andrew raised his free hand in front of himself. “You must be Cormac. My name is Andrew and I am your new roommate,” he said with a toothy grin.

Cormac’s lips were already formed into a frown, but his statement seemed to make the corners of them turn downwards even more. The taller of the two grabbed his outstretched hand, yanking him inwards with the handshake. “Listen here, Andy. My name is Ruston, and the next time I hear the name ‘Cormac’ come out of your mouth, it better be directed at my father.”

At the end of his sentence, Cormac Ruston drops his hand and his heel. Andrew felt his face heat up and could hear the blood pounding in his ears, he could faintly hear Ruston instruct the girl to ‘make Andy feel at home’ as he watched Ruston walk further into the apartment, not sparing another glance at him.

‘What a great first impression,’ Andrew thought. ‘Dad’s going to be so proud of me.’

“Actually, I go by Drew, but that’s okay,” he mumbled under his breath at Ruston’s retreating figure.

“What was that?” the girl asked.

Andrew shook his head, slightly embarrassed that he was caught talking to the air. “Nothing, nothing of importance. So, I’ve met Cor – I mean, Ruston. Who might you be?”

The girl showed off her smile and introduced herself. “I’m Tatum, Tatum Moon. Ruston’s current flavour.”

“Flavour?” Andrew scrunched his brows together. “Flavour like ice-cream?”

Tatum’s face turned into what someone might describe as a puppy dog face. “Oh, you sweet, poor child. Come inside and I’ll show you the place and maybe, we’ll have ice-cream.”

Though still confused, he nonetheless followed her instructions, hiking his backpack up higher on his back and dragging both his suitcases into the apartment. His mouth opened a beat later.

“I like dark chocolate peanut butter ice-cream.”

a/n: ( past ) hope you guys enjoyed the teaser! a glimpse into the trio's first meeting. there will be more teasers coming up so stay tuned for those! let us know if you all want to get to know someone more or understand tatum and andrew's friendship even more or what not. – adam & loo