Kinda Hate You: An Enemies to Lovers College Romance

by Allie Everhart

  I've had hot girls coming up to me all week, making it clear they're interested. I could've asked any of them out, but I didn't, because I keep hearing Birdie in my head telling me I only date skinny blondes I have nothing in common with. That description fits just about every girl who approached me this week. Normally I'd think nothing of it and take one of them out. But if I do, Birdie will gloat over being right.

  I pick up the phone and call her. It rings so many times I assume she's not going to answer but then I hear her voice.

  "This better be important," she mumbles, sounding groggy.

  "Birdie, it's Cal."

  "Cal?" she yells, suddenly sounding very awake. "Why the hell are you calling so early?"

  "It's not early. It's nine in the morning."

  "Which to normal people is early."

  "It's not early. I've already played nine holes, had breakfast, and worked out."

  "It's still Saturday, right?"

  "Yeah. Why?"

  "Why are you waking me up at nine on a Saturday? That's like two in the morning weekday time."

  "No, it's not. Time is time. It doesn't change by the day."

  "Of course it does! WeekEND time and weekDAY time are totally different. Everyone knows this."

  I smile at her logic. It's one of the few things I like about her. She creates her own rules for how things should work and assumes everyone else thinks the same way. Birdie logic, as I call it, has been a source of many of our fights. Those are actually my favorite arguments with her. She gets all riled up trying to defend her ideas as I keep proving why they're wrong.

  "What if someone is scheduled to work at nine on a Saturday?" I ask. "Do they show up at two?"

  "No. They show up at nine."

  "But you just said nine is two in the morning."

  "Two on a weekday."

  "Equivalent to two on a weekday, which means the person would need to show up at two. Isn't that right?"

  "Who the hell cares? Why are you arguing with me about this?"

  "I'm just trying to understand your logic."

  "It doesn't matter. Just forget it," she says, sounding annoyed. "Why are you calling? What do you want?"

  "I want to reschedule your lesson to today."

  "My swim lesson?"

  "What other lessons am I giving you?"

  She sighs. "Apparently one on how to be an idiot who calls people at nine in the morning on a Saturday."

  "Two."

  "What?"

  "It's two, not nine."

  "Would you shut up about that? I wasn't being literal. I was trying to prove a point."

  "Which was what?"

  "That you called too early!" She takes a breath. "Good thing you're not here, Cal, or I'd kill you."

  "You're in luck. I'm right outside your door."

  "You're what?" she yells. I hear her scrambling to get up, then the sound of something falling on the floor. "You're lying. You're not really here."

  "Go down to the kitchen."

  "You've gotta be kidding me," she mutters. "I hate you."

  "You're not a morning person, are you?"

  "You're just figuring that out? Okay, I'm in the kitchen. You're not here."

  "Nope."

  "So where are you?"

  "In my room. At my parents' house."

  "You're WHAT?"

  "At my parents' house. My mom says hi."

  "Why did you say you were here?"

  "To get you out of bed. Now that you're up, have some breakfast then come on over and we'll do your lesson."

  "I'm going to kill you, Cal!"

  "Looking forward to it. So what time will you be over?"

  "Are you serious? You really think I want a swim lesson from you after what you just did?"

  "What else do you have going on?"

  "I don't know." She pauses. "Things."

  "What kind of things?"

  "Things you don't need to know about. I'm hanging up now."

  "Birdie, wait."

  "What?"

  "The longer you go between lessons the more you'll forget. We were starting to make progress and then you skipped last week's lesson."

  "So you could go to your stupid party."

  "That's why you cancelled? The party didn't start until nine. We had plenty of time."

  "You needed time to get ready. Aren't you required to go to the frat house and help get ready for the party?"

  "Yeah, but it wasn't my turn. I have to help with Saturday's party."

  "Whatever. It doesn't matter. I ended up hanging out with Isla after class and we went to a movie. It was far more enjoyable than nearly drowning in a pool while you stand there and watch."

  "I promise not to let you float in the deep end today. Unless I'm in there with you."

  "I don't feel like swimming today. Let's just do it Tuesday. That's only a few days away."

  "It's supposed to rain on Tuesday. This may be our only time to get in the pool this week."

  "Water balloon fight!" I hear a kid yell.

  "Max, what the hell?" Birdie says.

  "Language!" I hear her dad say.

  "They just hit me with a water balloon!"

  "Boys, you need to calm down," her dad says.

  "Cal, you still there?" Birdie says.

  "Yeah. What's going on?"

  "Max has a friend over."

  Max is Birdie's eight-year-old brother. Her parents weren't planning to have more kids after Birdie but then Max happened. Birdie loves him but he drives her crazy. He's always hiding in her room to scare her or making lots of noise or taking pictures of her when she's not looking.

  "Who's the friend?" I ask, because last I knew, Max didn't have any friends. When he's around kids his age he gets shy so making friends has been hard for him.

  Birdie lowers her voice. "He's not really a friend. It's a play date my mom set up. The kid doesn't even go to Max's school."

  "Maybe they'll get along. It'd be good if he finally found a kid to hang out with."

  "It would, but I'm hoping it's not this kid. He's so freaking loud," she says, raising her voice as the kid screams in the background.

  "So what do you say? Swim lesson today?"

  "Max, catch!" a kid screams.

  "Ow!" Birdie yells. "You hit my head, you little monster!" She sighs into the phone. "I'll be there in a half hour."

  When Birdie arrives at the house, my dad answers the door. I'm in the kitchen but hear him talking to her.

  "How's Birdie today?" he asks, and although I can't see him, I'm sure he's giving her a hug. He treats her like a daughter. So does my mom.

  "I think I'm deaf," she says. "Max and his friend were so loud I had to get out of there."

  My dad and Birdie come into the kitchen.

  "And here I thought you were coming to see me," I say with a smile.

  She rolls her eyes. "Yeah. Because I really love spending my Saturdays having you try to drown me in the pool."

  "Cal," my mom says, frowning at me. "You're not really doing that, are you? Because it's not funny to—"

  "Mom, she's kidding." I take my plate to the sink. "You know Birdie. She's always trying to make me look bad."

  "I don't have to try," she says, grabbing a banana from the fruit bowl my mom keeps on the kitchen counter. "You make yourself look bad all on your own." She smiles as she peels back the banana.

  "Do I need to go out there and supervise you two?" my dad asks as he sits down at the kitchen island to finish his coffee.

  "You don't need to," Birdie says, glaring at me as she holds the banana to her lips. "I can take Cal down if I need to." She bites off the end of the banana, still glaring at me.

  "You should be thanking me," I tell her, going to stand in front of her. "I'm giving up part of my Saturday for you."

  "As if you had anything better to do." She peels back the rest of the banana and takes a bite.

  I look away. Watching her eat that banana is making my mind imagine her doing other things
. Things I shouldn't be thinking about Birdie doing. Other girls? Hell, yeah. But not Birdie.

  "So how are the lessons going?" my mom asks Birdie.

  "Aside from Cal leaving me to die in the deep end last week, they've been going okay." Birdie walks over to the trash can to toss out her banana peel. "Except for him ruining my swimsuit."

  My mom looks at me. "You ruined her suit?"

  "I didn't do it," I say, raising my voice. "She did it herself!"

  Birdie puts her hands on her hips. "Only because you didn't warn me that tile was sticking out."

  "What tile?" my dad asks, looking up from his newspaper.

  "There's a tile by the filter that needs to be sanded down," I explain. "The edge of it is sticking out and Birdie somehow managed to get stuck on it."

  "What do you mean she got stuck?" my mom asks in her concerned mom voice.

  "She got stuck," I say. "Like stuck to the wall." I smile. "It was hilarious."

  "Oh, yeah, real hilarious," Birdie says, throwing her hands up. "You know how much my arms hurt from having to hold myself up for that long?"

  "How'd you get unstuck?" my dad asks.

  "I saved her," I say with a smug smile. "Because I'm such a gentleman."

  "You didn't save me!" Birdie says. "You just yanked at my suit until it ripped off."

  "We'll get you a new one," my mom says, then she looks at my dad. "We need to get that tile fixed."

  "I'll call the pool guy this afternoon." He sets the paper down and stands up. "Barb, we need to get going if we're making the movie."

  "Just let me go upstairs and grab my sweater. Those theaters are always so cold."

  She leaves and my dad stands in front of Birdie and me, his eyes bouncing between us. "You sure it's safe to leave you two alone?"

  "Why wouldn't it be?" I say. "If anything, Birdie's the one you got to worry about. She's always threatening to kill me."

  "At least I don't actually try to, like YOU do."

  "Yeah, like I really tried to kill you last week."

  She turns to me. "You did! You left me in the deep end!"

  "For two seconds! God, Birdie, let it go!"

  "Okay, stop it you two," my dad says. He looks at me. "So what are you doing tonight?"

  "Party at the frat house."

  He looks at Birdie. "How about you?"

  She shrugs. "I don't know. Watching TV? I don't really have any plans."

  He looks back at me. "Take her to the party."

  "What?" I look at him like he's crazy.

  "Take Birdie to the party. You're allowed to bring guests, right?"

  "Well, yeah, but—"

  "So tonight Birdie is your guest."

  I laugh. "Uh, no. She is not my guest. Not now. Not ever. She hates fraternities. And she hates me. So no, she's not going."

  My dads folds his arms over his chest. "If you want to play tomorrow, you're taking her."

  He's talking about our golf game tomorrow. He's playing with some of his pro golfer friends at a very exclusive golf course and invited me to come along.

  "Are you serious?" I say. "I can't go tomorrow if I don't take Birdie tonight?"

  "Um, I don't actually want to go," Birdie says to my dad. "He doesn't need to take me."

  "You're new to the school," he says to Birdie. "This will be a good chance for you to meet people."

  "I know, but I'm not really into fraternity guys," she says.

  "There will be girls there as well, I assume," he says, looking at me. "Isn't that right?"

  "Yeah, but she wouldn't like them," I say, glancing at Birdie. "Most of them are sorority girls and she hates sorority girls."

  "I don't hate them," she insists. "I just have nothing in common with them."

  "You're going," my dad says to Birdie. "And Cal's taking you."

  "Lou, let's go!" my mom yells from the other room.

  He smiles at us both. "Have fun tonight."

  When he's gone, I turn to Birdie. "So you want to go tonight or what?"

  "No. But I will if you really want to go to that golf thing tomorrow."

  "We could just lie and tell my dad you went to the party."

  "I don't like lying to your dad. And chances are he'd find out. He always knows when you're lying."

  "Yeah, I know. Why me and not Taylor? She lied to him all last summer about Luke and he never found out."

  "She's a better liar than you." Birdie glances out at the pool, then back at me. "Let's go do this before I change my mind."

  "Why would you change your mind?"

  "Because I'm afraid to get in there again. I really was scared when I thought I was drowning last week. You can't do that to me, Cal. I mean it. Not even as a joke."

  I nod. "Got it. I'm sorry. I didn't do it on purpose. I thought you knew you were in the deep end. I thought you were trying to see if you could be there on your own."

  "I wasn't. I just floated there without knowing it. And if happens again—"

  "I'll be there. I promise."

  "So about tonight, you want me to just meet you there?"

  "No, I'll pick you up."

  "You sure?"

  "Yeah. Why?"

  "It'll feel like a date if you pick me up. And this is NOT a date," she says, emphatically.

  "Obviously," I say with the same emphatic tone. "But still, I think I should pick you up. It's impossible to find a parking spot on party nights but I have my own spot in the back."

  "And you'll take me home?"

  "Yeah. Why wouldn't I?"

  "Knowing you, you'll find some girl to sleep with and forget all about me." She smiles. "On second thought, forget it. I'll find some other guy to take me home. Or maybe, if I'm lucky, I won't go home at all."

  I stare at her. "You really think sleeping with some guy you just met is a good idea?"

  "Like you've never had a one night stand?"

  "No. I haven't."

  "I don't believe you."

  "Believe what you want. I don't care." I walk to the sliding door that leads to the porch. "I'm gonna go get in the pool."

  She follows me out there. I'm in my swim trunks and a t-shirt so I take the t-shirt off and dive into the deep end.

  "Show off," Birdie says as I swim over to the shallow end.

  "You'll get there," I tell her.

  "Diving? Uh, no." She shudders. "I'd hit my head on the bottom, knock myself out, and drown."

  "Not if you do it right." I stand up, wiping the water from my face. I look up and see Birdie lifting up her sundress.

  She has a bikini on today and holy shit, she looks hot. It's a red bikini and skimpy as hell with just strings holding together the tiny bit of fabric covering her ass, which is facing me as she bends over to yank the dress over her head.

  Look away! I yell at myself in my head, but I can't. Her ass is so damn perfect. Full and round, filling every inch of that bikini bottom. She turns to me and I quickly look away.

  "It's really hot today," she says.

  "Yeah," I mutter, trying to keep my eyes off her but I just can't do it.

  She pulls her hair back, her head tilted up to the sky. My eyes dart down to her breasts, which are spilling out of her bikini top, pulling on the strings tied around her neck trying to hold them up.

  What if her top comes undone while she's swimming? It's happened to Taylor before. More than once. She'd be swimming laps and all of a sudden her top would come undone, which is really awkward because she's my sister. I'd quickly turn the other way until she fixed it. But with Birdie? I don't know if I could turn away. There's a part of me that really wants to see those strings come undone.

  "So what are we starting with?" Birdie asks as she gets in the pool.

  "You sure you can swim in that?" I ask, pointing to her bikini.

  "I don't have a choice. You ruined my other one. This was all I had left."

  "I'll buy you a new suit."

  She shrugs. "If this bothers you, then fine. I'll get a new suit."

&nb
sp; "It doesn't bother me. I just think it's not good for swimming."

  "It has to be, because this is what I'm wearing on spring break, which is the reason we're even doing these lessons."

  "You don't have to swim on spring break."

  "No, but I want to at least have the option to get in the pool. And if I'm afraid I'm gonna drown I won't get in." She looks down at her suit. "Actually, I think I'll get a new one. Maybe in black. And one that pushes up my boobs more." She lifts them up, making them look even larger. "What do you think?"

  I swallow. "I don't know. That's a girl thing. Ask Taylor."

  I dunk my head in the water, trying to cool off because I feel like I'm burning up seeing Birdie in that bikini. I pop my head up and see Birdie floating on her back, her hand gripping the side of the pool. Her breasts are bobbing above the water, wet and glistening in the sun.

  I look away but it's too late. My cock is already straining against my swim trucks. I wore the loosest pair I have and it's still not big enough to hide what she's doing to me.

  Why the hell is this happening? Why am I having this reaction to Birdie? I didn't even react this way with Alecia, my ex-girlfriend, and she's one of the hottest girls on campus. She turned me on but not like this. It didn't happen this fast, and not from just seeing her in a bikini.

  "Cal," I hear Birdie say.

  "What?" I stand up in the water.

  "I'm afraid to let go," she says, still gripping the edge of the pool.

  "Hold on." I make my way over to her and place my hands just under her body but not touching her. "Okay, I'm right here. Slowly let go of the edge."

  "But I'll sink."

  "You won't sink. Just try to keep your body straight. And try to relax."

  She inhales a breath as she slowly lets go of the edge.

  "You're doing good," I tell her. "I'm gonna pull you over a little so you're not by the edge, okay?"

  "Okay, but don't leave me."

  "I won't. And you're still in the shallow end. You don't have to be scared."

  "People drown in the shallow end."

  "You're not gonna drown." I put one hand on her arm and the other under her leg and gently pull her toward the center of the pool.

  She squeezes her eyes shut and bites her lip.

  "You're fine. Just relax."

  She takes a breath and opens her eyes. "Where am I?"

  "The middle of the pool. Still in the shallow end."

  "I don't want to go in the deep end."