Playing Games: A College Bully Romance

by Candace Wondrak

  God, I really wanted to ask her for the details, but I knew better. Baby steps to not overload her. I didn’t want her shutting down and refusing to talk to me the rest of the year. That would make it a hell of a long year, and it was already going to be long without Ash here.

  Ash was supposed to be here. It was supposed to be her and me against the whole fucking world, but luck was on her side. I guess she deserved it though; her luck had always been pretty shitty, so it was about damn time things started to go good for her. Frankly, I was just jealous. Jealous that she’d gotten a huge scholarship, jealous that she was chosen out of thousands of applicants, jealous that she got to go and I didn’t.

  I…I didn’t want to be the kind of person who never moved away from their small town. I didn’t want to be one of those people who returned home and kept visiting the high school and their old teachers. I wanted to move on, up and up to bigger and better things. Was that wrong of me? Was I overstepping the path life had given me?

  I guess I’d find out in a few years. For now, I wanted to enjoy myself. I wanted to be carefree and live it up. College was supposed to be fun. It’s when you were supposed to play games and make mistakes, do all the things you wouldn’t be able to do once you had bills and a daily grind.

  By the time we made it back to the dorm building, it was dinner time, so most of the students were out and about, discovering campus. Some parents still lingered, but most were gone. I utilized the calm scene to take my first shower in the communal bathroom.

  Yeah, I know. Gross, but that’s what shower shoes were for.

  Okay, so I might’ve just worn my flip flops while showering, but still. Basically shower shoes. There was no fucking way I was going to barefoot that shit—who knew what kind of nasty stuff sat on the tile floor, just waiting to be absorbed in your skin? Hello, some weird foot disease.

  I hurriedly patted myself dry once I was clean and slipped on my pajamas. Tonight wasn’t the night to stay up late. I wanted to get in the habit of going to bed at a decent time when I had classes the next day. Friday nights and Saturday nights would be the nights I’d pull all-nighters and party it up.

  Back in the room, Mel had slipped into a baggy t-shirt that had some kind of superhero logo on it, though she still wore her leggings. She had brought a small tv, and it rested on her nightstand, which she graciously allowed me to turn so I could see the screen, too. Yep, my parents hadn’t bought me a TV, or a laptop. I didn’t come from that kind of money.

  And by that kind of money, I meant the middle class.

  My parents might try to pretend we were more well-off than we really were, but I knew how tight their monthly budget was. I knew how they struggled to spend money on birthdays and holidays because it meant taking money away from other things, like paying down their credit card bills. We weren’t middle class. We were never comfortable. We were better off than Ash and her mom, but that was about it.

  No, I was from a low-income household, even though my parents both worked. The harsh realities of America, the so-called greatest country on earth. Coming from such a low place on the totem pole, it was hard for me to agree with that, but maybe my cynical view on things would change once I graduated school and got my foot in the door with some company.

  “When’s your first class tomorrow?” I asked.

  “Eight-thirty,” Mel answered, her eyes flicking up from her phone.

  Oh, hell. A morning bird. An early riser. This year might suck monkey balls if she always had early classes. My first one wasn’t until ten forty-five, and then they were back to back until I was done for the day at three. I tried to keep my daily schedule as neat as possible, knowing I’d need A) to sleep in because I was so not a morning person, and B) large chunks of time when I would have to spend hours in the library working on their computers.

  Mel must’ve seen the concern on my face—because if her class started at eight-thirty, that meant she had to be out of here and ready way before then—for she quickly said, “I’ll be as quiet as a mouse.”

  “Uh-huh,” I said, not really believing her.

  That night, as I lay in bed, trying to fall asleep, I texted Ash. She immediately responded. We texted back and forth for a good forty minutes. I told her all about Mel, though I chose to keep the incident with Mel and the group of boys in the union to myself. For some reason, it didn’t seem like my story to tell.

  Ash eventually stopped replying, and I knew that was because she’d fallen asleep. I lay there for what felt like hours, staring at the dark ceiling. No matter what I did, no matter how many sheep I counted in my head, sleep would not come. I’d be super exhausted for my classes tomorrow, definitely, but there was nothing I could do about it. Nothing I could change.

  Maybe it was the nerves. I was too excited about this new phase in my life. Or maybe, deep down, I knew that everything was about to change. Some things for the better, other things for the worse.

  Chapter Five – Kelsey

  Morning came way too soon. I wanted to smack Mel’s alarm clock, yank it off the wall, and throw it out the window. Alas, I couldn’t. It was her property, not mine. All I could do was roll over, slam a pillow over my head, and wait for her to leave. Despite her alarm clock being way too loud, Mel herself was quiet. She tiptoed around the room, as quiet as, yes, a mouse as she got ready. By the time she left for her class, I was asleep again.

  And then, what felt like five minutes later, my phone buzzed, my alarm going off.

  Ugh. What. The. Hell.

  This waking up business was shit, utter shit, let me tell you.

  I threw on some clothes. Jean shorts and a cute shirt with a patterned design on it. I grabbed my sunglasses, tossed a few notebooks and textbooks into my backpack, and headed out the door.

  My classes were pretty boring, really. A lot of introductory classes involving sitting in giant lecture halls and becoming one with the crowd. One of my classes, sociology, was actually a lecture hall class Monday and Wednesday, and on Friday we split up into smaller classes in a different room to get some real discussion going.

  Yeah, could not look forward to that less.

  I mean, after a few classes, it didn’t seem so bad. My wrists would kill once we actually got started taking notes and stuff and not just going over the syllabus and what we would do for the rest of the semester, but it felt different from high school. In high school, you had to sit there and listen. Which, okay, in most of the classes, that’s what you did. But students were also encouraged to raise their hands and ask questions, even argue with the teacher. My ethics professor sounded like he really wanted some lecture hall arguments, which should be fun.

  Things were going great, until my stomach started to growl as I sat in my third and last class of the day.

  I ignored the looks from the other students near me, and as soon as class let out, I was practically sprinting towards the union, needing to eat something. I was pretty sure I saw a place that served Chinese food in it. Maybe I’d try there.

  It was a ten-minute walk, even with me keeping up a good pace. SCC was a decent-sized campus, and I wished I was as coordinated as Ash was. Unlike her, I couldn’t just skate wherever I wanted. I had to be old-fashioned and walk with my own two feet, the fuck.

  That’s precisely what I was doing, focusing on the growling coming from my midsection, when I saw two people standing in front of the union, talking. Or, well, one of those two people were talking, while the other person’s mouth was zipped shut.

  Mel.

  Mel and Dean.

  Dean was saying something, a lot of things, judging from the way his mouth went off like a motor, and Mel couldn’t look at him. She had her arms crossed, her head turned toward the side. The minute she spotted me through the crowd on the sidewalk, she said something to Dean, causing his eyebrows to furrow, and then she left him, heading straight to me.

  Dean, I noticed, didn’t look too happy that she left him in the dust.

  I met Mel on the sidewalk, and we
stepped aside and let other students walk by us. “He seemed…like he had a lot to say,” I said slowly, eyeing Mel up after tossing a quick glance at Dean, who was busy scowling and walking away, shoving his hands in his pockets. His fisted hands.

  To say he looked murderous would be an understatement.

  “He always has a lot to say, that’s the problem with Dean,” Mel muttered. “I didn’t want to talk to him. I…let’s just say if I never see his face again, it’ll be too soon.” The saying made no sense whatsoever, but I knew what she meant.

  “I was about to get food. Do you want to tag along?” I offered, figuring I should. Food always made everything better. Plus, you know, I was fucking starving.

  “I’ll come with you, but I’m not hungry,” she said.

  We headed into the union, and I got what I wanted. I’d eat back in the dorm. All the while, Mel said nothing, and I let her keep to her silence. Sometimes it was better to let people keep their secrets, although I was doubly interested now that I knew whatever was going on had to deal with Dean.

  Dean seemed like the douche of all douchebags, so how the hell did nice Mel end up knowing him well enough to hate him? Unless he slept with her and left her, which seemed quite plausible. When dicks were in the picture, you never knew for sure.

  I was sitting cross-legged on my bed, opening up the container with my food when Mel finally spoke up, “I used to be involved with Dean.”

  My eyes moved from my food to my roommate.

  “We dated, I mean.” Mel’s gaze fell to her lap, and she bit the inside of her cheek. Her short blonde hair was a bit unkempt today, or maybe it just seemed that way because the wind was wild outside. It didn’t take much to make a pixie cut look a bit ragged. “We went to the same high school, started dating senior year. I thought everything would be fine. We were going to the same college, we had some of the same classes, but…”

  “But what?” I didn’t want to push her too much, make her close up and refuse to share anything else. If there was one thing I loved, it was the juicy details. Ash hardly told me any juicy details—that would change once she went to Hillcrest. I was betting on the fact that her roommate was going to be cute. I’d definitely need to see a picture of him.

  Preferably shirtless.

  “But then he changed. He went into a fraternity and things just…got worse. He started acting all douchey and I…I found out he’d cheated on me.” Mel’s eyes closed, and I immediately felt a pang of sorrow for her. There was nothing worse than a cheating boyfriend. At the time, that dick was supposed to be hers and hers alone, not hers and every other girl’s.

  If I had a cheating boyfriend, I’d…I’d fucking kill him.

  Well, maybe kill was too strong of a word, but a dick would definitely get punched.

  “So we broke up, and then…” Mel shook her head, growing quiet. “Another guy came to sweep me off my feet, but it was all a lie.”

  “I’m so sorry, Mel,” I said, not knowing what else to say. “I was totally serious about my dick-punching earlier, though. I will so punch that guy’s dick for you.” Dean seemed like a douchebag of epic proportions.

  Mel managed to smile, though it was a sad smile. It struck me right then and there that Mel didn’t seem overly happy in general. She might put on a brave face and a smile, but she wasn’t truly happy. She seemed, in a word, depressed, and with everything that happened last year, I couldn’t blame her.

  She’d had a rough go at things, but now I was her roommate, and I wasn’t going to shrink away or leave her be. I was going to bug the actual crap out of her until she had a bit of genuine fun.

  “No dick-punching, I mean it,” she said. “Just…stay away from him, and his friends. None of them are good guys.”

  “Well there goes my plans to hook up with every guy on campus,” I spoke dryly, earning myself a questioning stare. “I’m kidding. Only kidding. If I hooked up with every guy on campus, I doubt I’d have enough time to go to classes. No, any and all hookups will have to be thoroughly thought through.”

  Of course, if Ash had been my roommate, I’d be planning to drag us all over campus and hit up the parties every weekend. She was my wingwoman, the girl who oversaw me while I was letting loose. Now I had to be an adult and take care of myself, which meant no free-balling it. No willy-nilly hookups.

  Damn. It was going to be hard. There was nothing hotter than some wild, crazy sex. No future impending relationship to make you worried about his commitment to you. No awkward mornings after, because you never stayed the night. Obviously, I wasn’t a relationship kind of gal. Yes, I knew it worked for some people, but for me? Eh. I didn’t really see the appeal.

  “Don’t worry,” I told her, stuffing my mouth full. “I’m going to make sure you have some fun this year, Mel. That’s a Kelsey promise, and Kelsey promises are worth their weight in gold.” Not really, but I wanted to comfort her. Saying that was comforting, right?

  Turned out, I wasn’t as comforting as I wanted to be, because Mel didn’t sound too convinced when she said, “Sure.”

  I set aside my food, saying loudly, “I mean it! You and I are going to rock this campus. Sure, you might be rooming with a freshman. Yes, you might have some bad blood when it comes to some of the menfolk around here—but you know what? Fuck them. Fuck everyone else. You got me now, and I don’t take no for an answer.”

  Mel studied me, her lips cracking into a smile. “You’re very loud, you know that?”

  “Oh, yeah. That’s not the first time I’ve been called loud,” I said, then I stopped myself from saying more, figuring it wasn’t a good idea to reference sex when I was with her. My sex jokes would have to step aside for now, at least until I got a better feel for my roommate.

  Sucked, because I personally found my sex jokes funny. The whole that’s what he-slash-she said joke never got old, especially when it was used correctly.

  “We’re going to rock this campus, Mel,” I promised her. “Count on it.”

  At the time, I meant what I said. I really did. Alas, life had other things in store for me, namely in the form of a chiseled, sexy man called Levi Harlen.

  Chapter Six – Levi

  If there was one class I wasn’t looking forward to, it was my Tuesday and Thursday class consisting of bio. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just biology—it was a lab as well. Everyone I knew hated labs with every fiber of their being, and I was no different. Having workbooks and chapters to fill out each class sounded like torture. Not to mention being forced to have a partner, to do presentations together and experiments together.

  No, I wasn’t looking forward to that at all. In fact, I debated on skipping my first class, but I knew some teachers didn’t like that. Some would write you off just for skipping. I couldn’t afford to take this class again, so I forced myself to go.

  And when I got there, when I saw who sat in the back of the class, I couldn’t help but feel the urge to smile. I didn’t, of course, because my smiles were rare, few and far between, but I wanted to, which had to say something.

  The girl who’d told off Dean. The girl who’d told off me. She’d only served to intrigue us both, though—and intriguing Dean was not a good thing for any girl to do these days. He was unhinged when it came to making good decisions.

  Today her brown hair was pulled back in a high ponytail, her foot tapping the side of the table as she balanced her pen across her hand. She was out of it, but the moment I walked in the room, her attention snapped to focus.

  She was pretty. Not the prettiest girl I’d ever seen, but pretty enough.

  And, what would you know, the seat beside her was empty. I slid into it, giving her a once-over. She did her damnedest to ignore me, but I saw her using her peripherals on me. Her eyes were a pure brown, dark chocolate, and her lips were full and covered in some shiny gloss.

  “Hey,” I said, giving her a grin. “Funny seeing you again.”

  “I don’t know what’s so funny about it, Blue,” she remarked, rolling her
eyes.

  “I’m Levi,” I told her. “Or are you going to keep calling me Blue?”

  “Levi?” she echoed, chuckling. “Those are jeans, aren’t they?”

  “It is a brand, yes,” I muttered. It wasn’t the first time someone had brought that up, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. I found her amusement both annoying and cute. “But it’s also my name.”

  “Man, your parents must’ve been high when they named you then, because that’s ridiculous,” she said.

  “Oh yeah? If my name is so funny, why don’t you tell me yours and we’ll see if yours is so normal?” I thought it was worth a shot; everybody these days had weird names; an effect of the widespread internet people didn’t have back in the day. Either way, I’d find out what her name was as soon as the teacher gave us the seating charts and called for attendance.

  She glared at me, though I could tell her glare was half-hearted. “Kelsey,” she said.

  Kelsey…was a pretty normal name. All right, fine. She won this round.

  The professor came in, rattled off attendance, and told us all the good news—the seats we’d chosen when we walked in would be our permanent seats, and those sitting next to us would be our partners for the rest of the semester. No changing.

  I could tell the news upset Kelsey. I didn’t know what she had against me, but I found her feistiness amusing. She might make this year fun, more bearable than last year. Last year I’d made mistakes, most of them involving Dean and the fraternity. This year I wanted to start as new as I could, step away from their games and just…

  Just be. Just be here. Just go to class and take my exams and focus on getting out of here.