by Lily Roberts
“Scotty, buddy!” Dinesh’s irritatingly chipper voice wormed its way into my ear. “Lost you there for a second, pal.”
I shrugged off his hand, grabbing a cup to fill up with water. “Yeah. Well, we’re in the middle of practice, so…”
Dinesh kept grinning my way. “Right so, I bet you missed the fact that Sydney popped by.”
I sure hadn’t, but, sure. Let’s play dumb. “That so?”
“Yeah, man. Can’t believe she finally woke up,” Dinesh cackled. “She was crazy drunk last night, you know? I mean, not enough for my taste, but I think I got some good seeds planted.”
Ugh.
“But, like, you’ve known her longer and whatever,” Dinesh went on. “So, maybe you can give me some pointers?”
I raised a brow his way. “Pointers?”
“Yeah, man!” Dinesh said. “I really think I won her over more last night. Feel like I can make more of a move later today, if you know what I mean?”
Oh, God, it was because I knew that I had to bite my lip to keep from socking him in the face. “Y-Yeah?”
“Yeah! So, anyway, I figure you can give me the inside scoop on Sydney’s weaknesses.” Dinesh started listing examples on his fingers, each filling me with a hotter and hotter rage in my stomach. “Like, does she prefer flowers over chocolates, what music she prefers being serenaded with, what her go-to latex brand is,”
“I asked her out last night!”
My brain shorted out for a second after I spoke. What the hell—I did not just say that. There’s no way that came out of my mouth. But some part of me registered that, yes, you did, and now you have to let it sit out in the open. Dinesh looked as disbelieving as I felt, eyes squinting to try and discern the lie I’d just told. “Seriously, dude?”
I should shake my head no. Say it was a slip of the tongue, or for God’s sake, say she shot me down. If I thought Sydney hated me now, she would never forgive me if I went with this train of thought. “Yeah, well, it was sort of unexpected. It was on the way to the dorms. We just…got to talking, and…it came up.”
And further down the hole did I plummet. The lie growing with each word.
“Whoa,” Dinesh shook his head in disbelief. “Dude, I—seriously, I thought you two hated each other.”
I shrugged weakly. “What can I say? Opposites attract. It’s a thin line between love and hate? Love hurts?”
A beat of silence passed between the two of us. For a minute there, I thought he was going to call me out, or try and fight for her hand or something. But, much to my surprise, Dinesh shrugged back and let out a loud, disappointed sigh. “Damn. Well, can’t be helped. Guess I should’ve made a move last night.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, grin a bit more forcefully than before. “Wonder if we’d be reversed if I ended up walking Sydney back, huh? But, the cards were dealt against me.”
“Yeah. Sorry, man.” I managed to get out. Honestly, I was sorrier for whatever he was going to try next. If he really wanted to play, I was ready to throw down. I almost wish he would’ve, but, no. For once in the short time I’d known him, Dinesh decided to be the bigger man and bow out with grace.
Fuck.
“Uh, mind keeping it under wraps for a bit, though, man?” I asked. “It’s sorta new, and, I don’t wanna put her on the spot like that.”
“Yeah. Sure, dude.” With a pat on my shoulder, Dinesh started back to the field, still wearing that eerily smug look on his face. I stared for a bit, this feeling that I’d just completely, and utterly, ruined the rest of my life, before Cooper let out a sharp whistle.
“Hoy, Sawyer! You thinking about staying after for extended practice?” he shouted.
“N-No! I’m coming!” I began a half-hearted jog back towards the field, mind reeling with the absolute shitstorm I ended up summoning. So, not only was I going to have to try and explain last night to Sydney, but also that we were suddenly dating. Surprise!
Hah. What an absolute nightmare today turned out to be. And it was only halfway through.
“So, you’re gonna ask him what happened, right?”
I rolled my eyes towards Denise, taking a hearty bite of my BLT. “I honestly don’t think I have the mental capacity to deal with the Scott Smarm today.”
Denise let out a whine, hands folding together as she propped her elbows on the cafeteria table to beg. “Aww, come on! You can’t say it’s not eating you up inside.”
Of course it was eating me up inside. To think Scott might’ve done something to me while I was inebriated was almost too much to think about. I kept chewing my sandwich thoughtfully, taking a moment to reconsider my stance. Okay, in all fairness to Scott, he didn’t seem the type to pull something like that. It wouldn’t be any fun to him if I didn’t react…or didn’t remember. He was an attention hog, after all. Plus it was a win if I didn’t remember.
And to hear he returned absolutely red in the face?
“I,” I set my sandwich down on my plate, hand running through my mess of bedhead. “I mean, don’t get me wrong. I want to get to the bottom of things before talk gets around.”
“Buuut?” Denise asked.
I let out a giant sigh. “Oh my God, but I don’t want to deal with him today, Denise. Hell, I’ll say it a third time, just to make sure it’s really stuck.” I leaned forward, teasingly speaking as slowly as my alcohol-addled brain could muster up. “I. Don’t. Want. To. Deal. With. Him.”
Denise let out a sigh of her own, leaning back in her chair with a huff. “God, you’re no fun. First bit of drama on campus, and I even have front-row seats!”
“Glad to see you’re enjoying yourself,” I said with a deadpan expression on my face.
Denise giggled, waving me away as she reached for her soda cup. “Aw, you’re too easy to tease, Syd. You know I care about you.”
I let her stew for a second, eventually breaking out into a smile. “You have a weird way of showing you care sometimes.”
“Don’t deny it; if our roles were reversed, you’d be reveling in my misery.” Denise said. “You’d be at least glad you’re not me.”
“You’re not wrong,” I admitted, taking another bite of sandwich. “Similar to not being wrong about getting food. I totally needed this.” Apparently, food was a necessity for the human body to function properly. It got me thinking a bit more clearly, less on emotion and more logically. Obviously, I had to talk to Scott at some point. It was going to be inevitable; we were going to see each other during my Journalism class. The choice came down to us being awkward sooner rather than later. I genuinely didn’t want any of his attitude today…maybe I didn’t want to hear what actually happened last night, either. But like my Ma always said; better to rip the band aid off completely than pick it off bit by bit. “Maybe I’ll talk to Scott later tonight. Well, after the hang-over’s worn off?”
Denise was grinning from ear to ear. “You wanna do it at our room?”
“And give you the satisfaction of watching?” I polished off the last bit of sandwich and downed my cup of now-cold coffee, pushing myself out of my chair while swallowing loudly. “But where’s the fun in that? Your imagination is the best type of entertainment, after all.”
Denise pulled her lips out into a pout, arms crossing over her chest in a huff. “Oh, boo. You’re absolutely no fun.”
“Yup, that’s me. No-Fun Sydney, here to ruin your day.” I chuckled, giving Denise a wave before heading towards the exit. “I’m gonna head back to the dorm and take a shower. Don’t wait up for me.”
Denise waved back, snickering devilishly. “You sure you don’t want me to call up Scott to help you find your way back?”
Ha-ha. Very funny. “I’ll see you around, Denise.” With that, I pushed myself out the door and back into the outer campus, relieved that my headache was only starting to linger. Now, to go get under some running water and come up with a plan…
“So…you actually hid from her, dude?”
I groaned into my pillow, rolling over in my
bed to stare daggers at Derek. The guy literally took the time out of schoolwork just to shoot that my way; what a dick. “Dude.”
“What? Is that not what happened?” Derek asked innocently.
I snagged my pillow and tossed it his way, him laughing in hysteria as it smacked him in the face. “Don’t make it sound so creepy, man! I just—I didn’t want things to get awkward, okay?”
“Like it already has, now that you’ve decided to draw this out?” Derek sighed, picking the pillow up off the ground as he underhanded it my way. “Seriously, you should just tell her nothing happened.”
“There’s no way she’ll believe me, Derek.” I snatched the pillow easily out of the hair, hugging it around my chest as a barrage of feelings assaulted my person. “Honestly, I’ll be lucky if the guys kept their mouth shut after I went back to the party.”
Derek rolled his chair towards my bedside, giving me an up-and-down before scoffing. “Told you yah should’ve just came back to the dorm. We could’ve hung out!”
I waved him away, setting my pillow back against my headboard. “Yeah, no, I’m gonna have to pass on smelling like pot for the next week or so.” I seriously didn’t need the entire team suspecting me of drugs, let alone catching me totally red-faced and panicked when I came back.
Derek shrugged, rolling back to his desk as he grabbed his pencil and began twirling it in between his fingers. We both seemed hypnotized by the act, lulled into silence before Derek finally piped up again. “Soooo…?”
I’ll just tell her the truth,” I said a little too quickly. “She got a little drunk, we got about halfway back to her dorms, and she gave me a quick peck on the…” I paused, considering if the cheek was less infuriating than the lips. “Huh. Okay, maybe I’ll sleep on it and figure out a convincing enough lie to tell her.”
Derek rolled his eyes and chuckled, going to slip his earbuds on before his attention suddenly caught out the window. “Uh…unless you can fall asleep and wake up in the next thirty seconds, I’d figure out something now.”
“Why?” I stood up from my bed and made my way over to the window. “You’re not gonna seriously tell me she’s headed up to the door right n--!”
Whoever was in charge of my fate could go fuck themselves.
I only caught a brief glimpse of her ponytail as she passed through the front doors. Holy hell, who was so determined to ruin my college experience?! “Don’t let her in,” I managed to stammer out. The whole world felt like it was collapsing in on itself as my head swiveled around the room, looking for something—anything—that could get me out of this.
“Uh, Mama didn’t raise an impolite boy,” Derek scoffed.
“Derek, seriously,” Finally, I catch my saving grace; one of my off-white bath towels was hanging up on the bathroom door, just waiting to be used. “Just—she can’t come in because I’m in the shower, okay!”
“Dude, for real?” I barely caught Derek’s expression drop as I rushed to the bathroom, shirt already getting pulled up and over my head. “Dude,”
“The shower, Derek!” I managed to shout out as I slammed the bathroom door shut.
I heard Derek say, “wow way to man up.”
This was probably a bad idea.
I know I promised myself I’d talk to him later this evening, but at 9pm? Not that the idiot was asleep, but it just felt…well…I’ll call it as it is; it felt like an early-late-night booty call.
Ugh.
But I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight, let alone enjoy my Sunday, if I had to keep thinking and re-thinking about what Scott did during my moment of weakness. “I know he didn’t do anything,” I muttered under my breath while passing through the outside doors. “I just…he’s owed a slap if he actually tried something.”
A familiar face waved my way as I passed by the glass booth. Officer Harvey, as per usual, had the widest grin on his face, especially when he saw me. “Miss Burton! I hope the first few weeks of school have been better than your first day?”
I chuckled, stepping towards the booth with a nod. “Yeah, thanks for asking. I’m actually here to visit my perpetrator,” I added the last part with a heavy amount of sarcasm and drama, just to make sure the officer knew I was kidding. “So, is there any way I can pop in?”
Officer Harvey stroked his chin, glancing at an analog clock hanging behind him. “Hmm…well, dorms aren’t officially closed for another forty-five or so…you think you’ll be long up there, Miss Burton?”
I raised my hands defensively. “Oh, don’t worry about that. I’m hoping this is an in-and-out situation.”
After another beat, Officer Harvey nodded with a smile. “Well, all right then. Just make sure to scoot on out fifteen minutes before, yeah? I like closing up early if I can.”
“Like I said,” I gave him a salute as he buzzed me in, “This is an in-and-out operation.” Man I probably could have picked better words there.
God, I hoped it would be an in-and-out operation.
It didn’t take long to hunt Scott’s room down. First floor, literally a door off to the left of the main entrance, and there it was. It was surprisingly void of any decorations—no posters, no door props, no shitty message inviting girls into the “lion’s den”—so I gave him the smallest of points for that.
He’d need millions to off-set whatever he did last night, but a point was still a point.
“Hey, Scott?” I knocked lightly on the door, only briefly thinking to myself that, maybe, his roommate was the type to turn in early. Hell, why’d I even think he was here to start with? Scott was a night owl by nature, why the hell would he be here and not out with his—!
The door swung open, a weird, skunky-smell radiating off the general area of the guy who greeted me. He was the literal definition of a grunge kid, with partially-dreadlocked hair and the sleepiest looking demeanor. He seemed to wake up pretty quick upon seeing me, though, fighting back a fit of snickers as he greeted me. “Hey, there! The famous or should I say, infamous Sydney Burton, right?”
I nodded, somewhat taken aback by the though Scott talked about me with someone I didn’t know. Then again, I guess it made sense he’d tell his roommate. “The one and only.”
“Nice, nice,” The roommate held out his hand to shake mine, still trembling with mirth. “Call me Derek, dude.”
“Derek. I’ll commit that to memory.” It wouldn’t be too hard; I literally knew three people now with the same, first-two letters in their names.
“Uh…s-so, Scott’s in the…uh…” God, he’s trying so hard not to burst out laughing. Derek glanced briefly behind his shoulder, the sound of water gurgling through the room’s pipes. “He’s…in the shower.”
A mixture of disappointment and euphoria filled my chest. “Oh. Well, I can come back later, if that’s better. I sorta just showed up out of the blue, so that’s on me.”
“Well, hey! Did you need to tell him something?” Derek suddenly started talking a bit louder, as if trying to get someone’s specific attention. “I’d be happy to be the in-between answering machine.”
“Oh, no, that’s okay,” I quickly waved him off with a nervous giggle. “It’s a bit…I mean, it’s kind of personal, a bit embarrassing, really.”
If it was possible, the smile on Derek’s face got wider somehow. “Ooh, wait! Was this about the party last night?”
Great. Scott told his roommate before he told me. Swell.
“Yeah, he mentioned he wanted to talk to you about it,” Derek’s voice cranked up in volume as, suddenly, the water turned off. “He feels really bad about what happened. I mean, how whack is it that he ended up,”
“Derek, you’re an absolute fuck!” And there came Scott, bare skinned with nothing but a knotted towel protecting me from viewing the entirety of his birthday suit. He totally froze, stuck between the bathroom and the front door, with Derek and I taking in every inch of him.
I have no idea what to say. I just sorta…stare, as Derek is completely losing it beside me.
Finally, Scott clears his throat, weakly waving the hem of his white towel with a smile pushed out by anxiety. “Uh…I surrender?”
This guy.
This guy.
It took every bit I had not to turn around and walk away. Screw whatever bullshit explanation he was going to give me; nothing could make up for the image he currently burned into my retinas. The deer-in-the-headlights look in his eyes, the water droplets rolling down his impressively-sculpted chest, the…utter definition held in his shoulders from years of playing football…
I shook my head, getting ready to turn around and leave.
“W-Wait, Syd!” Oh, God, he was moving towards me. I held up a hand as Scott reached the door, feeling my face absolutely light up.
“Before you say anything else,” I managed to croak out. “Pants. Pants and a shirt.”
Scott, suddenly remembering he had nothing on underneath, quickly nodded his head before gently closing the door on me. “Um…please don’t go? I’m honestly glad you came by and wanna talk about last night.”
Oh, God, the desperation in his voice is only amplified by how exposed he was right now. Maybe if he did do something stupid, he felt…bad about it? Still, I didn’t want to show weakness now of all times. I crossed my arms over my chest, leaning my weight onto one side of my hip as I gave him a curt nod.
And like that, his door softly clicked back in place as a maelstrom of noises erupted inside. It was a mixture of yelling, stumbling around, and at one point, I could’ve sworn I heard fabric ripping. Finally, the door swings back open, Scott visibly out of breath and leaning up against the frame. I glanced around him, catching a brief glimpse of Derek holding his head and hobbling towards the bathroom, still cackling.
“So!” Scott began, pulling my attention back towards him. “Can I…invite you inside, Squid?”