Trouble's What You're In

by Danielle Allen

  I felt the tears welling up in my eyes. “I guess because everyone lawyered up and Dakota’s bitch ass is trying to throw me under the bus.”

  “You have an alibi that proves you weren’t anywhere near anything that was stolen or on fire. Once the police follow up with Aiden—”

  “They already did,” I interrupted. “His lawyer advised him not to incriminate himself by saying he was even at the party.”

  “People saw him at the party though. He can’t just act like he wasn’t there.”

  My shoulders started feeling stiff. “Apparently rich kids can do whatever they want.”

  Jay’s jaw clenched. “So, what does that mean for you?”

  “That means that Aiden is going to consult with his lawyer and then they’ll make a decision about validating my alibi.”

  He moved his hand and grabbed his bottle. He finished the water and then got up. When he returned a couple minutes later, he had a rum and Coke in a tumbler. It wasn’t by a huge margin, but I noticed that he was a little further away from me than he was before.

  We ate in silence for a few minutes.

  “I’ll talk to him,” Jay finally stated roughly.

  I stared at his profile. “Oh, no… it’s okay.”

  “It sounds like he needs some convincing to do the right thing.”

  I could almost see the anger billowing off him in waves. His muscles pulled the arms of his t-shirt as he took a gulp of his drink. As soon as he put the glass back on the table, I put my hand on his shoulder and moved closer to him.

  “Hey,” I said gently. “I’m going to handle it. I don’t want to drag you into this.”

  “You realize what’s happening, right?” He finished the rest of his drink. “They’re setting you up.”

  “I’m going to handle it,” I repeated. I tried to make my tone as reassuring as possible even though I felt panicked. “It’s going to be fine.”

  I had no idea what I was going to do but I knew getting Jay involved would make a bad situation worse.

  Cuddling up next to him, I wrapped my arms around his shoulders. I needed him to calm down so that he could, in turn, calm me down. “I just want to forget about everything tonight and eat pizza and watch a movie with my best friend. Please.”

  He didn’t say anything immediately, so I shook him. “Yeah, okay,” he relented. “Pick a movie. I’m going to change into a pair of shorts.”

  By the time he came back, I’d found a thriller for us to enjoy.

  “Well that sucked,” he said two hours later.

  I laughed. “It did. But that’s not my fault”—I pointed at the screen— “the preview was completely misleading!”

  “Yeah it was.” Picking up the remote, he flipped through the channels until he found something else. “Now it’s my turn.”

  We laughed and joked for the first half of the comedy he’d selected. But toward the end, I was starting to nod off.

  “Let’s go to bed,” Jay whispered, nudging me off his shoulder.

  I wiped my mouth and looked around in confusion. “Okay.”

  I picked up the empty pizza box and my two empty bottles of water. Tossing them in the trashcan, I noticed the time. “It’s only one o’clock.” My voice was hoarse. “Why does it seem later?”

  “Because it’s been a long ass week.”

  “True story.”

  Peeling off my robe, I made my way to the bathroom. I draped it on the hook on the back of the door and looked at myself in the mirror. It was clear I was tired. I had bags under my eyes and my hair was still a mess. With a shake of my head, I brushed my teeth and washed my face.

  My satin pillow was still in Jay’s room and if I hadn’t been so tired, I probably wouldn’t have just climbed in his bed as if it were my own. It wasn’t until he said goodnight that I remembered what had happened hours earlier.

  My eyes flew open.

  I stared at the wall in the darkened room as I tried to tell myself it wasn’t that big of a deal. Just apologize.

  My back was to him, but I knew he was still awake. “Jay?”

  “Hm?”

  “I’m sorry I masturbated in here earlier,” I blurted out.

  I felt the bed dip as he rolled over. I could feel him staring at the back of my head. “Yo…”

  I groaned and pulled the covers over my head. “Jay,” I whined.

  “Yooooo…” He tugged the covers off me. “I’m glad you brought it up because I didn’t know what to say!”

  “Oh my God,” I wailed.

  “I get it. Sometimes after a long day you have to get one out,” he joked. “I’ve been there.”

  “James!” I covered my face with my hands. Mortification mixed with amusement as I stifled the laugh that was threatening to burst out of me. “Can we drop it?”

  “Only if you tell me what material you used to christen my bed.”

  I froze.

  Complete and utter humiliation threatened to expose me and further complicate things. I removed my hands from my face and pulled the sheet up under my chin.

  “Just accept my apology and forget you heard anything. Please,” I begged.

  “Apology accepted.” He chuckled a little. “But seriously, you didn’t hear me come in?”

  I twisted my torso and turned my head so I could see his face. “No. Obviously not.”

  His moved his head as if he were trying to get a better read on my expression. “Hey, I’m just giving you a hard time. You know you don’t have to be embarrassed around me. I really don’t care. Don’t worry about it.”

  “It’s embarrassing. I’d like to forget it happened. Can we agree to never speak of this? Can you forget what you heard?”

  With his brown eyes boring into mine, he licked his lips. “I can try,” he whispered.

  There was a small tug somewhere deep inside me. Swallowing hard, I ripped my eyes away and turned back to face the wall. “Thank you.”

  We were both quiet for a couple of minutes.

  “Are we okay?” I asked, my voice quiet.

  “Why wouldn’t we be?”

  Jay moved over and draped his arm around me like he had done many other times. But I could tell his body was angled differently. Even though there was usually a good amount of space that he kept between us, only his arm and hand seemed to be close to me. I didn’t know if it was because I was self-conscious or because he was uncomfortable, but neither one of us pointed it out.

  “You’re right.” I put my hand on top of his and squeezed it. I knew if we could brush it off, we would be okay. “It’s not a big deal.”

  “Not a big deal,” he repeated.

  “I know you watch porn. It’s kind of the same thing,” I claimed, trying to assure myself just as much as I was trying to assure him.

  “Kind of the same thing.”

  “It’s just sounds. It’s not like you saw me.”

  He was quiet and the air left my lungs with each second that ticked by. The heat seemed to start at my feet and enflame my whole body in an instant.

  I swallowed hard. “D-did you see me?”

  I felt his breath on my neck. “Yes.”

  “Oh my God,” I heaved breathlessly.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to lie to you,” he whispered, holding my hand tighter. “As soon as I saw what was happening, I got the hell out of sight.”

  I didn’t know if I should let go of his hand, get out of the bed, run out of the apartment or just die in the exact spot I was in.

  Oh. My. God. I can never look him in the eyes again.

  My mouth was agape. “That’s so fucking embarrassing.”

  “It’s not.” His grip on my hand tightened. “I barely saw anything.”

  I immediately remembered how I was splayed out on the very bed we were in. I stared at the window and contemplated jumping out of it. There was no way he didn’t see anything.

  I started cursing under my breath before saying to myself, “I’m going to have to move out.”

&nb
sp; “Stop it. You don’t have to go anywhere. It is what it is. It happened. It’s not a big deal.”

  “Yeah, right. That’s why you wouldn’t even look at me when we were having dinner,” I groaned.

  “No. That’s not it. Stop.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut as if that would help me disappear. “This is so embarrassing.”

  “It’s not that bad. Chill—”

  My eyes flew open and my lip curled in disgust. “It didn’t happen to you! You have no idea how embarrassing this is.”

  He exhaled roughly. “You know why I couldn’t look at you?” He stopped holding my hand. Removing his arm from around me, he rolled onto his back. “I couldn’t look at you because I only saw you for a second and my dick was rock hard.” He hesitated. “I couldn’t look at you because I had to go to the bathroom to calm the fuck down.”

  We were both silent as that news tucked itself into bed with us.

  Swallowing hard, I ignored the throbbing between my legs.

  “So, there you go,” he grumbled.

  I opened my mouth to say something, but I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to make him feel better like he tried to make me feel better. But I was distracted by the way my body reacted to the information.

  “Okay,” I managed to whisper in response.

  “Now can you stop with the moving out and embarrassment talk?”

  “Okay,” I repeated, breathily.

  “Goodnight.”

  “Night.” My voice was faint as I squeezed my legs together.

  …

  Chapter Eight

  My phone rang loudly, waking me up early Saturday morning. I opened my eyes but didn’t make a move to reach for the phone. When it stopped, I closed my eyes again and hoped to drift back to sleep. A second round of ringing forced my eyes open again.

  “Answer that shit or turn it off,” Jay complained from the other side of the bed.

  I groaned and reached for it. I squinted at the number that flashed across the screen. I didn’t recognize it, but I did see that it was barely eight o’clock. I turned the ringer off.

  “Sorry,” I murmured, just as his phone suddenly went off. “Answer that shit or turn it off.”

  He laughed and I felt the bed dip as he rolled over. “Sorry,” he apologized in the same tone as I did.

  I snickered as I burrowed under the covers.

  He playfully pushed me in my back. “Shut up,” he groaned. “Your laugh is keeping me up.”

  I reached behind me and swatted at him. “You’re keeping me up!”

  He poked me in my side to tickle me. “You don’t want to start this fight, Brook.” His deep voice was raspy. “You don’t want it.”

  I struggled to keep still. “If I wasn’t so tired, I’d kick your ass right now.”

  He wiggled his fingers against my side. “Go to sleep!”

  “I’m trying!” He’d stopped tickling me, but my squirming had moved me closer to him. I suddenly felt his body heat along my back, and I realized how close we were. Something within me shifted and I paused, my entire body stiffening briefly.

  I didn’t think it was noticeable but then he asked, “Are you okay?”

  Damnit!

  I closed my eyes. “Yeah. Uh—it’s just been a rough week.”

  He put his arm around me and held me like he had every day since I showed up on his door. Exhaling slowly, I put my hand over his and squeezed. He was closer than he was the night before, so I knew we were past the awkwardness.

  “Have you thought about telling your mom about the financial aid situation?” he wondered.

  I sighed. “Yeah. I’m going to tell her when she gets here. Unless something changes.” I held onto his wrist tighter. “I pray something changes so I can graduate.”

  “We’ll figure something out,” he promised, moving closer and resting his head near mine. “You’re graduating on time.”

  His words were comforting, and my body relaxed into his. “Thank you,” I murmured, wiggling my toes off the side of the bed.

  He held me tighter, and it wasn’t long before I fell asleep.

  A sexy moan woke me up, but it was the hard dick against my ass that forced my eyes open. My nipples were straining against my satin top and I felt the dampness between my legs. I was being spooned by James and from the position of my body and where my feet were, I knew that I had unconsciously backed into him while I was sleeping. Our bodies were touching but the feel of his erection against my ass lit me on fire.

  Closing my eyes and with slow even breaths, I rotated my hips. In return, his dick seemed to get harder. He let out a soft moan in his sleep.

  Holy shit.

  I bit my lip as I had a flashback of the fantasy from earlier. The vision of Jay between my legs replayed in my mind. But the way his dick was prominently pressing against my ass, the fantasy evolved into him on top of me. I imagined how it would feel for him to kiss me, touch me, fuck me.

  “Mmm…”

  The moment I started thinking about him inside me, I let a muffled moan slip out. I squeezed my legs together, applying pressure where my clit throbbed. I wasn’t sure if I was trying to stop an impending orgasm or bring it on.

  His hand twitched as if he heard me and I froze. My heart raced and my senses returned. Heat from sexual desire and shame flooded my system and I felt warm all over. It was when my right mind returned, I realized what was happening. Not only was I sexually attracted to my best friend, I was actively grinding on him.

  After almost a minute of holding my breath, I was convinced Jay was still sleeping. I let out a sigh of relief and my heartrate returned to normal. I was so confused and conflicted. Jay was my best friend. Not only that, Carter and I hadn’t been friends for a while, but she took me in when I’d needed a place to stay. We said nothing would ever happen between us. I know I specifically told her that we wouldn’t cross that line.

  Fantasies don’t count, right?

  It had been a crazy week and I tried to dismiss what was happening as just my way of dealing with drama, trauma, and tragedy.

  But what if it isn’t? And how do I make it stop? I wondered before drifting back to sleep.

  A couple hours later, I woke up to the smell of bacon. Rubbing my eyes, I sat on the side of the bed.

  He got up and cooked? Okay!

  I grabbed my phone and noticed I had a total of five missed calls from the same number. I didn’t recognize the number and they didn’t leave a message, so I didn’t return the call.

  It’s probably someone calling for the person who had this number before me, I thought, brushing it off as I headed to the bathroom to brush my teeth.

  “It smells so good in here,” I announced as I entered the kitchen. I looked around and then put my hands on my hips. “Is this the kind of action I can expect every Saturday morning?”

  Jay stopped chewing and looked up at me. “Hell no.”

  I laughed as I washed my hands. “Well, I don’t know what the special occasion is, but I am thankful.”

  “I’m about to go to the gym and I can’t ball on an empty stomach. And I’m doing a lab this afternoon.”

  “A lab? Today?”

  “Yeah, the one I missed on Tuesday. She said I could make it up today.”

  I frowned. “Oh! Yikes.”

  “Yeah.” He bit into his last piece of bacon. “But it’s better that I can do it today. The alternative was Monday morning.”

  I nodded, sitting down at the table with him. “Oh yeah, Saturday afternoon is way better than Monday morning.”

  “What are you doing about your paper?”

  “I emailed it,” I told him. “But I’m going to see if I can stop by Financial Aid before they close at two.”

  He nodded as he immediately stood up. “Good idea. Okay, I’m going to catch you later.” He didn’t waste any time grabbing his stuff and leaving.

  A little part of me wondered if it was because of our late-night admissions or if it was because he knew how horny
he made me during our morning cuddle. Either way, the way he ran out of the apartment wasn’t normal.

  I shook my head. I can’t worry about it right now. I have things to do.

  I did some laundry, took a shower, and then ran to the Office of Financial Aid. I slipped through the door just before two o’clock and the man at the front desk was not pleased.

  “One moment please,” he sighed heavily. Picking up the phone, he complained in a whisper as he stared me down. He pointed down the hall. “Mr. Sharron will see you now.”

  I entered Mr. Sharron’s office with my fingers cross. “Hi, how are you?” I greeted him.

  “How can I help you?”

  “My name is Brooklyn Cage and I am having an issue with my housing.”

  He glanced at his watch. “Well, I can’t have a student with housing issues.” Heaving a sigh, he gestured to the chair in front of him. “Have a seat. What’s your student identification number?”

  I watched him type my information into the computer. But I became concerned when I saw his furrowed brow and pronounced frown.

  “Your scholarship…” He tilted his head to the side. “Your history shows that a sports scholarship has covered your courses and room and board. Did something change?”

  “The dance team merged with the cheerleading squad. I spoke to the coach beforehand and I was told everything was fine. But my housing assignment never came even though my classes have been covered,” I explained. “But since nothing has changed, I don’t know why it isn’t covered.”

  “There’s someone who specifically handles aid for athletes. They’ll be in on Monday.” He handed me a business card. “Call to set up an appointment. Where are you living now? There’s a house allotted for cheerleaders over on—?”

  “No,” I said a little too quickly. “No, I tried living there and it didn’t work out.”

  He gave me a look. “There’s nothing more I can do for you at this time. You’ll need to make your appointment on Monday. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

  I fidgeted in my chair. “If I were to lose my scholarship for any reason, is it too late for me to apply for aid?”

  “It would depend on the circumstances…”