The Hazards of a One Night Stand (17 page)

“Uh huh.”

I played with his belt buckle, watching as his eyes widened in anticipation. I took what for him was probably an agonizingly long time to release the buckle and move on to his button and zipper.

He put his hands on my hips. “Just know that if I’m available for your enjoyment, you’re available for mine.”

“I don’t know if I agreed to that.” I bit my lip.

“You unofficially did.” He shifted so he could pull my dress over my head. “You say I’m too tempting, what about you?”

I closed my eyes. “Didn’t you just say I’m available to you?”

“Yes, and you started to deny it.”

“How’s this for denying it.” I reached behind me and unclasped my bra, letting it fall off on the bed beside us.

He reached up and cupped each of my breasts with his hands. “If this is how you’re going to argue with me, please do it all the time.”

I leaned forward, offsetting his hand as I lay down on top of him. Our naked chests against each other felt perfect. The only problem was his shorts were still in the way. He noticed the same problem, and lifted me just enough to start pulling them down.

Just as he had them nearly to his ankles, there was a knock on the door.

I rolled off him.

Colt ignored the knock and finished removing his shorts.

“Colt! Open up, man,” a male voice yelled from the hallway.

I put on my bra and reached for my dress.

Colt stilled my hands and didn’t answer.

“I know you’re in there. We have to go to the house. Don’t you check your phone?”

The house? It was another pledge. I pulled away from Colt and finished getting dressed.

“Give me five minutes.”

Whoever was outside laughed. “What are you doing, or rather who?”

I closed my eyes. Even though no one could see me, I was mortified.

“I’ll meet you at the house in five minutes.” Colt smiled at me.

“Sure. Uh, sorry to whoever just had their night interrupted.”

I groaned.

Colt laughed. “Want to stay here and wait for me to get back?”

“Yeah, no, thanks.”

“You know he’s probably waiting in the lobby, right?” Colt buttoned his shorts. “I’m sure he wants to find out who I have in here. I have no problem with him seeing us, but my guess is you do.”

“This is why we shouldn’t be here.”

“Hey. Come on. Just stay. It’s too late for you to walk home alone.”

“I can’t stay here. What if your roommate comes back?”

“He won’t. And even if he does, just wear clothes. I won’t be long.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I am.” He kissed my forehead. “I’ll get back as soon as I can.”

It wasn’t until the door clicked closed behind him that I discovered a slight problem. I was eventually going to need to use the bathroom. Once the thought got into my head, of course, I needed to go. I also had no interest in using the restroom on his all boy floor. I paced his room a few minutes and then made a decision. I was walking back to my house. I’d text Colt and tell him I changed my mind. I still couldn’t believe I was in his dorm room. Had I lost my mind? Hooking up in a Freshman dorm?

With my mind made up, I grabbed my purse and walked out into the hall.

With purpose, I continued down the hall and into the stairwell. Colt wasn’t around to give me a hard time for walking down the stairs, but six flights takes a long time. I reached the lobby and realized another problem. The front desk still had my ID. I debated just walking out, but I needed it back.

“Hey, can I check out?” I smiled at the guy at the desk. It was the same one.

“Didn’t Colt check you in?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, he needs to be here to check you out.”

“Oh, come on. Please just give me my ID.”

“Sorry. You’ll have to wait for Colt.”

“Forget it.” I stormed out of the dorm and headed toward my house. The lighting by the dorms was great, but I was reminded of how late it was when I turned toward the Greek houses. I hurried, ready to get home. A light drizzle of rain started right before I reached the front porch. Perfect timing. I punched in the code and very happily walked upstairs. I used the bathroom and got changed for bed. At the last minute, I remembered to text Colt.

I went home. Please get my ID for me.

He didn’t reply right away which meant he was in his meeting still. That was an even better reason for having gone home.

I got into bed and turned out the light. Exhaustion had caught up with me.

I woke up with a start twenty minutes later when my phone rang. “Yes?” I answered when I saw Colt’s name.

“What part of stay here didn’t you understand?”

“I changed my mind.”

“And walked home alone. Lovely.”

“There were tons of people around.”

He sighed. “Listen, I can’t tell you what to do, and I don’t want to unless it comes to your safety, but don’t do that again. Please? Just promise me that?”

“All right. I won’t walk home alone again at night.” I knew he was right. You could never be too careful.

“I guess we’ll have to take a rain check on the complete access, huh?”

“I guess so considering I’m already in bed.”

“What are you wearing?”

“Pajamas.”

He laughed. “Because that’s descriptive.”

“I guess you’ll have to find out another time.”

“You’re mean.”

“Maybe a little. Good night.”

“Good night, pumpkin.”

A tentative knock on my door woke me up. I resisted the urge to roll over and go back to sleep. “Who is it?”

“It’s Jade. Did I wake you?”

“Kind of, but it’s fine. It’s open.”

The door opened slowly, and she walked in. “I’m really sorry. I thought you were a morning person.”

“I am. Usually.”

She stood there in the middle of the room.

“You can sit.” I gestured to Cara’s perfectly made up bed right across from mine. I sat up and ran a hand through my hair, hoping it wasn’t a complete mess.

“I guess I should have called first.”

“No. This is totally fine. I needed to get up for class soon anyway.” I moved out of the covers. “What’s going on?”

“I was hoping I could talk to you.”

“Of course. You can talk to me about anything.” A wave of nervousness hit me. Was Jade okay?

“Does it get better?” Her face fell a little.

“Does what get better? Pledging?”

“No. I mean college.”

“Freshman year is hard.” I wasn’t going to give her any BS about it being what you make of it. The bottom line is that freshman year of college is ridiculously hard. “It’s a huge transition.”

“I know. I’m used to knowing everyone. I’m not even sure if I have a single real friend here.”

“You have at least one.” I smiled.

“Thanks.”

“And you have more. You seem to have made friends in your pledge class.”

“Yeah, but what if they’re only my friends because they have to be. Isn’t that part of it?”

I shook my head. “They’re your friends. It does take a while for college to feel like home, but it will. You’ll see when you come back second semester. You’ll have missed it. It’s a strange feeling, but eventually this place will be home.”

“I hope so.” She clasped her hands together nervously.

“I know you have another friend too. How’s Diane?”

Jade smiled. “She’s good. Chris asked for her number last night. Now she’ll just freak out waiting for him to call.”

I laughed. “Isn’t that how it always goes?”

Jade blushed. “Not always.”

“What do you mean?”

“You and Colt… he’s the one chasing you.”

“Colt and I aren’t together.” At least Colt seemed fine with keeping things on the down low. Broadcasting our relationship would be a bad thing for both of us.

She looked at me skeptically. “I saw you two leaving together last night. I see the way he looks at you.”

I pulled my pillow onto my lap. “I’m not sure what’s going on with us, but I’d prefer if you didn’t tell anyone.”

“Okay. Do your roommates know?”

“No.” I looked away. I needed to tell them. I just didn’t know where to begin.

“Really? But you guys all seem so close.”

“We are.”

“Okay. Well, I won’t tell anyone.”

“Thanks. And if I can do anything to help make this transition easier, just let me know.”

“I will.” She turned toward the door.

“Hey, let’s have lunch one day next week.”

“Oh, that would be great. Maybe Tuesday?”

“Sure. Twelve at the student center?”

“Perfect!” She smiled before walking out of the room. I lay back down even though I knew there was no chance I’d fall back to sleep.

All it took was one fight to find myself in the backseat of Juliet’s car on the way to the beach. Cara had some blowout with Aaron over him talking to an ex-girlfriend, and the weekend had changed from a romantic getaway to a girl’s weekend. Any reason to stay behind vanished, and I had a mix of emotions about the trip. I was looking forward to getting away for a long weekend. I needed space from school and Colt. I just wasn’t sure I was ready for the questioning I knew was coming.

“I hate him.” Cara sighed.

I turned away from my open window, forcing myself to stop looking at the beautiful southern oaks surrounding us. “What exactly happened?” This wasn’t the first time Cara had gotten angry at Aaron, but it was the first time she’d left town over it.

“I caught him talking to her again. He told me he wouldn’t, considering what happened this summer.” She sniffled. Aaron really was being an idiot. He’d told Cara about how his ex- girlfriend had chased him all summer long. What he hadn’t told her was that she’d kissed him. Cara found that out from a Facebook photo. Needless to say, she wasn’t his biggest fan at the moment. To make matters worse, when she went to confront him about it, he’d been on the phone with the ex.

“Maybe she called him.” Juliet slowed down as the car in front of us turned with no warning.

“Maybe, but he was laughing and grinning when I found him. What if it was more than a kiss? He said he pushed her away, but what if he didn’t? What if everything with us is a lie?”

“He loves you.” I don’t know where the words came from, but they spilled out. I knew that didn’t make up for anything, but I really couldn’t imagine Aaron cheating on her.

“I know, but what if he’s still in love with
her
?”

Juliet shook her head. “He’s not. He can’t be. Not with the way he acts with you.”

“I agree, but he totally deserves a freeze out. I get why you wanted to get away.” I hoped some time apart would help things blow over.

“I’m sorry for changing things up last minute.” Cara turned to Juliet. “How did Reed take getting left behind this weekend?”

Juliet answered honestly. “He wasn’t thrilled, but he thought some girl time was a good idea. He knows how much I love you guys.”

“Aww, I love you guys too.”

Cara sighed. “I so needed this.”

“What’s the weather supposed to be like?” I’d thrown in a bikini, and I was hoping I’d get to use it. The storm clouds above suggested afternoon beach plans weren’t in the cards.

Juliet slowed down when we reached a traffic circle. “It’s going to rain in the morning tomorrow, but we should be fine in the afternoon.”

“I guess that means we can sleep in.”

Juliet laughed. “It’s going to be my kind of morning. “

“We should have brought something with us to go with all this liquor.” Cara poured us another round of shots. We were seated at the island in the kitchen. The rain started within twenty minutes of arriving, but our spirits were boosted when we discovered Juliet’s brothers had left behind quite the stash of liquor when they’d visited the week before.

Juliet leaned on her elbows. “You guys are lucky I remembered food.”

I laughed. “Do you call a few boxes of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and Special K bars food?”

“We usually have tons of the basics here, and I figured we’d just run to the store tomorrow to get more. I didn’t expect my dumb brothers to have eaten us out of house and home.”

“Are either of you sober enough to drive?” Cara tittered on her stool. “Theoretically, we could still go to the store.”

“No,” Juliet and I answered in unison.

Cara got a wicked grin on her face. “We could always ask your neighbor.”

Juliet paled. “What? Which neighbor? Have you seen a car?”

“I’m joking.” Cara laughed. “I wanted to see your reaction.”

“Not even remotely funny.” Juliet still looked freaked out. I couldn’t blame her. Her ex-boyfriend’s family owned the house next door, and I knew they had some serious history that took place at these houses.

“Break out that box of bars.” I got up to fill a glass with water from the fridge.

“Here you go.” Juliet tossed me a chocolate, peanut butter bar.

“We should play truth or dare.” Cara grinned again, but this one was friendly. I’d never seen her as drunk as she was that night, and I knew it was because she was so upset about Aaron. She was going to regret the alcohol in the morning.

“Truth or dare?” Juliet ate her bar in three bites.

“Although, I have a feeling it’s just going to be truths.” Cara moved into the living room, collapsing dramatically on the couch.

“Can’t we just watch TV instead?” Playing drunk truth or dare with my friends didn’t sound particularly appealing.

Cara picked her head up. “Please. It was fun when we did it as pledges.”

“Fun?” I looked at her with surprise. “Try awful.”

“Really? I thought it was fun.” Cara grinned.

“You would.” Cara was an open book. She had no problem airing her dirty laundry. She also seemed to enjoy the silly dares the actives made up. I’d picked dare and ended up having to sing
Tomorrow
from Annie on the front porch. Let’s just say I don’t have a great voice.

“Will you play or not?” Cara pressed.

“Sure, but I’m not starting.” I knew she was only suggesting the game so she could grill me about Colt. I’d at least make her wait.

“I’ll go first.” Juliet tossed her wrapper and walked into the living room. I followed her.