“There’s another bathroom downstairs,” Davenport very unkindly informs me, like he lives here and I’m the intruder.
“We’ll be out in a second, Lind. I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you had work today,” Micah promises at the same time. He has turned to face me, and only now do I realize his belt is undone, the zipper of his pants halfway down, trapping an impressive bulge.
I yank my gaze up to his broad shoulders, to the back of his neck, the stretch of skin above his collar where I could probably feel his pulse. None of these options seems safe right now, so I settle on his face instead, that stupidly handsome face with its perfect jawline and slightly kiss-swollen lips. I shiver when his heterochromatic eyes land on me—one blue, one hazel.
Fuck.
I have to physically refrain from pressing my hands against my cheeks when I can feel them flushing. Not only from the eyeful I just caught, but also because that comment stung. We talked this morning in the kitchen! But obviously, there were other things on his mind.
I can’t blame him.
Why care about your lame roommate’s job when you’re looking forward to a house party with beautiful people crowning you captain of the football team?
“I…uhm, I’ll give you a second,” I announce and turn around to retreat to my room across the hallway. Leaning against the closed door, I release a deep breath. I can hear giggles, then the soft murmur of voices. For an awful moment, I fear they’ll just close the door again and get right back to it, but finally, three sets of steps retreat down the stairs, leaving me alone with my swirling thoughts.
I wonder what Colin would say if I told him about this—how I haven’t managed to get even a tiny step closer to losing my virginity while my straight roommate is about to have a threesome with his teammate.
Micah, June 4th
Someone is watching me.
The realization seeps slowly into my consciousness, the weight of a gaze caressing over my warm skin, gently tickling my brain. Then the awareness of another presence hits me harder and faster than reality can catch up. I sit up straight in bed, gasping like a bucket of cold water has been emptied above my head.
“Whoa, easy there, big boy,” a soft voice coos, followed by a giggle. I need a moment to orient myself, expecting the half-darkness of a mobile home. Instead, I have to shield my eyes from the morning light flooding the room. It’s already stuffy under the roof, too hot for the early morning hours. I faintly remember our landlord promising to install an AC up here before summer. He didn’t specify which summer, though, and I never asked.
“Morning,” I rumble once I’ve rubbed the sleep from my eyes. My head throbs from sitting up too fast, so I let myself fall back into the sheets. My stomach lurches from the movement,and I try to remember how much I drank last night. I’m not a practiced drinker because that shit can drain a wallet fast.
“Bad dreams?” the voice next to me inquires, finally triggering the memory of the past night: the party, the bathroom, Seb, Mia. And Linden. Someone brought a keg, which also explains a lot.
“No,” I croak out because I’m fifty percent sure I didn’t dream. “I just don’t like being watched while sleeping.”
“Ugh, the hardships of being pretty.” Mia laughs beside me, her warm breath tickling my naked skin. I smile at her words, blinking my eyes open again. This time, I turn my head to face her. She must know a thing or two about this kind of hardship—even with tousled hair and smeared mascara, Mia is gorgeous. She’s wearing one of my training shirts, which looks like a dress on her.
I crane my neck to peer down. My chest is bare, but I’m still in last night’s jeans and boxers. Thank God. Drunk sex is scary. I can’t afford a surprise pregnancy next semester—or ever.
Next to me, Mia chortles. “Don’t worry, big boy; nothing happened here after your friend left us high and dry. I mean, you had plans for the night, but then you told me that I had, and I’m quoting here, the ‘most comfortable thighs,’ put your head down on them and skipped right into dreamland afterward.”
“Oh God, I’m sorry.” I laugh. “I would have followed through if they hadn’t made me drink a quarter of that keg.”
“And while doing so in a handstand! I was really impressed, handsome.” She winks, then reaches out to cross the small gap between our bodies to pet my head. I roll my eyes, but let her be. It’s not the first time we’ve woken up in the same bed together over the past years.
The beautiful cheerleader and the football captain—it sounds like taken straight out of a sports romance novel. But Mia is not one to be contained in a relationship, and I’m glad we never tried to develop our occasional one-night stands into anything more.
“I’ll make it up to you,” I promise, but she waves me off.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m more bummed about how your roommate scared off Davenport.” She sighs, her mouth turning into a pout.
I smile weakly in response, not having the heart to tell her that Seb would have fled the scene at some point anyway. Linden’s appearance was just a convenient excuse.
“There’ll be other chances,” I promise as I tap her nose with my index finger. “Not like there’s a shortage of guys wanting to get in bed with you.”
“True. But thereisa shortage of guys wanting to get in bed with each other,” she points out, and I have to snort at that.
“Don’t laugh! I’ve been trying to cross this off my bucket list for years now! Do you know how hard it is to find two guys—pretty guys with at least half a brain cell each, not desperate Neanderthals—willing to hop in bed with not only me but also each other? They’re all for it until it’s time to get naked with other men outside of a locker room. Then they suddenly think their manliness will evaporate the second their elbows touch.”
“Oh, poor Mia, that sounds like a terrible problem to have!”
“Stop making fun of me, Micah! We’ll be out of Bonham in less than a year. College is for all the wild experiments! The ones my future husband—oryour future wife—will never hear about! If I don't complete my bucket list now, I can pick it up again when I’m sixty, and I already know I won’t look half as good then.”
