My heart breaks when I look over and see how devastated Moni looks, her skin taking on a bluish tint. Her shoulders are slumped and tears are on the verge of falling. Unwilling to let her continue to feel so dejected, I walk over and wrap my arm around her shoulder, squeezing her while trying to offer some comfort.
“Don’t worry, Moni, nothing could ruin our friendship, especially a guy. Ever heard of the phrase ‘chicks before dicks’? Well, that’s us.” I smile down at her, dropping my arm when she smirks back.
“Oh sweet Moni-Baloni, you know I can’t deny anyone the pleasure that is me,” Jacques smiles wide. At the same time, he runs his hand through his hair, allowing his gelled spikes to bounce back into perfection.
Moni just rolls her eyes and scoffs at him as her skin fades back to green.
“Sure JP, whatever. By the way Rez, this is JP, our roommate and my brother, we think,” she says flippantly motioning to Mr. Hot as Sin.
I quirk my eyebrow at the last comment, but she waves my silent question away and moves closer to Jacques.Wait! Roommate?I turn to look at JP and watch as he picks up the mess he made from falling. I definitely don’t mind this JP guy being my other roomie. I might be lucky enough to see him in a towel… or even less. What? Don’t judge me, I’m a flesh and blood woman. I like looking at man candy.
“Now, can I please have some coffee?” she asks through gritted teeth. “I want to show Rez our room and get settled in before classes start on Monday, which doesn’t leave us much time.” Biting her lip, she turns back to me.
“Battle week was last week, and most of the students came to claim and decorate their rooms before going home again to enjoy their last weekend of freedom. That’s why this place is a ghost town,” she waves her arms about the room.
Zeke steps up and pulls me back into his side. “That’s what I was telling you about before. Everyone comes the week prior to battle over their dorms and sign up for extracurricular programs. They don’t come back until Sunday night before classes start though. So, tomorrow everyone will be back.”
“See,” Moni says in exasperation. “We are a week behind, and probably all the good electives for our Specials are already taken,” Moni whines.
“Chill Moni. We took care of it”, Zeke says.
“Yeah, you will love our room,” JP says, smirking at her.
“Wait! How have you seen it already? I just found out a few hours ago that I was attending school this year and my dorm assignment changed. All Levi told me was that I would find out what room I was in when I met my new roommate and her Familiar! So, how did you find out?” Moni flies up into his face, demanding an answer.
“While I was here, at the buttcrack of Hell and you were sleeping, Levi texted me and told me my room was changed, so since I was already here working, I took a break to check it out. I moved some stuff over while I had a chance. We still need to decorate but like I said, don’t worry. You girls will love it.” Jacques waves Moni’s concerns away and motions for us to follow him into the kitchen.Where did that door come from?I swear that wasn’t there before.
“Girls, with my help, everything will be ready by tomorrow afternoon,” he winks at me. “We’ll meet in an hour, and we’ll go shopping. But first, let’s get our resident addict some coffee, then to the dorms you go. I need to finish up here before we can meet up,” he shoots a look at Moni, ignoring her scowl, and heads to the coffee machine.
With a cup of java in Moni’s hands, we’re ready to make our way to the dorms. Heading out of the cafeteria, Zeke’s phone goes off with a ping, and he frowns when he sees the screen. “Sorry, Spitfire, but it looks like I’m gonna have to sit this one out. But I promise to see you tomorrow, okay?” He leans in and kisses me on the cheek, and the butterflies in my stomach dance the tango. My eyes are glued to his firm ass as he walks away with a swagger. When I turn back, I find Moni giving me a knowing look, and I scowl. Giggling, she reaches behind me to pull the paper for our dorm room out of my back pocket, and walks down the hall singing,“You got it bad”by Usher.
I have a feeling my new little coffee addict roomie is also part bloodhound and part she-devil. Nothing is going to get by her.
Chapter Six
We’re in the Moni
Rez
After chugging her coffee and throwing it in the trashcan in the hall, Moni challenges me to see who can get to our new room first. She races me up the stairs and of course, her ass wins, the damn hussy. She flies up them like a rocket. No, I don’t mean she was fast and ran up them like me, and I’m just slow. I mean, she shrank down in size and flew up the center, cheater! I almost miss her when I get to the last few steps because she’s as small as a dragonfly, and she’s sitting on the door handle waiting for me.
Don’t ask me why I decided to race. I’m not usually up for competition. In fact, I despise it. I think that comes from years of being picked last for teams in school or just finding things hard and giving up. I’m one of those people you would call a quitter. I’ve been working on it, picking small challenges I think I can win and giving it my all. I guess this burn I’m feeling in my lungs was my own fault since I decided to race against a con artist! I digress.
From what’s written on the paper in my welcome packet, our room is in the ‘roundabout’ instead of the standard dorms, which is depressing. Roundabout just sounds like an ugly stepchild’s dirty secret, and it’s probably another way of proving just how much I didn’t belong here. Fuck a duck! The rooms aren’t even on the map of the school. So I’m expecting to walk into a dark hallway with a closet for a room in the corner, or even a cot laying out in no-man's-land. Hell, maybe I’ll be sleeping in the broom closet, despite JP’s reassurances.
Opening the door, a full-length hallway of windows with an ocean view isn’t even close to my expectations. The ‘roundabout’ isn’t the disgrace I had initially thought it was. Instead, this is a penthouse unit on an invisible sixth floor.
Looking around, it seems like we share the floor with one other unit if the other door down the hall from ours is any indication. Still, since Zeke said students won’t be coming back until tomorrow, there’s no point in introducing myself now. I walk down the hall to our door as Moni starts singing, “We’re in my money,” and she places her finger over the circle on the doorframe.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“I’m keying myself in, duh. Don’t you have this back home?” she replies as I hear a click.
“No. We use keys like normal people,” I say and then chuckle, seeing her lips curl up at the idea.
“So you’re a neanderthal, huh?” she laughs. “Okay, now hold your finger down until you hear a click. We don’t do keys, but the door is sentient and knows who’s supposed to live here.”
I copy her and place my finger over the ring until the door starts shaking like a monster is trying to ram through.
