Dire(73)
“Hey.”
I turned and nearly collided with a guy with spiky black hair. “Hi.”
“I’m Shaun.”
I looked around Shaun to see Reyna flirting with Chad. Might as well make friends with the roommate. At least Reyna had been right about one thing, he was cute. “Hi Shaun, I’m Daisy.”
“Really? Like from The Great Gatsby?”
“Uh, yeah.” Wow, a guy my age who knew something about literature.
“Cool. Listen, just to put it out there, you can sleep in my bed if you want. I wouldn’t want to subject you to the couch.”
I shook my head. “Oh, that’s okay.” First he appreciates literature and now he’s a gentleman? Double points.
“Come on, I saw you eyeing it’s, uh, worn in condition.” He smiled, immediately putting me at ease.
“I was just glad I brought a sleeping bag.” I felt like a weight had been taken off me. Things might not be quite as awkward as I anticipated.
Shaun laughed. “Really, I’d only offer my bed if I wanted to. Save the sleeping bag. Besides, I wouldn’t want to leave you out here with our other roommate around.”
“Other roommate?”
“Yeah. Duncan. He’s a weird one.”
“Oh.” Reyna hadn’t mentioned a third roommate in the apartment. Interesting omission. In order to avoid any unnecessary drama I decided not to ask more about Duncan. If he was really that weird hopefully I wouldn’t even meet him.
“Here, I’ll help you with your stuff.” Shaun grabbed my duffel before I could stop him.
“Really—”
“I’m telling you it’s not a problem,” He interrupted.
Reyna caught my eye and winked. I shook my head in return. If she thought she was playing matchmaker she had another thing coming. Nice or not, I wasn’t interested in hooking up with some random guy. If that’s all I wanted I might as well have just continued trying my luck with the dating pool at East Madison.
“Reyna? You coming?” Chad called from the doorway of his room. Wow, he was moving fast. I hoped Reyna knew what she was doing. Hopefully they were on the same page.
“Looks like you have someone to keep you company.” Reyna grinned. “I’m going to take a quick nap with Chad.”
“Oh, a nap?” I rolled my eyes. “Enjoy that.”
With a sigh I walked into Shaun’s room. The room was sparsely furnished with just a bed and a desk in the corner. His walls were bare which surprised me. I guess most guys I knew at school had posters and stuff up. His looked like he’d just moved in. A window AC unit sat precariously on the sill appearing like it could fall at any moment.
“I just changed my sheets today.” He gestured to his bed.
“Really?”
“Yeah. I always do laundry on Fridays.”
“And you change your sheets?”
He laughed. “You don’t wash yours?”
“I do, but most of my guy friends don’t with any regularity.”
“Oh, that’s kind of gross.”
I laughed. “Are you as much of a neat freak as me?”
“I prefer to think of myself as orderly.”
“Orderly. That works too.”
I took a seat on the edge of his bed. My guess was that Reyna’s ‘nap’ was going to last awhile.
Chapter Three
“The Boot isn’t anything special, but it’s where we always start.” Chad was all smiles as we walked toward the unofficial campus bar of Tulane.
“Cool, we’re up for anything.” Reyna appeared equally happy, ever so often stealing glances of her hand held by his. If I didn’t know any better I’d say this guy really meant something to her.
“Great.” It was already Friday night. All I had to do was make it until Sunday morning and we’d be on our way back to campus.
“What’s the scene like at EMC?” Shaun asked.
“It’s a big Greek scene.” Which was why joining a sorority was a no-brainer. Social life pretty much revolved around it. “There’s obviously tons to do in Atlanta, but we’re just outside the city.”
“So you’re in a sorority?”
“Yeah. Delta Mu.”
“Nice.”
“I’m guessing you’re not Greek?”
“No, it’s not really my scene.”
“Cool.” I didn’t care whether he was or not, but there went a potential conversation. “So this is an eighteen and up place?” I didn’t particularly feel like broaching the whole fake ID subject.
“Yeah. You’re good.”
“Ok, great.” Our conversation was getting stilted so I really hoped we got there soon.