I shook my head to rid my mind from thoughts of Spencer as I continued to fold shirts in the basement laundry room. Then, my cell phone rang, and I saw it was my father.
“Hey, Dad.”
“Hi, sweetie. I am just checking in. How are things going at the new place?”
I can’t stop obsessing over my roommate.
“Pretty good so far.”
“How’s Ryan?”
Who?
“He’s great. Turns out he’s actually dating my other roommate, Tarah.”
“Really? Good for him. Nice girl?” he asked.
“Yes, very.”
“Well, you know Ryan is like family to us. So, I couldn’t be happier that he is there to look out for you.”
Actually, Ryan’s head is so far up Tarah’s ass, I am lucky if he even realizes I still live here.
“Me too,” I said.
My father sighed. “What about the other roommate? A guy, right?”
Yes, a really hot guy, with tattoos and piercings on his face…and tongue…and God knows where else…and I sometimes want to lick him.
“Jake…his name is Jake. Good guy, kind of quiet…an engineer.”
“Ah, good, he must be nice and nerdy. I won’t have to worry.” He laughed.
Dad, you should be so worried.
“That’s exactly right. He is a bit of a nerd.”
“How are classes so far?”
I am going to fail math.
“So far so good. Math is going to be a challenge.”
“Well, I have confidence in you, honey. You made this big move to the city, and I know you won’t let yourself fail.”
I just wish I had confidence in myself.
“Thanks, Dad. I better get back to folding laundry. Tell Mom I love her.”
“Ok, sweetie. Love you. Bye bye.”
***
It was 4:30 in the afternoon, and since I had been up tossing and turning the previous night, I decided to try to take a nap since Jake wouldn’t be home until after six o’clock.
I had set my alarm—or so I thought—for 5:30. So, you could imagine my surprise when I woke up and saw that it was 7:45. My heart was pounding, and I was beyond agitated when I realized I had overslept.
I got up and scratched my head, lifting the alarm clock and noticing that, while yes, I had set the alarm for 5:30, it was for am not pm, which did me absolutely no good.
Shit!
I rubbed my eyes and matted my hair down, unsure of what I would be met with when I emerged from the bedroom.
To make matters worse, I looked over at my nightstand and my pulse quickened as I discovered evidence that Jake had been in my room while I was asleep. There, next to my tissue box was another black origami bat. I shook my head in disbelief and began to unfold it.
Did you know that you drool?
That’s so not cool.
Showing up is my number one rule.
Now, get up, fool. You’re late for school.
Mortified did not even begin to describe how I felt. Even though I would have rather stayed put at that point, I knew I needed to go out and face the music. I took a stick of gum from my purse to mask my sleep breath and quickly inspected myself in the mirror. I grabbed my math books and syllabus and headed down the hall.
When I got to Jake’s room, his door was cracked open, and I could see that he was sitting up in bed wearing headphones and writing on a laptop. He hadn’t noticed me, so I stood there for a minute taking him in.
His hair was flattened, like he had just taken a shower, and there was a loose piece hanging over his forehead. He had beautiful, shiny dark hair that looked jet-black when it was wet. He was wearing black cargo pants and a navy blue t-shirt that hugged his muscles and showed off his tattooed arms. The room smelled like cinnamon candle, musk and cigarettes, even though I had yet to see him smoking in the house. His long legs were stretched out to the end of the length of the bed. He was tapping his foot fast and nervously as he typed, bobbing his head to the beat of the music.
I clutched my textbook and was nervous just looking at him, while anticipating the grief he was going to give me for sleeping through our tutoring session.
I finally coughed to let him know I was standing at the doorway.
Jake looked up and slowly removed his headphones. “Well, well, well, look who finally decided to wake up.”
I stayed at the threshold. Waving the paper bat he made me, I said, “I am sorry, Jake, I really am. I set the alarm for am instead of pm.”
He closed his laptop and sat up into a sitting position at the edge of the bed. He wasn’t smiling. “You should be apologizing to yourself. You’re the one who’s gonna fail.”
Okay, hard-ass.
“Why didn’t you just wake me up?”
“I tried to nudge you, but you didn’t even move. I had to check your pulse to make sure you were still alive. Then, you farted, so I figured all was well.”