But just friends.
I can’t let him touch me, or kiss me, because I’m afraid of what will happen next.
Chapter 9
It’s Tuesday morning.
My second day at my new job.
I wake up an hour before my alarm clock goes off. I’m wide awake. Now what am I supposed to do?
The sun is shining. It’s another beautiful day.
I have my shower and get dressed for work. This time, I choose gray clothes. Gray will blend with the dust.
My roommate Amanda’s door is open a crack. Standing in the hallway, I listen for a minute. She snores. Really loud. Is that a guy? I’ve never heard a girl snore so loud.
The snoring gets even louder.
I push the door in to see if it’s really her.
Suddenly the snoring stops.
I say softly, “Amanda? Are you awake?”
There’s no sound.
Pushing the door, I take a step in. “Amanda?”
No answer.
There’s only one body under her covers. I let out a breath of relief. Caleb seemed nice, but I don’t want to live with a guy.
I whisper, “Breakfast? Or coffee?”
Last night, she said she wanted to go for coffee with me in the morning. She looks too sleepy now.
Why is her face so red? I take a step closer. She’s not breathing.
“Amanda!”
I grab her shoulders and shake her.
What’s happening? Why isn’t she breathing? She was drinking last night, but not much.
Her eyes fly open. They’re all red and bloodshot around her blue irises.
She gasps for breath. It’s a horrible sound.
After a few breaths, she’s breathing normally. She sits up in bed. Her camisole strap slips off her shoulder. She yawns and smacks her lips together.
“Good morning, Jess. Breakfast?”
“What happened?” I gasp. “You were snoring. And then you stopped. You stopped breathing.”
She pulls a strand of bleached blonde hair out of her mouth. “I don’t snore.”
“You were snoring.”
“And then I died, but now I’m alive!” She tosses the duvet aside, revealing her black camisole and matching panties.
I look away. Doesn’t she have any modesty?
“You really want breakfast?” she asks. “Give me a sec to get dressed and I’ll take you to Riley’s favorite place.”
“Riley?” The name sounds familiar, but I’m trying to keep my eyes off Amanda while she gets dressed. She just strips off her camisole like I’m not even in the room.
I look around at the walls of Amanda’s bedroom. The walls are plain light brown, like mine. Everything in the house is light brown or tan, from the carpets to the walls and the doors.
Amanda has a few framed pictures on her walls. None of them are of people or family. Just trees. I like these black and white photographs of trees. They remind me of the country, but they also feel lonely.
“That’s right, you haven’t met Riley,” says Amanda. She grunts and mutters something about her jeans being too tight.
I keep looking at the trees. “Oops,” I say when I remember who Riley is. I laugh lightly. “Don’t tell our other roommate I forgot all about her.”
“Our dear Riley will be back from her holiday soon.” Amanda lets out a laugh that sounds like a cackle.
“I thought she was on a business trip.”
“Riley likes to mix business and pleasure.”
“Okay.” I can tell Amanda is dying to gossip about our other roommate, but I’m not going to ask.
Instead, I walk out of her bedroom. “Hurry up. I’ve only got an hour.”
She chases after me, huffing with excitement.
“You’ll like Riley,” she gushes. “Don’t worry about her.”
“I’m not worried.”
We stop by the front door, where I put my shoes on. Amanda wears her shoes in the house, but I was raised to leave my shoes by the door.
“You should wear the blue ones,” she says.
“They don’t go with this gray suit.”
“You look boring. Don’t you want to get promoted out of the basement?”
Groaning, I kick off the shoes I’m wearing and put on the blue shoes. I was wearing these when I met Dylan Wolf. He wrote a whole song about these shoes. And about me. I haven’t told Amanda about any of that.
She claps her hands and says, “Gorgeous.”
I give her a smile. This outfit isn’t gorgeous, but compliments feel good.
“Your boots are really original,” I say.
“Feel free to borrow them.”
She leads the way out the door and down the street. There’s no way I would borrow Amanda’s boots. They are definitely skank boots. I sure hope my roommate doesn’t rub off on me.
We walk down the street together in the early morning sunshine. Life is good on a sunny day like this. I’m not even dreading the archives.