“Wow, we’re sure a fun pair.”
She grabbed a blanket from my bed and threw it onto the floor. “You know those little comment sections in the housing part of registration?”
“Yeah?”
“I swear it’s a setup to put all of us weirdos together.”
I yawned.
“I need a pillow,” Lisa announced. “I’ll be right back. No more screaming. Close your eyes, and in the morning we’ll go boy-hunting. Dream about that.”
“Boys?”
“Uh…” Lisa tucked her brown hair behind her ear. “That is, unless you’re interested in girls. I mean, that’s cool if you bat for the other team, I was just sayin’—”
“No, no, no.” A weak laugh squeezed past my lips. Did I look like I batted for the other team? “No, nothing like that. I’ve just never had a boyfriend.”
“You poor soul!” Was she serious? “How did you survive?”
“Netflix, Johnny Depp, books. I powered through.” I shrugged. “Trust me, if you grew up in the town I did, you wouldn’t have dated either.”
“Oh yeah? Why?” She held up her hand really quick and ran out of the room. When she came back she had her pillow in hand. Throwing it onto the floor she sat with her legs crossed and yawned. “Okay, you may continue.”
“Guys…” I lay on my left side so I could fully face her. “I didn’t date them because my town was so dang small that if I even sneezed in the wrong direction my mom said bless you before I even got it out. I mean, the one time I got a bad grade on my report card, it made the newspaper.”
“Huh? What the hell kind of town does that?”
“One that literally documents how many people visit it during the high season.”
“High season?” Lisa asked.
“Tourist season. When people go wine-tasting. Last year we had five hundred, which is more people than our entire town put together.”
“This information makes me depressed,” Lisa announced. “So no cute boys then?”
“Mayor’s son was cute.”
“Oh, that’s cool!” she gushed.
“Yup, the quarterback of the football team thought so too.”
“Did that one make the news?” She cringed.
I wrinkled my nose and nodded. “It did. Along with my bad grade.”
“I would have taken the bad grade.”
“Agreed.” I laughed. It felt good that someone could empathize with how bad it royally sucked to be the center of attention. Tension slowly left my body.
“Well, we’ll have to rectify this situation immediately.” She licked her lips. “I know plenty of guys. I met at least ten at orientation this morning. One of them had tattoos.” She sighed longingly. “I’m a sucker for tattoos.”
“But they cover your skin.” I pointed out. “And a tattoo is forever. I mean, don’t you think it’s kind of trashy?”
“Who are you?” She squinted. “Apparently your small town was built underneath a rock.”
“Um…” I laughed. “My point exactly.”
“Trust me, the only reason you don’t like tattoos is because you’ve never seen them spread over a hot body. You’ll change real fast when you see that yummy goodness on a six pack. Hell, last time I saw a shirtless guy with tattoos I asked if I could lick him.”
“What did he say?”
Lisa sighed. “Yes…” Then she shrugged. “We dated for a week, then I left him for greener pastures.”
“Bigger tattoo?”
“How’d you know!” She threw her head back and laughed. “I was kind of known for being the school slut, but it was better than not being known at all.”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but I kept my mouth shut, especially considering I’d never even kissed a guy before. Too embarrassed to admit my inexperience, I just shrugged. “Well, that’s what college is for. It’s a fresh start, right?”