Stupid Girl(20)

I sat and stared at my roommate for several seconds in shock before bursting into laughter. I fell over onto my side, buried my face in my pillow, and howled. I couldn’t stop! I hadn’t laughed that much with anyone, except my family, since … I couldn’t remember when. A long time. Finally, I peeked out. At first, Tessa just stared back, frowning, but then she, too, broke. We laughed until we both cried. Where did she come up with this stuff? Magical porn radar wiener wand? How would I now look Brax in the face and not burst out laughing just thinking about everything Tessa just said?

Finally, she rolled off my bed and changed into a pair of shorts and an oversized High School Musical tee shirt. She plopped down onto her bed and pulled her long hair into a floppy ball on the top of her head. It slid crooked, but she ignored it. Now she was again totally focused on me, and serious.

“All joking aside, Olivia. I know we’ve only just met, but I like you. You’re a little weird, but I like you. And as a girl, roommate, and sister female struggling to make it in this hounddog guy world, please. Watch Braxton Jenkins with both eyes wide open. Don’t blink, not even for a second. I don’t know him personally, only what I’ve told you, and that’s been enough for me to keep clear of him. Don’t let him get to you. You’ll only get hurt in the end.” She eyed my ring. “And as far as that goes, it might represent a vow to you. But to guys like Brax?” She sighed. “A beacon. Guard you hootchie cootchie, sí, but guard your heart as well.”

I nodded. And I knew she was right. “I will, I promise.”

Tessa narrowed her eyes. “You gave him the knee to the cahones, huh? Pretty cool. But I think we need a code word. A safe word, maybe. In case things get out of hand and you need me to rescue you, or visa versa. Even just to put your self at ease in an uncomfortable situation. You can think of it and it’ll make you feel better. Or text it to me, along with a location.”

I pulled my towel turban off, and shook my damp hair loose. “I’m sure he’ll keep his magical porn radar wand to himself, and I seriously doubt I’ll need a safe word, but okay. It’s nice to know you’ll come screeching around the corner in your little Jetta to save me. Or at least make me feel better. What’s the word?”

Tessa put her hands on her hips and scowled. “I could just use your big old Army tank truck out there and run Brax’s cocky ass over with it,” she said. She tapped her forefinger to her temple, and paced our small dorm room. “Hmm. Let me think. Safe word. Safe word.” After a few moments, she stopped, snapped her fingers, and her face lit up. “Got it. Nutcracker!”

I grabbed my wide-toothed comb from my bedside table and pushed it through my hair, eyeing Tessa. “Okay. Nutcracker it is. Safe word. Got it.”

“Good. Don’t forget it. I swear it’ll work. Now I’ve gotta get some sleep. I promised I’d meet my parents at sixfuckingshootme o’clock in the morning to go to Cole’s baseball game—out of season, might I add. If I don’t rest, I’ll be a total bitch the whole day. Plus, Brax is pitching. I’ll keep my eye on the horn dog. ’Night, Liv.” She clicked her lamp off and shuffled under the covers.

“’Night, Tessa,’ I answered. I turned my lamp off, too, and tried to go to sleep. Instead, I laid there, thinking, my mind wandering aimlessly around.

My first night, on my own, away from home. New sounds, new job, new people.

One new person in particular. Completely unexpected.

Brax’s image crept into my mind, behind my eyelids, and there he was, almost as if I was holding up a picture of him in the dark. I could see him plain as day, looking down at me with those ghostly blue eyes as I lay on my back in the grass. Those eyes, that unusual scarred face. And those perfect lips cradling mine for a nanosecond. His crude but funny accent. His painful expression as my knee connected with his family jewels. The whole day flashed before me then, from the moment I left my home, until Tessa clicked off her lamp. Especially all the stuff in between. Just then my phone vibrated, and it startled me. I grabbed it off my nightstand.

SOUTHIE flashed in the window. Guilt, like I’d been caught doing something wrong, pinched my insides. Guilt for what? Thinking about him? Maybe he’d had time to think about it—about me, and was canceling.

I flipped open the phone, and the green backlight made me squint. I blinked a few times, braced myself for his rejection, then focused on the words.

Brax: Did you change your mind yet?

He wasn’t rejecting me. He hadn’t changed his mind. This was so crazy.