“You need to leave this room!”
I shook my head. I really needed some sleep. I didn’t tell Lucy about staying up all night writing to them. I was too embarrassed. Besides, there were some things that you shared with your bestie, but not everything.
“No, I’m comfortable,” I lied. I couldn’t get up and walk. I couldn’t find the ice to even try and heal myself down there. I couldn’t tell her the real reason that I was lying down. Rambo was nearly broken and out of action for the foreseeable future.
She shook her head. “Seriously, this is not healthy. Out!” She commanded as she held the door open. I was dressed, and, if the truth be known, there wasn’t much difference between my staying in the dorm clothes and going out at all. Lucy asked me when I first moved in if everyone where I lived dressed the same. If all they wore were black T-shirts and matching jeans, which was what most of my closet consisted of, apart from the times that I went shopping with Lucy. Lucy’s shopping rules with me were no buying black, and no buying jeans.
Back in high school, the few people that wanted to be friends with me only did it because of Nan. She was a famous retired actress, and she loved the attention, even if she retired many years ago.
I slouched and then walked to the door with a heavy head. She wasn’t exactly forcing me, but I felt as if I was being pushed to do something that I didn’t want to do. I could have spoken up and told her she wasn’t right, but who was I kidding?
Me.
“OK, OK. Let me just grab my purse,” I said, trying to think of another way to get out of her insisting on me leaving the dorm.
She laughed as she grabbed my arm. “Nice try. I know all your moves. You need to do better than pull that face to get out of me insisting that you need to get out of this room.”
I stopped pouting as I left the dorm and then moved to the hallway, waiting for her to lock the door. She did, and then we moved arm-in-arm through the hall. She was the popular one, and I was the stranger on her arm as she called out a few names as they passed and high fived her.
“I’ve never understood why you hang out with me when you’re so popular.”
“No negative talk. We’re going to get some ice-cream and chill. I could introduce you; I could have done it a long time ago, but you didn’t want me to, remember?”
I avoided the topic, so I asked her, “Danny’s?”
She laughed. “Wouldn’t dream of anywhere else to go.”
Danny’s was the local ice-cream shop, and all students loved to go there. The ice cream was fresh and made in-house, which seemed to be a dying breed these days. It reminded me of home and mom’s hot cocoa she would make and the locals coming in for a hot sip with her pies. My mom was old-fashioned that way. She ran the bed-and-breakfast with help from Nan, who claimed that her major role in the B&B was marketing. Mom made sure to focus on attention to detail, such as apple pies being made from scratch; she made sure that the apples were home-grown and organic. I admired her because she did everything to perfection, and I never understood how she had the time or how she did it all the time.
“You going to walk in silence? Or say something to me?”
I shook my head, as I stopped thinking about back home. “Sorry, I was in a daze. So many things running through my mind right now.”
“Thinking about the emails you sent last night?”
I sighed. “Not exactly. It was a complete mess. I was so nervous that I drank a little too much to pluck up the courage to write to them, and then when I did, I sent one to the wrong email address, which got returned. Not sure how I wrote the email down wrong. The other one that was sent had sexual innuendoes, and the other, well, I did a copy and paste of the other email with the name, and an entire load of symbols.”
I confessed and told her the truth, something that I wasn’t planning on doing, but I had no one else to talk to apart from Lucy. And sometimes it just felt good to talk.
She laughed as she stopped in her tracks, and then bent down and rose again. “You didn’t?”
I nodded my head as confirmation.
“Why do you get yourself in such a mess?”
“When you think of something and it feels like a good idea, then after you’re like, why the heck did I do that? Well, that’s what happened.”
She sighed. “You need a triple scoop of chocolate ice cream.”
I shook my head in disagreement. “No, quadruple!”
We laughed as we picked up the pace, and, in a few strides, we arrived at Danny’s. We did a quick scan of the place as we arrived, and then our smiles turned into a frown as we saw Amanda sitting in the corner, with her boyfriend. They were the King and Queen of campus. It was crazy, because I thought all this type of bullying would stop back in high school, but some people never grew up.
“Look what the cat dragged in?” Amanda flicked her long blond hair as she stood up, as if she was flicking away dust. She had the face of an angel, the perfect height of five-ten, and a body that was shaped like an hourglass, but I heard her boobs were fake, her nose had been corrected and she spent most of her summers on the doctor’s table having some kind of plastic surgery. Yeah, her parents had money, her dad did anyway, and she loved to flaunt it. It was only natural that she was with the captain of the baseball team; they were like two peas in a pod, rich and arrogant.
Lucy turned away to ignore Amanda, as her comments were directed at her. It surprised me, because I never knew that they knew each other.
“The whore’s here. Let’s go Pete!”
“What did you say?” I asked her.
“Drop it,” Lucy said as I stood facing Amanda.
“Listen to your friend. She knows that I’m right. Sleeping with three guys is just pure nasty. I’m surprised that she can sit down, let alone walk!”
Then, before she said another word, I was about to defend my friend, but I noticed Lucy crying.
Lucy smiled at me as she said, “Look, not everyone thinks that having a harem is as wonderful as you do.”
I silently nodded because this was a side of Lucy that I’d never seen before. I thought of her as always being confident and nothing and no one getting her down. It was then that I realized underneath it all, she was hiding her genuine feelings. She was like me in so many ways, and for the first time I admired her even more than I did ever before.
“Two, quadruple-scooped chocolates with all the trimmings for me and my bestie!”
A few days later, I was heading out to class, when I saw another email. I decided after going out with Lucy that sending emails wasn’t working for me. Then, I had a notification, so I checked my phone and became completely distracted. To: KKSubject: Wrong emailHey,Just wanted to say that it made me laugh getting such an email in a critical situation, even if it wasn’t meant for me. It’s a bit tough out here in Iran, and seeing your email put a smile on my face. Pretty hard to do that when you’re a SEAL on duty.Take care, and I hope that your email finds Adonis.ChazI re-read the email about three times as I slumped in my chair and pondered on whether to go to class, or skip it. It was the nicest email that I’d ever received. He was polite, even if I put the wrong name the first time, and he had asked if I meant to write in Japanese. He must have felt guilty for writing it. He had no reason to feel that way when I was the idiot, putting the wrong name and doing a copy and paste.
The next day, as soon as I woke-up, the first thing I did was reach for my phone and email both of them with my number. I put my phone down after I’d done the deed and headed to the bathroom. Lucy wasn’t in. I wasn’t sure if she was with Ben, Tom or the other one. She hardly spoke about him; he seemed to be more into her going to his place, watching a movie and then ending the night there. She did worry that he was ashamed of her, because everyone on campus knew Lucy had three boyfriends, but no one really knew who the third one was. I didn’t really, and I was her bestie and roommate.“You have a smile on your face?” Lucy asked as I came out of the shower, surprised to see her here. “I just sent the guys my number. Waiting for one of them to text me back.”She winked. “Oh my, how we’ve grown!”“Don’t be such a tease. You heading to class?”She nodded. “Yes, we should have left by now. I forgot a book, just came in to get it. Surprised you’re just getting out of the shower. Get dress
“What do you feel like doing tonight?” I asked Lucy. She was lying in her bed across the room from me. She wasn’t going out, even though it was a Saturday. She said in her words, not mine, “I’m giving my pussy a rest.”She said that as much as she tried not to sleep with them, all the time, sometimes it was too hard not to resist. I couldn’t imagine what that even felt like. I could only dream about it and have my dirty fantasies about Adonis and Chaz.“I say that we get dressed, go out and get drunk.”She laughed. “Who’s speaking to me? Kiara? You want to go out and get drunk?”I nodded my head, thinking that I couldn’t believe as well that the words had left my mouth, but it was what I felt like doing, and nothing else would do.“No emails tonight?”I smirked. “No. Remember? They have my number. We’re in the twenty-first century, you know. No one emails these days…your words not mine.”“I hate it when you do that, smarty pants.”I laughed. “If you’d seen my grades lately then you w
I had a long and exceptionally boring day in classes today. So, I met up with Lucy. I didn’t feel like going back to the dorm. Sure I could do with some studying, but I was feeling like my time here was ending, and I should do something else than study for a change.Our moods changed as soon as Amanda walked past us. I could tell by the smirk on her face, and the blue eyes staring in our direction, she wasn’t just planning to walk on by. She had evil written all over her face. The students standing near us laughed and approached, and it hit me…she was going to put on a show, and we were the stars of it. Then Amanda exaggerated her walk and swayed her hips until she reached Lucy. That was when she came to a dramatic stop.“Let’s get out of here!” I demanded. But Lucy was in a fighting mood, as she stood her ground and waited for Amanda to draw near. “I see the slut was busy in the hot tub not just with one of her men, but two!” Amanda laughed as more phones near us chimed, and I rea
There was a loud roar as we finished our final year exam, and the examiner had collected all our papers. It was tough, a lot tougher than I’d expected, but the feeling of relief had reared its head and all I could think about was doing all the things that I’d put off doing for the last few weeks, which had mainly consisted of sleeping and talking to the guys. I’d gone on radio silence because I needed to study and concentrate. Besides, after the argument with Lucy a few weeks back, it hit me hard, and I didn’t feel like socializing, even with them. She had been avoiding me like the plague, going to the room when I was in class, and vice versa. If she was my friend, she would be outside right now telling me about all the ways we would go out and celebrate, but we weren’t besties let alone friends anymore, and I felt exactly the same way that I did in high school. Alone.I picked up my bag, but then my cell chimed, and I thought that by some chance it was Lucy calling, and it put a sp
I woke with a hangover so strong, but also with memories of my final exam ending, it made me smile, knowing that I didn’t have to study again, even if it meant that I had to go out into the actual world and find a job. I struggled to open one eye, only to discover that we weren’t in our dorm. Somehow, we ended up in someone else’s room. The question was, whose?“Kiara, you awake?” a familiar voice asked. I rubbed my eyes and blinked several times to see if my ears were deceiving me. I looked at her blue eyes which were facing mine, revealing that I was where I suspected I was.“Amanda, yeah, I’m awake.”She smiled. “Good. I’ll make you guys coffee. Lucy’s in the bathroom.”I tried to get up from the floor, and she stretched out a hand to help me up. I stood up with my skirt back-to-front and my bra sticking out of my top. “Damn!” I said as I stood up and tried to straighten myself out.“Yeah, you were trying to undress, then you just passed out on the floor. We were worried, but we w
I was heading home and thinking about writing to Adonis. It seemed to be so natural with him, I just said exactly what was on my mind, and I hoped he was everything that he said that he was and more. Going home. KI sent the message to him and repeated it to Chaz. It felt like cheating, copying and sending the same message to both of them, but I didn’t know what else to say. I had to pack, and part of me hated myself for being so late at enjoying the college experience. Until four weeks ago, I only had one friend, now I had two. They let us stay in the dorm a little longer, because the government was trying to stop people moving across country, because the cases were rising and they didn’t want to do another lockdown. Well, not an official one, where we couldn’t leave our houses let alone our dorms unless for food and basic necessities.Four years and two friends. One thing was for sure, Nan had been more than generous with my monthly allowance. Sure, I’d never rushed out and bought
Chaz had such a dirty mouth that it should have turned me off, but I couldn’t help but be turned on every time he sent me a text.I wish I was there to see you graduate. CI knew what he really meant, so I didn’t hesitate texting back. He knew that graduating wasn’t an option. We had to go back home and quarantine for the next fifteen days.You mean you would like me to get on stage with no panties. He wrote back within seconds, and I felt as if the moment I hit the send button, he had a reply already waiting for me. Was I really that predictable?No, if I knew I could look up your gown on the stage, then that would be a different matter. Today, I just would love to see you, watch you feeling proud of all you achieved. I didn’t have the heart to tell him, that as much as I would love to do that. It wasn’t possible. The rumors started, and then the next day we had the email telling us we were back in lockdown again. No more enormous crowds, and certainly no more ceremonies. Already,