Camille: “You’ll have to wait. I just got started having a shower,” I said back, still covering myself as if he could see me from outside. “What part of I really need to pee don’t you understand?” He asked in a strained voice. “Do you want me to pee out here?” It wasn’t my fault he had to use the bathroom at the same time as me and that the other bathroom was not in use. “Well, I’m naked so you can’t come in,” I said, squirting some liquid soap into my loofah and lathering up my body. There was silence for a while. “Camille?” He called and I froze because no one ever called my full name. “Yes?” “When did you return?” He asked. “I’ll soon be done then you can use the bathroom,” I said. I wasn’t in the mood to have small talk with the person I was most mad at. Another silence. “I’m sorry,” he said, surprising me. So he could actually apologize. I smiled. Okay, maybe I was being too hard on him. He had just been in a bad position those two nights. He so
Camille: I tossed and turned angrily on my bed for a few minutes after entering my room. I groaned, realizing this was exactly what he wanted. I would never let him succeed in making me feel this way. I was in charge of my own destiny, not some plaything in Daniel’s game. I decided to relax, in the best way I knew how, by resting my back on the headrest of my bed and reading an erotica, while chewing chips out of a bag I had purchased at the store that morning. However, I soon lost appetite and found myself rereading the same sentences over and over again without being able to understand them. Sighing, I dropped the book and lay down completely on the bed. I hated being sick. It made me feel so useless, like I felt now. What angered me the most was the fact that I couldn’t stop thinking about the person who was indirectly responsible for my sickness. I hated him so much. I woke up to the sound of someone knocking on my door and I yawned, stretching and wondering when I h
Camille: By Sunday evening, I was already feeling ten times better. Only then did Lucia truly believe that my illness had been indirectly caused by her brother’s actions. One of the perks of feeling better was the fact that I could finally read my erotica in peace. However, after hours of doing nothing but read, my stomach began to rumble out of hunger. I was tired of eating cereal at this point, and since the pasta I had prepared the day before was long gone at this point, I knew I had to prepare something else. Sighing, I got up from my cozy bed and walked down to the door. Holding the door handle, I didn’t move another inch for a few seconds. Lucia had gone out to see her new boyfriend, a nursing student she had met at the hospital, so that meant I was stuck with Daniel all alone until she returned. Being locked up in my room gave me temporary rest from him, and I was reluctant to give that up. I put headphones on my ears like I had learned, to ignore him even if
Camille: I managed to gobble down the food that had gotten stuck in my throat as I reflexively moved away from him. “I didn’t ask you to come in,” I said, immediately regretting why I hadn’t just locked my door like I always did right after I got in. He looked at me like he didn’t understand what I was saying. “Your door was open. It’s been locked for days now so I assumed it was an invitation,” he said with a shrug as he made himself more comfortable on my bed. “So what are we watching?” I turned off my phone and made it lie face down on the bed. “What is this about? What game are you trying to play here?” I asked him straight to the point, with my arms crossed over my chest. If he thought he could just waltz in here and pretend like we’ve been buddies ever since, then he was completely wrong. He took a bite of his food and hummed. “Just when I thought you couldn’t possibly get any better,” he said as he savored the taste of the food. I felt a blush color
Camille: Words could not describe how embarrassed I felt. The way Lucia kept looking down at me with disappointment only made matters worse. What was my excuse? I wasn’t drunk. What then was my excuse for resting on her brother’s shoulder while he touched me, just a day after she had expressly warned me to steer clear of him. I suddenly felt so dirty, even without having to look at her. No wonder he didn’t take me seriously. Even after all the hurtful things he had said countlessly to me, I still managed to let myself be putty in his hands. My food was halfway gone, but I no longer had an appetite for it. I placed it on the chair Daniel had vacated, before laying on the bed and covering myself with the duvet, just to protect myself from her silent but deadly glare. She didn’t let me do that. “What is the meaning of this?” She asked, lifting the top of the blanket away from my face. “How did you get in?” I asked, avoiding her eyes. What was it with locked doors today?
Camille: On Monday morning, I felt much better. I dressed up for school early enough and left without seeing anyone. Fortunately, Daniel didn’t come out throughout the time I had my breakfast, the leftover food from yesterday, and I was thankful for it. When the third professor for the day didn’t show up, I got busy with reading one of the novels for my Romantic literature course. Even though I had read it before, I still read it again to refresh my memory. At least it was a well-deserved break from erotica. Apparently, that genre wasn’t doing me any good lately. “Hey,” a male voice said to me and I recoiled inwardly. I ignored the voice as well as his shadow that was blocking my line of sight. I hoped he would just walk away if I ignored him long enough, but unfortunately, he didn’t. “Hi,” he said again, pulling an empty seat in front of my desk. I wished I could just disappear. “Hello Ezekiel,” I said with clear irritation as I dropped the book I had been reading. “
Camille: Warning bells went off in my head when he said that. “You’ve been waiting for me?” I repeated, watching him closely. “Well, yeah,” he said with furrowed brows. “Why do you look so surprised?” “Oh it’s just uh…” I lost my trail of thought when he started moving toward me. “It’s what?” He asked with a smirk as he moved, making me step back until my back hit a wall. He was just a few inches away from me at that point, his hand over my head, caging me while his eyes bore on my lips. “I didn’t uh…” I said and stopped, getting distracted by what was in front of me. We were so close that I could almost see the pores on his face. His chest was directly in my line of sight, but I forced myself to look up at his equally handsome face instead. “We weren’t quite finished yesterday, were we?” He asked, slowly touching the tip of my ear with his other hand. I couldn’t understand what was happening to me. Why was I getting so turned on from my ears being touched?
Camille: After school the next day, I made my way to a store to buy earplugs. I was tired of deafening my ears every night with noise canceling headphones because of my roommate’s brother. If Daniel planned to bring more girls over, I would have to find a better way to block my ears every night since his room was right next to mine. I arrived ten minutes late to the bookstore and snuck in from the back just in case Miss Winston caught me and decided to lecture me. However, that backfired, because when I made it to the cashier counter, she was already standing there with Reggie, apparently waiting for me. “My favorite employee is here,” she squealed when she saw me and came to hug me. I tensed a little, wondering why she was so excited to see me. “You remember Reggie, don’t you?” She asked, pointing at her son. He waved at me with a smile on his face. “Hi.” “Hey,” I responded, unable to meet his gaze for some reason. “Reggie just came over and he won’t stop talki