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Chapter 8: Jude
Opening the door and letting myself in, I froze when I saw Galen and Ezra sitting on the couch, eating and watching some ridiculous t.v. show. Shit. I’d been working so hard to avoid them and stay off their radar. It was near impossible, since someone always seemed to be here. Even more so lately, as if they wanted to catch me coming and going.
I murmured a quiet ‘hello’ when Ezra tipped his chin in greeting and Galen pretended I didn’t exist.
“What’s up, roomie?” Ezra said, watching as I crossed the floor to the bathroom. “Going to take a pee?”
Was this how most guys actually behaved? I didn’t have any brothers and the guys I had dated were not quite as in your face as these two were. “Something like that,” I replied. “I might pop a zit or change a tampon.”I will not let him embarrass me.I chanted silently as I closed myself in the small, utilitarian room. I will not let either of them embarrass me.
Inside the bathroom, I turned on the water in the sink. I wasn’t exactly a shrinking violet, but they had exchanged a look when I entered, and I had no desire to pee while they were sitting out there listening. I couldn’t pee if someone were in a bathroom stall beside me, let alone a couple of super attractive men.
There was a delicious cologne smell in the air. I wasn’t sure who it belonged to, but I wanted to sprinkle it on the ground like catnip and roll around in it. Maybe I could steal a spritz?
Yeah, I was weird like that.
There was a medicine cabinet hanging over the sink, and I opened the mirrored door quietly, feeling like a snoop. Probably because I was a snoop. There were three shallow shelves inside the cabinet, each filled with the typical male assortment of items: deodorant, shaving gel, aftershave, razors, icy hot, and… ah-ha! A small bottle of cologne sat on the top shelf. As I pulled it down and took in the Clive Christian label, my lips pursed in a soundless whistle.Fancy.
I pulled the top off and took a sniff.Yep.That was it. The scent was an intoxicating blend of citrus and earthy, woodsy tones, underlaid with a hint of resin. Holding my finger to the top, I tipped it to get a drop or two to rub on my wrists. Then I set the bottle back in the cabinet, being careful to place it exactly as I had found it.
I had been in here forever. They were either wondering what the hell I was doing or they’d forgotten me. Hoping it was the latter, I dropped my pants and checked to make sure the toilet seat was down. One of my previous boyfriends had a terrible habit of leaving it up. I had fallen into the toilet exactly once before getting in the habit of checking every time.
The toilet seat was properly in place here, so maybe I had roommates whose moms had taught them bathroom etiquette. Turning, I sat, but had no sooner rested my ass on the seat when it exploded into a frenzy of sound.
Pop pop, bang pop!
I screamed and lurched upright, tripping over the pants around my ankles and catching myself on the opposite wall with a thud. It sounded like a fucking gun was going off.
Hastily I pulled my pants up and surveyed the room. The sound had definitely come from the toilet, so I found myself eying it suspiciously.
“Hey, roomie.” A fist banged against the door, making me jump. “You…ah…okay in there?”
I opened the door a small crack. Ezra and Galen were standing just outside it, mirth lighting their features. It might have been the first time I’d seen Galen smiling, even if it wasn’t a particularly pleasant sort of smile. “The toilet…” I stopped, at a loss for words. “Shot at me?”
Ezra doubled over as he burst into laughter, clutching his stomach, while Galen regarded me with a contemptuous sort of amusement. Stepping into my space, he reached past me and flicked the toilet seat up to reveal some sort of twisted paper objects, smaller than a penny and clearly detonated. “Bang snaps,” he explained.
I saw red. It was likely the result of the angry flush that started at my chest and rose into my cheeks. “Firecrackers. You rigged the toilet with fucking firecrackers?” At my sides, I clenched my hands to keep from hitting someone. “You could have hurt someone!” I didn’t know if that was true or not, but it didn’t matter.
Galen’s face grew stony, and Ezra straightened. “They were just for you, and you were never in any danger. Bang snaps wouldn’t break the skin if you were to bust them in your hand,” Galen explained.
“I almost had a heart attack!”
He sneered. “If you’re going to be here, you’d better learn to take a joke.”
An arrested expression came over Ezra’s face and he leaned forward, sniffing. “Is that—”
Shit.He smelled his cologne. I interrupted him hastily and took a step back. “When someone actually makes a joke instead of being a bully, I’ll do that,” I shot back. “Learn how not to be an asshole.”
I pushed by them and closed myself in my room. I was so angry I was shaking. Swiftly, I pulled on my spandex running shorts and a sports bra, then pushed my feet into my tennis shoes. I needed my run desperately now. I needed to channel this rage coursing through me before I did something stupid.
Baron had joined my other two roommates when I banged out of my room and stomped across the floor, key and phone in hand, the ear buds in my ears blasting Violent Femmes. He said something, but I didn’t stop to interpret.
Instead, I controlled myself and my temper, closing the door behind me with a quiet click that did nothing to assuage the turmoil boiling inside me. They could all kiss my ass while they watched it walk away.
Chapter 9: Gale
“That went well.”
