AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’m back in my T-shirt and skirt from earlier when I run into the guy from class again. He does a double take at seeing me in my casual clothes but recovers quickly, giving me a slight smile. The gym is queer friendly with a strict no harassment clause in the contracts, but that doesn’t mean I don’t turn a few heads still. It can confuse people when I switch from masc workout clothes to femme street clothes or vice versa. I shrug it off, veering toward the exitinstead of his direction. I didn’t feel up to riding my bike this morning, meaning I drove to the gym for a change.
I walk over to my bubblegum pink Honda Civic and unlock the car. It’s not the most expensive vehicle, but I wasn’t going for flashy when I bought it. I just needed something to get around town. I got the custom paint job and license plate after the fact. With the steady flow of traffic, the drive takes longer than I’d like.
Mom is in the kitchen when I get home. I walk past her to the stairs, making my way to my bedroom. The shower is going as I pass by, meaning Theo must be home. I ignore it and open my door before kicking off my shoes and dropping my bag near the door.
I strip off my shirt, using it to wipe the sweat from my forehead. Despite the air conditioning in my car, this day has still warmed up. It doesn’t bother me staying topless as I sit down at my desk, setting up my laptop for school. I put in my ear buds, turning up the music as I go through my assignments, narrowing down what I need to get done today.
A loud creak throws me off, but I ignore it until a drop of water lands on my forehead.What the?I look up at the ceiling. There are a few more drops of water lingeringthere. That’s all the warning I get before a louder creak that turns into a snap. The plaster above my bed falls in huge wet chunks along with a gush of water, and I scream, jumping out of my desk chair.
“Cy?” Mom calls through the door. “Are you okay?”
The water is still dripping where the ceiling caved in, but it’s stopped gushing now. “Yeah,” I call back hesitantly. I’m okay, but my bed isn’t. I take a step closer, looking up at the hole into the crawlspace above the room. There’s no hole in the ceiling. I can’t see straight to the sky, but I can see the wet wooden beam where the water must have gotten in when it rained the other day. It was just a matter of time before the whole thing collapsed.Fuck.
“Can you get the door? What happened?” Mom calls out again.
“The ceiling fell in,” I yell as I make my way carefully under the still intact parts of the ceiling to the door. Pulling the door open, I see my mom standing in the hall, and Theo peeking out of his room to observe the drama. Mom ushers me out of the room while she steps closer, looking up to see what happened.
“I’m gonna have to call someone. I think a pipe might have burst,” she sighs. “At least no one got hurt.”
“What about my bed?” I ask. “Where am I supposed to sleep tonight?”
“We’ll get the air mattress out and you can sleep in Theo’s room—”
“What?!” Theo interrupts before I get the chance.
“Just until we can sort this out and get it repaired,” Mom continues.
“I’ll sleep on the couch,” I volunteer.
“Enough, both of you. Right now, I need to go turn off the water. I’ll talk it over with your father when he gets home, but really Cy, you can’t sleep on the couch.” Mom gestures toward my room. “Go ahead and grab what you need, but I don’t want you spending more time in this room than necessary.”
“Fine,” I huff. I make my way into the room again and grab my gym bag, dumping out the workout clothes from earlier so I can load it up with clean clothes from my closet. While I’m at it, I pull on a fresh T-shirt. After that I grab my laptop and school bag. I’ll need more things soon, but it’s enough to get me through the night. I take my things with me to the living room, ignoring Mom’s suggestion that I should sleep in Theo’s room for now. Neither one of us wants that.
It’s awkward enough that he walked in on me the other night, but to have to share a room with him? Why the hell did Theo even open my door to begin with? I’m sure he could tell what we were doing from the noises before he decided to take a peek.
I pop in my earbuds and turn on music as I take a seat on the couch. One way or another, I still need to focus on my homework. Even if my mind has veered totally off track. How was it only this morning I was talking to Eric about the other night? After all that happened, he’s hesitant about hooking up again anytime soon, but that’s not going to matter if I’m stuck sharing a room with Theo. I’ll have even less privacy than before. I guess I could take Eric up on his invite back to his place, but he wasn’t too thrilled with me already. Or maybe it’s time to ditch him and forget the whole thing. It’s not like it was ever more than sex.
Ugh,I shake off the thought and look at my laptop again. I still need to get my assignments done, and I should probably focus more on that and less on getting my rocks off. It doesn’t help that Theo walking in on us almost ruined my orgasm. I was right on the edge when he opened the door and instead of enjoying it, all I could think of at thatmoment was the look of shock on Theo’s face mixed with something else. I’m not sure what. But the whole thing was ten kinds of awkward and fucked up.
Before I can get too far into my homework, the doorbell rings. Mom walks past me to answer it, and I listen in when I hear her explaining the situation. From the way the guy’s dressed, I can guess he must be a plumber or something. I try not to be obvious as I follow them up to my room.
Mom is telling the guy that she already shut off the water for the upper half of the house. He sets up a ladder in the middle of my room to get a better look. “It’s definitely a burst pipe,” he calls down.
Mom looks into the hall and catches me watching them. She makes eye contact with me and gestures with her chin toward the stairs. I get the message, but I’m not happy about it. She’ll probably give me the details later, but I’d like to know how long this is all going to take. Maybe if I get lucky, the plumber can fix it all today, and I’ll be back in my room by tonight. It’s probably wishful thinking, but it beats the alternative. Still, I turn to make my way down the stairs again and try to do my homework. It’s a bit of a lost cause at this point. I’m focused on everything else and keep rereading the same sentences over and over.
It doesn’t take that long before Mom and the plumber come downstairs again. The guy is still talking about the leak and possible water damage. He hands mom a business card saying something about calling someone else. There goes my fantasy of all of this being done today. “What did he say?” I ask when the door closes behind him.
“Your dad will be home from work soon. We’ll discuss it all at dinner when he gets here,” she says. Then she turns and heads to the kitchen.
It’s about half an hour later when the door opens and Ben walks in. “Hey Cy,” he says as he kicks off his shoes. “Doing schoolwork?” He looks at my laptop and raises an eyebrow.
“Something like that,” I mutter. There hasn’t been much progress with everything on my mind.
“We had a bit of an incident,” Mom interrupts, popping out of the kitchen to join the conversation. “I’ll explain.” She grabs Ben’s hand and drags him to the kitchen. I get the feeling Mom doesn’t like the idea of me sleeping on the couch, but there isn’t a chance of this repair only taking a day or two. In essence, I’m screwed either way. This doesn’t end well for me.
I finish up the last assignment I’m working on and submit it before packing up my things for later. It’s just about dinnertime, and I’ll know what’s happening soon enough. For the first time in a while, Theo comes downstairs to eat with the family. He looks at me for a moment before his eyes turn the other direction and he keeps walking. Theo takes his usual spot at the table, leaving me to sit across from him. Luckily, before it can get too quiet, Mom and Ben come out holding trays of food. No one talks as they set the food down and take their spots on the other sides of our square table.
I keep quiet, not so patiently waiting for Mom or Ben to bring it up. Theo isn’t as patient. The moment we’re all seated and passing around the noodle casserole Mom made, he opens his mouth. “I’m not sharing my room.”
