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He makes a show of looking around the living room. “Where’s your friends—roommates?”
I lift one of my shoulders in a shrug. “Meg is probably with Justin and who knows where Lola is at this point. She’s probably at one of the frat houses or she’s with some of the other sisters. It’s too early for her to be throwing toilet paper on people’s trees so I know she’s not getting arrested for that again.”
He throws his head back and laughs. One of those deep laughs that you know is authentic because you can practically see it in their diaphragm. “She got arrested for tp’ing someone’s house?”
“No, correction. She got arrested for littering but the litter happened to be the toilet paper she threw all over the lawn and looped over the trees.”
He continues to laugh until he’s almost crying. “I can’t believe someone in college got arrested for that.”
“Believe it.”
He blows out a long breath and looks at his watch. It’s the first time he’s done this all evening. “I didn’t realize how late it had gotten. I better get going. I don’t want to completely ruin your evening.”
“Nah. You haven’t been a bother.” I watch him as he contemplates what to do next—he seems to be struggling between stayingor going. Did I put pressure on him to stay by telling him that? I busy myself with tidying up the take out boxes on the table, getting the sauce packets back into the bag. Anything to avoid looking at him while he pushes himself up off the couch.
I stand too and take the take out to the kitchen. Since the fridge is just a few steps away from the couch it doesn’t put much space between us. I keep my back turned to him. “Thanks for keeping me company tonight and walking me home. It was nice.”
I turn around and face him in an attempt to stop the moment from becoming awkward. I plaster my best majorette smile on because now my nerves are kicking in. I try not to wince—I probably look deranged. He starts toward the door and I walk the small space with him. When he opens the door, he pauses. “I guess I’ll see you on Monday in class.”
“Yep. I’ll be there. I’m sure we’ll message before then.”
His mouth quirks up on one side. “Yeah. I’m sure.”
He holds his arms out and pulls me into a hug. A real, honest to goodness hug. I blink, unsure of what to do. We’ve never hugged. Never touched, really. My arms come up and I instinctively hug him back. It feels good. His warm body feels perfect against mine. Being this close to him, I can smell his natural woodsy scent with a hint of orange. I want to take a deep inhale to commit it to memory but don’t want to risk getting caught. Slowly, he loosens his grip on me and we pull apart. I immediately regret the loss of his touch.
“I had a good time. Next time I pick the show though.”
I can feel myself nodding enthusiastically, liking the idea of hanging out with him again. Alone. “Deal.” He steps out of the doorway and out onto the walkway that immediately takes him out of sight. I take a deep breath and sigh. I close the door andmake my way back over the couch. I waste time tidying up and putting the leftovers away.
Brad freaking Matthewshad spent the evening at my apartment because he wanted to. I knew we were friends. I really did but something about tonight gave me a glimmer of hope that we might be something more than that. Feeling the weight of the day from being up early, having to perform in the hot sun and then the time with Brad, it finally caught up to me. I yawned a great big yawn and knew I needed to get some sleep.
I had learned early on being roommates with Meg to always text her that I was going to sleep if she wasn’t home when I went to bed. If not, nine times out of ten I’d be awoken with her coming into my room and startling me awake.No thanks.
Going to bed. Got lots of exciting things to talk to you about tomorrow!
Tell me now! It’s too early to go to bed.
I’m tired. I’ve been up since 7am. GOODNIGHT
Party pooper. Talk tomorrow.
With that, I walked to my bedroom and went to bed. For the first time in months, I felt hopefully about my massive crush on Brad and the future.
My eyes slowly open and the light coming through my window lets me know that it’s morning. I start to shift on my bed and immediately feel like something is off. I roll over on to my back and startle so hard that I push myself up and towards my headboardin a panic frenzy.
“Jesus! You two scared the shit out of me! I mean how long have you been sitting there staring at me. Were you just waiting for me to wake up? What the…” I shake my head at both Lola and Meg who are smiling and laughing at my pure panic. I attempt to get my heartrate under control and scrub my hands up my face and into my hair that I can feel in its messy bun.
Meg pulls out her phone. “And I quote!” She holds up one of her hands and does air quotes with her fingers, “Got lots of exciting things to talk to you about tomorrow.” She puts the phone down in her lap. “It’s tomorrow. Spill it.”
“Yeah,” Lola chimes in.
I look back and forth between them. Thinking about where to start but ultimately, I decide the best place to start is at the beginning. I tell them everything about yesterday, starting with Brad yelling for me on the walk back, to the moment he walked out the door at the end of the night. Both sit at the end of my bed with rapt attention, clinging to every word. I pull my knees up to my chest and wait for them to say something.
Neither move to speak. I think Lola does a slow blink but finally it’s Meg who speaks first. “So let me get this right. He sought you out, walked back here with you to the apartment, ate dinner and watched TV and then gave you a hug goodbye and left.”
It’s my turn to slow blink. “Yes.”
“He likes you,” Lola speaks out before Meg has a chance to talk. “He definitely likes you. No twenty-one-year-old guy who’s as popular as he is, good looking as he is, and busy as he is would just hang out here doing nothing if he wasn’t interested and likes you.”
