AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So,” he wiggled his eyebrows. “Who’s the lucky girl?”
“Can’t have a nice shower without thinking of a girl?”
Roman scoffed. “Anytime you’d need to rub one out you’d call Karina, but you haven’t. Not for months now. And you have that look in your eye.”
“You don’t know me.”
Roman took a swig from his beer before leveling me with a hard stare. “You deflect. I’m right. So, who is she?”
I sat on the couch, taking a long pull of the beer, and running my hand through my wet hair. “I will give you the same information you gave me.”
Roman’s eyebrows rose in surprise. We’d been roommates for about two years. We are polar opposites. I liked school and genuinely enjoyed my classes. He never went to college. Dropped out of high school and took over his old man’s welding business.
“What do you mean?”
I rolled my eyes. We often were mistaken as brothers or cousins, not hard to see the connection with our similar build and hair color. But the true difference was in our skin. Roman’s arms and back were a canvas completely covered with black ink. He had just gotten a thigh tattoo that was still a work in progress.
“What I mean,” I started slowly, taking my time gulping my beer, “Is that you have been out more? Coming back with bloodied knuckles more often. On the phone a lot more.Texting. I didn’t know you even knew how to do that.”
“Fuck off, man.”
“Who is she?” I asked.
He shifted from his place on the countertop and grabbed another beer before coming to sit in the chair across from me. “Her name is Danny, and she has the weight of the world on her shoulders. The whole thing is far more complicated than it should be but I can’t walk away. I fuckingcan’t.”
I couldn’t say anything. It was more emotion I’d seen from Roman in all the years I’d known him. He had hookups and bad exes with tempers. But this? This was different.
“Your turn,” he said.
I cleared my throat. “I’m infatuated with this girl and I don’t see an end date in sight despite the fact I’ve only ever had one date with her. And my parents will hate her. And she’s got a record and a probation officer.”
It’s his turn to be stunned into silence. “Damn,” he finally whispered. “We’re fucked.”
I raised my beer in a mock salute. “We’re fucked.”
She talked with me throughout the rest of the week. She even responded to most of my texts and when Friday rolled around, I waited outside of her final class of the day, like I was a high school love struck kid all over again.
“Eliza,” I said as I pulled her by the arm over to me.
“I passed!” she said, giving me a quick hug. “Damn, I love and hate knowing the scores on the same day.”
“A blessing and a curse, for sure.” I swung my arm over her shoulder and walked with her out to the quad. “Dinner?”
She faltered. “I wish, but I actually have a meeting in about twenty minutes. Here actually.”
“Oh?” I said. “With a professor or something?”
She chewed on her lip. “No. It’s personal.”
“Sorry,” I said, not sure how to back out of this when all I wanted to do was push for answers.
“No, it’s fine.” She stopped at a free bench and sat, rubbing her hands together. “Look. I like you. I actually like hanging out with you and I just want to let you know that my home life isn’t typical. I’m sure you’re wondering how I got to be here?”
“What do you mean?”
She rolled her eyes. “I feel so out of place, and I’m sure you sense it. I’m here on a scholarship and it’s fine and all, but I’ve made some mistakes in my past and I’m still paying for them. This meeting is one of them.”
“I want to ask you to elaborate but I don’t want to scare you off.” She’s being blunt, I figured I could do the same. No beating around the bush.
