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I nodded. I really didn’t want to drag out the conversation. Especially when someone walking by could overhear us “I’ll be okay. Really. Thanks for coming after me though.”
“Are you sure?”
I nodded.
“All right, I’ll go finish my dinner then,” she said but waited a moment in case I changed my mind. “Come to my room later if you want to talk.”
“I will.”
She gave me a tight hug and then returned to the cafeteria, and I headed back to my room, where I changed into my running clothes before hitting the pathways. Like before I ran the path along the woods and into the community of houses at the edge of campus, and then returned through Quad.
As I walked through the dark field and past the fountain, a smile tugged at my lips as the memory of the last time I cut through here at night after a run. I remembered lying on my back on the grass under the stars and Ian’s head appearing above mine, a grin on his face and his green eyes bright with mischief. I’d wanted him to lean down and kiss me. Instead he’d made one of his wise-ass cracks about me being on my back.
Warmth suffused my being as I remembered the way he’d walked me home and how determined he was to prove he wasn’t an asshole. Challenge Accepted. I giggled to myself.
Ian was a good person, I was certain of that. I couldn’t take away all the effort he’d made with me, and the intense feelings between us, just because of his past with Vanessa. Who cared what anyone else thought? It was Ian and me now. And as for what the future would bring…Well I would just have to take that risk.
When I got back to the room, Melissa was studying at her desk. She ignored me and I ignored her. I pulled out a large purse and threw everything I’d need into it: cosmetic bag, pajamas, clothes for tomorrow. Then I filled my messenger bag with books for tomorrow’s classes and left.
Ian pulled open his door wearing only flannel pajama bottoms. He crossed his arms and cocked a hip against the doorframe. “Miss Watson. I’m having a serious case of deja-vu.”
Last time he’d answered his door half-naked I’d also been coming to ask a favor, I realized. “Do you always hang around without your shirt on?”
“When I’m in my own home, yes.” He frowned, seeing right through me. “What’s wrong?”
“Melissa. Can I stay here tonight?”
“Sweetheart,” he said, putting an arm around me, “I’ll never say no to that.”
***
Things with Melissa only got worse.
At first she only freezed me out, which I could take. It was uncomfortable, sure, but I could put up with the heavy silence while I packed my books for class or got ready for bed. But then she upped the ante.
At first I noticed a few items of clothes missing and assumed that despite our differences, she was still going to borrow them. Then things started to move around my room. Textbooks, pens, you name it—I found them in the weirdest places. One Monday between classes I stopped by my room and finally exploded when I couldn’t find a pair of chucks for over an hour. When I finally found them, and realized I was late for class, I marched outside our room and wrote on the whiteboard: “Melissa, kindly stop putting my shoes in my desk drawers.”
Ian even tried talking to her about it, being her RC, but she turned the innocent act on in high force. She helpfully suggested that perhaps I was just overtired from all my commitments and had put the shoes in the desk myself. The next day she went out and bought a special shoe rack for me and put a little bow on it.
I was starting to hate her.
Ian, on the other hand, saw it as a blessing. “She’s going to do what she’s going to do, and there’s nothing either of us can do about it. Just stay here from now on.”
We were hanging out in his apartment during a break. I spent most of my time here now but, with the exception of a weekend night or two, I always went home to my room to sleep. Even if it was already early morning. Having my own room, as miserable as the current situation was, provided a much-needed boundary between us.
I scoffed at the suggestion. “What’s the rent? Blowjobs?”
He grinned. “I’m tempted to say one a day.”
I shook my head, trying not to smile. “I can’t move in, Ian.”
“Not move in. Leave a bunch of your stuff here for safekeeping. Then you won’t have to go back to that place all the time.”
I shook my head again.
“All right, how about weekends and Tuesday through Thursday,” he negotiated. “You can have Monday off.”
“How nice of you.” I laughed. “Weekends maybe.”
