The next morning after Zac left, I made my way into the living room where Gwen and Braeden were watching TV.
“So, I guess you don’t hate me then,” Gwen smiled, scooting closer to Braeden so I’d have a place to sit.
“No, I was pretty pissed at you at first, but the whole thing was very sweet,” I said.
“What’d you two do?” she asked.
“You don’t know?” I couldn’t mask the surprise on my face at that comment.
“Nope. He just told me that he needed my help to get you to go out with him because he wanted to prove to you that he really wanted to be with you. I knew it was a gamble, but I did what I thought was best for you.”
“Thanks, Gwen!” I said, reaching over to give her a hug.
“Hot!” Braeden exclaimed at the sight of us.
“Braeden, no! We’ve talked about this. We’re not having a threesome!” Gwen laughed.
“You’re no fun!” he retorted.
“What, am I not enough for you?” she teased.
“Oh, you know you are, babe!” he exclaimed, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her onto his lap. I rolled my eyes and stood.
“Excuse me while I leave before I start vomiting,” I said, trying to suppress a smile. I went down the hall to my room. I wanted to talk to Gwen more about everything in private, but knew that I’d just have to wait until whenever Braeden finally left.
A long shower was in order, so I grabbed my robe and headed in, thankful for our larger-than-average apartment hot water heater as I felt the steaming hot water pour over my body. I pretended to let it wash the doubts I was still having down the drain with the remnants of shampoo lather and shaving cream.
As I was toweling off, someone started pounding on the door.
“What?!” I asked loudly over the exhaust fan, thoroughly annoyed that someone had interrupted my quiet reverie.
“It’s just me, calm down!” Gwen laughed, “Braeden just left if you wanted to talk more about it.” I sighed and quickly threw on my robe, slightly embarrassed at my overreaction to Gwen’s friendly interruption. Braeden had a tendency to disrupt showers with demands to use the toilet, and I’d become used to just yelling at him to go away. You couldn’t blame a girl for assuming.
After throwing on some jeans and a sweatshirt and pulling my still wet hair up into a messy bun, I went to find Gwen. She was laying on the living room floor, pretending to read from her Abnormal Psych book, but actually watching an episode of ‘America’s Next Top Model.’
“Hey,” I said, stating my presence. She looked over from the TV and pushed herself into a sitting position.
“Hey, how was your marathon shower?”
“Hot and delightful,” I answered, stretching out languidly on the couch.
“So, what’d he do last night? I’m dying to know!” Gwen said excitedly, sitting at my feet.
“He recreated our first date.”
“Yeah, he told me to make sure that you wore that outfit. I thought it was kind of kinky, but appeased him anyway,” she laughed.
“It was sweet. We went to the same restaurant, and pretended like it was our first date. This time, when I asked him about his past and his family, he gave me the right answer instead of the edited one.”
“I’m glad he did. But why do you think he really did all that in the first place?”
“I think he took a risk by doing it, and then got himself in too far to fix it, to be honest. I really believe he cares about me, but it still hurts…” I stated, trailing off and not really completing my train of thought.
“You forgave him though?” she asked.
“Yeah, I forgave him a couple of times,” I laughed.
“I’m aware. The walls aren’t soundproof you know,” she cracked up, settling back into the cushion behind her, “But are you really okay?”
“I will be. It’s going to take some time. I know that he feels bad, but it doesn’t just make it all better. We’re going to have to work at this for awhile,” I shrugged, “It’s worth it, though. He’s worth it. If he wasn’t, then I wouldn’t have even agreed to leave the apartment with him last night.”
“And, as your best friend, I have to tell you that if I didn’t think he was worth it, I wouldn’t have agreed to help. I can spot an asshole from two miles away, but he’s not one.” I nodded.
“That’s what scares me. Everything with Zac was so perfect. Perfect conversations, perfect level of comfort, perfect everything. I guess nothing’s perfect, and if we can get through this, then we can get through anything, right?”
“You sound like you’re thinking long term about this, Es.”
“That’s the part that scares me. I’ve never thought about a guy like that before. Derek and Jason were both fun… for awhile at least, but I never thought about them beyond that moment. I never saw myself dating them after graduation or anything. With Zac…”
“Then I’m really glad you two worked it out. If you love each other than it’s all worth it,” Gwen said.
“We actually haven’t said that yet,” I told her.
“But you do love him, right?” I suppressed a grin and grabbed the remote from the floor.
“So, this is the Cycle with Yoanna in it, right?” I asked about the show. Gwen rolled her eyes at me and laughed.
After two episodes of the show in a row, we were both feeling quite lazy and had settled in with bags of chips and blankets.
“We are the two most disgustingly lazy people in all of Jonesburg today,” Gwen stated matter-of-factly.
“Jonesburg? I think we have all of Illinois beat,” I laughed.
“We need a little excitement in our lives,” she said mischievously.
“What are you thinking?” I asked cautiously, knowing that tone of voice well enough to know that a scheme would be coming with it.
“I think we should have some people over tonight. Have a little party,” she said.
“How many people?” I asked, shoving more chips in my mouth.
“I don’t know, twenty or thirty of our closest and dearest friends. BYOB… just some good times not out in the freaking cold backyard of the Delta Phi house. Come on, Esme! It’ll be fun. You can get Zac drunk and take advantage of him!”
“I can take advantage of him anyway,” I said with a laugh, “But fine, as long as it doesn’t get too out of control, it’s fine.”
“Yay!” Gwen yelled immediately jumping up, “I’ll call Braeden and tell him to get the word out to the right people. You take care of Zac.” I laughed out loud as I watched her run out of the room. There was nothing Gwen loved more than hosting a party and I’d only let her do it a few times in the last two years. Parties had a tendency to get way more out of control than was expected and I really didn’t like having to scrub beer off of the kitchen table from the previous night’s flippy cup tournament or finding beer cans and bottles in random places for weeks after. But, I knew that she was right and we needed to actually do something or otherwise we’d end up sitting on that couch watching that same show all day and night.
I made myself stand from my comfortable position and headed into my bedroom to call Zac.
“Hello?” he asked groggily.
“Are you sleeping? It’s one in the afternoon,” I laughed.
“Well I didn’t get much sleep last night, now did I?” he asked and I could tell that he was smiling.
“No you didn’t, but you’d better get your energy back up. Apparently Gwen and I are having a party here tonight and you have to be here to keep me sane.”
“That sounds doable. You want me to be your bodyguard?”
“No, I want you to be my bedroom’s bodyguard. If I find anyone having sex in my room, I’ll go through the roof.”
“Oh come on, Esme. At an apartment party?” he asked increduously.
“It happened last year,” I explained, “And I’m traumatized for life.”
“That would be a bit scarring,” he laughed, “Who was it?”
“Two people we didn’t even know who had showed up at the party. That was the worst part,” I said, “So, you’ll come then?”
“Of course I’ll be there. What time?”
“Probably around ten. You could always show up before that, though. You know I wouldn’t mind,” I smiled.
“I’ll be there. And I promise to protect your bedroom at all costs.”
“You’re my hero,” I laughed, “I’ll see you later.”
“Bye!” he replied before hanging up. Well, at least it wouldn’t be as bad as last year’s, right?