Every time we kiss you bring out the woman in me
Every time you holler out my name you set me free
I am a sex-o-matic venus freak when I’m with you
And I will stop it only when you tell me to
I practically purred as I wrapped my arms around Hunter’s back, both of us trying to catch our breath after having sex for the third time that day already. Ever since I’d regained my libido, I’d taken advantage of any opportunity to ravage him, not that he was an unwilling partner.
“Jesus Christ,” he murmured against neck, “I’m definitely done for the day.”
“Oh don’t be such a wuss, I’m just getting started,” I teased, tracing my fingers across the lines of sunlight the mini-blinds were splaying across his naked skin.
“Then you’re going it alone because I won’t be able to join you,” he laughed, kissing my flushed skin before gently rolling off me to my left side. Immediately, I wrapped my arm across his chest and pulled myself as close to him as I could manage. Contact with his skin seemed essential, and I was definitely hooked on it like some kind of drug.
“You’re going to leave me, aren’t you?” I asked as I saw him look at the clock. I’d kept him in my bedroom for the entire day, and as it was Sunday, he undoubtedly had homework to do before his classes the next day.
“Leave you? Never,” he said, pressing his lips lightly against mine and clearly taking a different interpretation of my question.
I rolled my eyes lightly and collapsed onto my back. “I meant for the day, not in general.”
“I know that, I was just letting you know,” he smiled, “And yes, I have homework to do so I should take off.” He pushed himself into a sitting position and started searching the room for his clothes.
“I think I left my bag in your room on Friday so I’ll walk with you and then go to the library,” I said, “But we’re taking a shower first.”
“We are?” he laughed.
“We’re not going anywhere looking and smelling like we do,” I smiled, pulling on my robe and opening the door after Hunter had half dressed himself. We showered as quickly as we could manage as we both tried to get clean before the hot water ran out. My roommates were both gone, apparently off with their boyfriends somewhere, something I was happy for since Hunter and I had been making no efforts to hush our activities.
Our walk across campus was uneventful, both of us filling the silence with random comments about the things going on around us. I hadn’t realized how exhausted I was until we started the climb up to his floor.
“Now who’s a wuss?” he asked, pulling me up the last two stairs just as I started to complain. He took out his key after frowning at the door handle as it failed to open as usual. He and Zac hardly ever locked their door, sometimes not even when they weren’t there. But, Zac had told him that he would be home all evening and that they could hang out after they got their homework done when Hunter had called him earlier to say that he was going to be getting back later than he had previously said. “Zac never locks the door, I hope he didn’t lock himself out.”
As the door swung open, both of our mouths dropped open. Zac was in his bed, only half-covered by his comforter, being straddled by some naked girl I’d never seen before.
“Shit! Don’t you knock?” Zac yelled as the girl dove under the covers to hide herself.
“It’s my room! Why the hell would I knock?” Hunter asked, going in the room despite Zac’s current state to grab both of our bags. Once he had them both in hand, he left again, slamming the door behind him. “So, to the library?”
“And he has been giving us shit about having sex in your room? What an asshole,” I ranted, snatching my messenger bag from his hands and slinging it over my body.
“We’ll definitely be talking about it later, don’t worry,” Hunter said, grabbing my hand roughly in his and pulling me towards the stairs. I could tell from the look on his face that he wasn’t angry, but that he was definitely embarrassed and slightly frustrated. As gently as I could, I pulled his body towards mine and dropped his hand so I could put my arm around his waist.
“Are you okay?” I asked him, looking up at him until his eyes finally met mine. He nodded and put an arm around my shoulders.
We looked like the couples I had always made fun of, walking around campus with our arms wrapped around each other. I never would have guessed that I would want to be like that with a guy. Hunter made me feel vulnerable, like I didn’t have to be afraid of wanting to be taken care of. Something about his touch made me feel safe, probably because I knew that he would never let anything bad happen to me. I really did believe him when he said that he would never leave me.
As good as that made me feel, it also scared me because I knew that if the relationship ever went sour, it would have to be me who ended it and I had never been good at breaking up with guys. I always put it off for way too long or would do it without the tact I had been trying for. All in all, my breakups in the past had not been good. But, I tried not to think about the possibility of an ending, and for the time being, I was more than happy to call him my boyfriend. It felt wonderful to have a significant male figure in my life now that Taylor was being so strange. I still hadn’t been able to figure out Taylor’s reluctance to be around me. Since his and Brooklynn’s break-up, he’d been more and more distant and less and less like the Taylor I had always known.
Hunter and I found an unoccupied table and got to work. I didn’t have much in the way of homework, but knew that if I tried to do it at home, the second Sophie or Grace came back all efforts would go out the window and I’d go to class without having done the assigned reading. In the past, I hadn’t done much reading, but two of my professors were real sticklers about giving reading quizzes, forcing me out of my typical laziness.
“Don’t look now,” Hunter said, and of course, I immediately turned to follow his line of sight.
There, standing between two of the stacks were Taylor and Brooklynn engaged in a hushed but seemingly intense conversation. As much as I wanted to watch, doing so would have required me to turn awkwardly in my chair. I wasn’t in the mood to look like an obvious spectator, nor did I want to give Taylor any more reason to be mad at me. I couldn’t help but believe that when I punched Brooklynn that I had done him an immense favor by getting her out of his life, but he had seemed pretty torn up about his decision to break up with her.
“They’re still talking. Damn, Taylor looks really upset,” Hunter narrated for me.
“I wish I knew what they were talking about,” I said out loud, practically moping as I tried to finish the chapter I was working on.
“Shit, he just looked over here,” Hunter whispered, immediately dropping his gaze to his notebook. My heart started pounding against my ribcage, hoping that Taylor wouldn’t be too mad at me for being at the same table with the now-caught spy.
Before I could ask him what was going on now, Hunter’s cell phone started to ring loudly, the sound echoing throughout the otherwise silent library. He pulled it out of his pocket quickly and answered it, speaking softly. From what I gathered from Hunter’s side of the conversation, Zac wanted him to come back to the dorm so they could talk. After some coercing on Zac’s part, Hunter finally gave in and started to shove his things back into his backpack while ending the conversation.
“Going to make up with your boyfriend?” I asked him, not looking up from my book.
“He wants to talk. As if I even want to think about it any more,” he sighed, “I’ll call you later, okay?” I nodded and accepted a kiss from him before he left me sitting alone at the table.
I really didn’t like doing my homework at the library and I usually found myself staring at the nearby book titles more than at my work. It was simply not a productive work environment for me, so I made up my mind to be good and get my work done as quickly as possible so I could just go home and enjoy what was left of my Sunday evening. I was almost done with my reading assignment when I noticed a figure sit down in the chair across from mine. No words could have expressed my shock when I saw that the person in question was in fact Taylor, looking thoroughly distressed.
“Do you want to go get some dinner?” he asked without so much as a hello. Had he looked any differently than he did at that exact second, I would have said no out of stubbornness. But because he looked so incredibly pathetic, I couldn’t bring myself to turn down his request.
“Um, sure,” I said, unable to hide my shock, “Just give me a second.”
I tried to put my things away as quickly as possible, and soon we were headed towards his car in complete silence. He looked very tired and almost depressed. As hard as it was, I fought against my inclination to reach over for his hand to comfort him. But, as far as I knew, we were going to dinner so he could further chew me out about what had happened that awful night, so I wasn’t ready to do anything to put myself in the position to get hurt.
He drove the entire way to Quizno’s without saying anything, not even bothering me to ask if his choice of restaurant was acceptable to me. We’d never eaten together at Quizno’s before and as far as I was concerned, he was damned lucky that I liked their food. Growing more and more annoyed by the second, I found myself impatiently tapping my foot against the floor of his car, a noise that seemed lost on him as he pulled into the parking lot. We went into the restaurant, ordered separately and then he lead the way to a secluded table in the back once our food was ready.
“So, what’s this about?” I asked once I was situated in my chair. His sandwich was halfway to his mouth when my question came out, and he put it back down with a sigh.
“I just need to talk to you,” he said simply. I fought the urge to roll my eyes and instead maintained a steady eye contact with him.
“Then talk,” I stated.
If he needed to talk with me, that was fine, but I didn’t have the patience to sit there while he tried to muster up the courage to say what he needed to say. It was obviously going to be something I didn’t want to hear, I had determined that much from his demeanor. He took a long, ragged breath before setting his sandwich back down.
“I wasn’t completely honest with you about what went down with Brooklynn,” he started, looking at me expectantly. When I made no efforts to interrupt him, as he obviously had expected me to, he continued. “The night of the party, after we left, she spent the entire walk home saying pretty everything horrible thing about you she could think of, and even though you’d just punched her in the face, something that is never okay in my book, I defended you. I couldn’t take it anymore, the things she was saying, and since you were my friend, I wasn’t happy with what she’d said to you. There was no excuse for that. She never should have betrayed what I’d told her in confidence, and I really am sorry that she used it against you. I never thought she would have done that or I wouldn’t have confided in her.
“But anyways, she got furious with me when I defended you and started screaming at me in the middle of the quad about how ridiculous my relationship with you was and she said even more really hurtful things about you and then me as well. And then, she broke up with me, saying that as long as you and I were friends, she wouldn’t be my girlfriend anymore.”
“You told me you broke up with her,” I said, telling him something that he obviously already knew. I didn’t care that I probably sounded stupid because I felt so blindsided by his admission. As my brain worked to put the pieces together, I felt my skin redden with anger.
“I know that. I lied because I knew that if I said you and I needed space because it was the only way that Brooklynn would consider taking me back that you would never speak to me again.” My eyes filled with tears. Suddenly, it became painfully obvious just how unimportant our friendship was to him if he’d give it up for a horrible girl who demanded that I no longer be in his life.
“Wow, it’s nice to know how much I mean to you,” I spat, finally dropping my gaze and taking an aggressive bite out of my sandwich.
“I know that I shouldn’t have done it. But, haven’t you ever liked someone so much that you were willing to make horrible decisions because of it?” he asked, lowering his head in an attempt to bring his face into my line of sight. I sighed, trying not to cry, and looked at the wall instead of allowing myself to meet his gaze.
“I might be aware of that feeling,” I managed, wishing I could tell him how many stupid declarations I’d made and opportunities I’d almost missed because of my feelings for him.
“Well, I approached Brooklynn tonight to tell her that I couldn’t do it. It’s been killing me not to talk to you. The only thing I could do was distance myself all the time because when you were around, it was too hard not act with you like I always have. I told her that, and also that if she really liked me, then she would work with me on this because it’s not fair to ask me to get rid of a good friend.”
“What did she say?” I asked, my eyes flicking back to his face to find him looking at me intently.
“She said that as long as you are in my life, she wouldn’t be. So, I told her goodbye.”
“You did?” I asked with a hint of desperation. I hadn’t been expecting him to say that. He’d always been so delusional about Brooklynn, seeing something in her that no one else saw.
“I’m not completely happy about it, Cams, I’m not going to lie. I thought Brooklynn and I would be together for a long time, but it’s not worth giving up a good friend over. It’s going to take some time, but I know I’ll be okay.”
“Yeah, you will be. And I’ll be here to help.”
He gave me a weak, but encouraging, smile. He at least looked like he would be willing to try to get over her. I couldn’t have been happier, despite the fact that one of my best friends was clearly miserable. My own feelings couldn’t help but overshadow his, but only because I knew that he really would be okay.
All I could think about for the rest of the meal was that it had finally happened: He had chosen me over her.