When Sophie came back downstairs, Hunter was seated in my desk chair tying his shoes shirtless while I tried to fish his shirt out from behind my desk. How it had gotten behind the desk was beyond me, but I knew that it was probably getting very dusty back there and I wanted to retrieve it as soon as possible.
“Oh! Should I come back later?” Sophie asked as she opened the door. Hunter’s eyes opened wide as he sat up straight and crossed his arms over his bare chest.
“No, you’re fine. Sophie, this is Hunter. Hunter, my roommate Sophie,” I said, not stopping my task, “A-ha! Got it!” I triumphantly held his shirt over my head.
“And how did that end up back there, Cameron?” Sophie asked. I just went over and stood in between Hunter’s legs before handing him his shirt.
“I told you they’re a pain in the ass,” I smiled. He knowingly returned my smile and pulled his shirt over his head. I offered him both of my hands to help him up.
“I’ll see you later. Nice to meet you, Sophie,” he said before leaving.
“Likewise!” Sophie yelled as the door was closing, then waiting until the door was safely closed before looking at me, “You little skank bag!”
“Oh whatever. We both know what you were doing upstairs. You can judge me not, friend.”
“I’m not judging. If I wasn’t happy with David, I’d be all over that.”
“Hell no you wouldn’t! That boy is my booty call,” I smiled as I attempted to straighten my comforter from my position on the floor.
“And what a booty call,” she said dramatically before sitting on the futon, “Where’s Gracie?”
“Oh, so she didn’t tell you, either? She had a date tonight,” I explained before joining her.
“Why wouldn’t she tell us? That’s crazy!” I nodded and turned to face her.
“Speaking of crazy, guess who’s hanging out upstairs with the guys?”
“Who? Brooklynn?” she guessed.
“That’s exactly right! Isn’t that fan-fucking-tastic?” I asked sarcastically.
“Good lord, I was joking! Why is she up there? Is there something going on with her and one of the guys?”
“Well, apparently she and Taylor have been hooking up on random occasions. But I asked Chris, who can’t lie, and he said they were just friends. It’s just so ridiculous.”
“Is that why you made a play date with Hunter? To avoid the awkwardness upstairs?”
“No, I’m not up there because I wasn’t invited. Seriously Sophie,something weird is going on. It feels like everything is changing all of a sudden.”
“Maybe it is. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, huh?” I nodded and laid down on my half of the futon, “You want to watch a movie?”
“I thought you’d never ask! That’s what I’ve been wanting to do all night. Well, almost all night.” She smacked my legs with a pillow before putting in Anchorman, one of our favorites.
When Grace crept back into the room at midnight, Sophie and I were both passed out on the futon and the menu of the movie was playing on repeat. She tried to be quiet, but we both woke up with she turned on her desk lamp.
“God, what time is it?” I asked as I stretched, almost hitting Sophie in the face with my feet. She smacked them away and sat up quickly.
“Ew, get your feet away from me, Cam!” she said, rubbing her eyes against the light.
“My feet aren’t dirty and I didn’t have sex with my feet, so you don’t have anything to worry about,” I teased, rubbing my feet on her legs to annoy her.
“What? Who had sex?” Grace asked.
“Cameron called Hunter over for one of their little naughty sessions since she had the room all to herself,” Sophie explained. Grace nodded. “But how was your date that you didn’t feel necessary to tell either one of us about.”
“I didn’t tell you because it wasn’t that big of a deal. We just met a week ago and we’ve been talking online and stuff. I didn’t want to make a big deal about it in case it didn’t go well.”
“Did it go well?” Sophie asked. Grace smiled a tell-tale smile.
“It was great! I can see this actually going somewhere.”
“Are we going to get to meet him, or am I going to have to find him in here shirtless while you’re looking for his shirt?” Sophie teased me. I kicked her lightly and waited for Grace’s reaction.
“I missed shirtless Hunter? Damn it!” I tried not to blush and I stood up to get ready for bed. It made me feel a little uncomfortable when they talked about Hunter so much. He was just a booty call but they talked about him like he was more than that. I grabbed my toothbrush and toothpaste and headed for the bathroom, leaving Sophie and Grace to their discussion of what she had for dinner on her date.
I climbed into bed after Sophie and Grace had already done so and smelled Hunter on my pillow. I almost fell asleep with a smile on my face until I looked at the ceiling and remembered what was probably still going on upstairs. Brooklynn was stealing my friends and I wasn’t going to stand for it. She could win the battle with Taylor sexually, but I wouldn’t give up him as a friend without a fight. I had always been a fighter.
Determined to try something the next day, I went up to Taylor’s room before class and found the door locked, something that never happened. I almost face-planted into the hard surface, so accustomed was I to the knob easily turning under my hand. Almost as soon as my close encounter, my phone started to ring and the ring told me that it was Taylor.
“Hey Cams. I’m already at the Student Union, so I’m just going to meet you in class, okay?” He didn’t even let me say hello.
“Fine,” I said, though I internally wanted to stutter and stumble over my words at that.
“Okay, I’ll see you soon. Bye,” he replied and I didn’t even return the pleasantry before hanging up.
What in the hell had I done? I racked my brain the entire walk to class analyzing every moment we’d spent together recently trying to figure out what offense was so bad as to warrant being shut out like this. I could feel myself being replaced by Brooklynn and the thought terrified me. Taylor was a person I needed in my life, and if I only got to have him as a friend, then I would take it.
When I got to class, I found him already seated with a space for me beside him. I slid into it and immediately felt uncomfortable.
“Long time, no see,” I said, pulling my notebook and a pen out of my messenger bag.
“I’ve been busy, you know how it is,” he said, leaning back in his chair. He was trying to play it off like there had been no random break in our communication. I wasn’t going to fall for it.
“So, what did you do last night?”
“Don’t play coy with me, Cams. Jackson and Chris told me they saw you. I’m sure you’re pissed off at me, but honestly, I was just trying to save you from an uncomfortable time since I know how much you don’t like Brooklynn.” I rolled my eyes and loudly tapped my pen against the green cover of the Five Star in front of me.
“And don’t play innocent with me, because I don’t fall for that act with you. You’ve never ever not invited me when you had people over, Taylor. It’s fucking weird and you know it.”
“I can have friends other than you, you know. There’s no law against that,” he snapped right before the teacher started class, ending our little argument.
If I had wanted the jabs back, I got them, but this time with a side of reality. Those last two sentences Taylor had spoken resonated inside my head, and I had a really hard time caring about German, French, and Italian 6ths. After class, I shoved my notebook back in my bag and stalked off without a word to Taylor. He chased after me and grabbed my arm, holding me in place.
“What is your problem? You don’t like Brooklynn, but you’re pissed off at me for not inviting you to hang out with her? Please explain that logic to me, Cams, because I’m completely confused here.”
“You know what, Taylor. If you think she’s so great that you’re willing to exclude people you’ve been good friends with for a lot longer, then maybe you should invite me too so I can have the hopes of seeing what the hell you see in the person who has never been anything other than mean to me.”
“You want me to invite you next time?” If I had been a Looney Tunes character, steam would have been coming out of my ears. So he was planning on their being more occasions where I would be left out. Fantastic.
“Yes. I want you to invite me.”
“Can I trust you to be nice and not cause a big scene.” Each sentence was like a dagger. Did he not know me at all? I bitched and moaned and argued with my friends a lot, but I was no trashy catfighter.
“I’m not and have never been the one you need to worry about. I just ignore her presence. She’s the one who goes out of her way to be bitchy, in case you didn’t notice.” Taylor raised his arms and looked defeated.
“I’m not the bad guy here, Cameron,” was all he said before walking away.
“And I am?” I asked.
“Give her a chance and maybe you won’t be.” I just stood there and watched him walk away from me in the exact same direction I was heading. Mustering as much courage as I could, I straightened myself up, readjusted my messenger bag, and headed for home. Everything was sure changing, all right. Everything was changing and I had the feeling that I was going to get the short end of the stick in the deal.
I followed Taylor the entire way home and never once did he turn around to see if I was there. This wasn’t Taylor. Yes, he could be a little callous and moronic sometimes, but never outright accusatory. What bullshit was Brooklynn feeding him that would make me seem like the bad person in the situation? I had done so much thinking that by the time I got home I was outright enraged. I was about to go have a screaming session into my pillow when I saw an instant message blinking on my laptop.
TayDawg83: People are coming up to hang out and drink tonight around 10. Just so you know.
And that was it. “Just so you know.” Oh, I’d be there.
I threw my pillow back up onto my bed and instead headed for a second shower of the day. If Brooklynn wanted a fight, then I’d give her one in the least confrontational way possible. All I had to do was out-hot Brooklynn Stahler.