Forever Altered (10 page)

“I
guess we will.” 

“This
totally beats watching a football game with a bunch of guys.”  I cannot
help the smile on my face.  She goes into her room to wipe her face and I
can see she’s laughing at me.

“We’ll
see if you are still saying that after dealing with me for a couple
days.” 

I
walk up behind her and wrap my arms around her waist, so her back is against my
chest.  My chin rests on the top of her head.  “Alyssa, I’m going to
be
dealing
with you for a whole lot longer than a couple days.” 
She puts her arms on top of mine.  Eventually, we go out to the living
room and sit on the couch.  A new sense of calmness has come over me and
there is nothing I want more than to have a normal night alone with her.  “What
do you watch on Monday night?” 

Alyssa
yawns as she curls up next to me.  “Nothing really.  Put on whatever
you want.”  She hands me the remote, then grabs one of the pillows that
are piled on the opposite end of the couch.  She puts it on my lap and
lays down.  There is a blanket on the table next to me, so I tuck it
around her. 

“You
want me to head out so you can go to sleep?”

She
rolls her head slightly, so she can look up at me.  “No.  I want you
to stay right here with me.”

My
arm automatically goes around her.  “Good.  I wasn’t planning on
going anywhere.”

Alyssa

The
morning brings a new, beautiful day.  The sun is shining so bright it’s
filtering through the navy blue curtains Leah hung in our room.  Neither one
of us is a morning person.  All of a sudden, I remember I didn’t fall
asleep in my bed last night.  How the hell did I get here?  My mood
darkens because the thought of what happened with Rocco only being a dream is
completely devastating.  When I glance over to my phone, there is a piece
of white notebook paper underneath it.  My mood instantly changes
back.  Across the front of it is “
Sunshine”
written in messy boy
handwriting.
  It causes me to chuckle a little and even
roll my eyes.

           
Good Morning! 

I’m
sorry I left without saying goodbye, but I didn’t want to wake you up. 
You looked so peaceful and I heard you haven’t been sleeping very well
lately.  It took everything I had to go to class this morning.  If I
didn’t have a test today, I’d still be there with you.  Have a good
morning.  I’ll check in with you later.  Thank you for letting me
in.  I promise you won’t regret it! 

OXOX

R         
  

Did
he stay with me all night?  There’s no way he would have slept on the
couch sitting up like he was.  How the hell did I not hear all three of my
roommates come in last night?  The sound of Erin and Julia talking in the
living room startles me.  They never got up early.  My phone says
it’s almost eleven.  Shit!  How did I sleep so late?  Even though
there is still plenty of time before my class starts, I hate sleeping in. 
After sending a quick text to Rocco apologizing for falling asleep on him, I
quickly make my bed then jump in the shower.  When I get out, Leah is back
from class and my friends are waiting for me in the living room.  Leah
even brought us lunch from our favorite salad place.

“Please,
come join us for lunch,
Lyss
,” Julia says patting the
empty chair beside her.  They are all impatiently waiting to hear what
happened with Rocco last night.  Why did I have to fall asleep before they
got home?  The smile on my face tells them all they need to know, but they
want to hear me say it anyway.

“Tell
me right now.  You can eat later.  What did we miss last
night?”  Leah is the worst of all of them.

“You
missed a fire drill,” I say looking at the text Rocco sent while I was in the
shower. 
Did you just wake up???
  I text back telling him that
I did and he should be paying attention in class, not texting me.

“Get
the hell off your phone and answer me.  I know we didn’t
only
miss
a fire drill.”  Did I mention how impatient Leah was?  Erin finds
this comical. 

Looking
over at the three of them, I shrug my shoulder and plop into the seat between
Julia and Leah.  “We decided to give it a try.  We’ll see what
happens.  I’m not going to think too much about it.  Just see how it
goes.  Another broken heart really isn’t something I need right now.”

Erin
passes over my salad.  “And?” 

“And
what?” I repeat taking it from her. 

“You
were passed out on his lap when we all got back.  He didn’t want to move
because he was afraid he’d wake you up.  Poor guy,” Erin says shoving food
in her mouth.

My
phone chimes with another text from Rocco. 
Class isn’t nearly as
important as talking to my girl!
  Leah takes the phone out of my
hand.  “He’s ridiculous.”  She’s smiling and shows the other two
before handing it back to me.  Both of them declaring how adorable they
think he is.  I text him how I like the sound of that.  “And ‘poor
guy’ my ass.  He couldn’t have been happier.  Tyler and I woke him up
when we came home around midnight.  I told him I’d tell you where he went
if he wanted to head out.  He flat out refused.  He didn’t even carry
you to bed until this morning before he went back to his room to get ready for
class.  I told him to leave you there because you’d be up soon and how
you’ve fallen asleep there plenty of times.”  Another text comes
through.  He wants to stop by after his class. 
Can’t wait
is
what I send back.  Leah shakes her head smiling.  “I am so happy for
you,
Lyss
.  I really hope this works out for
you.  He really seems to care about you.”

“Me
too,” I say too excitedly.  I really need to be careful about Rocco. 

“So…?”
Julia asks.  I look at her confused.  “So, how was he in bed?”  Erin
chokes on the water she is taking a sip of and smacks Julia’s arm. 
“What?  Oh, come on.  You want to know, too.  Damn, we’ve wanted
to know this for a long time.”       

“I
didn’t sleep with him.  Not that it is any of your business!”  I
snap.

“We’ll
know soon enough,” she whispers to Erin like I’m not even in the room.

Conversation
now shifts from me to Leah’s upcoming Halloween party.  It’s an annual
event sponsored by the Education Department and Leah volunteered to take charge
of it this year.  I’m surprised she wasn’t demanding the position freshman
year.  She’s extraordinarily good at telling people how to do things her
way.  Of course now that she is running it, I don’t have a choice but to
go.  The last two years, for some reason, there was something going on at
home that I had to get to.  I despise dressing up for Halloween, but of
course Leah is making me.

“So,
you girls are going to help me paint The Rock, right?”  The Rock is a huge
boulder on the lawn in front of the Hamilton Building.  Clubs and
organizations paint it to advertise for events or meetings they are having.

“What? 
Don’t you have a committee to do that?”  I loathe painting, too.

“Yup. 
You guys.”  Leah smiles.  Bitch.  “We have The Rock for two weeks,
so we are doing it this Sunday.  Hope you girls have painting clothes with
you.” 

“Did
you girls pick out your costumes yet?  Julia and I are going as naughty
school girls.  You should join us,” Erin says winking at me.

“No
way!”  I glare at Leah.  She offered to get our costumes.  Since
I was so miserable over breaking up with Jeff when she asked me, I agreed
because it would be one less thing for me to think about.  She knows me
well enough to know what type of costume to buy. 

“I
know.  I know.”  Leah sighs holding her hands up in surrender. 
“We are going as butterflies.  Purple for me and blue for
Lyss
, of course.   I already ordered them and
they should be coming in this week.  I cannot wait to see them!  Oh,
remind me when we are out shopping on Saturday to look for shoes.  I’m
thinking we will need either white or silver.”

“Really? 
Butterflies?  How boring!”  Julia announces.  I’m not sure, but
Leah may have winked at her.  I should probably be concerned, but since
I’m in such a good mood I’ll ignore it for now.  “You should just ditch
her, Leah.  Join us and make the prude over there do her own thing. 
Maybe she can go as a nun or something like that.”    

 “Watch
it, bitch!  I know where you sleep,” I warn her, but she just
laughs.  Leah and Erin are chuckling at our friendly bickering. 

“Jules,
do you remember who is currently calling himself her boyfriend?  Not to
mention, she was single for about a month.  Alyssa, just ignore her. 
She’s clearly just jealous.”  Erin is always the peacekeeper. 

 “Damn
right I’m jealous.”  I turn to look at her.  “You know you are, too,
Erin.  You’ve seen that body she hides most of the time.  If the male
population here saw that, we’d have to put a revolving door in.” 

 “Oh
my God!”  My face is probably so red.  

“Anyway,
can we please get back to my party plans?”  Leah interrupts
laughing.  “The food is being delivered around seven fifteen.  There
is no way I am using on-campus catering, so I hired a caterer on Main Street
here in Madison.”

“That
was a good idea.  Did you make sure to include that on the fliers you had
had printed?” Erin asks her. 

“Of
course.”  Leah almost sounded insulted.  “The Pub is providing and
serving the alcohol.  Don’t worry about not being twenty-one.  I’ll
take care of our drinks.  The party is from eight to midnight.  No
one is using the room all day, so we can go in and decorate any time.  I’m
thinking maybe we should have everyone meet there around eleven.  This way
we have plenty of time to come back here to change into our costumes instead of
over in the Student Center.  Sound good?  Am I forgetting anything?”

 “You
will have more than the four of us to decorate, right?” I need to clarify.

 “Yes,
smart-ass.  The whole department will be there for that part.  I even
think some of the faculty will be stopping by to get it set up.  I’m more
concerned about the clean-up.” 

There’s
a knock at the door and I jump up to get it, ignoring the remarks my friends
are making behind my back.  Opening the door and seeing Rocco standing
there feels even better than when I saw the note on my dresser this
morning.  I greet him with a warm smile.

“Hey,”
he says giving me a kiss on the cheek as he walks by me.  

“Hi. 
How was class?” I ask letting the door close behind him. 

He
sits in my seat at the table and holds his arm out for me to sit on his
lap.  “Boring as hell.  It did brighten up a little once this girl
started texting me.”

“Haven’t
you had enough of her on your lap in the last twelve hours?” Julia asks
sarcastically.

“Nope,”
he replies as I sit on his lap and watch her roll her eyes. 

“Good
thing I have a class to get to.  I wouldn’t want to lose the lunch I just
ate.”  She gets up and goes into her room to get ready. 

“You
have no room to talk, you slut,” Erin calls after her. 

Julia
laughs from her room before responding.  “Don’t I know it?”  She can
be pretty funny sometimes. 

“What’s
up?  What is all that crap?”  Rocco is pointing to the pile of papers
and folders Leah has for the party spread out in front of her.

“Stuff
for the Halloween party.  You guys are coming, right?  It’s for my
department and I just happen to be in charge of the event this year.  It’s
going to be awesome.”  Leah is practically leaping out of the chair with
delight.

“We
went last year.  It was a good time.  I’m sure it will be even better
this year.”  He wraps his arm around my waist. 

“What
will be even more fun than the party is helping to paint The Rock on
Sunday.”  I wink at him and he chuckles.

“Let
me guess.  She volunteered you guys to paint it with her?” 

“Yup. 
Aren’t we the luckiest roommates in the whole entire building?” I tease and
blow her a kiss.

“Damn
right you are.  I will drag your asses there by your hair if I need
to.”  I don’t doubt her for one minute.

“I’m
just teasing you, Leah.  You know damn well that I’ll do anything for
you.  Giving you a hard time is what I do.” 

“If
you offer my roommates food when they are done, they will gladly help
you.  They only sit around on Sundays watching football,” Rocco tells her
as he’s rubbing my back.

“Done. 
Will you ask them for me?”

“Absolutely. 
I’ll let you know later.”

“Thank
you so much!”  He nods at her.

Leah,
Erin, and I clean up lunch before Rocco and I go into my room.  He lays on
my bed on his back, tucking his arms behind his head.  I sit next to him
pulling my legs up next to me.  Leaning on him like this, I can feel how
sculpted his abdomen is.  Julia’s question about how he was in bed pops
into my head and I instantly think how much I’d love to find out right now. 
Damn it.  I have to think about something else, fast.    

“I’m
sorry for falling asleep on you last night,” I tell him hoping my face isn’t
turning color again.

“Don’t
be.  It was one of the best nights of my life.”  He’s so adorable
when he grins like that.  I really hope he cannot read my mind.

“Seriously? 
Sleeping half sitting up on my couch was one of the best nights of your
life?”  I raise my eyebrows.  There’s no way he can be telling me the
truth. 

“Definitely. 
A night where you tell me you are giving me a chance to be with you, you sleep
on my lap, and I carry you to your bed is without a doubt the best night
ever.”  My face is starting to hurt with all this smiling I’ve been
doing.  “I’m planning on taking a nap when you go to class, though.” 

“You
sure this is what you want?”  I’m serious now.  “I hear that I tend
to be a little high maintenance sometimes.”

“Bring
it on,” he says.  I lay down on the pillow next to him and Rocco turns up
on to his side, so he can face me.  His puts his arm around me. 
  

Leah
comes in and lays on her bed across from mine.  “You two are so cute, I
may actually throw up.” 

“After
you get back from class, how about we go out to dinner?” Rocco asks me and I
immediately start to shake my head no.  He speaks again before I have a chance. 
“Why not?”