It Was You (20 page)

“
Maybe that wouldn't be so bad.”

He opened my car door. “Go.”

I pouted. “Now you're trying to get rid of me?”

He shook his head. “No. But I'm about thirty seconds away from kidnapping you.”

“I'm not a kid.”

“
Fine. Hot-girl-napping you.”

I grinned. “I like that better.”

He laughed. “Text me. Call me. Think about me.”

I slid into the driver's seat. “I will. I promise.”

I could see him in the rearview mirror as I drove out of the lot, this beautiful boy, his hand up in the air, waving at me. This boy that liked me. That wanted me. This boy that I liked. That I wanted. This boy that had turned my life upside down right when I'd least expected it. I felt as good about him as I had about anything in recent memory. The other things I was worried about—school, Annika, getting my own apartment—they had all fallen off the radar for me. Everything else seemed trivial compared to how happy I felt with West.

And that should've been my first clue that it was all about to blow up.

THIRTY

Tana's roommate was more than insane. She was certifiable.

We got to San Luis after dark, pulling into the empty lot next to the dorms just after ten o'clock. We'd stopped once for gas and once for drive-thru from Jack in the Box. In between chatting with Tana and singing along to the radio, I swapped texts with West. She'd offered to drive my car so I could talk to him. I'd been gone a matter of hours and I already missed him desperately.

I was anxious to get home. Get back to him. So, when we grabbed our duffel bags and purses and headed up the stairs to her room, I hoped for the best. Hoped that she'd been all wrong about her new roommate, or had perhaps exaggerated Athena's level of insanity.

And then Athena opened the door to their dorm room.

In a camo bra and matching panties.

“
Oh my God!” she squealed. “You're Tana, right?” She reached for me and wrapped me in a near-naked hug.

I tried to disentangle myself. “No,” I said firmly. I yanked on Tana's arm and shoved her in front of me. “This is your roommate.”

Athena smiled. “Oh my God!” she said again, flinging herself into Tana's arms.

Tana's eyes were huge as she stiffly patted her roommate's back. She mouthed “crazy” at me and I stifled a giggle.

The lingerie-clad roommate eyed me, smiling. “And who are you? Tana's girlfriend?”

“
Yeah,” I said. “I came up from San Diego. Just for the night,” I added quickly.

Athena pouted. “You're not staying? I don't mind. I'm totally okay with it if you want to. I mean, seeing how Gil is here and everything.” She motioned her hand toward the interior of the room and Tana and I both craned our necks to see.

Gil sat on the edge of Athena's bed. He was also in a state of undress. His t-shirt was off, wadded up on the floor and his jeans looked halfway unbuttoned. He waved at us, grinning, and I quickly looked away.

Athena moved closer to us, her long dark hair brushing against my shoulder. She smelled like strawberry gum and cigarettes. “If you guys need a few minutes, just let me know. We can leave for a little bit. Go somewhere else.”

“We're fine,” Tana said.

“
Are you sure?” Athena asked, her eyes questioning. “It's a long drive. I don't know how things work between you guys but if you need a quickie or something...”

Tana cut her off. “Excuse me?”

Athena raised her perfectly plucked eyebrows. “You know, to—”

A horrified look crossed Tana's face. “Oh my God. She's my best friend. Not my girlfriend.”

Athena covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes wide. “Oh. Sorry. My bad.”

Tana just shook her head and pushed past her and into the room. I followed, the strap of my duffel bag digging in to my shoulder. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and I knew it was West.

“Hey,” Gil said.

He made no move to button his pants or throw back on his shirt, which was unfortunate because he had a hairy beer belly and saggy man boobs. I tried to look away but it was like a human train wreck.

And Athena wasn't much better.

She perched on the edge of her bed next to Gil and put her hand on his thigh. If she was self-conscious about meeting people while wearing nothing more than a bra and panties, it didn't show.

“I'm so excited to finally meet you,” she said to Tana. “We're going to have the best time this year!”

Tana just nodded, her eyes scanning the room. The work we'd done the last weekend we'd been up hadn't been altogether undone but there were new components to the décor, things that hadn't been there when Tana and I had put together the room. A couple of framed photos on Athena's dresser, a camo fleece blanket on the edge of her bed. Those things were fine, normal even, despite the fact that it looked like the photos were of her out hunting.

What was not normal was the deer head mounted above Athena's bed.

“
Is that real?” Tana asked, her voice flat. She pointed to the deer head.

Athena nodded proudly. “Yep. My first kill. I've had that baby for ten years. It goes everywhere with me.”

Tana's face lost a little color. “Okay.”

“
I have a bunch more at home,” Athena told us. “But Bambi's my favorite. You know, her being my first and all.”

“
Her?” I asked. “Wasn't Bambi a boy?”

Athena looked at me. Her dark eyes looked to the ceiling as she considered this. “Huh. I don't know. But this one was damn near a baby when I took her out. All I could think to name her was Bambi. You know?”

No. I didn't know and I couldn't relate.

“
Anyway,” she said. “Don't let it freak you out. Shot her right between the eyes. She didn't feel a thing.”

Tana shifted her gaze to me and I just shrugged. What was I supposed to say?

“So.” Gil spoke up. He rubbed his hand over his closely-shaved head. “You're the new roommate.”

His eyes drifted over Tana, lingering on her boobs, and she narrowed her eyes at him. If Athena noticed, she didn't say anything.

“Yeah,” Tana said cooly. “And you're the boyfriend.”

He laughed. “Yeah. That's me.”

Athena pushed herself against him and draped one leg over his thighs. “I told her you'd be around a lot,” she cooed, her mouth close to his ear. “She's totally okay with it. Right, Tana?”

“
Right,” Tana muttered. She tossed her bag on her bed and motioned for me to do the same. Then she said, “Um, we need to head back out to the car for a minute. We'll be right back.”

Athena raised her eyebrows. “Can you make it ten? Gil can be fast. When he needs to be.” She trailed her finger up his chest and he tipped back his head, closing his eyes.

Tana dragged me out of the room.

“
Holy shit.” She leaned up against the wall in the hallway. “She shoots deer. And keeps them for trophies. She's on medications. And clearly she's a fucking nymphomaniac.”

Again, I had nothing to say. Because everything Tana had just listed was true.

“What am I going to do?” She banged her head against the wall.

“
Ask for a new roommate,” I told her. “Tomorrow.”

My phone vibrated again. West.

“They don't just switch people around, Abby,” she half-snapped. “It's not like you can just say, hey I don't like my roommate, give me a new one.”

“
Well, I think you have grounds for wanting a new one,” I pointed out.

Her shoulder slumped. “I guess.” She looked at me. “Tell me again why you're not going to school here. With me. As my roommate.”

“Because I don't want to be an architect,” I reminded her.

She waved her hand in the air. “There are a ton of programs here.”

“I never would have gotten in.”

It was true. I didn't have the grades for Cal Poly. But she was beyond logic.

“I don't know if I can stay here.” She looked at me. “There is a deer head in my room. And a guy who looks like he'd be up for a menage a trois. Like, tonight.”

I shuddered. Gil was pretty creepy.

“I'm glad you're here,” she said. She expelled a deep breath. “And I know it's just for one night. But I'm still glad you're here. Even though I know it's the last place you wanna be.”

“
That's not true.”

She held up her hand. “Puh-leeze. We both know you'd rather be with West. Duh. I don't blame you. So thank you. For being here with me.”

“You don't have to thank me.”

She nodded. “Yeah, I do. Because I want you to stay.” She looked at me, her eyes pleading. “The whole weekend. Please. Don't say no.”

“Tana,” I began but she cut me off.

“
Do you see what I have to live with this semester?” She jerked her thumb in the direction of her dorm room. “Holy mother of God. I may be stealing her medication before the end of the week. Please, Abs. One extra night.”

I sighed. I didn't want to stay. But I didn't want to let her down, either.

“Okay,” I said, not bothering to hide my resignation.

Tana looked at me. “Promise me.”

“Promise you what?”

“
Promise me you're with me this weekend. Promise me I get to soak up every last minute of sane best friend-ness there is before I'm stuck with the Huntress for the rest of the semester.”

“
I'm here, aren't I?”

“
You know what I mean.” She sighed impatiently. “I need you. All of you. I need you to pretend for one weekend that you never met West Montgomery.”

I frowned. “Tana.”

“OK, don't forget,” she said quickly. “But pretend that I'm more important. Just for this weekend.”

Guilt rocketed through me. She was more important. Wasn't she? After all, she was my best friend. But West was important, too. Important in a different way.

“You're my best friend,” I finally said. “You'll always be important to me. Always.”

She nodded and I noticed tears filling her eyes. I felt awful for her.

“I'm with you this weekend,” I said finally. “Promise.”

She breathed a sigh of relief, nodding. In that moment, I knew I'd made the right decision, no matter how hard it had been to do.

“Alright. I'm gonna run down to the car and grab the snacks.” Her mom had insisted on putting together an entire box of snacks for her. It took up almost the entire back seat of my car. I was pretty sure Tana would gain her freshman fifteen in two weeks if she ate everything her mom had packed.

“
OK,” I said, nodding. “I have to pee.”

She disappeared down the hallway and instead of heading to the bathroom, I fished my phone out of my pocket.

And called West.

“
I figured you were ignoring me,” he said when he answered.

“
No,” I explained. “We just got here. And her roommate is...wow.”

“
Wow?”

I explained what we'd encountered with Gil and Athena.

“There's a deer head in the room?” he asked.

“
In. The. Room.”

He chuckled and I pictured his face as he laughed. “That is a wow.”

“Seriously. And she's totally freaked out.”

“
I don't blame her,” he said. “So I guess it's a good thing you went with her.”

“
It is.”

“
But I'm not crazy about the fact that some guy is sleeping in the room with you.”

“
Please. Gil is more gorilla than guy.”

“
Still. Don't like it. And he's probably looking at you.”

“
Oh, he's definitely looking at me. And at Tana. And at every other female on the planet.”

“
Yeah. Not crazy about that,” he said. “At all.”

I liked that he was jealous, but he had nothing to worry about. “I'll be fine.”

“Maybe I should come up there,” he said.

“
No,” I said. “You shouldn't. I need to get Tana settled and if you were here, I'd just be distracted.”

The line buzzed. “Distracted how?”

I smiled. “Looking at you. Kissing you. Touching you. Thinking about getting you alone. That kind of distracted.”

“
That actually doesn't sound bad to me at all.”

“
Stop. I'll be back before you know it.”

“
Yes. Tomorrow,” he said. “I'm counting the minutes, remember?”

I sighed. I didn't want to tell him. “Actually, it looks like I might not be back until Sunday.”

“What??”

“
Tana wants me to stay through the weekend,” I said. “I'm going to see her through tonight, see how things go. Maybe she'll settle down, decide things aren't so bad.” It's what I was hoping for, anyway.