Easy

by Jordan S Gray

  David: Id rthr ride u

  Shayler stared at the screen, head tilted. It didn’t sound like David at all. She waited for the next text.

  David: That was Kyle. He’s an idiot.

  I figured.

  She smiled and then stopped. Did that mean he didn’t want to have sex with her? Shayler banged her head on the pillow, glad her friends seemed oblivious to her neurotic worrying. She was always so calm and collected. This new process of over-thinking was fucking awful.

  David: He wasn’t wrong though. I mean, I don’t know if it’s anatomically correct, but if it is, he wasn’t wrong.

  She grinned and took a screenshot of the messages. It didn’t matter that Kyle had hijacked his phone or that they might be talking about her. David wanted her, on some level, as more than just a quick fling in a parking lot. She held her breath and typed out a text of her own.

  I miss you.

  David: I miss you too.

  Shayler swished some wine around in her mouth, assessing her reaction. Her stomach did somersaults, her heart did the whole frantic pulse thing, and she was unashamedly damp. She wanted David. Bad.

  “All right, that’s it!” Rebecca clicked off the TV. “Who are you texting during this super important sleepover?”

  Shayler sat on her phone. “No one.”

  “Ansley,” Rebecca said.

  Ansley sighed and crawled forward, shoving Shayler over with one giant push. Shayler floundered on the floor, her hand reaching behind her to grab the cell, but Rebecca got to it first.

  “Sorry,” Ansley muttered.

  Rebecca jumped to her feet and read the phone, first quietly and then out loud. Shayler clambered up and yanked the phone out of Rebecca’s grasp. It was too late. The last line had been read, and, knowing the two of them, her emotions were about to be the subject of a really annoying, personal conversation.

  “Shayler Leslie Thompson,” Rebecca said through gritted teeth.

  “Your middle name’s Leslie?” Ansley asked.

  “It was my grandmother’s name,” Shayler explained.

  “Are you in a relationship?” Rebecca asked.

  Shayler picked a kernel from her teeth. “No.”

  “I miss you? I. Miss. You?”

  “I do.”

  “Do you like him?” Ansley asked.

  “No.”

  Rebecca’s brow crinkled. “But you miss him.”

  “So what? I miss lots of things, like Chuck Bass being on my television every Monday, not wearing a bra even if I planned to leave the house, eating Bagel Bites and pizza rolls for every meal…”

  “You’ve never sat on a pizza roll’s lap and licked frosting off its chin, though,” Ansley said.

  “I thought you didn’t see that.” Shayler huffed. “Fine, I like him. We’re not dating. We’re not boyfriend and girlfriend, but I like him. Happy?”

  Ansley pulled her hair back. “When did this happen?”

  “I don’t know. The club? Before that? Not sure.”

  “You don’t know when you started liking him?” Rebecca grunted. “You’re impossible.”

  “What? I’ve never thought about it like that. I’ve always thought he was hot, and I don’t know when it started being more than that.”

  “How much more?”

  Shayler narrowed her eyes. “I don’t love him, if that’s what you’re implying.”

  “You looked pretty cozy today all curled up in his lap,” Rebecca fired back.

  “He’s touched the inside of my vagina, and cuddling is what gets you?”

  Rebecca covered her ears. “Ew, don’t put it like that!”

  Ansley cleared her throat. “You guys did seem close today. Not only physically, but I saw him go after you when you left.”

  “He was checking on me. We agreed to be friends.”

  “Okay, the friends crap has to stop,” Rebecca said. “I went through it. Derek and I were ‘just friends’ an entire semester. Now, he’s moving in with me. If you have feelings and he has feelings, you’re not just friends.”

  “I don’t want a boyfriend.”

  “You think I wanted to start liking a jerk with an inflated ego? Didn’t matter. I still fell. Hard.”

  “B-but—”

  “We don’t always get a say,” Rebecca said, turning the television back on. “And I wouldn’t change my life now for all the choices in the world.”

  Shayler zipped herself into the bag and stuck the phone on the table. She wasn’t going to need it tonight, not after that sort of talk. Ansley was still staring at her, and she hated that the blonde seemed to be looking right past her defenses.

  It wasn’t like she was an idiot. Shayler knew that, somewhere along the way, David had stopped being a good sexual prospect and started being someone she missed when she did mundane shit, like getting coffee or eating fast food or like when she’d seen a red Prius floor it on a Monday morning and had flashbacks to the night at Club Social. He’d become someone she found excuses to text throughout the day, every single day, even if it included needing to make up stories about losing a page of notes.

  His texts made her smile. His voice made her light-headed. His touch made her body ignite from the inside out. Obviously, that wasn’t normal and meant something, but she’d be damned if it meant she was in love.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  February passed faster for Shayler than any other month in college had. Of course, that was probably due to her four-class course load that she’d actually put in an effort for. And due to the nights she and David had spent together, studying and flirting. Not that they’d had any more steamy encounters, but the banter was enough … for now.

  The Wednesday before Spring Break, Shayler waltzed into Intro to Crim like she walking down the runway after being crowned Miss America. She’d stopped caring about hiding how happy he made her around the same time he’d confessed that Friday was his new favorite night of the week.

  She waved to him as she plopped into her usual seat and stretched her feet out in front of her, showing off a new pair of heels. Thank God March was warming up and she could start wearing her miniskirts again. Their sole purpose wasn’t to tempt David, but she did like that it was one of the side effects. His gaze drifted to her bare legs, and she winked when he looked back at her.

  Hale stormed into the classroom, interrupting their silent teasing, and flicked on a projector that was hooked up to his computer. “Notes,” he barked, swiping at his head with a hand.

  Shayler rolled her eyes, used to his short tone and temper, and took out a notebook as he started the slides. He’d become progressively more stern as the weeks had passed, and she was starting to wonder if she should offer him the number of the school psychiatrist. Or some single women.

  Professor Hale gave a short lecture every time he switched to the next slide, and, by the end of it, Shayler’s hand was sorer than the first time she’d given a handy to Matt Duncan. She had no clue how David had talked her into taking notes—let alone so many of them—but her test scores had proved that it was worth it. She was currently averaging an eighty nine, which would’ve been higher had she not gotten a few zeros from her absences and the first pop quiz.

  When the class was finished, Hale dismissed them with a single wave, like he was shooing away fifty buzzing flies. Shayler grabbed her bag and met David at his desk.

  “So, what’s up his butt?” she asked, gesturing to Hale as he stalked into his office.

  “No clue.” David closed his text book. “He’s been like that all day.”

  “Ugh. Maybe we should hire him a prostitute.”

  “Why?”

  “He obviously needs to relieve some tension.”

  “I think he’d be fine finding a companion himself.”

  She propped herself on the desk and laughed. “A companion?”

  “Someone to spend the night with.”

  “I know what it means, you freak.”

  David nudged her leg and then pulled it
onto his lap, his hands surrounding her calves. She wiggled her toes and shook her hair out.

  “Hey, I need to talk to you about something,” David said abruptly.

  Shayler raised an eyebrow. “That sounds bad.”

  “It’s not, but I don’t know how you’ll take it.”

  “Take what?”

  He rubbed his neck, keeping his gaze on the desk. “I’ve got a big dinner Friday night.”

  “You’re canceling our study session? I’m appalled.”

  “Well, yes and no.”

  “Spit it out, David.”

  “It’s a work dinner. Hale will be there, Dean Clifton, Dean Smithers, a couple other professors, and a few TAs. I was wondering if you’d go with me.”

  Shayler blinked. He wanted to take her on a date? To a work dinner? What would they talk about, have in common? Sitting around with a bunch of professors and deans sounded like torture, add to that eating whatever stuffy food they ordered and it was her version of hell. Until she glanced at David and took in his widened, gray eyes that were slightly wrinkled in the corners.

  “Okay.”

  “Okay?” He sounded surprised.

  “Yep. When are you picking me up?”

  “Uh, we’re supposed to be there at seven.”

  “Let’s say six thirty, so I’m ready by six forty-five.”

  He grinned. “So I should come about six fifty?”

  Shayler leaned in, letting him have an eyeful of her cleavage. “You can come whenever you want.”

  David reached forward and tickled her sides, and Shayler shrieked with laughter, kicking him until he stopped.

  “How fancy are we talking?” she asked once he’d dropped his hands onto her lap.

  “It’s at Dean Clifton’s, and there’s going to be catering.”

  “I’m gonna have to wear a dress, aren’t I?”

  “Up to you.”

  She huffed. “I don’t have any that go past my upper thighs.”

  “So wear one of those. I don’t care.”

  “I’m not going to flash the deans my panties, David.”

  He smirked. “What about me?”

  “Oh, I’d flash you my panties anytime.”

  Shayler’s stomach tumbled at the sight of his grin. Though she was okay with the lack of payoff from their flirting, Ansley had been right. Motors do burn out, and if he kept it up, she’d continue going through vibrators like Rebecca went through highlighters. She made a mental note to pick another one up later.

  She tilted her head. “Do you want to watch a movie?”

  “What? Tonight?”

  “No. Like now.”

  “You want to see a movie right now?”

  “Yeah.” Shayler dug her teeth into her lip as she waited. Like most things, it hadn’t been something that’d really crossed her mind until she’d blurted it out.

  “Okay.”

  She grinned and accepted the hand he held out to help her up. Smoothing down her skirt, she waited as he gathered his books and moved half them to the side of the desk that wasn’t covered in random papers.

  “How do you work when it’s so messy?”

  “Hale comes out and goes through this stuff all the time. If I keep it neat, it’s just messed up the next time I’m here.”

  “He sucks.”

  “He’s focused.”

  Shayler stuck her tongue out, tugging on David’s hand as she pulled them toward the door. He held it open for her as she exited, short enough that she didn’t have to duck to fit under his arm.

  His car was parked in the lot next to the Crim building, a lot saved for professors and TAs, and she was glad they wouldn’t have to walk a long time. She was sporting new heels and wasn’t quite sure how’d they do going down the giant hill and up to the parking garage her car was at. As he buckled in and waited for her to do the same, Shayler glanced at him from the corner of her eye.

  It was so natural that she was there next to him, in his car, as though she fit perfectly into his life, just like how those little circle chips fit perfectly when they were dropped suddenly into the Connect Four board. She hoped it would always be like that.

  The thought rattled her, made her clutch her stomach as she braced herself for an impending wave of nausea. But there was no bile, no stomach acid that crept into her throat. No worry that she’d spray his windshield with pizza-colored vomit. In three months, he’d changed her, really changed her. Not her clothes or personality, but her morals. And she liked it.

  “Want to hit the cinemas downtown or the dollar theater?” he asked, pulling out of the lot.

  “I was thinking movie at my place.”

  He looked at her. “Rebecca warned me never to venture into the dragon’s den.”

  “You’re gonna trust the girl who won’t put her laptop on her lap over me?”

  “Why won’t she put it on her lap?”

  “She’s afraid of radiation poisoning.”

  He chuckled. “Okay. Your place then.”

  What should’ve been a short drive turned into a long one. Okay, not really. But, to Shayler, it felt like time had stopped and seconds were dragging into hours. She flicked away a curl and twisted in her seat, needing to keep herself from staring at David even more than she already had.

  “Holy shit,” she muttered under her breath, snatching something from the backseat.

  She held the fluffy stuffed rabbit up like it was the pair of soiled underpants she’d found at Haley Lesterman’s house her freshman year. David glanced over and tore it away from her, letting the bunny fall onto his lap as he stepped on the gas.

  “What is that?” she asked.

  “It’s for Lilly.”

  In that moment, her vision turned a putrid green. “Who’s Lilly?”

  He grinned. “My sister.”

  The green haze vanished, and she could see clearly again. “Your sister.”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay … but why is it in your car?”

  “I picked it up for when I visit next week.”

  “For Easter?”

  “No. She just has a thing for bunnies. Whenever I see one when I’m out, I grab it for her.”

  Shayler raised her eyebrows. David was weird. She bit her lip. That wasn’t fair, he wasn’t strange. He was kind, thoughtful, and cared about a sibling he rarely saw.

  “I thought you weren’t close?”

  He shrugged. “She was born my senior year, so I haven’t been able to spend much time with her. But that doesn’t mean I don’t wish I could.”

  “You want to hang out with an eight-year-old … why?”

  “Technically she’s seven and a half.” He smiled. “And because … she’s smart and funny and she’s my sister.”

  “And she likes rabbits.”

  “She does.”

  Shayler stared at her hands.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.”

  He nudged her as they came to a red light. “Tell me.”

  “I don’t know. It’s weird imagining you with this whole different life,” she said, wishing she could add that it was odder knowing he had a life without her in it.

  “It’s not really a different life.”

  But wasn’t it? At college, David was an assistant and student and friend, but back home he was a brother and a son and he had best friends and seemed almost popular if she was reading into his stories right.

  “Why are you still here if all of your family is in Georgia? Why didn’t you move back for grad school?”

  “Just because the people I love are back there doesn’t mean that’s where I belong. I wanted to stay here and pave my own way. I’m okay being gone if it means following my dreams and being happy. And I can visit. It’s not the stone age, remember?”

  Shayler giggled. “And your dream is to be a professor?”

  “Yes, one of my dreams is to be a professor at this school.”

  “What are your other dreams?”

  The light t
urned green, but David kept his foot on the break. He stared at her, and Shayler resisted the urge to grab his hand and cling to it. And then he pressed on the gas, broke eye contact, and the car darted forward. “I can think of a few.”

  Shayler turned on the radio to distract herself. One of her best abilities was to read between the lines, and if David was suggesting she fit into his dreams somewhere, things were too much. Weren’t they? She shook the thought away and turned up the song that blared from his speakers, using it to drown out any worries she had left.

  It wasn’t long until they pulled into Shayler’s parking lot. She unbuckled her seatbelt as he glanced around.

  “Where’s your car?”

  “I had to drive to school, remember?”

  He shook his head. “You left your car there?”

  “I’ll grab it later.” She got out of the car and ran up the cement stairs to her floor.

  Her stomach was almost as tangled as her hair, and she wasn’t sure why. Okay, she knew why. David was the first guy she’d ever invited over. He’d be the first one to ever step foot in her room, to see her things and pictures and mess. He waited behind her as she unlocked the door and opened it, and she felt him wince at her side. Shayler rolled her eyes and skipped forward. David was so dramatic.

  She let him go ahead of her, laughing to herself as she watched him tip-toe around old bags of chips and crushed beer cans until he came to her room. He seemed to relax upon seeing the closed door, but Shayler pushed it open, knowing he would hate that her room wasn’t any better than the super-lived-in living room.

  With a flick of a switch, she lit the room before them and exposed herself in a way she never had before. She took it in, trying to see it from a new perspective. Mounds of clothes cluttered the floor. A bra hung off the corner of her television. An empty cup of ramen was on her nightstand, now filled with some weird brown goo. Empty water bottles lined the bottom of her bed like a chalk outline of a dead body, and there was a perpetual odor of burnt popcorn and old Chinese food that lingered in the air. Simply put, it was home.