I’d chosen a fairly typical button up shirt and pants combo, and added a knit jumper to the mix because you can take the girl out of the library but you can’t take the library out of the girl.
My hair was sitting in its usual mess of curls that I had no inclination to do anything about.
Finally, I shrugged. “He asked me out. This will have to do.”
Because I had a tendency to be ready for things early – provided they weren’t happening in the morning – and because Jake and I hadn’t specified a time, I was standing in the living room wondering how much time I had before he arrived. Alex had already gone for his date, so I pulled out my trusty book and curled up in my window seat.
“So, this is what you do when you’re being?” I heard Jake’s voice and looked up.
“Usually, yeah,” I said, uncurling myself again. “Come on in. Welcome to our…abode.” I waved my arm around the room.
Jake nodded. “Looks the same as my dorm.”
I tucked my hair behind my ear. “Are you in Banksia House, too.” I hadn’t even looked, despite numerous perusals of his profile since he’d first messaged me.
“Nah, over in Eucalyptus.”
I nodded, wishing for quite possibly the first time in my life that I was better at small talk.
“You wanna sit?” I asked.
Jake nodded and we dropped onto the couch.
“How’s rugby going?” I asked. I had zero interest in rugby, but thought it a polite and safe question.
I suddenly understood what Mum had meant about safe topics of conversation. What she’d neglected to add was that safe topics were likely to be boring ones.
“Couple of weeks in, can’t complain,” he said with a smile.
I nodded. “Good.”
“How about…?” He paused. “Your stuff?”
I tucked my hair behind the other ear. “Stuff is good, thanks. Yeah. Fine. Homework and whatnot.”
“Cool.”
We sat in silence for a while, kind of nodding. I didn’t know if I’d infected him with my lack of social skills, or if he already lacked them.
“Do you want to watch a movie?” I asked finally.
If we weren’t going to talk and it seemed a little premature to call an end to the whole thing, then we may as well do something.
“Sure,” he said. “What do you wanna watch?”
For some reason, Alex popped into my head. “‘Fast & the Furious’?” I suggested.
Jake looked surprised for a moment, then gave me a smirk and nodded. “Sure. Sounds good.”
“What’s that look for?” I asked him as I put the movie on.
“Nothing,” Jake said. “Just surprised you’re into that.”
“I’m into a lot of things,” came out as though I was definitely suggesting something raunchier. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but it could have been worse.
A little bit into the movie, Jake did the old arm behind my back thing. I had to wonder if boys watched more rom-coms than they’d probably admit to. Where else were they getting the ideas for all those clichéd moves?
Clichéd or not, by the end of the movie, I was kissing him.
As far as kisses went, it was fine. It was nice. Enjoyable. I can’t say there were fireworks but, considering I’d never felt fireworks or anything close, I wasn’t even convinced fireworks existed.
“Oh, uh…” I heard Alex’s voice and gently pushed Jake away.
“Hey,” I said to him with a nod.
Alex looked, for quite possibly the first time in his entire life, taken completely off-guard and not in a good surprise kind of way.
“Landry, right?” Jake said to him.
Alex just nodded like he’d lost the ability to do anything else.
“Did you want a picture?” I teased.
Alex shook his head. “Uh. What? No. I’m fine. I’ll leave you to it.”
He looked like he was going to turn and leave, thought better of it, then looked like he was going to head to his room. Only, he didn’t go anywhere.
“All good,” Jake said, getting up. “I should probably head off. Curfew and all.”
I looked at the time and saw that it was after ten – so, late for Alex – which meant that the only places we were allowed to be was our own rooms or the rec rooms, as opposed to other people’s rooms. It didn’t actually stop kids being in other kids’ dorms, especially on the weekend but, when members of the opposite sex were involved, it was better to be safe.
Of course, that didn’t count for me and Alex, but Miss Fairley had done her job and popped in on us unsuspectingly numerous times, so maybe it was better to encourage Jake to leave rather than stay.
“Okay,” I said, giving Jake a smile. “I had a nice night.”
Jake gave me a nod, but looked like he was keeping a wary eye on Alex for some reason. “Me too. I’ll see you later, Lottie.”
“See ya,” I said and gave a ridiculous little wave as Jake walked out.
Alex and I stood there for a few moments.
“So, uh…” Alex said slowly until he was sure Jake was out of earshot. “How do you…? I didn’t know you knew him…?”
“My life does go on when we’re not together, you know,” I told him as I resettled on the couch.
He didn’t join me.
“No. I mean, I know.” He nodded quickly with his mouth pursed in this kind of ‘is this a believable smile that says I’m taking this seriously?’ impression.
Who was this adorably flustered boy in front of me?
“So…you and Jake, huh?” he asked, but he sounded a little bit stilted.
“What? You jealous?” I teased.
The silence was just a little too long that I looked at him quickly.
He scoffed, “Pfft, no. Of course not. Why would I…? No. Surprised is all.”
My immediate instinct was that he was jealous. But that was stupid. Why would Alex be jealous of me kissing Jake? He wouldn’t. That was just my imagination. But why would my imagination come up with Alex’s jealousy? I didn’t want him to be jealous. That was as ridiculous as the idea of him being jealous.
“Of course,” I said. “Just surprised. Because I’m not the kind of girl who’d kiss a boy.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Alex said earnestly. “I just didn’t know you knew…”
I didn’t know if he was having trouble saying his name, or if he thought it was too rude to finish his sentence.
“Jake?” I finished it for him.
“Well, kinda. Anyone other than us, really.”
“Am I not allowed to be friends with anyone else?”
He shook his head so quickly I was worried about whiplash. “No! By which I mean, be friends with whoever you want. You don’t need anyone’s permission.”
The mood between us had suddenly got very weird and I wasn’t sure why or how.
I cleared my throat. “Good. No. I didn’t mean to… I didn’t think you… You know.”
Alex nodded. “Yeah. Exactly. I wouldn’t… Certainly didn’t mean to…” He cleared his throat, too. “So, uh, ‘Fast & the Furious’, huh?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Yep. Want to watch the second one?”
He paused.
“Or are you going to bed?”
He looked at his bedroom door like bed was calling to him. Then he looked at me and somehow seemed to have the same look.
“No. Sure. Let’s watch it. You want ice cream?”
“You’ve got ice cream?”
“I’ve got ice cream.”
I nodded. “Sounds good.”
I got the movie ready while he pulled the ice cream out of the freezer. It wasn’t the best freezer, being as it was a compartment to the fridge, but it kept ice cream at a semblance of hard. Once procured, along with two spoons, he sat down next to me. By the very nature of a lack of crockery in our dorm, we had to both eat out of the tub. It occurred to me that
, minus the current mood in the room, that wouldn’t have seemed weird to me.
I tried not to let it seem weird now.
I hit play on the movie and we settled in against each other to watch it.
It took all of ten minutes before the mood broke and things felt back to normal. Normal being that we started a sword fight with our spoons and cracked ourselves up.
“On guard,” Alex laughed.
“On your guard, sir,” I said with a smile.
We spent the rest of the movie arguing over whose spoon got preference in the tub, elbowing each other playfully, and finally Alex fell asleep against my shoulder. I didn’t have the heart to move him until the movie finished, by which time I had a bit of drool on my jumper.
Chapter Thirteen
A couple of weeks later, and things hadn’t been weird again. Not between me and Alex at least. I hadn’t heard much from Jake. I didn’t know if it was because he didn’t think the date was much of a success either, or if he felt weird about Alex.
Either way, if he wasn’t feeling it, I wasn’t going to lose any sleep over it.
“I need a condom.”
I swivelled in my desk chair to look at the body who’d barged through my door.
“Uh huh. And you think I have one?”
Alex waved his hand around aimlessly. “There was the guy on the couch…and…”
I grabbed a pillow off the bed and threw it at him. “Just what kind of girl do you think I am?”
He shrugged. “The normal kind. The normal kind normally have condoms.”
“What the hell’s wrong with the one you’re seeing tonight then?”
Alex smirked. “Not the normal kind.”
“Oh, watch out. You might fall for this one.”
His scoff was of such self-reassurance that I re-evaluated my entire existence. “Of course I won’t.”
All I could do was blink.
“Now. Have you got one?” he pressed.
I was still blinking, but I was regaining higher brain function.
“Uh, yeah…” I said, trying to remember where I’d put it.
I’d never been in a situation where I needed one. I had no plans to be in a situation where I needed one in the near future. But I’d promised Mum I’d have one ‘just in case’. Logically, it was sensible. Things happened. I got that. And someone may as well make use of it before it expired.
I opened my bedside table and fished out my bag. Calling it a handbag made me feel about a hundred, and calling it a purse made me feel even older. While Alex waited none too patiently, I rummaged for the condom.
“Here you go,” I said as I held it out to him, then I pulled it back. “Don’t be stupid.”
Alex looked at me with the same exasperated fondness one looks at their parents when they give the same warning.
“Oh, my God,” I whispered. “I’ve turned into my mum.” I looked up at him and brandished the condom. “Do whatever you want. Go nuts. Have a great time.”
He laughed. “Okay. Will do.” He took the condom from me. “Thanks, E!” he called as he headed out.
After he’d left, I just sat in my room for a bit and mulled over whatever had just happened. I wasn’t sure what I expected Alex to get up to on his dates, but I had to admit the idea he was having sex on them…surprised me. Maybe it was just because I was having a hard time working out where he was doing it. But I’d already acknowledged that teenagers were nothing if not a resourceful lot.
That had to be it.
I was just surprised because it hadn’t occurred to me.
There was absolutely no other reason I might be feeling weird about it.
Chapter Fourteen
The boys were in our dorm room early on Sunday. I could hear them from my room. Made sense, baseball and basketball were over until Term 4, and rugby and soccer were both on Saturday.
They were being their usual raucous selves and, for once even still half asleep, it made me smile.
“She been out with Harman again?” Birdman asked.
“Not that I know of,” I heard Alex reply.
“He said anything?”
“Nope.” That was Luke. “Haven’t heard a peep. Which is weird. Those guys usually talk.”
“He’s probably intimidated by Alex,” Zac laughed.
“Yes,” Fret said sarcastically. “The behemoth is scared of the twiglet.”
“Oi!” Alex cried and I heard Fret’s ‘ow’. “Speak for yourself.”
“Maybe he sensed the tension,” Zac said ominously and I grinned to myself imagining his expression.
“What tension?”
“Between you and Lottie,” Fret said.
“There’s no tension between me and Lottie,” Alex scoffed.
“Well, there’s tension between her and someone,” Fret sang. “And it’s not Zac.”
“Oi!” Zac cried and there was another Fret ‘ow’.
“There’s no tension between her and anyone,” Alex said shortly.
“Okay, calm down,” Birdman chuckled. “She’s going to have tension with someone someday.”
“Fine. But no one here.” Alex’s tone was fairly final.
“You sure you’re not protesting a little hard there, mate?” Zac asked.
There was a distinctive thump and a Zac ‘ow’.
“Lottie’s different. She’s not…tappable. She’s one of us. Always will be. End of story,” I heard Alex say.
“Geez, mate,” Birdman said. “All right. One of us. Enhance your calm, dude.”
“My calm is enhanced. I couldn’t be more calm,” Alex said.
“Tell that to my butt bone,” Zac’s muffled mutter was only discernible because I’d snuck to my door to hear them better.
It took a few moments for things to sound like they returned to normal out there. I realised I actually had to pee quite badly, but thought it maybe a little too early to go out there. I didn’t want the boys thinking I’d heard them.
Instead, I lay back down in bed with my book and furiously ignored the need to pee for another hour. By the time I deemed it safe to exit my room, my bladder was fit to bursting. There wasn’t even going to be time to change.
“Hey, Lottie,” Birdman said.
I held up a hand and gave them a, “Hang on,” as I hurried to the bathroom as fast as my protesting bladder would let me.
I came back out and gave them all a smile. “Hey, guys.”
“When you gotta go, you gotta go,” Zac said knowledgably.
“Yes, thank you,” I said to him, but I was still smiling.
“You’re not dressed,” Alex said, like it was some marvellous revelation.
I looked down at my PJs. “No. Not.”
“When you gotta–” Zac started, but Birdman pushed him off the side of the couch.
They were all looking at me, Alex a little more intently than the others, and I was suddenly very aware I wasn’t wearing a bra. Not that I had the biggest worries in that department, but it was cold and my PJ top was clinging to me.
“I’m going to go and change, then. Did I miss breakfast?”
Fret nodded. “It’s almost Lunch though.”
I gave him a nod in return while trying to surreptitiously cover my fripples. “Excellent. I’m starving.”
I wasn’t, but it was something to say as I slid back into my bedroom.
A few minutes later, I was back and Alex was the only one who looked at me. He kicked his chin in greeting, and the movement must have alerted Zac to my return.
“Can you come take over for me and kick his arse?” Zac asked me, his tongue hanging out as he concentrated.
I sighed. “Fine. Let me have your controller,” I said as I went over to him.
He kept furiously mashing buttons as he lifted the controller towards me so his avatar wouldn’t get wailed on more than absolutely necessary.
“God, you’re not…” I muttered as I took over f
or him. “You’re not going to beat him that way.”
“You think you’ve got what it takes?” Alex asked me.
“Oh, you’re going down, Sasha,” I promised him.
“Hey, hey,” Alex protested. “Keep it clean, Elliott. There are minors in the room.”
I smiled, but said nothing more as I was too busy making sure I whooped his butt.
“Best of three,” Alex said.
By the time I’d won ‘best of fifteen’, it was Lunch time and we all trooped down to the Dining Hall together, Zac and Fret leading the way as usual. Alex was chatting with Luke behind them. Birdman and I were bringing up the rear.
“How you been?” I asked him as we wandered.
He nodded. “Yeah. All right. How about you?”
I also nodded. “Same old.”
“Good to hear. Seen any more of Jake Harman?”
I didn’t have to wonder why he was asking me that. “Nope.”
“Date no good?”
I shrugged. “I just don’t think there was any chemistry. You know?”
“Yeah,” he said, almost sadly.
“Things not gone well with Basketball Girl?” I dared to ask.
He smiled. “They haven’t gone badly.”
“Have they gone at all?”
He looked ahead at the boys playing funny buggers as they were wont to do. “Yeah, not really,” he chuckled.
“I’m sorry?” came out more like a question than a statement.
“Thanks,” he laughed. “It’s fine. I can just admire her from afar.”
“How very renaissance of you,” I said with a smile.
“Come on, you two!” Zac called from the door to the Dining Hall.
I noticed that Birdman and I had fallen even further behind.
“Coming!” I told the excitable ball of food-obsessed goodness that was Zac Parker.
As usual, Zac and Fret had an eating competition to the point I wasn’t the only one concerned that Fret was going to throw up.
“Take him home,” Alex laughed and Luke and Birdman walked to overfull others back to their dorms.
Which left me and Alex dropping onto the couch in our dorm by ourselves.
the Roommate Mistake Page 10
