Breaking Hearts (B-Boy #2) (2 page)

Chapter
3

I spent the rest of the week Googling “Break Dancing” and in typical Estelle fashion took notes. Notes! I’m sure note-taking went against all that was associated with the breaking culture, but I really didn’t want to show up to the event looking like some sort of noob.

While I was in the middle of watching a battle, which basically reminded me of an old dance competition I saw once on MTV, I felt warm air brush against my bare shoulder. I yelped out in shock and spun around to see my roommate, Anna hovering over my desk.

“Funny, I wouldn’t have pegged you as a b-girl,” she said thoughtfully.

I don’t know whether it was because I was startled or just completely sick of being viewed as that naïve girl from Virginia, but as I gripped my chest to steady my breathing I lashed out, “Funny, I wouldn’t have pegged you to have any sort of interest in what I was doing. I also wouldn’t have pegged you as the type to have the ability to speak, let alone know about anything else past that crap you listen to every day.”

My chest rose and fell quickly, my breaths strained as my heart struggled to retain its normal rhythm. I shot my roommate a sneer as I gripped at the neckline of my camisole, suddenly feeling as if I were burning up.

The look on Anna’s face was priceless. At that moment, I thanked the heavens I was still listed as a dependent under my parents’ insurance plan because I was sure I was going to get a beating. As Anna glared down at me I couldn’t help but wonder if plastic surgery was covered under their plan just in case a broken nose was in my future. Luckily, her face softened and she began to laugh.

“Did I miss something?” I asked hesitantly.

A grin stretched across her rouge-covered cheeks. “I was wondering when you were going to grow some balls and talk to me. You have no idea how it feels to live with a roomie you think doesn’t like you.”

I scratched my head in confusion. “I actually know that feeling pretty well. I do room with you, you know.”

My usually stoic roommate’s smile faltered, but remained in place. “Fine, I guess that’s fair. I’m pretty sure I’ve been somewhat aloof over the past few weeks.”

“You think?”

Shaking her head, she extended a hand. “Let’s start over. Hi, I’m Anna.”

“Estelle,” I said, feeling a bit weirded out. What the hell was going on?

Noticing the look of bewilderment on my face, she sighed and walked back to her bed, which was positioned only a few feet from my desk. The old mattress springs groaned as she shifted her weight on top of it. “Listen, I know our first meeting was a bit…off-putting.”

“Not to mention the silent treatment I got every single day after that,” I pointed out.

“True…but it’s not as if you tried to reach out to me either, remember?”

She had a point there. After our initial meeting I basically wrote her off, not counting the brief ‘do you know where the remote is’ questions that we’d randomly shoot back and forth.

Anna took my silence as a yes. “See?”

“Well, it doesn’t matter if I tried to reach out to you or not,” I blurted out. I crossed my arms over my chest and pouted slightly. “It didn’t look like you wanted to be reached out to.”

“You didn’t either,” she shot back.

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

Truth be told, I wanted nothing more than a friend.

“Well, let’s see.” She tapped her chin in show and tucked her legs underneath her. “For one, you come in here with your head hung low. I never even see you without your nose in a book. It’s almost as if you have an invisible
‘Do Not Disturb’
sign hanging around you constantly.”

“I don’t mean to come off that way,” I said in my defense. “I’ve just always been a bit…introverted, that’s all.”

“Mmhmm,” she responded, but not unkindly. After a brief moment’s pause, she tilted her head and tightened her lips together. She opened her mouth only to shut it again.

“Do you have something to say? By all means, don’t hold back.” I sighed, expecting to hear a laundry list of complaints as to why I was a horrible roommate.

As if a floodgate was opened, words spilled out of Anna’s mouth going a mile a minute. “My boyfriend broke up with me on move-in day. We’re both from up north and I followed him here so we could go to school together. And you know how he pays me back? He breaks up with me just as we were unloading my car. Fucked up, right?”

Okay, that explained a lot.

“Yeah, pretty fucked up.” I frowned. “Um…sorry?”

“Well, it isn’t your fault, but I hope you understand why I was a bit off that day…and every other day, for that matter. I’m kinda going through a broken heart, cracked ego, and messed up mind…” She paused and chuckled. “Not to mention I’m pretty much fucked when it comes to my classes. Who knew you needed a science as an art major? Seriously, the periodic table might as well be written in hieroglyphics.”

I nodded, not knowing what else to say. Though I felt sorry for her I wasn’t really an expert on the whole dating thing and had no idea how a broken heart felt. I guess it felt like any sort of loss? Grasping for words, I scratched at my throat and glanced at her stereo system. “I take it the break up is also the reason for that angry music you’ve been jamming to?”

She grinned sheepishly and snickered. “Yeah, I kind of wanted to—and still want to—rip that douche’s head off. Since doing so is a bit illegal, I figured listening to music about blood and guts would suffice.”

“Yeah, I bet.” Damn, I really lost the roommate lottery, didn’t I? Yet, regardless of how much Anna freaked me out, I realized a talking roomie was much better than a silent one. So I decided to play along. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Why are you talking to me right now? It’s been weeks and this has to be the longest we’ve ever spoken to one another.”

She looked down and began to pick at her chipping navy blue nail polish nervously. “It’s a pretty shitty hand I was dealt…I mean, break ups suck regardless, but then I realized it would be much easier to get through it with a friend. Especially one I actually live with.”

The loner, nerdy geek inside of me automatically perked up. “A friend?”

Something in my tone must have thrown Anna off. Leaning back slightly, she narrowed her eyes and asked, “You’ve had a friend before, right? I mean, no offense, but you aren’t one of those weird kids that ate in the bathroom at lunch or something…were you?”

“No!” I gasped in horror. Damn, did I really come off as that much of a loser?

“Just checking.”

I rose from my desk chair and took a seat on my mattress across from hers. I shook off the remnants of embarrassment and threw her a shy smile. “Well, let me say it’s a relief to actually be on speaking terms with you. I felt like I was in the middle of a fight I didn’t even know I had.”

“Sorry about that. Honestly, it’s not how I imagined college to go. I thought I’d be best friends with my roomie. You know, stay up all night gossiping about boys and all that cliché bullshit.”

I eyed her plain black get up and frowned. She didn’t seem to have one feminine bone in her body. “Really? You don’t seem…”

“What? The girly type?”

I shrugged. “Well, yeah, Ms. Scream-o.”

She snickered. “Hey, my hair is pink, you know. That’s girly enough, right?”

“I guess.”

“Okay, then.” She nodded once and sighed. “So we’re starting over, yeah?”

I smiled. “Sounds good.”

“Well, now that we’ve got that stupid teen soap opera crap out of the way, let’s talk about why you’re researching breakdancing. Are you getting ready to throw on an Adidas tracksuit and bust a move or something?”

Images of Run DMC, gigantic boom boxes, and torn up cardboard ran through my mind. I shook my head. “No, actually I was invited to that breaking competition or whatever it’s called. The one going on this Sunday.”

“And you’re seriously thinking about going?” she asked in surprise.

“Why not?” I glanced at the frozen video on my desktop. “It looks fun.”

“It is fun,” she said simply.

I blinked. “You know, I wouldn’t have pegged you—”

“As what? Someone who would go to one of these?” She smirked and crossed her arms.

“Well…yeah.”

“You do know what they say about assuming things.”

“Er…sorry…I just meant…” I shut my eyes and sighed. “Okay, let’s rewind and do a double take of our new beginning, okay?”

“Don’t worry about it. You’re forgiven,” she said with a laugh. “I’m guilty of assumptions too. I mean, I wouldn’t have expected you to want to go to one of these either. Like I said before, you’ve just been so quiet and stuck in your books. Seriously, I see you with a different one every day! I didn’t know someone could read so much, so fast.”

“Just talented, I guess,” I joked. “Speaking of assumptions, is it safe to assume you’ll be going to the event then? Since you seem to know all about it and all.”

She waved me off. “Not my thing.”

“But you said—”

“I know what I said, but I’m not going to this one. That ship has long sailed.”

When her eyes darkened it dawned on me. Carefully, I asked, “Was your ex-boyfriend a b-boy?”

I felt like a total idiot even using that term. I wondered if this was what my parents felt any time they used the words “cool” or “swag.”

She rolled onto her stomach and propped her chin into her hands. “Yup. He was such an arrogant asshole. All b-boys are. I don’t even know why I spent the last three years with him.”

“Three years?” I exclaimed. As an eighteen-year-old virgin, three years with someone seemed like an eternity to me. Shit, that was practically marriage right there.

“Why do you sound so surprised? Is it so hard to believe that I could ‘trick’ someone into staying with me that long?” she snapped.

“What?” I gaped. “I didn’t mean—”

“I’m only messing with you.”

I let out a visible sigh of relief, but couldn’t shake the unease I felt around my new “friend.” Warning bells, whistles, alarms—you name it, they were there screaming in my head. Regardless, I couldn’t risk losing another pseudo-friend. Pasting a contemplative smile on my face, I commented, “I just can’t imagine being with someone that long, you know?”

“What’s the longest relationship you’ve been in?” she asked as she reached for her phone, which was fittingly covered with a zombie themed cover. The look in her eyes only told me what I already knew—she could sniff out my social awkwardness a mile away. Well, no point in denying anything.

“What relationship? You act as if I’d ever had one.” I snorted.

She dropped her cell phone as if it were a hot potato. “You’re kidding…right?”

I shook my head. “Nope. I am a relationship virgin.”

“By choice or by…”

“Let’s go with the second option,” I answered in embarrassment. If it were up to me I would have dated a handful of guys in high school. Brady, Matthew, Thomas—my list of high school crushes was ridiculous! Of course those varsity athletes never went with a girl like me…nor did the nerds, punks, or any other cliques around campus. To put it simply, I was nobody’s type.

“Wow.” Anna breathed in and frowned in disbelief.

I lifted an eyebrow. “Wow, what?”

“I’m not joking on you or anything, nor am I bisexual, so please don’t take this as me hitting on you.”

“Um, okay?” Wow, this conversation got weird fast.

“You’re pretty. Like really pretty. How can a girl like you not have a line of guys banging at your door?”

I thought back to high school and cringed at the memories of me crushing on Thomas, a boy who seemed to be in all of my classes. He never acknowledged me as anything more than the girl he used to copy Pre-Cal homework from. He definitely didn’t know where my door was located.

I shook my head. “Well, that would make life too easy, wouldn’t it?” I leaned back onto my pillow and sighed. “It doesn’t matter. I’ve already accepted the fact that I’m going to be some spinster who owns a hundred dogs.”

“Not cats?” Anna laughed.

“I’m allergic.”

She shook her head. “Since I doubt that’ll happen, let’s take this convo back to where it was. Can I ask why you’re going to one of those events? Sure, they’re fun and all, but after about the fifth battle it becomes kind of repetitive. You’ll be bored out of your mind and itching to go home.”

“I don’t think that’ll happen,” I replied. “The videos I’ve watched so far look really cool. Seems like a big adrenaline rush to me.”

“Yeah, I guess it can be that way.” She bit her lip and looked deep in thought. “You know what? Maybe I just hated going to those things so much because I was always jealous of the other girls who showed up. Hate to admit it, but Shawn always did have a wandering eye.”

“What other girls?”

“Oh you know, you have your b-girls. The tougher than nails chicks that can do a one-armed freeze, yet can be unapproachable sometimes. They’re the girls all the guys’ dicks are pointed towards.”