On The Floor (Second Story) (7 page)

“Not your fault. It still doesn’t change the fact that he was an asshole, or that he ruined my mood. I want to leave, but Jimmy and Dan didn’t come tonight and I don’t want to walk alone.” I don’t want to ruin her night with Jeff, but I don’t know how else to get home. “Maybe you and Jeff can walk me home and then come back? It’s only like ten minutes each way.”

“Definitely. Let me go tell Jeff. We’ll meet you outside,” she says before leaving the bathroom.

I take second to look in the mirror and I still look just as good as I did when I left my room. Because I didn’t dance, my hair hasn’t started to frizz and my makeup still looks great. At least I’ll still look hot when I see Jake later. I smile at myself and leave the bathroom heading for the exit.

When I get outside, Jenna is standing by herself. “Where’s Jeff? I don’t want you walking back by yourself.”

“He’s a prick with a small prick. Probably the steroids. I dumped him.” She is so matter of fact about it.

“What?” I say, a shocked look on my face.

“I told him that Mike was an ass to you and asked him to come with me to walk you home. He refused and told me that you were probably being a tease. He said your tits were hanging out, which
apparently
means that you were begging to be treated like shit. So I dumped him. He was a bad lay anyways. I just liked that I was able to wear heels with him and still be shorter. Whatever.” She finishes her explanation flipping her hand in the air like she is shooing him away.

“Wow. TMI?” I say laughing at her comments.

“When do I not give too much info? Anyways, I wasn’t really digging the red hair. Now that I’m done with Jeff, I get to dye it again. Start fresh. How do you feel about blonde with red streaks?” she asks pulling my hand as we start to walk back to the dorm.

“I won’t really know until I see it, but I like you blonde and you did blonde with burgundy last spring. I think it’ll look good,” I say smiling at her.

“I like me blonde too!” she squeals like we just found out we have the most amazing thing in common.

After walking in comfortable silence for a few minutes, I look over at her. My Jenna. My best friend. “Thanks for leaving with me. I wasn’t really in the mood to be there anymore. Thanks for standing up for me, too.”

She smiles at me. “I would do anything for you, Rachel. You’re my best friend. If some douche doesn’t want to leave for twenty minutes to come with me to walk you home, then he can kick rocks. And he obviously doesn’t know anything about you. You wouldn’t know the first thing about teasing a man!”

“Hey!” I say slapping her arm

“Plus, you would have to know how gorgeous you are and no matter how many times I tell you that you have a body born in every boy’s wet dream and every man’s fantasy, you refuse to believe me.”

“Stop!” I slap her again. “I know I’m pretty, but I’m not all that. And ew.”

She links her arm with mine. “My gorgeous, gorgeous girl. What am I going to do with you?” She looks over at me and smiles. “You know I love you.”

“I do.”

“Good.”

Good.

Chapter 5

We make it back to the dorm right before ten, which leaves about two hours before I am supposed to meet with Jake. Since we’ll be working late, I decide to change into something more comfortable.

“So you’re looking for something that says ‘I’m comfortable but I would totally be down for sexy time with you’?” Jenna asks me and I nod my head. “Totally doable.”

She grabs a pair of black yoga pants and a thin white t-shirt. Then she throws me a hot pink lacy bra and pair of panties to match. She turns around and I put it all on and look in my full-length mirror. The shirt is tight around my chest and kind of see through. Not so see through that I look slutty, just enough to say:
Oh, I just threw this on and didn’t have time to look in the mirror, so I had no idea you could see my bra.

“Barefoot or socks?” I ask Jenna.

“Definitely barefoot.” She smiles at the look she put together. “You look totally fuckable.”

“Oh my god, Jenna. How about third base-able? I’m not sure I am ready for the home run yet.” I am starting to get nervous. In my mind a hook-up is easy, but when it comes down to actually going through with it I don’t think I can go all the way. The way that Jake makes me feel is a little scary. I am so attracted to him, I don’t know how to react and what to do. I don’t want him to think I’m easy. I like him for more than his looks and I feel like I might be able to have a real relationship with him, if he was into that kind of thing.

I mentally slap myself. I have to stop thinking that way. If we do hook-up, that is all it will be to him and I can’t expect any more than that. He told me what he was about and if I want to sleep with him that is where our
relationship
will begin and end.

“Definitely third base-able. Just make sure you make it clear where the line is if it goes that way. Sometimes when you’re caught up in the hot, sweaty, sexy act, intentions get humped to the side.” She laughs. “But seriously, you need to let him know what you want from him and what you expect or it might get weird with you two if you go further than you wanted to.”

“I will. Thanks, Jenna.”

“Yeah, whatever,” she says smiling at me. “I think I am going to head up to my room and start my dye job. Maybe I’ll surprise you and dye it blue!” she jokes opening up my door and stepping out into the hall.

It’s ten thirty and I need to find something to do to keep me occupied until twelve.

I sit down at my desk and open my laptop. I notice my sister is on chat, so I start to talk to her. She just turned fifteen and is a freshman in high school. She is totally boy crazy and has a new crush every week. She starts telling me all about Lucas Hatfield. Apparently, they sit next to each other in three of her classes because of the alphabetical seating chart. At the beginning of the year she thought he was kind of dorky, but I guess he got his braces off over winter break and now he has “the most perfect smile!”

We type back and forth and before I know it, it’s eleven thirty. I say good-bye to my sister and go to brush my teeth. Just in case. When I get back from the bathroom, I notice Jake’s light is on in his room. I go put my stuff back in my room and grab my laptop and notebook and head over to his room, knocking on the door.

“Come in!”

I open the door to find a shirtless Jake. I nearly squeal, but I stop myself. His back is to me and he is bent over slightly reaching into a drawer. I could stare at this man all day. I can see the muscles in his back as he digs through his drawer for a shirt. The tattoo that I saw earlier is a tribal design that goes from his bicep up to his shoulder and travels down a bit onto his back. I can also see that he has a tattoo on his left side of his rib cage. It is some sort of quote and I want to get closer so I can read it, but my legs won’t work.

He finally finds the shirt he was looking for and turns around to look at me giving me a smile. He starts to shake out his shirt and I see that the tattoo on his right arm comes all the way over his shoulder and onto his chest. And what a chest it is. His front is just as muscled as his back and I want to lick every inch of him. Every rock hard inch. Gulp.

“Hey, Rachel!” I look up and see a pleased smile on his face. He knows I like what I see. Who wouldn’t?

“Hey Jake! I’ve got my laptop and notebook. All ready for the planning party!” Planning party? Who stole my brain? I always say the dorkiest stuff around him!

He puts his shirt on and goes to sit on his bed with his back against the headboard. He bends his legs and rests his arms on his knees. He looks delicious. “First, put your stuff on the desk and sit.” He smiles pointing to the other end of the bed. “Tell me about your night.”

I set my stuff on the desk and go sit on the end of the bed cross-legged facing him. “It was okay.”

“Okay?” he asks concerned.

“Well, the guy was a total ass. He…”

He interrupts me. “What did he do to you?” he asks with a hard look on his face. Whoa.

“Calm down, Jake. He just said some really inappropriate things to me, so I put him in his place and left.”

“Oh. Sorry he was such an ass. Continue,” he says gesturing with his hand for me to go on.

“Whatever. It’s not like I was into him or anything. After that Jenna broke up with her ‘boyfriend’ of one night and we left early. But I had a fun time with Jenna before the guys got there and after we left. Then I talked to my sister for like an hour about her new crush. So, some bad and some good.” I smile at him.

“Sorry about the bad. Happy for you about the good,” he says smiling.

“How about you? How was your night?”

“It was fun. I love getting together with the guys, but my night is definitely better now.” He looks down and then looks back up at me with a big grin on his face. He must be done with this
friends
garbage. Finally.

“I agree. The night is definitely getting better.”

We stare at each other for an eternity. At least it feels like an eternity. I could get lost in his eyes.

“So, planning party?” he says breaking his gaze and getting up to get my laptop and notebook from the desk.

We start to plan a few of the activities: the open mic nights, a trip to the organ pavilion at Balboa Park, and a trip to an art show in LA that is happening in two weeks. Only about ten of the freshmen from the floor are going since they have to pay some out of pocket. We all decided to make a weekend of it and we are going to stay in a hotel Saturday night and come back late on Sunday.

By the time we are done dividing up all of the planning responsibilities, it's one in the morning.

“Thanks for helping with the planning, Jake,” I say to him as I start to get up to leave.

“No problem.” He pauses. “So you’re going to go?”

“Um, yeah, I mean it’s one in the morning.”

“If you want stay, I thought we could talk a little and get to know each other better. We know the basics about each other, but I want to know more about you. And I hope you want to know more about me.” He looks so sexy sitting on his bed and asking me to stay with him.

“What do you want to know?” I ask sitting back down and smiling.

“Do you want to do like a question thing? I ask something, then you ask. Like back and forth?”

“Sure. Who goes first?” I smile big. I’m really excited to learn more about Jake.

“I will. What is your middle name?”

“Anabelle.” My mom’s middle name.

“Rachel Anabelle Harris. That’s pretty.” He smiles. “Your turn.”

“What is your middle name?”

“Don’t have one,” he says smiling at me.

“What! Yes you do!”

“Nope. My grandparents couldn’t decide on a name other than Jacob. They wanted to keep it simple.”

“Oh.” His grandparents named him?

“Ok, favorite color?”

“Red. What’s yours?”

“White. Favorite food?”

“Chocolate. Anything chocolate. You?”

“Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”

“Simple. I feel like you’re a pretty simple guy, Jake.”

“Eh…” he says nodding from side to side, as though he's contemplating what I just said. “Simple enough. Favorite movie?”

“Ugh. I hate this question. I can never decide. How about I tell you my favorite genre?”

“Sure.” He smiles at my scrunched up face. “Wait! Let me guess. Horror?” he jokes.

“Ha ha ha. Very funny. I do like a good horror movie if I have someone to grab on to when I start freaking out, but my favorite genre is the stereotypical rom com. I wish I was less predictable. You?”

“I just loooove romantic comedies!” He starts fanning his face and laughing.

“Stop making fun! Seriously, favorite genre?”

“Fine,” he laughs. “Although I do love a good romantic comedy, I prefer movies heavier on the comedy. Or action and suspense. Favorite restaurant?”

The questions go on like this for about ten more rounds back and forth. I'm having a lot of fun with the light conversation and banter between us.

“Sport? I played soccer in high school. I also like watching football every now and then. Your turn,” I say after responding to one of his questions.

“I also played soccer in high school and the first two years of college, then things got really busy with the band and I decided I would rather play on stage than on the field. I’m also a huge Broncos fan. That is the one thing my dad and I agree on.” He pauses. “Why don’t you have a boyfriend?”

“What?” Where did that question come from?

“From what I can tell you’re pretty cool. I thought I might find out that you were one of those shallow annoying girls, but you’re not. And I don’t want to creep you out, but you must know how attractive you are. Do you not want a relationship, or…?” He seems nervous to ask me the question.

“Um. Well, it’s not that I’m avoiding a relationship and it’s not like I haven’t had boyfriends. I just…” I decide to tell him the truth, just not the
whole
truth. “I’ve had a lot of stuff going on in my life since my senior year of high school. I’ve just been really busy with… things. Life gets in the way, you know? And to be honest, most of the guys I have dated didn’t want to put in the effort to deal with… everything that I was dealing with. They just didn't care enough to try. And then when one of the guys I was seeing made the effort, there was no attraction there. No spark. That relationship didn’t last long.”

“What happened your senior year?”

“Nope, you asked your question. Now it’s my turn. And I don’t think I would answer that one anyway.” I like this question game. It just helped me avoid answering the question I really didn't want to answer. I smile at him and ask my next question. “This is kind of a prompt, not an actual question.” I want to ask him why he doesn’t do the relationships, but he seemed so sad when he was talking to me last night. Plus he already told me. “
I’m not good enough…
”

So instead, I say, “Tell me about your family.” Maybe this will give me some insight.

He smirks at me. “Even though it’s not an actual question, I will respond to your prompt.” He looks me in the eyes and smiles. “As you know, I grew up near here with my grandparents. I am an only child. My grandma is a kindergarten teacher and my grandpa worked construction until he retired a few years ago. We grew up in a small house. My mom left me with them when I was born and we haven’t heard from her since. My dad lives in Denver. That’s about it.” He says all this so normally. I almost think I misheard him when he spoke about his parents. But even though his voice is neutral, when I look into his eyes I see that coldness that I saw last night.