Secrets (Swept Saga) (6 page)

I’m glad that Ryan’s club has given me a way to spend time with Gabriel. I like getting to know him. When he dropped me off last night, he gave me a deep passionate kiss. I asked him to come inside with me, but he turned me down. One thing that I like about Gabriel is the fact that he doesn’t pressure me for sex. I know that he wants more with me than that, and I’m at ease around him. It was probably a good thing he didn’t come into the dorm, Tiffany was moving in and I’m not ready for her to meet Gabriel just yet. I sized her up again, really looking at her. She’s the same height as me. Her hair could be styled better, but it still suited her in a weird way. Her features were rather plain, and she definitely didn’t dress the same as Emily. Emily’s style screamed sex, while Tiffany’s style seemed humble in comparison. She was wearing a simple t-shirt and jeans, much like what I would wear. I couldn’t really tell much about her body. Her t-shirt was baggy, so it was really hard to judge, but she wasn’t fat and she wasn’t super thin. She looked healthy.

“It’s about time you showed up.” She said as I stood in the doorway.

“Do you need me to help with anything?” I asked, when I noticed the stack of boxes in the living area.

“I would love it if you could help me move the rest of the boxes into the room.” She said looking relieved.

“Okay,” I answered, dropping my bag on the table I bent over and picked up a box. It was really heavy. “What do you have in here, bricks?”

“No.” She answered and carried a box to her room and I followed her. “Just set the box down on the floor.” She said. I carefully eased the box onto the beige carpet that is the same color as mine and looked around the room. I’ve never been in here, but it doesn’t look much different from mine. The closet is on the opposite wall of mine, the paint is the same off-white color, and in the corner sits a bed that is identical to mine. There are boxes all over the floor, every single one is closed and sealed with tape. I follow Tiffany out of the room and help her move the rest of the boxes in one by one. They’re all heavy and I wonder what’s inside of them. Perhaps one day, I’ll know.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I brought a TV and I wanted to set it up in the living room.” She said.

“That sounds great.” I smiled at her.

“It will take me a while to set it up, but when I do, do you want to watch a movie with me?” She asked.

“Of course,” I replied.

I picked my bag up from the table and went into my room. I heard a lot of banging, cursing and shuffling from Tiffany’s room. “Are you okay?” I called at her through the wall.

“Yeah, I’m just unpacking.” She yelled back.

“Do you need any help?” I asked

“No, but thank you for asking.” She answered.

I wondered what she was doing in there that was making all the noise, but I guess I wasn’t going to find out. My phone beeped at me. I had a message from Kelly.

Kelly: So I’ve asked around, and nobody knows who Tiffany Price is.

Me: Do you think that’s weird?

Kelly: No, we probably just don’t know the same people.

Me: Thank you for checking around.

Kelly: No problem. Why did you want me to check up on her anyway?

Me: It’s a long story. She’s my new roommate.

Kelly: Is there something off about her?

Me: I don’t know yet.

Kelly: I think we need to hang out soon so you can tell me all about it.

Me: Sure

I heard more banging from Emily’s room, her door slammed shut. Then I heard her in the living area, and it sounded like she was moving the furniture around. “Can you come help me?” She asked from outside the door. I didn’t say anything back, but I left my room. She was moving the chair away from the wall and trying to set up a flat screen TV on a stand. I helped her move the chair and lift the TV up. How she got it into the living room I’ll never know. It was huge and heavy, I haven’t seen a TV this big apart from the ones at Ryan’s house. Tiffany hooks up all the wires and brings out a play station three. She sets it up then goes into her room again. I sit there staring at the TV wondering what we’re going to watch, then my thoughts drift to Gabriel, and the pictures. I haven’t even looked at them! I take my phone out of my bra; I put it there sometimes when I don’t feel like putting it in my pocket, and pull up the picture folder. I scroll through them. They aren’t bad. The one that Gabriel wanted me to send to him has my face and my tits and I’m smiling at him. I’m not sure how I feel about the photo. I wish I looked prettier, and that my tits were fuller and perky. I’ve never thought of getting a breast augmentation, but for some reason I’m thinking about it now.  I look at the picture I sent Ryan. It’s close up and my face isn’t in the picture. I can’t help but notice that one boob seems bigger than the other. Is it the angle of the picture? Is this how my breasts really look? I’m going to have to look in the mirror to know for sure. I enlarge the picture and turn my phone around looking for more flaws. Then I heard a loud “BOO!” I jumped, screamed and turned around; Tiffany is standing there in a mask that made the hair on my arms stand up.  “Boogeyman is coming,” she said in a weird voice. “What?” I asked

“The Boogeyman, don’t you recognize the mask?” She asked and pointed at her face.

“No.” I answered and wondered where this was going.

“It’s from Halloween, haven’t you seen the movie?”

“No, I don’t like scary movies.”

Tiffany opened her mouth in surprised and gasped at me. “What blasphemy is this? You don’t like scary movies?

“No, not really.”

“Well, I’m going to change that tonight! We’re going to watch-“

“Let me guess,” I said cutting her off, “Halloween.”

Tiffany smiled at me, “However did you know?”

“Lucky guess.” I answered and chuckled.

Tiffany put in the movie and sat down next to me on the couch. The movie started to play, and then she asked me if I wanted popcorn. She got up to make some and sat down just in time for the beginning credits.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared by a movie in my life. For a late 1970s movie, it was intense. I thought it was weird when Tiffany laughed in the weirdest parts, I didn’t understand her humor. I think I jumped and screamed way more than Tiffany was expecting and it only made her laugh more. I usually stick to romantic comedies or just romance and I rarely strayed from the genre. There were a few times I watched disaster movies, but I couldn’t handle them. I didn’t even watch much sci-fi which is ironic considering I want to work for NASA one day. I just can’t take the suspense, and sci-fi movies are always full of suspense and missions gone wrong.

“Wasn’t that an awesome movie?” Tiffany asked with a beaming smile.

“Out of all the words that I can think of to describe this movie, I don’t think awesome is one of them,” I replied.

Tiffany just smiled at me, and then said, “Did you know that the mask that Michael Meyers, the killer, wore was a captain kirk mask painted white?”

“Really?” I answered, she had piqued my interest. Star Trek was one show that I did like. I had completely forgotten about it, too.

“Isn’t that cool?” She asked

“Yeah, it really is, I like Star Trek.”

“I’ve never watched it, but I know what it is.”

“We’ll have to watch an episode or two together sometime.” I offered then looked at my phone. I didn’t realize how late it was. “Oh my goodness, I need to go to bed.” I yawned.

“Is it really that late?” She asked

“Yeah.”

“We need to do this once a week, watch a movie. It’s a good way to relax.”

“Sure, as long as I get to pick the movie every other week.” I said, stretching.

“Alright,” She agreed and yawned.

“Night.” I said before going to bed.

“Good night, don’t let the boogeyman get you!” She said with a bemused grin and an evil laugh ensued.

I rolled my eyes and went into my room and shut the door. I lay down on my bed, my eyes felt heavy and soon I was asleep.

I didn’t sleep well last night. I kept seeing a man in white mask, holding a long knife. I shudder at the memory as I enter the library. I wasn’t expecting a movie like that to give me nightmares as an adult! I walked up to the shelf that housed the book that I was looking at yesterday. There are a few people, but most are either on their computers or reading. One guy looked at me, then turned to his friend and whispered something, I don’t know what he said, but I had a feeling that it was about me. I looked for the book I was reading yesterday, but I couldn’t find it.

I walk up and down the aisle looking at the different books and found one on Russian. I pulled the book out of the shelf and take it over to a table. I open it up and start reading it. It’s a text book and it’s going over the basic letters and vows, there are phonetic spellings for each of the symbols. I’ve been thinking about taking a course in Russian. If I work for NASA there’s a very good chance I’ll meet someone who speaks Russian, considering they have a space program too, and if I remember correctly, one of the guys from NSYNC got to be in their space program. I skim over the words, and imagine what it’s like to be fluent in a language other than English.  I have a goal that I’ve put on the side to try and become fluent in as many languages as I can. It’s really not something that I feel like I have to do, but more something that I would like to do just for the fun of it. As I skim, I notice that there is a formal word for hello and an informal word. I want to go with the informal word so I find the word, hi, and whisper it to myself and repeat it over and over until I’m sure I have it down, then I find, How are you? And do the same. I now know a phrase in Russian. Now if I could just learn the rest of the language. I see Gabriel walking towards me out of peripheral vision; I turn around, smile, stand up and give him a hug. “Privet, kak dela,” I say before giving him a kiss.

“What?” Gabriel asks, pulling back when the kiss is over.

“I said, Hi how are you, in Russian.” I smile at him.

“Since when do you speak Russian?” He asks.

“Since I picked up this book and started looking at it.” I answered.

“What made you want to learn Russian?”

“Well, if I’m going to work for NASA, there’s a chance that I might run into someone who speaks Russian, they have a space program, too, you know.”

“I didn’t think about that.” Gabriel says sounding impressed.

“I think I’m going to take Russian next semester,” I tell him.

“So what did you want to talk about?” He asks. I had almost forgotten that I told him that I needed to talk to him.

“My new roommate.” I answer.

“What about your new roommate? Don’t tell me you want…” He starts then stops himself mid-sentence.

“Want what?” I ask genuinely confused.

“Another threesome.” He whispers and lowers his eyes.

“Um, that thought hasn’t even crossed my mind, and no I don’t. I’m fine with you, just you.”

“Well you’re with Ryan, too let’s not forget that.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I’m not sure that I do, are you telling me that you like being with only me or are you telling me that you like being with me and Ryan?”

“I wanted to talk to you about my roommate because she’s friends with Emily, or at least I think she is.” I say ignoring his question and changing the subject.

“Who’s your roommate?” He asks and doesn’t say anything about the fact that I didn’t answer his question.

“Her name is Tiffany Price.” I say and watch his face for any kind of recognition.

He doesn’t say anything and gives me a blank stare. “You don’t know who she is?” I ask.

“I’ve never heard of her.”

“So Emily never mentioned her.” I conclude.

“Emily and I didn’t talk much; our relationship was more about sex.” He says.

“Oh.” Is all I can manage to say. I try to imagine what it’s like to only know someone physically and not emotionally. I guess that’s kind of my relationship with Gabriel right now. I know how to please him physically, but I do want to get to know him. He’s shared bits and pieces of his past with me, but it seems hard to get him to really open up. Maybe he doesn’t know how, or maybe he’s just not used to talking to someone who does care. Whatever it is, I long to really connect with him. Then I remember from his text earlier that he said something about being out with Caden.

“Who’s Caden?” I blurt, then realize that my question must seem random and out of place.

“Remember that I told you I mentor kids? Caden is the boy I’m currently mentoring. We went on a hike today.”

“Oh, so that’s why you weren’t really texting much.”

“Yeah, I try not to be distracted when I’m with him; I want him to know that I’m there to spend my time solely with him.”

“That makes sense and I understand. If I know that you’re out with him, I’ll refrain from contacting you.” I offer.

“Look, you needed me and I responded, I’m not upset with you at all. I was almost done with the hike anyway. You can text me or call me whenever you need me, okay?”

“Okay.” I answer and smile at him, and then my phone goes off. Ryan has text me and he’s out of debate class he wants to take me out. Why is it that Ryan texts me whenever I’m with Gabriel? It’s going to be hard to balance these two out.