Two days.

Two damn days since I’d left her house, since I’d even spoken to her.

Since I touched her.

It felt like weeks.

It was pointless to dwell on it, because it didn’t help matters at all. But she hadn’t texted me back, and it made me feel worthless.

Do you know how shitty it felt to send her countless texts and not get one single reply? Talk about shade. I must’ve sent her at least twenty, and made at least two desperate calls. I’ve said -hi, hello, I miss you, please text me back. I was pathetic.

And I still got nothing.

Zilch.

You’d think that after our couch-capades she’d at least say something. Anything. I would’ve even settled for a big, fat, FU. I was worrying myself sick over it. Asking myself over and over –Did she like it? I mean it seemed like she did at the time.

Did I take it too far? Was she pissed?

I’d never know, because she was leaving me hanging.

I’d enjoyed the hell out of it.

I could still feel her skin under my fingertips. Nothing would ever compare. The whole night was amazing, aside from the few speed bumps at RACK. But that was out of our control, and it is what led us to have that incredible night together.

She had to know by now that I wouldn’t give up trying to be with her. Sooner or later, she’d have to cave and write me back.

Right?

I growled, and glanced over at Garrett, or Bear as Lee called him. He sounded like one. His snoring echoed and would probably wake the whole dorm. He’d been passed out all day, finally crashing after his two-day bender. The guy could drink like a fish, but after a few days he’d always come back to his bed to sleep it off.

Just like me, he was being a total slacker. With classes starting back in less than twenty-four hours, I should’ve been more focused. “Should’ve been” were the key words there. Everybody else was rushing around campus trying to get prepared for the new semester, while I was busy blending in with the gray sheets on my bed and watching the final movie in my Ice Age marathon.

Lee would be disappointed that I didn’t invite her over to watch it with me. Ice Age marathons were our thing, and had been since we were kids. I just didn’t feel up to having company, nor did I feel the need to explain things to her. She’d want all the details and I wasn’t ready to give them up just yet.

The sun was starting to set outside my dorm room window. I hadn’t stepped foot off my bed in the last twelve-hours, except to take a piss.

I lifted the collar of my shirt up over my nose and took a big whiff.

Gah!

I thought the smell was coming from Garrett’s side of the room. Boy was I wrong. Two days in the bed, wearing the same t-shirt and shorts was giving me a funky smell. Not even the economy size bottle of Febreze that my Mom sent with me to school was going to help. I had to get up off my ass. I needed a shower.

Ugh, more like a car wash.

Garrett groaned when I turned on the main light in our room.

“Get the hell up?” I shoved his foot. He was still wearing his shoes, and lying face down on his bed. He must’ve come home, fell face first onto his bed and never moved.

He grumbled something into his pillow, but I couldn’t understand him.

“Dude, I’m hungry.” I told him. My stomach was empty. “Let’s go eat some food.”

That got his attention. He lifted his head and glanced up at me with blood shot eyes. “Bacon,” he said. A line of drool was dried to his cheek.

“Fine,” I snickered. “But we both need showers first. I’m sure you smell like you look.”

“Then I smell fine as hell.”

He was full of shit. “You must still be drunk.” He laughed into his pillow. “I’ll be out of the shower in a minute,” I tried to tell him, but he was already snoring again.

There was a little diner about a mile off campus where Lee’s roommate Letty worked. The place never closed, and they served the best breakfast in town. Garrett and I loved the place. We were regulars. The crowd was usually low key, mostly elderly people except after midnight. When the parties were over, the drunken crowd rolled in like clockwork.

A loud bell rang when we walked through the door of the diner. The place was mostly empty inside, just the way I liked it.

We made our way to the last booth in the back corner, our usual spot. One of the bulbs in the light fixture above the table didn’t work, so it was the darkest spot in the diner. Perfect for post hangover days, or when you just wanted to go unnoticed. It was exactly what the two of us needed.

“You still look like shit,” I said to Garrett. The shower helped a little, but he still looked like death on legs.

He sat back roughly against the bench. “I had a rough night.”

“Another one?” Didn’t you have enough fun at RACK the other night? Your lip still looks swollen from the brawl. Someone got you good.”

He ran his fingers across his puffy lip. “That hurt like hell.” He smiled. “Where’d you run off to that night? I didn’t see you after the fight broke out.”

“We left pretty quickly.”

“We?” He questioned.

A waitress interrupted us to take our order, and I swear the two of us ordered everything on the menu. We were starving. You’d think we hadn’t eaten in weeks.

“We who?” He asked me again.

“Lee, Letty, and Gwen.”

“Fox’s sister?”

“Yep,” I nodded.

“Whoa.” His eyes grew wide. Well, as wide as they could for someone who was still half lit. “How’d that happen?”

Normally, I wouldn’t say anything about my personal business to anyone besides Lee. Up until she became serious with Jude, I spoke to her daily about everything that was happening in my life. When I moved to campus and Garrett became my roommate, we turned out to be close, almost like brothers. I trusted him. He knew I had thing for Gwen, he just didn’t know how addicted to her I really was. An addiction was the only way to describe it, because I couldn’t get enough of her.

“It was weird how it all happened, but Fox had to get Obi out of there, and he asked me to take Gwen home. So, we went back to their place, and the two of us ended up falling asleep on the couch, and that was it.” I wasn’t ready to give him all the details, not when I still couldn’t wrap my head around it all. It seemed so private I guess, and I couldn’t do that to her.

“You slept on a couch with Gwen Taylor and lived to tell about it. I don’t believe it.”

“Keep your voice down, would ya?” I kicked his leg under the table, and he slumped over.

“Ouch! Shit! I’m sorry. I just don’t believe it for a second. No way in hell would Fox Taylor let you anywhere near his sister. He flips out if anyone even looks at her.”

“I know that.” I whisper yelled. “That’s why it was weird. He trusts me I guess.” I shrugged.

His head bent down further over the table as he started to laugh. “If he only knew.”

I picked up a sugar packet, which was the closest thing to me, and chucked it at his head. “Looks like he has nothing to worry about anyway. She hasn’t texted me back since then, so obviously she’s not interested.”

“That sucks,” he said. “But you should probably consider yourself lucky. Never in a million years would you be able to date her. I told you before that she’s off limits. It isn’t a good idea to poke a bear, Man. Or in this case, a Fox.”

The truth hurt, like a wrecking ball to the gut. I wanted him to lie to me and tell me to follow my heart and go get the girl. Desperate times, desperate measures and all that metaphorical shit, but no…

Suddenly I didn’t feel so hungry anymore.