TWENTY-TWO
Austin
I woke in the morning before her and once again decided to let her sleep. She laid sprawled on her back, long black hair messy but still so damn cute. As I stood next to the bed, watching her while stretching, my phone buzzed on the nightstand.
She moaned as I snatched it and turned the volume down. Why did I suddenly have two dozen people sending me tweets? I wondered as I stared at the screen. Still in my underwear and nothing else, I went to my desk and sat down.
As I read one or two of the tweets, even more came in. My email inbox blew-up at the same time, with angry subject lines in ALL-CAPS. What the hell? Why were so many people hating on me all of a sudden? I had no answers.
The deluge stopped as quickly as it had started. I tapped the subject line of the final email and read, “You’re a dick, and we’re going to bring you down for your womanizing!” That was it. Nothing else.
I immediately thought about Jocelyn. Was she taking her in-person threats virtual? The fake email address gave me no information. Glancing at a few of the other messages and tweets, a pattern emerged. Someone wanted me to get kicked off the football team.
“Studying already?” Brooke asked from the bed.
“What?”
I glanced over as she sat up and stretched her arms, breasts bare and beautiful.
“It was a joke. I mean if you are studying that’s cool, I just thought I was the bookworm out of the two of us.”
“No,” I said, frowning. “People are complaining about me online, saying I use women.”
“Huh?”
She swung her feet over the edge of the bed and stood up, dressed only in purple panties. I held out my phone as she walked over.
“What am I looking at?”
“It’s your fucking roommate,” I said.
Her eyes opened wide before she turned to grab her shirt from the top of my dresser. I watched as she put it on, not saying a word.
“Well?” I asked.
She turned around to face me.
“Well what?”
“Your roommate has it out for me. This could affect my future career. She went to the coach about me. I thought it was nothing ‘cause you didn’t say anything, but clearly she’s got an issue.”
“Wait she went to your coach? Are you sure?”
“Yeah I saw her at practice. He didn’t say anything, but I know she went about me Brooke. And now this?”
“Is football all you care about?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
“No, of course not, but this is bullshit. She has it out for me. I can’t believe you’re taking her side.”
“I’m not taking anyone’s side. I just woke up. Can you give me a minute to start thinking clearly? Jocelyn is my friend, and I don’t think she would do this. Did she use her name?”
“Well, no, she’s not dumb, but I’m sure it’s her. She threatened me at your apartment a couple times too. I told you I was afraid of her. I wasn’t fucking kidding.”
She took a deep breath, arms still crossed.
“I’m going to go,” she said.
“Why?”
“You’re obviously beyond reasoning with, and I want to relax before classes and work tomorrow. We don’t have to be around each other every single moment of the day. Besides I gotta figure out what the hell is going on.”
“No shit,” I snapped, standing up. “Maybe this is what we do.”
She tilted her head to the right, peering at me intently.
“What?”
“Fight or fuck. There’s no in between for us.”
“I’m leaving.”
Her arms dropped to her side as she grabbed her pants and began putting them on.
“Come on, Brooke. Don’t be like this.”
“Like what, Austin? You got what you wanted yesterday, didn’t you?”
“You’re being ridiculous right now.”
“No, you are,” she snapped back.
“Whatever.”
I shook my head, watching as she looked around.
“Where’s my phone?”
“I don’t know.”
“Were you looking at my phone too?”
“No,” I said. “You left it on the nightstand.”
I pointed to it. She walked over and grabbed it.
“I’ll call you later, okay?”
“Maybe we should take a break for a few days.”
She glanced up from the screen of her phone, her brow furrowed in confusion.
“I’m just saying I have a lot going on. With all this social media bullshit, I’m sure Coach is going to be up my ass. And you have class…”
“No, it’s fine,” she said, cutting me off. “Later, Austin.”
While I didn’t want her to leave angry, I said nothing as she opened my door and left. What the hell just happened? I wondered as I glanced around my room. Fuck her. Why am I still even messing with her when football was so important?
As I grabbed some clean clothes and headed to the upstairs bathroom, I told myself we were over. We’d had our fun, but it was time for me to move on.
In the shower, cold water rained down on my skin, cooling it. Images of her naked body flashed through my mind, but I pushed them aside. I had to take care of myself first.