“I know something you can give him and it’ll only cost you a flower.”
I glanced over to throw her a look but her attention never left the screen. Of course that didn’t mean she wasn’t flashing the giddiest of smiles.
11
“Hey, Jenna. Can we have the room?”
I looked up from my naughty Harlequin book to see Sophie clamp her hands together in front of her with an added expression that resembled begging. Jhett was behind her, reaching around to wrap her up.
Lovely. Was it sex-capade time already?
“Normally we ask Robert, but we feel kinda bad giving him the boot all the time.”
“Yeah, sure. I can read anywhere.” I sluggishly sat up, slipped on my flip flops and moseyed towards the door.
“Thank you!” she called out.
It occurred to me that I just left the safety of my quarters with a dirty book in my hands, and instead of braving the room to trade it out, I opted not to burn my eyes with the images behind that door. I pressed the cover of my Harlequin novel into my body and headed down the stairs.
The common room was surprisingly full, so I decided to see if Robert was up in his room.
Better be, since I gave up mine to the horny teenagers!
Sophie and Jhett started ha**ng s*x a week ago, so they were all over each other like peanut butter on jelly. Like freakin’ honeymooners.
As I came off the stairs and turned into his hallway, I was stopped dead in my tracks by a sharp, “Ms. Baker!”
Crap! I was in such a daze I didn’t realize there was anyone on the floor. And never ever had I come across a teacher patrolling the hallways – I figured it to be as likely to happen as an urban legend these days.
My neck stiffened and I turned around. It was Ms. Newell, dressed in the same khaki pants and polo shirt she always seemed to be sporting. I had her for P.E. and she was also the female volleyball and basketball coach.
“Going to see your boyfriend?”
“No, we broke up,” I said a little too quickly. Did she even know that I had one?
“Sure you did.” She spun me around by the shoulders and kept her hand on the back of my neck as she guided me down the stairs. I got quite a few grins as we passed through the commons. Some of my fellow classmates knew Robert and I were dating and knew exactly where I was headed when I got busted.
“What’s your room number?”
“Three twenty-four,” I mumbled. I felt so stupid being escorted like this.
“So if you weren’t intending on going into a room, what were you doing roaming the male halls?”
“Strolling. I wanted to sit and read but the commons were full.”
“Stroll in your own dorm next time. Detention tomorrow morning at five-thirty in the AM.”
“Five-thirty?!” I shrieked.
“You’re going to mop the weight room floors and wipe down all the equipment in the room with disinfectant. The machines are sticky and smelly from all the sweat build-up.”
My face puckered like I bit into a lemon. “That’s disgusting!”
She smiled, “Then I’ve done my job at deterring you from doing this again. And if I do catch you in those halls again, I’m going to have you de-clog all the shower drains in the girl’s locker room.”
I groaned, and as I jiggled my keys in the door and cracked it, I could tell that the light was off. I asked, “Don’t you have chalkboards I could wash or erasers that need banging?”
“Sure, if you were seven. Now why couldn’t you read in your own room?”
“Cause Sophie’s sleeping. She was tired.”
Ms. Newell pushed on the door and it swung open. She pushed me into motion and flicked on the light behind me.
There was a groan and a “Damn it, Jenna! Turn off the lights.” Sophie was lying in bed with her arm covering her eyes. I didn’t see Jhett anywhere.
“Language Ms. Zawinski.”
Sophie jumped into a sitting position, still blinded by the light. “Sorry, Ms. Newell.”
Ms. Newell scanned the room and the opened bathroom with her eyes. Satisfied, she slapped me on the back of my shoulder and said, “Get some sleep, Ms. Baker. You’ve got an early morning ahead of you.”
She turned and left, closing the door behind her. I followed her and listened through the door for her footsteps to fade away, then I locked it.
“Holy crap,” Sophie said.
A muffled voice said, “Is it safe to come out now?”
“Yes.”
Jhett was half na**d under my bed, with the comforter pulled halfway off the bed to give him cover. He rolled himself out, bringing a few dust bunnies with him. “I can’t believe you got caught!”
“Tell me about it,” I muttered.
He dusted himself off and sat down next to Sophie. “So what did she give you that you have to get up early for?”
I crossed my arms and leaned back against the wall. “I get to de-sweat the weight room.”
“Gross!” Sophie cried.
Jhett tried his best not to laugh. “That’s…really mean to make a girl do.”
“Yup.” I flicked off my sandals – one smacked the far wall, the other landed on my nightstand - and straightened out the dark purple floral linens on my bed. “And since my ass has to get up before the butt-crack of dawn, I’m going to sleep. For real!”
“Uh, can I stick around for a while? If she’s patrolling I’ll never make it back.”
I glared at the two of them. Seriously?! “Fine, but if I hear one moan or even one little giggle, I’ll throw you to the wolf myself!”
I set my alarm for the horrible time of five-fifteen and buried myself under my covers. When it went off in the morning what good mood Chance had put me in soured immediately when I remembered why I was getting up at this God-forsaken hour. I decided to let it blare a few seconds more, just to wake Sophie. I know she didn’t force me to go to Robert’s room but it was still her fault I wasn’t reading my book from the comfort of my bed.
Man it was hard to move around at that hour. Normally light would fight to shine through our window coverings when I got up, but this early in the morning the room was still pitch black, with a hint of green haze coming from the alarm clock. I flicked on my bedside light and realized Sophie was sleeping alone in her bed. I never even heard Jhett leave last night.
I bundled myself up with a ton of clothes so I could make the cold walk to the fitness facility without freezing my butt off. To hell with my looks. I definitely wasn’t gonna care that I was sporting bed hair the next hour or so.
I turned off the light, and squinted when I stepped into the blinding hallway. Robert was there and he stood up to greet me. At least I assumed that blurry, bulky figure was him.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” I whined.
“I heard you were going my way this morning.” He gave me the once-over and smiled. “Love the messy hair baby.”
I blew air through my lips, too tired to open them, and waved him off as I headed down the hall.
“Here.” He handed me a small, obnoxiously colored energy drink. “Trust me, it’ll help since you’re not used to getting up this early.”
I popped the top – which wasn’t easy with the mittens – and drank the citrusy fluid. Ugh. My stomach was already burning. Hope it actually kicked my brain into gear, cause otherwise, it wouldn’t be worth the hole it was gonna tear through my stomach lining.
“This sucks.”
Nope. Not a morning person. At all.
Robert put his hand on my neck and tried to rub it, but I had the scarf wound so many times he had a hard time finding skin. I chucked the can into the trash as we pushed through the double glass doors and the chill of the wind nipped at my nose and stung my face. Robert reached around my shoulders and pulled me tight as we braved the wind to the fitness facility.
“So where did you get caught?”
“A few feet shy of your door.”
“So close,” he joked, and when I shot him an annoyed glare, he followed it up with a smile and a wink.
“Do you mind if I go in first? If Ms. Newell sees me coming in with a guy, she’s gonna know for sure I was lying about not having a boyfriend.”
“Yeah, sure.” He leaned over and pressed his cool lips to mine, but surprisingly, his kiss warmed me a little. “See you after school?”
“I’ll be there with bells on.” I could already sense the follow-up answer and I cut him off with, “Don’t even go wherever your mind was taking that.”
He laughed. I gave him one last peck on the lips and rushed to the warmth of the facility. Robert followed a few seconds later, and when I didn’t see Ms. Newell anywhere, I gave him a friendly wave good-bye.
I took the hall to the left, towards the coaches’ offices so Ms. Newell could exact her horrible version of punishment.
Ninety minutes later my hands were dried out from the alcohol-soaked rags and my brain was fried from the fumes coming off of them. I had no idea I should’ve asked for cleaning gloves, and once I did figure it out I couldn’t find Ms. Newell to get a pair.
And can I just say that boys are disgusting? Really, really disgusting.
Sure, girls used the weight room too, and I’m sure a few of them contributed to the nasty, sticky mess. Robert probably did too. But let’s be honest. It’s mostly the boys.
When I was done, I stopped in the lobby on the way out. The more athletic students were already trickling in, as most of the team sports began practice before first period so they had time to practice and clean up for the day. Two girls in volleyball uniforms were gawking in front of the large window that looked into the swimming pool. Quite a few swimmers were moving around on deck, taking their turn on the starting blocks to sprint down the pool.
I passed the girls and stopped a few feet away. I was immediately spotted by Jhett, who waved at me from his lane. I smiled and leaned against the window, but my attention was drawn to the two volleyball girls.
“God, Jenna. You smell like chemicals,” said the girl nearest me. Her name was Marie and we had third period English together. Her hand was under her nose, like she was trying to block the alcohol scent that reeked on my skin. The girl beside her was Anne, and she seemed to find my smell amusing – or perhaps it was the lovely bed hair I had going on.
“Yeah, sorry. I guess I’m lucky Ms. Newell didn’t have me cleaning with bleach all morning, huh?”
I jumped when someone hit the glass on the opposite side of me. My bug eyes receded when I realized the dripping wet guy with red goggles on his forehead was Robert, and my smile grew to match his. I couldn’t help but scan down – he was right; the Speedo left little to the imagination. He smacked the glass again and I jumped…again. Two of his fingers almost poked his eyes out, then he pointed at me as if to say ‘I’m watching you’, or ‘keep your eyes up here’. Not really sure which he was going for. I held my hands up in surrender, and I’m sure I blushed when I mouthed ‘what?’ and pretended I hadn’t done anything wrong.
It’s not like I hadn’t seen his package before. Hell, my lips were more familiar with it than my eyes were.
He cocked his eyebrows at me and let his hand trace the window as he walked away. I couldn’t help but notice he was bulkier than the other male swimmers, like he should have been on the wrestling team instead. When he was out of view, I turned to leave, leaving the other two girls to continue gawking.
I barely had time to shower before class and no matter how hard I scrubbed myself down with the loofah and berry wash, I just felt icky all day.
By late afternoon, Robert’s energy drink had long worn off, I was cranky and my muscles were all achy. Sophie left to meet Jhett downstairs but I lagged behind and did a face-plant on my bed. A few minutes later there was a knock at my door. No doubt Robert, since he would’ve gone downstairs to meet me too.
Luckily, Sophie hadn’t bothered to lock the door on her way out. I called out for him to come in, but it was a little muffled since my face was practically being suffocated by my pillow. The door locked behind him and I heard his soft footsteps approach my bed. I opened my eyes in time to see him crouch down beside my face.
“Hey,” I mumbled grumpily.
He gave me a few weak chuckles and tucked some stray strands of hair out of my face. “Long day?”
“How the hell do you do this every day? I have been nothing but an achy, cranky bitch all day.”
“You get used to it. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have a 5:45 practice to get up for.”
My lips vibrated when a puff of air burst through them. “Well, if you ever need to go to bed earlier, just tell me. Believe me, I’ll understand.”
“So why are you achy?”
“I think it was from all that mopping. Do you have any idea what a pain it is to get that mop around all the crazy legs of fifty pieces of equipment? My neck and shoulders are killing me.” Ugh…maybe I should add whiney to the list.
He gently stroked my head. “I can rub you down if you like. You’ll probably fall asleep within a few minutes.”
I debated as well as my mind would allow me to – it was quite foggy at the moment. I was pretty sure I was gonna fall asleep soon anyways, but having Robert’s hands stroke and rub me down, now that sounded dreamy.
“Alright.” I pushed myself up onto my knees and quickly pulled my shirt up. When it had cleared my head, I got a glimpse of Robert and the shock on his face. Apparently, when you are utterly exhausted and about to pass out, you really don’t have the brain power to give a crap about any insecurities you have. And though his face was comical to watch when I removed my shirt, it was nothing like the way his jaw dropped as I unclasped my bra, removed it and handed it to him before I collapsed back onto my stomach again.