“Fuck,” I muttered to myself.
I moved back to my bed and sat down, blinking my suddenly blurry eyes. I couldn’t let myself cry over this. It wasn’t like I felt used just because he wasn’t there, though I had to admit that I was sad he hadn't been there to make the whole thing perfect. Only, he wasn’t my boyfriend, so he was under no obligation to do so.
After a moment of feeling pity for myself, I looked around the room. Then I looked over at my bed and wrinkled my nose when I saw the dark stain on it. The sheets were black, but even though the stain wasn’t red, I knew it was blood from last night. Come to think of it, I’d been dazed before, so I hadn't noticed, but my body was feeling achy.
Crap.
I needed to clean up, and quickly. I fumbled to reach my phone on the nightstand, wincing when I felt muscles in my body that had never been worked before twinge in protest.
Hurrying, I tossed the sheet away and found my dress from last night. It wasn’t crumpled on the floor. Instead, it had been tossed onto the back of my chair, and I tugged it on. I needed to take a shower, and either do my laundry or hide my sheets. I decided to do the laundry. If I didn’t wash them, I would end up tossing them rather than try to use them again. I would be too embarrassed to give them to someone else, too.
It was still early in the morning, so I got lucky. There weren’t too many people moving around. I took care of my laundry, before I had a shower and got back to my room with a robe on and a towel wrapped around my hair. It had all taken an hour. I had the whole day free, but I was a little paranoid.
Not long after I got dressed and dried my hair, I realized I had good reason to be paranoid. Alicia and Caroline burst into my room, eyeing me intently, and waiting for all the juicy gossip I knew I could never tell them.
“So,” Alicia started, voice calm even though it was pointless after the way they rushed into my room. “How did last night go for you?”
I blinked at her, and pretended to be oblivious. My hands, that had carefully toweled at my dark hair, gave me away though, when they froze.
“Um, what do you mean?” I asked, my gaze frozen on a picture on the wall.
“Don’t play dumb,” Caroline said, her voice quiet even though it was just us three in the room. “That sext me thing! The guy showed up last night, didn’t he? Don’t tell me he didn’t show up?”
I looked down at my lap, but not at her, even though she sounded disappointed.
“You already sent the payment, right?” Alicia added, and I knew she was wondering if I could get the money back if he didn’t show.
I wanted to grimace, but I held it in. I hadn't forgotten that they would be here to question me, but wasn’t this a little too early? I’d only just gotten over my earlier disappointment; I didn’t have enough time to create a story to tell them.
“Yeah,” I murmured. “I sent it.” And a very hot senior showed up.
“Last night happened,” Alicia said with a wicked grin, her blue eyes hungry for information. “Now, tell us who it is.”
I moved to my chair, and the two of them moved to the bed. My chest tightened a little, even as I let out a little sigh of relief that I’d changed the sheets before they arrived. My room didn’t look like I’d had anyone else in it, and I was glad. Still, there was no way to lie; if I did, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t try make me do it again.
Not that I would mind if I got to see Noah again, but what if they insisted they had to stay with me this time? It had taken effort last night to convince them not to wait in the room with me. I didn’t have a roommate, there was only the one bed, and it had been midnight. He would have found it odd if extra people were here when he arrived. Even though I’d been nervous, I was glad now that I had insisted that they leave me alone.
“Um, do you guys mind if we do this later? I’m feeling a little hungry…”
It wasn’t a lie. I’d had a vigorous workout yesterday. My face blushed just at the memory of the night before, and I probably gave myself away.
“No way,” Alicia said immediately, and bounced on my bed as she grinned. “We’ve dying to know what happened, so spill. We can all go eat, but at least tell us before we go out, okay?”