“Hold on. I just want to make sure I’m understanding you. You’re saying that you”—she points at me—“are dating both the Audley twins.” She points to the door.
“Yeah. Wait, have they been telling people they don’t have a girl?” I put my hands on my hips. Before I can even get mad, I start laughing at the stupid question. “They wouldn’t do that.”
“They don’t talk much to anyone at all. I think that’s why all the girls get worked up about them and are always fighting for their attention. I came down for early orientation and everyone was talking about the elusive Audley twins and how the girls—plural,” she points out as if I missed the word, “would have to be extraordinary to get their attention.”
“My men are something special but they are mine.” They’ve never given me reason to doubt that. I’d seen a few friends back home go a little nutty when their boyfriends went off to college, thinking they were hooking up with every chick they met. If you ask me, if you’re thinking that, maybe it’s best you break it off with your boyfriend because he must not be making you feel secure in what you had together. “You can meet them. They went to get something to eat. Want me to have them grab you something, too?” I ask, picking up my phone. It slips from my hand and hits the floor. I bend down to pick it up, along with the scissors that somehow fell to the ground. Zeke was right, I really do need this ugly protective case.
“You know it’s not normal to have two boyfriends, right? I mean, how does that even work?”
I look up and see my roommate’s eyebrows furrowing together. Her cheeks turn pink. It’s easy to guess what she’s thinking. It’s not like I didn’t have those same thoughts before she came in. I want to know what it will be like when I’m really between the two of them.
“Hopefully, I’ll find out soon,” I mumble, more to myself then to actually answer her question.
“Wait! So you don’t know? You haven’t done…it?” Her face turns from pink to red.
I sigh, dropping back down onto my bed. “Not yet,” I admit. I pull up our group text.
“What’s your name?” I ask, realizing she hasn’t told me. She was too shocked about the two boyfriends thing.
I don’t give it much thought anymore. I guess it’s not normal, but it is to me. I’ve been theirs from the beginning. No one back home questions the Audley twins. They and a couple others ruled that place.
“Erika,” she mumbles. “I’ll have whatever you’re having.”
I fire off my text, telling them to get extra food and to double-check for more boxes in the truck.
“If you haven’t actually done anything, then aren’t you just…friends?”
I glance up from my phone. Erika’s no longer red, but her cheeks still have a lot of color and her forehead remains wrinkled. She plops down on her bed. I notice she doesn’t have much stuff on her side of the room. I’d been told my roommate was a junior, which is out of the ordinary. Generally, freshmen room with freshmen, but there was something about her having started college when she was sixteen, and with the way she keeps blushing I’m starting to think she’s younger than me.
Her comment gives me an idea. “Never thought about it like that.” I wink.
Quickly, I change their names in my phone to BFF One and BFF Two. I take a screenshot and send it to them. I start to count silently in my head. I don’t even get to two before my phone dings with a text message alert.
Levi: Not fucking funny
Zeke: Change it back.
Me: I’ve been informed since we never do anything intimate, that would only make us friends. You two would definitely make the cut for BFF.
Levi: I’m warning you.
I can actually hear a growl of his warning in my head. After three years together you’d think he’d have figured out that while it might put the fear of God in others, it only makes me smile. He’s adorable when he’s all worked up. Adorable and hot.
Zeke: That’s all right. I’ll fix it when I get back there.
Zeke’s polite words are easy to read. By “fix,” he means take my phone from me. I hop up from my bed, looking for somewhere to hide my phone.
“What are you doing?” Erika watches me.
“I have to hide my phone,” I tell her. There really aren’t a lot of options here. The whispers outside the door are growing louder, signaling the boys’ return. How the heck are they back already? I lift my pillow and shove the phone under it right as the door flies open.
“Did you get fries? I could really go for some fries,” I exclaim.