“Sorry,” I say. I have a feeling this is my new roommate and I almost assaulted her with a box. “I swear I don’t have anger issues.” I hold my hands up. “Just normal boy issues.”
Her lips quirk into a small smile. “Was it the Audley twins? They always get the girls angry.”
She steps into the room and shuts the door behind her, but not before I catch a glimpse of the herd of girls peeking in. I come from a small town and I get being nosy and all, but it’s getting weird that they are all gawking at my dorm room.
“I swear we don’t normally fight, we are just having a disagreement of sorts.” I retrieve the empty box and stack it with the others. Once I’m done unpacking, I’ll break all the cardboard down to put in the recycling bin outside the dorm.
I wonder if the boys missed a box, though, because I haven't seen some of the new clothes I bought last weekend. I want that box. It’s full of what I am now calling my “seduction outfits.” Every single piece is designed to break down the will of stubborn men. Maybe it’s still in Zeke’s truck.
“It’s not often they make me mad, but I’m guessing having a spat with your boyfriends from time to time is normal, right?”
There’s a squeak behind me. I spin around to see my roommate staring at me like the other girls out in the hallway were.
“Oh sorry! I’m Olivia.” I rush over and stick out my hand, realizing I hadn't even introduced myself. “That was rude of me. First, I kick a box at you and then I don’t even tell you who I am.” I shake my head, letting out a small laugh. She continues to look at me like I’m crazy.
“Why are you looking at me like the rest of those girls? Am I doing something wrong?” I blurt out. I tend to speak before thinking. Levi and Zeke think it’s adorable, but it’s a bad habit because I end up with my foot in my mouth most of the time.
“Did you just say the Audley twins are your boyfriends?”
I nod.
“As in both of them?” She gives me a skeptical look.
“Yeah, they have been since I was fifteen and my mom and I moved in next door to them. They pretty much planted a flag in our front yard declaring that I belonged to them so everyone in town knew.” I laugh, thinking back at how worried I’d been moving to a new town. My worry didn’t last long because Levi and Zeke made sure I felt welcomed. They took me to school, walked me to each class, sat with me at lunch, and then took me home. It was a whole week before I found out that they were skipping study hall to eat lunch with me. Juniors and freshmen didn’t have the same lunch schedule. Their attentiveness didn’t end during the school week either. Zeke took me to the football games and Levi took me out for walks in the park on Saturdays. On Sundays, we’d hang out with my mom, cooking dinner, watching television, or playing video games. I love our little town. Maybe after we’re all done with college, we’ll move back.
“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 menaresomething 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.