In My Bed Read online

  Luckily, my poker face is much better.

  I set the donuts on the table and reach into my purse to pull out the maple syrup I’d grabbed before I left my dorm room. “I thought we could get a little kinky. I didn’t have any chocolate syrup, but I figured since I was coming over early we could do this breakfast style.” I let my purse fall to the floor and ask, “What do you think?”

  This plan I’ve hatched is only going to work if I can get him to want to fuck me. Which, if you ask me, is disgusting based on the fact that he just said good-bye to another girl. He looks unsure, so I pull out the big guns. I uncap the syrup and dip my finger in, getting a little on the tip. Taking my finger out of the bottle, I put it up to my lips and slowly trace around them, covering them lightly in syrup. Then I slide my finger in my mouth and suck the remaining syrup from it. Pulling it out of my mouth with a pop, I smile.

  “Yummy. I wonder what else I could lick this off of …”

  His smile starts to grow, and I when I look down at his basketball shorts, I can see something else is growing as well.

  Perfect.

  “My bedroom?” he asks.

  I nod. “Do you still have those handcuffs in your nightstand?” I hope so because if not, my plan needs a little bit of tweaking.

  “Yeah. You want me to cuff you to the bed again?” He looks eager.

  “I’d rather cuff you,” I respond, holding back a laugh.

  He growls and grabs my hand, pulling me to his bedroom, and when he leans in to kiss me, I let him. I want to push him away so badly I nearly scream. He just had his mouth on another girl’s mouth and who knows where else, but I try not to think about it as we strip each other’s clothes from our bodies. Will gets fully naked while I keep my panties on. I hate that I have to let him see me nearly naked again, but this is a small price to pay for the way I’m about to get even.

  “On the bed,” I tell him. He goes willingly. “Put your arms up.”

  I grab both sets of handcuffs from his drawer and lock his right arm first, one cuff on his wrist and the other through the slats on his headboard. I do the same with his left hand and then I start to pour the maple syrup all over him—and not in a slow, sexy, teasing way. I just dump the entire bottle. Now that he’s restrained, I don’t have to hide the fact that I saw him with that girl.

  “Whoa! I little over eager with the syrup!” He chuckles. I laugh too, but without humor. My laugh sounds angry and hard. “Jenna?” he asks, his smile dropping.

  “What was the one thing I told you before we even started fucking, Will? There was one condition I laid out. What was it?” I reach down to pick up my bra and put it back on.

  “Huh?”

  “I told you that I expected you to only be with me. I told you to tell me if you didn’t want to see me anymore. To break it off with me before you fucked another girl and there would be no hard feelings,” I say, sounding a little bored.

  “What are you talking about?”

  I pull my pants up and reach for my shirt. “I saw that girl leave your apartment, Will. I showed up like two minutes after her. How did you not think that I saw her?”

  “That was my ex. The one I was telling you a little about last week.”

  “I honestly don’t give a shit who she was, and I don’t even care if you want to be with her or not. What I do care about is the fact that you lied to me. Not because I care at all about you, but because I hate being lied to, especially about bullshit like this. I’ve been there and I’ve done that.”

  “Listen, Jenna. When we talked the other night, it got me thinking about all the things I missed about Alana and I knew I wouldn’t have that with you. She was helping out at work since we’re so short staffed, and spending time with her again made me regret breaking up with her. She’s willing to give me another chance, and I couldn’t pass that kind of thing up. She’s amazing and I was an idiot for breaking up with her.”

  “So instead of just telling me you didn’t want to see me anymore, you went behind my back and got back together with your old girlfriend. Then, after she just left your apartment, you’re handcuffed, naked, to your bed and ready to fuck me behind her back! That’s really disgusting, Will. If she’s as great as you say she is, she deserves better than you,” I tell him as I put on my sandals.

  “Where are you going?” he asks, sounding alarmed and looking panicked.

  “I’m leaving.” I walk out of his room and leave his bedroom door open. Heading to the dining room table, I grab my purse and the box of donuts.

  “Wait! My roommate will find me like this!” he yells after me.

  “That’s the fucking point. You’re lucky I don’t take a fucking picture and send it out to all my contacts.”

  “You’re a fucking whore, you bitch!” he yells when I’m at the front door.

  “Well, you’re a liar, and I think that’s way fucking worse.”

  I close the front door and walk to the stairs, taking them two at a time. When I get to the ground floor, I push open the door to the stairwell and head out of the building and to the parking lot.

  Now that the adrenaline rush is over, I’m not sure how I feel about what just happened; a hurricane of emotions are happening inside of me. For one, I feel relieved that I never wanted anything more from Will than sex. If I had real feelings for him, I would be crushed right now—kind of like I was with Simon. This is exactly the reason why I avoid relationships.

  I also feel angry at the fact that this happened to me again. Even though I wasn’t falling in love with Will, I still trusted him enough to think that he wouldn’t be with another girl while he was with me. Now I feel like I can’t even rely on a guy for that.

  And hidden down deep, where I can’t even admit it to myself, there is sadness. I don’t want to be cheated on or lied to. I want what I’m willing to offer a guy to be enough. I want to be enough.

  Lost in the storm of emotions, I get in my SUV, start it, and back up right into another car.

  Oh, fuck.

  I get out of my car and see that the truck I hit was parked which means there is no driver to give my information to. The other vehicle is an older Ford Bronco in really nice condition. It looks like I may have caused a little scratching on the paint, but there are no dents or damage. On the other hand, my car has a serious dent in the back hatch. It’s drivable, but I definitely need to take it in to get fixed.

  When I hit the truck, it made a pretty loud noise, so I‘m expecting people to come out of their apartments and help me identify who owns it. But I stand there for ten minutes and not a single person comes out. The apartment complex doesn’t have assigned parking and there is no permit required for their lot, so I’m not sure how to find out who owns the truck that I hit.

  After standing around for another ten minutes, I decide to leave a note with my phone number and name on it, so they can call me and talk about getting it fixed. I can’t wait around all day for someone to show up because I have something that I have to do now that I’m done with Will.

  ***

  “So? What do you think?” Melody asks me.

  “I love it.”

  “You always look great, no matter the color. And that style really fits your face,” she says, using her fingers to brush through my hair one more time before taking the cape off me.

  This time when I picked the color, I asked for something I’ve never done in all the time I’ve been dying it. I got my natural color—at least really close to it. It is dark, dark brown, nearly black. I also decided to cut it in an asymmetrical style, short in the back longer in the front, with the length in front touching my chin.

  Melody styled it to show my natural waves, and I love it.

  This is what just I needed and I feel great. I feel renewed. Seeing Will with that other girl brought up issues from my past and helped me remember why my choice to not care about a guy is the best thing for me. It was a memory jog of how Simon so easily tossed aside and lied to me. It was a reminder of how he told me I
was special and simply threw me away, completely destroying everything I had ever wanted out of life.

  So I skipped my classes and came here for some hair therapy. The moment that I sat down in the chair at the salon, my mind became clear, just like it always does.

  ***

  Walking out of the stairwell and into the hallway on my floor of the dorm, I feel lighter and I’m smiling as I come up to my door. I notice Jimmy’s door is open across the hall from mine, so I peek my head in.

  “Knock, knock, Jims!” I say loudly, startling him. He looks up from the book he was reading and his eyes grow a fraction before he schools his expression.

  “Nice hair, Jen. That color and cut looks great on you. You’re a knockout! Not that you weren’t already, but damn! Quite the change from the blonde.” He laughs.

  I smile. “I thought it was time for a change.”

  “So you’re done with Will then?”

  “Absolutely. That ass of a man thought he could get something better from someone else and he did it behind my back. So to teach him a lesson about honesty, I handcuffed him to the bed covered in maple syrup,” I say with a shrug.

  Jimmy looks shocked and a little confused.

  “Don’t ask. And don’t ever mess with me,” I say putting on a serious face for a moment, before winking and laughing. As I spin around to walk to my room, Jimmy compliments my hair one last time before saying, “And if you need to talk about it, I’m here.”

  I turn to look at him over my shoulder. “I’m good, Jims, but thanks!”

  I open the door to my room and throw my purse on my bed before sitting down at my desk. I open my laptop and start to email my professor about my absence in class today when my phone rings. Getting out of my chair, I walk over to my bed and dig through it until I find my phone. Looking at the display, I see that Nate is calling me and I couldn’t be more confused—or excited. It seems that the dreams I’ve been having about Nate have only increased the intensity of the reaction I have to him.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, Jenna. It’s Nate.”

  “What’s up?”

  “Oh, nothing much. I’m just making a call to the girl who wrecked into my truck,” he says, and I can hear the humor in his voice.

  “Oh my god! That was your truck?”

  “Sure was.”

  “Wait, I’m confused. I thought you drove a four-door sedan? I rode in it when you drove Rachel and me to The Grove last week …” I respond too fast, not really thinking about what I am saying until I’ve already said it. I haven’t talked to him since the night that Rachel dumped him after the Second Story show and I’m not really sure how he handled what happened.

  “That was my commuter car. The truck that you ran into is only a two-seater and I needed something bigger to drive the both of you in.”

  Other than a little bit of tightness in his voice, he seems to be fine with me mentioning Rachel, so it might not have been that bad. Rachel told me what happened and she told me it was mutual, but I was still a little concerned. I’m the one that set them up and I feel a little at fault since I knew how Jake and Rachel felt about each other.

  “Why do you have two vehicles?”

  “I brought the commuter car with me from home when I moved here, and I bought the Bronco when it was an immobile piece of junk sitting on an old man’s lawn. I spent my extra time and money fixing it up.”

  “And then I crashed into it,” I say, closing my eyes and shaking my head. “I’m so sorry about that.”

  “It’s okay, Jenna. It was an accident,” he replies, pausing. “Unless it wasn’t an accident. I’ve heard that you can be vicious when someone crosses you.” His voice sounds serious, but I can hear a hint of a smile.

  “Of course it was an accident! And what do you mean I can be vicious?”

  “I heard about what you did to Will and you’re a mastermind. But what he won’t say is what happened between you two, although I have some guesses. I saw him walking up to his apartment with Alana last night. I thought he’d ended things with you because I hadn’t seen you all week, but I guess not.”

  “Yeah. Let’s just say that he hadn’t broken things off with me yet, and I don’t really appreciate being lied to. So you know Alana?”

  “Yep, and so do you. Well, you know of her. She’s the lead singer from Night Sky, the band that was playing at The Grove when we met.”

  “I knew she looked familiar. So that explains why she was singing so many break-up songs that night.”

  “Yeah, they had just broken up the week before. Will told me it was mutual and they both wanted different things, but I’m not so sure now. Her performances are normally upbeat and energetic, but the sadness on her face and in her voice that night makes it seem like he wasn’t telling me the full story.”

  “I never would have guessed that he’s prone to lying,” I say sarcastically.

  “Yeah,” he says with a sigh. “That’s why I was so annoyed with him after the show. They were together for years, and then a week after he breaks up with her, he leaves the bar with another girl right in front of her.”

  “That is pretty messed up. Will seems to be a serious asshole. I sure can pick ‘em,” I say, sounding a little annoyed.

  “I’ve been his friend for over a year and I didn’t realize what an asshole he was. You only knew him for less than a month,” he says, trying to console me. “You’ll find someone better.”

  “It’s cool,” I say, sounding unconcerned. “Let’s get back to the point of the call. I’m not going to go through my insurance company, so just let me know the repair costs for your car and I’ll get you the money.”

  He chuckles. “Don’t worry about it, Jenna. It’s just a few scratches and all it needs is a little touch up paint. How did your car fair?”

  “The whole back hatch is dented,” I tell him, wincing a little as I think about the having to pay for the repair. “I wasn’t even driving that fast!”

  “Yeah, my Bronco is indestructible.”

  “You’re telling me,” I say, laughing at the way he says indestructible like it’s a super power. “I’m sorry again about hitting your truck. And tell me if you change your mind about the repairs.”

  “It’s not a problem, Jenna. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “So you’re going out with us tomorrow?” Jake is taking Rachel to meet the band as his girlfriend, and she invited me to go along.

  “Yep.”

  “And it won’t be, uh,” I pause, clearing my throat, “awkward or anything?”

  “Nah. It’ll be fine. Rachel and I went out twice and I liked her but we were still getting to know each other. Jake and Rachel have something really special, and I don’t want to get in the way of that. He’s my friend, and I’m happy for him.”

  I take a sigh of relief, but I still want to say one more thing. “Are you sure? Because I feel kind of guilty for setting you two up when I knew about her and Jake. Almost like I set you guys up so you could distract her and I feel really bad about using you.”

  “You don’t have to feel that way, Jenna. When you set us up, you only had good intentions. It all worked out and no one ended up hurt,” he reassures me. “Well, except for Will. I heard he had some pretty serious marks on his wrists when he got out of the cuffs.”

  I laugh a little as I think about him being found by his roommate. “Well, that’s payback for the marks I got from them. I had to wear chunky bracelets for days.”

  “And on that note,” he says through a laugh. “It was nice talking to you, Jenna.”

  “You too, Nate.” I put my phone down on my bed and move back over to my desk with a big, stupid smile on my face.

  Shut up, stupid heart.

  Chapter 7

  “You’re a great guy to do this for her,” I say to Jake as the last of the people leave the room.

  “I’d do a lot for her, Jenna,” he says, smiling and sounding totally serious.

  I smile. “Good, because Rachel deserves
it.” I pause, my smile dropping from my face. “I hope you know that if you fuck with her, you fuck with me. And I know you heard from Nate what I did to Will. I can be vicious,” I threaten, using the word that Nate used to describe my handiwork. I’d learned that even though I was nice enough not to take a picture of Will and share it, his roommate wasn’t as kind.

  Jake chuckles at my threat, expecting me to laugh with him, but I don’t. Instead, I keep my face serious. I may be exaggerating what I’d do to him, but I will not let Jake hurt her and get away with it. His smile fades. “Got it. I won’t mess this up with her, but not because I’m afraid of you. It’s because she means a lot to me.”

  I smile. “Good. And I seriously think she’s going to love this little thing you put together,” I say, gesturing around the room.

  “I hope so.”

  “She will. What girl wouldn’t love a guy singing What Makes You Beautiful to her? And the flash mob? It’s like a boy band music video! She’s going to flip her shit!” We both laugh. “On that note, I’m going to head out and get ready for tonight. I’ll see you later!”

  I wasn’t just easing Jake’s mind—Rachel really is going to love this. One of the events that Rachel and Jake organize for the dorm is an open mic night. A couple of weeks ago, before they were dating, Jake asked if I wanted to help with a surprise performance for Rachel, and I jumped at the opportunity. There was a group from her floor that wanted to do something special to thank her for all of her hard work as their RA, but they had no idea how to go about it.

  Luckily, Jake had walked in on their strategy meeting and pulled me into the fold. He got a big group together and I made up a simple dance to What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction. Jake picked the song. Apparently, it’s some sort of inside joke between the two of them.

  We just finished our last rehearsal before the open mic night tonight. This was the first time we were able to practice in the actual room we’d be doing the dance in. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but it was amazing.