Roommates Box Set #4-6

30. Kylie

30

KYLIE

Alyssa set a cup of tea down on the table in front of me. “I still can’t believe they kicked you out.”

I took the tea and sipped it slowly. It was too hot and not sweet enough, but that was the least of my problems as I sat in the tiny kitchen in her one-bedroom apartment. She lived here with two goldfish and a depressed woman sleeping on her couch.

That would be me.

“At least you’ve still got your scholarship,” she said.

“Half of it. It’s for—it was for most of my tuition plus room and board. But now, no more room and board.”

She winced. She seemed too well off to truly understand what a hardship it’d cause me to find and pay for my own place, but at least she was sympathetic. “I still can’t believe the guys got off with a slap on the wrist.”

“If that.” The only thing the disciplinary committee had done was to put a reprimand in their official records. Like any student older than seventh grade still believed that was much of a threat.

“It’s so unfair,” she said. “Not that I want them to be in more trouble, but the four of you were living there together. Why’d they come down so hard on just you?”

“I guess it’s more of a sin for a woman to be living with men than it is for men to be living with a woman.”

“That’s such crap,” Alyssa said with more force than I’d expected from her. “It’s like, if a guy has a woman with him, then he’s a stud. But if a woman has a guy with her, then she’s a—” She came to an abrupt stop.

“You can say it,” I said. “A slut. Or a whore. Or a skank. The people at the disciplinary hearing certainly seemed to think those things when they looked at me.”

“That’s awful.” Alyssa reached out and patted my arm. “And now the guys still have their full scholarships and you don’t.”

I frowned. “I don’t think any of them had full scholarships.”

Alyssa set her tea down, having drained it all. She and I had very different tastes in comfort beverages. “No, I mean their scholarships weren’t reduced in any way. And they got to stay in that suite.”

I nodded and rested my chin on my folded hands as tears pricked at my eyelids. That was what hurt the worst—getting kicked out of the suite we’d shared.

“It was the nicest one I’d ever seen,” Alyssa said.

That was part of it. To no longer see the view of the mountains every day. Or have a fantastic place to study. Or to curl up in front of the fireplace. But… that wasn’t actually what bothered me the most about getting kicked out. It’d hurt because the place had been ours . Sure, Mason had been the one to snag it in the first place. And then initially, they didn’t want me to move in.

But I did, and I’d made my mark on it as much as any of them did. It was part of what had brought us together in the first place—the amazement we felt living in such a wonderful place. Maybe it was a bit like little kids and a clubhouse. They could be friends without one, but if they had one, they became a team. A unit. And possibly grow even closer than they already were.

That’s what had happened to us. The suite had been ours —and now it was just theirs.

Then, of course, the other thing keeping me hovering on the edge of tears was how much I missed Jude, Mason, and Parker. Two days ago, I was with them twelve or fourteen hours a day. I didn’t doubt we’d still hang out together in the future, but it wouldn’t be the same as living with them—not by a long shot. Plus, if I went to the suite, I’d be a visitor in a space that used to be my home. But I didn’t plan on risking that. If the people from the housing office caught me there again, it might jeopardize Jude and Parker’s scholarships.

Alyssa’s smile was gentle as she seemed to read my mind. “I’m sure they miss you.” I wasn’t sure she completely understood the depth of the relationship the four of us had, but that hadn’t stopped her from supporting it. Blinking rapidly, I managed to hold back the tears for a while longer. I missed the guys terribly. That was probably why I fixated on losing the chance to live in that amazing suite so much. That thought hurt but not as badly as the thought of being away from my guys.

They’d been weirdly silent today. Yesterday, after they’d helped me pack up my things, they’d texted me several times each in the afternoon. Now it was twenty-four hours later, and today I’d only gotten one text from Jude and one from Parker. Neither were very long.

But it was a busy time of the semester. The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas break went by so damn quickly. Jude had to listen to and evaluate all of the students he gave lessons to. Parker had to write up a report about the activities in his cohort and the members in it. And Mason… well, I still didn’t understand exactly what it was that engineer students did, but I knew he was busy, too.

Still, I was busy, and I wanted to talk to them. Why didn’t they want to talk to me?

And speaking of busy… “I’m sorry to drop in on you during your last semester like this.”

“It’s not a problem,” Alyssa said, sounding sincere. “Besides, you can feed my goldfish when I go to that out-of-state interview next week.”

I laughed ruefully. “I’d be happy to.”

The week passed slowly, although classes were chaotic and stressful. Did the professors think it was their job to load us up with so much work that we wouldn’t finish until March? But the thing that killed me was the lack of communication from my guys. I asked them if they wanted to meet for coffee. Or go out to lunch. Or even come visit me at Alyssa’s place. But the answer was always the same. They were super busy, but we’d get together soon.

I knew they were genuinely busy, but it hurt to think of them studying side by side in the suite. Or sitting on the balcony at the end of a long day. Or drinking together.

The only one of the three I saw all week was Parker, and that was because I ambushed him on Thursday when he got out of class. At first, he didn’t see me, hurrying past with his shoulders hunched, but I called his name. He walked back and led me into the first empty classroom we found. Then he pulled me in for a long hug.

Tears threatened again as he held me, but I didn’t let them fall. I was too happy being held by him.

When he pulled back, I was a bit shocked. There were dark circles under his eyes and he looked exhausted.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Things have just been hectic,” he said. “But I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you, too. Have you slept?” His haggard appearance worried me.

“A little.”

Unbidden, I saw in my mind’s eye the image of him lying on his lower bunk bed. It’d been so comforting to be able to look over and see his kind face during the night. My bed was stripped bare now. Just a sad, empty mattress.

“Maybe we can study together sometime,” I suggested. “We both have exams coming up.”

“Sure,” he said, lifting my spirits. “But it’ll have to be next week. This week is just too insane.”

“Yeah, okay. I understand,” I said.

But I didn’t. Not really.

I wanted to be with them so damn badly—why didn’t they want to be with me?

By Friday, I couldn’t stand it. Had Jude, Mason, and Parker become completely different people since I moved out?

Or worse… were they never the men I’d thought they were?

The latter one was what hurt the most.

As the elevator made its way to the sixth floor of Henderson, I tightened my hoodie around my face, afraid there’d be housing officials around every corner. But I didn’t see one of them or anyone as I approached the suite.

Part of me knew I shouldn’t be here—and not just because of what the housing officials thought. No, it was worse than that. If the guys wanted to find a way to spend time with me, they would have.

But they hadn’t.

So like so many spurned women throughout history, instead of moving on, I revisited the scene of the crime. What the hell did I expect to happen? That one of them would open the door and say, “Oh, Kylie, we were so busy, we forgot about you, but now that you’re here, let's pick up right where we left off.”

Out of sight, out of mind wasn’t supposed to apply to relationships.

I took a deep breath as I stood before door 672. A week ago, I would’ve flashed my keycard and waltzed right in.

But that was then.

Instead, I knocked on the door of the place I used to live with my guys. Who, apparently, didn’t want to be my guys anymore.

The last thing I was expecting was a tall, thin blond who looked about fourteen to open the door.

“Hey, can I help you?”

It had never occurred to me that they’d be assigned a new roommate so soon, but I should’ve considered the possibility.

“Are you okay?” The kid asked again. He had to be in graduate school to live in this building, but he still looked very young to me. I wondered what the guys thought of him.

“Um, are your roommates here?”

He shook his head. “No, just me. Why, do you know them?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“Do you want to come in and wait for them?”

“Sure, thanks.” When I stepped inside, it felt like home for one wonderful second. But then reality returned. There were someone else’s things in my bathroom. Someone else’s sheets on my bed.

I pulled back my hoodie and smoothed out my hair, and the blond was instantly more attentive. “Can I get you something to drink?”

I bit back a laugh. How many hundreds of times had I asked that question of someone else in this suite? “I’m good, thanks.” Ahead of me was the wall of windows, and every muscle in my body yearned to walk over and look at the mountains. But it wasn’t my suite anymore, and it wasn’t my view to look at.

The blond guy kept sneaking peeks at me out of the corner of his eye. When my guys returned, would they even care?

“So, which one of my roommates do you know?”

“All of them,” I said.

“I’m Adam.” He took a seat on the arm of the sofa. “Are you single?”

That was a really good question. A week ago, I would’ve said no. But today? Who knew, maybe I was. Instead of answering, I changed the topic. “Do you know when the others will be back?”

He scrunched his mouth to the side as he thought about it. “Well, Greg’ll be about an hour. He’s got a class right now. And Harper’s probably down at the gym. I guess you could go check if you wanted to. Brian?—”

“Wait.” I held a hand up, trying to process. “Who are those guys?”

“My roommates,” he said, sounding surprised.

Confusion robbed me of speech. Then I licked my lips and tried to make the words come out. “W-what happened to the guys who were living here before?”

“They left a couple of days ago. Can you imagine giving up a place this awesome? You should see the room we were in on the second floor. It’s about a quarter the size of this suite. Hey, do you want me to give you a tour? There’s a kitchen and a balcony and get this—a fireplace . Can you believe it? I have no idea why those guys left.”

I still couldn’t get my brain to catch up. If my guys weren’t here anymore, where were they? And why on Earth had they left in the first place?

The young dude shook his head, as if contemplating the mysteries of the universe. “My roommates and I think this place rocks, but I don’t know, maybe they didn’t like it. It is kind of hard to study, because in the evening, people keep knocking on the door. Sometimes they turn around and leave when we open it, and other times, they ask if we want to make conversation. Isn’t that weird? It’s like they have some kind of conversation club or something. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“No, it doesn’t,” I murmured. “I’ve got to go.”

“Maybe you can come back and visit sometime when my roommates are back. Trust me, it’s a pretty sweet place.” He laughed at his own joke. “A sweet suite.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” I said, not sure what I’d just agreed to. “Bye.”

As I exited the building, the only thing the kid had said that’d stuck with me was: it doesn’t make any sense .

It sure as hell didn’t. I climbed in my car but didn’t start it. Instead, I pulled out my phone and thought about which one of them to text. According to Adam, my guys had moved out a few days ago, but none of them had bothered to mention it to me. Not even Parker when I cornered him yesterday. What the hell was going on?

I thought about texting Parker, but since he hadn’t volunteered the info yesterday, he might not be any more forthcoming today. So maybe Jude, then. He was pretty straight forward. But he hadn’t mentioned anything the few times I’d texted, either. Did that make Mason my best bet?

Screw it.

I carefully composed a text and sent it to all three of them.

Where the hell are you and why the hell did you move out of the suite?

There was no answer, not for hours. I drove around aimlessly, not wanting to go back to Alyssa’s and bring her down with my foul mood. I didn’t have a destination in mind, but every time I drove west and spotted the mountains in the distance, I turned the car in a different direction.

Finally, after darkness fell, I headed back to Alyssa’s apartment. I’d just started up the steps to her door when my phone chimed. It was a text from Mason.

Meet us tomorrow at the Dancing Horse at 2 pm.

That was it? That was all he was going to say? Anger flowed through me, and as I sat on the steps, looking up at the stars, I held onto it for as long as I could. Because underneath it, deep underneath, was excitement about seeing them again. And right alongside it, a dash of hope.

And I was pretty damn sure I wouldn’t survive it if my hopes were dashed again.