34. Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Four
Margot
We somehow spend the next hour planning the podcast for Saturday, although how we got through it, I have no idea. I was in an orgasmic coma for at least a good fifteen minutes after Alex showed me—with great enthusiasm—so much of what I’d been missing out on in adulthood. The rest of the time after that either Alex’s hands wandering up and down my thighs or his lips were roaming around my neck. It was deliciously distracting and I’m sure I’ll have to redo half of what we wrote up but I don’t care in the slightest.
Alex drops me off at home with a kiss and a promise to meet up on campus for lunch tomorrow and I shuffle upstairs to fawn over the details of the dream-like past few hours of my life. I’m itching to tell my roommates about Alex and my new relationship and I enter the apartment still floating on cloud nine.
“I am back and I have big news,” I shout from the doorway. I’m not sure if Arden is still here but he might as well hear this news, too. As I step into the living room, my smile falters slightly at the sight in front of me.
Danika and Sydney are on the couch, both looking at me with solemn expressions. “What is it?” I ask, looking back and forth between them.
“Have you checked instagram lately?” Sydney asks, her voice soft as if speaking to a toddler on the brink of a meltdown. I shake my head, rounding the couch to sit on the coffee table. Before I can even open my phone, a call from Alex comes in.
Danika takes the phone from my hand and puts it down beside her on the couch. “Look,” she says, showing me her instagram feed. Story after story of Alex and I touching on the quad. Okay, it doesn’t seem so bad. People are just surprised. I gear up to breathe a sigh of relief and tell them it’s okay…until I see the captions.
I didn’t know Alex would slum it with a junior. I would’ve shot my shot.
Guess this is why he’s been doing that podcast. Easy lay.
A rags to riches story in the making. Can you say gold digger?
Each comment was more heinous than the next. Girls calling me ugly and poor. Guys saying I must be an easy lay and wondering when they’d get their turn. After one such comment about how “hard” I must work to keep Alex interested, I shove Danika’s phone back in her hand, disgusted.
My own phone continues to vibrate on the couch and I know it’s Alex but I need to process before I can speak with him.
“People are going to be assholes, that’s how people are made,” Danika says. “You can only control how you feel about what they say.”
“Well, right now, I’m feeling like shit and that’s a very hard thing for me to control.” I purse my lips and stand up from the table, pacing back and forth in front of them.
Sydney grabs my arm as I pass her. “What’s your big news, Mar? Maybe that’ll help.”
I stop and level her with a look. “Alex and I are officially in a relationship.” That sentence should’ve been announced with the popping of champagne or the twisting of a beer cap. Not with a stone cold expression of worry and concern.
Still, the girls do muster up some happiness for me. Sydney jumps off the couch, smothering me in a tight embrace. “That’s amazing!”
Yes. Two minutes ago, it was amazing. Now, I don’t know what it is. Danika grabs my hand, pulling both Sydney and I onto the couch in an embrace.
“Don’t let the assholes ruin this for you. You deserve this, Mars.”
I settle into her hold and Sydney cuddles up behind me. They’re right. This is just jealous people letting off steam because they want what I have and what I have is Alex. The kindest, funniest, most authentic man who cares about me. Not anyone else. Me.
My phone buzzes again, now underneath me. “Let me let the man out of his misery,” I sigh, answering the phone. “It’s okay,” I say in greeting.
“Margot, don’t look at…wait. It’s okay?”
“It’s okay. I’m not going to let anyone ruin what we have. Let them be petty on their own. Once they realize that we’re not caring, they’ll stop caring, too,” I say, pretty proud of myself for how bold I’m being. Danika winks at me.
Alex’s sigh of relief is like an air horn into the receiver. “Thank fucking god. You’re a rockstar, you know that?”
“Oh yeah, lead singer vibes all the way.”
Alex laughs. “Nah, quiet but insanely hot bass player, that’s you.” I join in his laughter.
“I’ll call you later, okay? After I tell my roommates every detail of this afternoon.”
“ Every detail?” Alex questions, a slight hint of nervousness in his voice.
“Okay, maybe not every detail,” I reply. After saying our goodbyes, I hang up the phone, throwing it behind us on the couch.
“Okay, now I want every detail,” Danika demands. Sydney hops over the couch to put a bag of popcorn in the microwave and grab some water bottles from the fridge. Danika grips my shoulders, placing herself in my line of sight. “And don’t even think about leaving anything out. Because I’ll know.”
Rolling my eyes, I am shaken by Dani who levels me with a serious expression. “I will tell you—mostly—every detail!” I swear, whispering a choice word but Danika will have none of it. The two girls spend the next hour wringing every bit of information out of me that they can, but I do manage to keep one thing a secret between me, Alex and the table in Study Room G6.
“I hope everyone rests up over Thanksgiving break. Come back ready to chase that lead!” Jessy’s inspirational speech falls on deaf ears as most of us are barely listening anyway. I’ve been trying to finish this article on the new quad sprinkler system but I just can’t find the right hook to make it interesting. Because it’s not.
“Margot,” Jessy plants her butt on the edge of my desk. I finish typing the word “cafeteria” and then look up at her. “You’re staying on campus this weekend right?”
“Yup,” I reply, popping the p.
“Cool. I was thinking it would be compelling to do a piece on how Tomlin supports international students or students who just don’t go home while the campus shuts down for breaks. Interested?”
“Yeah, I’ll work on that.” Jessy gives me a smile before sauntering away just as quickly as she came. That topic does sound interesting but I can hardly think about it right now. I’ve had my stomach in my throat ever since I sent in the write up and the first few episodes of the podcast. I know I should be hearing from the New York Times people soon.
Just as I’m about to pull up the thesaurus to find a better word than “wet”, my email pings with that you’ve got mail sound. While typically I ignore most emails that come into my newspaper account, mostly because they’re just Jessy telling me to make changes on a story or sending me memes about cats drinking coffee, this time I immediately click onto the email landing page. My lunch threatens to make its way out again when I see the email is from [email protected].
Preparing myself for utter defeat, I open the email, reading the contents out loud to myself.
“‘Dear Ms. Davis, we received your admission for the internship contest and are pleased to inform you’–YES!” I screamed at the very top of my lungs, happy tears forming in my eyes.
“Jesus, Margot,” Jessy says as she runs back over to me. “What’s going on?”
“I made it to the final round of the internship contest!”
“YES!” Jessy’s scream matches my own and she pulls me in for a quick shoulder squeeze more leaning over to read the rest of the email.
“‘You’ve made it to the final round in this competition. You are one of fifty contestants that have made it this far. We admire your journalistic creativity in this endeavor and are eager to see more of it in the coming weeks. Please submit your last write up and podcast episodes by December fifteenth and we should have the results on the winner before the holiday season.’ Oh my god, Margot, this is amazing!”
I’m full on crying now and there’s nothing I can do about it. I can’t believe I pulled it off. I can’t believe we pulled it off, Alex and I. The urge to call him and tell him the news is overpowering.
“Thanks, Jessy!” I reply, wiping my face and grabbing my bag from the floor. “Have a good Thanksgiving!” I yell as I run out the door, phone in hand already to call Alex. As I burst out of the door, I run smack into the man himself.
“Sheesh, sunshine. Where’s the fire?” Alex takes a step back, laugh-lines bracketing his mouth. But his mood instantly shifts when he sees my tear-stained face. “What’s going on? Why are you crying? Who do I have to kill?” He looks over my shoulder, possibly expecting to see someone chasing me with a knife.
I grab his face in both my hands, pulling his attention back to me. “I made it to the final round.”
At first he’s confused and possibly still thinking I’m in danger so I roll my eyes with a giggle and pull up the email on my phone. Alex skims it ever so briefly before his eyes light up and soon he’s hoisting me into the air, spinning me around like a rag doll.
“You did it, sunshine!”
“We did it!” I laugh into his neck, swatting at him playfully to put me down.
Alex is shaking his head before my feet even touch the ground. “No shot, sun. This is all you. I’m so fucking proud of you.” And he means it. I can feel the pride radiating off of him like a heat wave. I want to grab his face and kiss him until we’re both a puddle on the floor but we’re in the middle of campus and already starting to form a crowd based on the initial outburst.
“What were you doing when I ran into you, by the way?”
Alex runs his hand through his hair. “I was actually coming to look for you and see if you wanted to grab lunch before your next class.”
“I don’t think I could possibly eat anything right now. All this excitement has my stomach completely in knots.”
Alex laughs. “Would you rather go to the library and pour over the podcast website for a bit?”
“Yes, please.”
“Let’s go, sunshine,” he replies with a chuckle, grabbing the sleeve of my jacket and pulling me toward the library across the quad. How could he possibly be able to anticipate my every need before I even know I need it? If I’m not careful, I’m going to fall head over heels for this man. More than I likely already am? Yep. I’m in serious trouble.