Chapter 16
ZARIAH
WATERPARK
On the bus, Sémajuste gave a speech about how the team had never played a real game together before. That this was only a practice run before the season began. But by the looks on everyone’s faces, no one believed him. Especially when he told them not to check the online commentary.
It was brutal.
I was most concerned about Montoya, he didn’t say much to anybody. I tried to sit next to him, but Bear beat me to it. Even so, I stretched as far as I could when we passed the Texas state line. “The next game’s going to be worth it.”
Montoya finally glanced my way. “Are you coming?”
“To the WTU game?” I chewed the inside of my cheek. “I think I already used my free ride.”
“It’d be nice if you came.”
My heart twinged. “Aw, I can talk to Sémajuste—”
“You can take my spot." He hung his head. "You’d be better on the lineup.”
Bear and I argued against that, but nothing lifted Montoya’s mood.
Honestly, it was late, and the team was getting snappy with each other anyway. They needed to sleep this off.
My phone rang, and I checked to see that it was June.
“Hey, girl.” I yawned. “What’s up?”
“Did you leave the sink running?”
I paused. “The sink?”
“There’s a huge wet stain outside of your dorm—hold on, I’m going to grab the RA on-call.” She sucked in a breath. “I know what that stain is. Bear messed with our dishwasher a couple of months ago and it flooded our dorm.”
“Whose dorm? My dorm?!”
I could hear June arguing with someone. I had no idea what she was talking about, I definitely hadn’t left the sink on, I didn’t even do dishes before I left! I jerked over to look at the window, at the landscape crawling along, Marrs at least coming into view, just not fast enough.
“Z?” Elijah frowned. “What’s the issue?”
More players asked the same question while June begged the front desk to get the RA. It had to be someone new if they didn’t know her. She pleaded for key access but since her housing privileges were restricted, those were refused.
“Fuck me,” I blurted out. “I think my dorm flooded—that’s all my shit!”
“Zariah?” Denali caught my attention. “I’ll grab your bags, you go to Roman Villa, okay?”
I was too panicked to understand. My bags? Ugh, my duffel bag was in the undercarriage. “I—uh—”
“I’ll grab your bags. Just go.”
“I—okay,” I finally said.
Denali moved to the front of the bus letting everyone know I had an emergency and needed to be the first one off.
This had to be something I’d laugh about later. Maybe I was panicking for nothing.
The doors opened and I broke into a sprint. I raced across campus, hoping my bad luck for the year had suddenly come to an end.
I found June in the lobby, still arguing to get a key to my room, and I grabbed her by the shoulder, yanking her along.
It couldn’t be that bad, right?
Please?
My shoes sank into my hallway’s newly-spongy carpet. I shoved my key in the door and kicked it open.
“Holy shit,” June whispered.
My dorm was trashed. A pipe had burst in my bedroom. Bits of ceiling were strewn around, dirty water steadily streaming down to my bed.
I threw out curses that didn’t make sense. “Cockaholic, chucklefuck!” I shouted. “Assholes knocking asshole—”
“They better give you free tuition for this!” June yelled, furious in solidarity.
“Girl, they better give me a million gold bars! And a zoo full of unicorns!” I dialed maintenance, fuming. “My books, my pictures, my clothes—”
Elijah’s voice echoed from the front door. “I know you like waterfalls, I just didn’t think you—”
I splashed water on my way to him. “Zip it, E! I don’t have time to bitch you out!”
I argued with maintenance that the issue couldn’t wait until tomorrow as I grabbed a popcorn bucket from the kitchen. More players wandered into my dorm like I invited them in for a pool party. Most of them didn’t even live on this floor. What were they doing here?
“Hey?” Denali held up my duffel bag. “What do you want me to do with this?”
Shit. I was dealing with a broken pipe, I wasn’t prepared for anything else. Maybe I could put it on my kitchen counter? But what about my other stuff?
“I can get one of the moving carts?” Denali suggested.
As in those nasty carts that nobody cleaned? I winced. “Um…”
“I can put your stuff in our dorm?”
“Your dorm?” I repeated.
Denali nodded, and for a few seconds, I really thought it through. What was the harm? It was something and it was definitely temporary.
“Um…sure.”
Denali got the guys together and marched my stuff out. I got a hold of my new boss who complained about me ruining his night. While I listened to Tadrick whine over the phone, I watched Denali direct his assembly line.
“What the fuck happened to this?” Pickles asked and I caught sight of my typewriter. It’d been sitting on my desk and was now doused from the broken pipe situation. It looked like a kid’s bath toy.
Before I could stop Pickles from picking it up, Denali nudged him away to grab it.
“I’ve got it!” I lurched forward, taking the end of the desk, dragging it away. “I mean—thank you for—” I gestured around to Fridge swearing at Nick while they carried out my couch. “But I got this.”
Denali’s eyes slid from the typewriter to me. “Alright.”
The typewriter was broken. I shouldn’t have cared. But there were different levels to this. If I was the one to break it more, I’d just be mad at myself. If someone else was involved, that’d hurt in a different way.
And if Denali was the one who caused further damage, even by accident, it’d hurt me more than I was willing to admit.
“Honey!” June called. “Tadrick’s here!”
My boss stumbled inside, an incredulous look on his face. “Zariah, what did you do?!”
June’s voice was sharp. “It’s a piping issue, Tad!”
By the time he was finished making calls, most of my stuff was out of the dorm. Tadrick rubbed the bridge of his nose. “We’ll move you to Roman Hall.”
“Roman Hall?” Elijah whistled. “That shit’s nice.”
“The graduate hall across campus?” I said, dumbfounded. “Permanently?”
“No, while maintenance fixes this. It should take about four days—”
“Why can’t I stay at Roman Villa?”
“This isn’t a hotel,” he said, exasperated. “We don’t have the empty rooms.”
That’d be a huge pain in my ass to move things back and forth, even if Roman Hall was the super-nice dorm with a courtyard and its own theater. My schedule wouldn’t let me leave anyway. “Tad, I have an on-call this week.”
“Why would you book it this early in the year?”
“I didn’t think my dorm would become a waterpark!”
“You can’t miss that shift, that’s against the—”
“Yeah, yeah, against the rules. Like proper plumbing around here.”
June brought Bear close. “It’s only four days. Bear’s an alternate captain, he doesn’t have a roommate. We have a couch. You can stay with us!”
Would that work?
Montoya shook his head behind them, a flush creeping up his neck. When Tadrick called maintenance again, I pulled Montoya aside. “What is it?”
“June and Bear are my favorite people,” Montoya whispered. “But you don’t want to live with them.”
“What? Why?”
“I used to be their neighbor.” His face scrunched up in embarrassment. “I had to wear noise-canceling headphones, and that was with a wall between us. They’re in a—uh—new relationship—”
“They’re having lots of sex?” I suggested. “And they’re super loud?”
His mortified look confirmed it. With a sigh, I glanced back at the team’s happy couple. Bear had been so grumpy during our time at Selick and now that grumpiness vanished into thin air. He snaked an arm around June’s waist with a satisfied smile, the only pleased one in the room.
Oh my god. I wouldn’t get any sleep for the next four days.
I could’ve bunked with my football friends, but they were out of town for a game. And management would catch on if I kept swiping myself into their rooms.
What the hell am I supposed to do?
I grabbed another popcorn bucket to relieve the first one and took the second to the bathroom to dump. Elijah followed me. “Z? What are you, joking?”
“Yeah, this is an elaborate prank.” I tossed the water into the shower. “Haha! This is all according to plan!”
“No, why are you hitting up everybody else? I’m your brother, I’ve got a couch, you’re staying with me.”
I froze. My eyes darted to Denali, equally as frozen. Before I could come up with an excuse, Denali stepped closer, his voice low. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why?” Elijah frowned. “What’s the problem?”
What was the problem? Oh, I almost kissed his roommate last night, and that very same roommate was my ex-boyfriend.
I’d just have to live with them where Denali showered, put clothes on over those muscles—it was way too intimate. My face warmed at the dangerous daydreams.
Denali hesitated. “Wouldn’t—uh—Zariah feel more comfortable with one of her friends?”
“I’m her twin,” Elijah rebuked. “I’m the oldest friend she has.”
“Ew, Elijah,” I said before I could stop myself. “No, you two already have your routines, I’d be in the way.”
“For four days,” Elijah pointed out. “Denali and I basically have a man cave. We don’t leave the dorm. And my captain is the most boring dude you’ve ever met.” He thumbed towards Denali. “He doesn’t bite, I promise.”
That promise had already been broken several, several times, but I kept my mouth shut.
It wasn’t like I had a choice. My twenty-four-hour shift at Roman Villa meant I couldn’t leave the dorm. And as much as I liked June, I needed sleep.
The choice was made for me. I had to bunk with Elijah.
With Denali.
Slowly, I nodded and returned to my room.
Nick yelled for Elijah, and I picked up one of my towels, carefully cleaning up the typewriter.
I didn’t realize Denali lingered with me until he spoke again. “I’ll be the one to stay at June and Bear’s.”
I glanced up. “What?”
“You can take my bed—” He stopped himself. “You can take the couch.”
“Uh, you heard Montoya—”
“If it doesn’t work out, I’ll stay at a hotel.”
I couldn’t hide my surprise. “I’m not kicking you out of your dorm.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does?”
“I’m not going to make you uncomfortable. Whatever you want, however you want, I’ll do it.”
Oh.
I rubbed the typewriter with the towel in the same spot for way too long. I cleared my throat. “I can’t kick you out, that’s ridiculous. What would Elijah say?”
“Zariah—”
“It’s four days. You’re not leaving.”
Neither of us said anything until he slipped out his phone. “I’ll send you my schedule. You’ll know exactly where I am. If you want to be alone in the dorm, you just have to text me.”
The Denali that I knew was the one who set the boundaries. With our relationship, I’d been uncomfortable with things like discussing marriage or Denali throwing his life away to try to move to Texas, and when I mentioned that, it didn’t matter. He didn’t listen.
He’d never let me set the pace before.
I watched him for a moment, weirdly…not unhappy about this. “I don’t want you to touch the typewriter. It’s so fragile and I don’t want it more broken.”
“I won’t touch it unless you ask me to.”
“You swear?” I said so quickly, I didn’t have time to be embarrassed for how childish it sounded.
“I promise,” he said, his voice firm.
Something…happened. A snap of a puppet string, an involuntary tug. Goosebumps raised across my skin as Denali walked away. He was so quick about it too, leaving with a purpose. I followed him with my eyes until he disappeared.
Gently, I picked up the typewriter and headed to their dorm. Denali was slipping sheets over the couch’s cushions. He fluffed the blankets, tucking them in.
My heart twinged at the familiarity of it.
Five years ago, Denali would lie to his parents and sleepover at Hersch’s apartment.
The twin bed wasn’t big enough for the two of us, but we didn’t care.
Denali would pile the blankets on top of us and I’d kiss his forehead, his cheeks, his nose, any part I could reach while he snuggled me into him.
The memories nudged me as I set the typewriter on the table.
Denali stood up. “Your—uh—blankets and sheets and stuff were ruined. I had extras tucked away. They’re clean. If you want to wait for yours—”
I was way too tired to trudge to the laundry room. “I mean, if you’re offering…”
“I—uh—can wash mine again if you want—”
“I’m okay, I don’t need them washed again.”
“I buy really good pillows,” he remarked, leaving for his bedroom. “They’re better than anything the housing department’s going to give you. They’re still in the packaging, I haven’t used them.”
Elijah elbowed me when he came in, pointing towards Denali. “Didn’t I tell you? He’s the most boring guy you’ve ever met.”
Not boring, just different.
The truth was, I really, really liked this version of Denali.