7. Chapter 7
7
Grey
“ W ho the fuck do you think you are?” My hands closed in fists at my sides. “You’re always making these fucking decisions without me, man.” My ears and face flooded with fire.
“Grey, calm down,” Malak insisted.
My jaw tightened, my teeth grinding. “Let me guess, you made sure I wouldn’t be here when this chick came to visit?” I asked.
Malak sighed and tilted his head to the side. “I knew you’d scare her away,” he admitted, “…and I knew you’d insist we use the guest room for something else.”
I growled. “We don’t even need another roommate. We’re making enough money,” I reminded him. I tossed a hand up in the air. “You let this happen?” I asked, my head turning over to look at Taylor.
She was leaned against the wall, arms crossed.
“I’m not getting into this. I’ve only known you both a couple weeks. Not getting into your drama,” she replied.
I rolled my eyes. “That’s a quick way to get thrown out.” I threatened.
“Hey,” Malak spoke and stepped closer, “Leave Taylor out of this. Be mad at me all you want.”
“Oh, I am,” I stepped closer. The heat from his tall, muscular body radiated towards mine. My cock twitched. My shoulders tensed.
“Kelly seems cool,” Taylor butted in.
“I thought you weren’t getting in the middle of our shit?” I asked over Malak’s shoulder.
She didn’t reply.
“Kelly is Emily’s best friend. She needs a place to stay, having trouble with her family. We have room. She won’t need to pay us much. How could I say no?” Malak replied.
I narrowed my eyes. “Oh, so we won’t even be making money then?” I asked, “…let me guess, she’s hot?”
I chuckled once, and my mouth pulled up into a crooked smirk. “In that case, maybe I’ll fuck her first.”
Malak’s eyes darkened. “Keep your hands off her,” he ordered.
My mood instantly shot up. A challenge then.
“Even if she asks?” I replied.
Malak snorted. “If she asks, I’ll blow you myself.”
My face reddened. “Shut the fuck up.”
“Enough with the ‘fucks’ already. Jeez, is that the only word in your vocabulary, dude?” Taylor asked.
I met her eyes and the look of annoyance there.
“Whatever,” I mumbled and looked back up at Malak, who stood taller than me. Even at my six feet. “When’s she getting here?”
I heard Malak’s phone ping.
“Now,” he replied after looking at it.
“Great.”
I squinted at the early morning sunlight. I wasn’t one for being up so early, and in fact, I wasn’t. I hadn’t gone to bed yet. Emily’s car pulled up to the front of the building, a small U-Haul attachment trailing behind it.
“Maybe you’re doing this for Emily,” I muttered beside Malak. “You want in her pants?”
“Chup Kar,” Malak hissed in Hindi.
“You shut up.”
Taylor sighed. “Children.”
I watched the driver and the passenger side doors open almost at the same time. My eyes flitted immediately to Emily. She was hot, but definitely too vanilla for my taste. I was all but ready to go head for a box and get the unloading done and over with, at the insistence of Malak, until my gaze drifted over to our new roommate.
Kelly Matthews.
When Malak had said Kelly, she was the last person to cross my mind for who he meant. My entire body tensed as I looked at her curvy figure, her curly hair tied up messily on top of her head. She was thicker and taller than she had been in high school, and she was still just as drop dead gorgeous as she’d been then. My eyes flicked to her ass as she turned to leave her purse on the passenger seat.
Ah, fuck .
Not only had Malak agreed to let someone new live with us while I was gone, it was a chick I’d went to high school with.
I exhaled heavily and tore my eyes away from her. As Malak headed over to the girls, I headed to the back of the car. I’d rather be asleep, but the sooner it was done with, the sooner Malak would stop bugging me about it.
“Nah, I got you,” I heard Malak saying.
“Thanks, we should all be able to get everything up in one trip,” Kelly said.
Her voice was just as lovely and annoying as it had been years before.
Just as I was tugging a box labeled ‘private’ into my arms, Malak rounded the car along with Kelly.
My green eyes met hers. I watched recognition strike her, along with confusion.
“Oh, hi,” Kelly said, “They told me you’d be here, Grey?”
I eyed her from head to toe again and shuffled the box in my arms.
“Uh-huh,” I replied.
Malak grabbed two boxes stacked on top of each other and stood behind me.
“Do I know you?” Kelly asked as she grabbed a box to and furrowed her brow.
Of course, she didn’t quite remember. Well, I looked a bit different than I had in high-school; I hoped anyway.
“Nope,” I replied. I looked down at the box in my arms, “…but I’m sure we could get to know each other with whatever’s in this box.” I smirked.
I watched her heart-shaped face turn pink from her nose to her cheeks and ears.
“Wait… Grey ?” she asked, her eyes widening.
I turned on my heel.
“Greyson Reed?” Kelly’s voice asked, and I could hear feet shuffling behind me as I headed for the door.
I just continued walking.
“You know him?” Taylor asked.
“I’m pretty sure,” Kelly mumbled.
I shifted the box in my arms to pull the door open and used my foot to push the mechanism that would leave it propped open.
I got to the apartment first, tossing the box onto the unmade bed in the guest room. My plan was to get out of there and get to my bedroom before anyone else got up, but when I whirled around, Kelly, Malak, Taylor, and Emily were all piling into the room.
I groaned.
“Alright, there’s one more box that Grey could have got, but I’ll go get it,” Taylor said and disappeared after putting the box in her arms down.
“I’ll go pick us up some pizza. What kind you want?” Emily suggested.
“Anything but pineapple is good with me,” Kelly replied.
“What’s wrong with pineapple?” I asked, though I didn’t much like it myself.
Kelly set the box in her arms down and furrowed her brow at me. “Nothing, I just don’t like it on pizza.”
Emily looked at Malak, who shrugged regarding the pizza. “Well, you’ll all get what you get, I guess. Be back in a few. I’m gonna drop the U-Haul off on the way.”
Emily disappeared as well. Leaving just Kelly, Malak and me in the room.
“So, Malak said you sleep most of the day,” Kelly said idly, rocking on her feet. “What do you do?”
“Fuck,” I replied casually, looking her directly in the eyes. I watched her face flush deeply once more and smirked.
“Don’t listen to him, he’s a dick,” Malak told her. I glared at him.
“You’re a dick,” I replied. My narrowed eyes shifted back to Kelly.
Kelly’s brows furrowed. “I do know you,” she insisted and looked over at Malak. “We went to high school together.”
“Oh, damn really?” Malak asked.
“No.” I snapped.
“Oh, yes we did,” Kelly insisted. “I’d know that attitude anywhere.” Her voice grew more panicked.
I pushed past them and back into the hallway just as Taylor was coming in with the box. I made a line for my bedroom. Kelly Matthews, pain in my ass.
I crashed as soon as my head hit my pillow. It wasn’t for long, though. Not forty minutes later, there was a bang at my door.
“Pizza!” Malak shouted. He knew I didn’t give a fuck about the pizza. I’d rather sleep.
I remained face down on my pillow and tugged the blanket further over my head, fully expecting to just pass back out and not be bothered. Instead, I heard my poor open. Light poured into my face as the blanket was torn off my body.
“Dude!” I huffed.
“Get up,” Malak ordered. His eyes were dark and irritated. “Kelly just got here. Stop being a dick and have some pizza.”
I growled under my breath. “Why do you care?” I asked. My sleepy gaze eyed his face.
He was too interested in Kelly. I could see it there in those eyes. Malak liked to be in control, much like me. We didn’t get along because of it. Yet, he was the one who I’d got stuck with for the long haul. Ironic.
“If you want to fuck her, don’t bring me into this,” I insisted.
Malak glared and walked out of my bedroom. I was two seconds away from just going back to sleep, but he’d left my door open. I got up to close it, and the scent of greasy, delicious pizza wafted in my direction.
“Fine. Fucker,” I mumbled and headed into the living room.
When I got out there, the first person I laid eyes on was Kelly. It wasn’t on purpose, but somehow they managed to land directly on her tits. She looked ridiculously hot in the tight tank top she was wearing with her jeans, sweater tied around her waist. My gaze shifted to her mouth just as she was taking a bite of what appeared to be double pepperoni pizza. Then I met her eyes.
“Glad to see you could make it,” Malak said, smirking.
Oh, he’s fucking with me .
My eyes narrowed. I grabbed a plastic plate from the coffee table and reached for one of two open boxes of pizza. One had double pepperoni, the other just cheese. A moment later, I was flopping beside Malak forcefully, shoving a bite of cheese pizza into my face.
“Badir,” Malak mumbled when I jostled him. He kicked my ankle with his foot.
“So, what do you do Taylor?” Kelly asked, “For work, I mean.”
Taylor was all but curled up inside her extremely over sized hoodie, chewing on a piece of crust. She looked at Kelly with her tired gray eyes, a look of anxiety there. “Uh, freelance,” she replied.
I chuckled and chewed.
“Oh, like what?” Kelly asked, pushing.
“Art,” Taylor said and shoved the rest of her crust in her mouth.
“If furry porn is art,” I butted in.
Taylor’s face turned red and the second piece of crust on her plate came flying in my direction. I blocked it with my arm and it went falling to the carpet, crumbs and all.
“Hey, that’s rude,” Emily insisted from where she sat beside Kelly on the floor. There was plenty of space on the couch, but there they were. “I’ve seen it before. It’s great. Not my thing, but Taylor makes a buttload of money a month. She’s good at it.”
I watched Kelly for her reaction. She was flushed, but just smile slightly, and chuckled, her posture nervous.
“I can draw a little, but I mostly gave up learning the last year,” Kelly admitted.
I rolled my eyes and continued eating.
I continued eating, tuning out the conversation. No one seemed interested in including me in it, anyway. When I was done, I headed for the kitchen. As soon as I tossed my plate in the sink, I could toss myself back in bed. Normally I couldn’t bother, but I didn’t need Malak bitching at me for another thing.
A moment after I got into the kitchen, I felt a presence behind me.
“So, are we still pretending you don’t know me?” Kelly asked. I looked to the side just in time to see her put her plate in the sink on top of mine. I watched the curve of her hip as she leaned against the counter, one hand on it.
I sighed. “Look, I was up all night and most of today, I should have been asleep three hours ago,” I told her. “Don’t mess with me.”
Kelly straightened up away from the counter and folded her arms under her bust.
“Whatever, I know who are, and clearly you haven’t changed,” Kelly accused.
My temper flared. I stepped closer to her. “Oh, yeah?” I asked, “You still into being told what to do? Bent over a knee? Tossed around a bit?”
Her face flushed deeply. I saw Malak in the entry way out of the corner of my vision.
“No, I’m not actually,” Kelly huffed, “but you’re still into being a dick.” She whirled around.
“Excuse me, Malak.”
I watched Malak step to the side so she could get by. My eyes met his, dark and brooding.
“Watch yourself,” Malak told me.
“You watch yourself. I didn’t agree with this,” I reminded him.
I shoved past him to finally get the sleep I deserved.
Maybe I’d wake up and Kelly would’ve just been a bad dream. A sexy, but bad dream.