Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU BY THE ROMANTICS
Days later I walk out of a stadium style classroom and feel like I can take a deep breath.
Every single final is done, and my junior year of college is now complete.
Of course, I still have to wait and see what my final grade is but even if I bombed every final, which I didn’t, I would still pass all of my classes.
Meaning there’s nothing to worry about for the last two weeks I’m in Seattle.
I enjoy walking on campus. I’ve made the most out of not having a car here.
There’s bus transportation for the campus of course but I’d prefer the fresh air, even when it’s cold.
Our campus is beautiful. It sometimes seems like Seattle Pike feels like it's its own corner of the world.
Like nothing else exists outside of these classes, or the dining hall, or my friends.
My apartment is only a block away. Sienna said she’d be meeting me there, but knowing her, she’s probably already inside, slumped on my couch with some rom com on. She’s also probably helped herself to my snacks.
I begged Sienna to move in with me. She’s a lot tidier than I am, and we both know it wouldn’t have worked out because of that.
We value our friendship over living together so we decided it was better this way.
She lives alone now in her own place just like me, and she’s close too. Close enough to walk if she wanted to.
I open my door to a sight I knew I’d see.
Sienna is sprawled on my gray sofa, a bowl of popcorn in her grasp, her eyes trained on the TV.
50 First Dates is on the screen, one of my favorites, and one of hers too.
I can’t count on my hands and toes how many times the two of us have watched this movie on my sofa or hers.
“Finally!” Her voice is cheerful, and it makes me smile.
I throw my things on the floor, and launch myself onto the couch, practically on top of Sienna.
“We’re done,” I sigh in relief.
“Thank god. I’m sick of college.”
The romance plays behind her words. My eyes are trained on it, my mind betraying me. I think about his eyes first, and then the rest of him. His smile, and his body…His offer.
Every part of me is contradicting itself when it comes to the thought of Bellamy Archer, and this stupid list. On one end, I should be happy that he left it alone. I should be happy that he just gave up. But I’m oddly unsatisfied with that fact.
The thought of doing this list with Bellamy brings up a million red flags.
Mostly because Bellamy is a walking green flag.
Green flag men are hard to find, and they fall incredibly hard.
Especially for red flag girls like myself.
I’m only a red flag because I’m absolutely not looking for a relationship in the slightest. It might be a bit presumptuous to place Bellamy in a category but I know I’m right.
I know he can’t do casual the way that I can.
I know someone like him would end up hurt by someone who’s not ready to date.
Someone who might never be ready to date.
Opposites might attract, but they shouldn’t when one of them is the human embodiment of a cinnamon roll, and one of them is a heartless bitch.
If I hurt his feelings, everyone else might hurt me.
It would also hurt me to hurt his feelings if I’m being honest. But that doesn’t stop me from seeing the list on repeat in my head like an agonizing movie on loop. I can’t shut my head up about it.
“So…” I want to bring it up to her but it’s almost impossible to do it casually... Sienna is the type to freak out when I bring up boys in a non-sexual way. Especially boys with the name Bellamy Archer.
“So what? What did you do?” She asks me, and my jaw drops slightly.
“Who says I did anything?” I ask her.
“You did. You started the conversation with soooooo. That means you did something... Or you’re thinking about doing something. Which one is it?”
I drag my bottom lip through my teeth, preparing myself to tell her.
“So remember that list I said I was going to make you? The one that was going to prove that things in romance movies don’t ever happen in real life? Well, I was almost done making it, and I tutored Bellamy Archer in my apartment the other day, right?”
She sits up at the mention of Bellamy, her interest piqued.
“I’m listening...” She has a mischievous look on her face.
Knowing my best friend so well, she has to have a million and one crazy ideas swirling through her head right now.
“Well, he obviously grabbed the list-”
“Obviously,” Sienna is smirking at me, completely relaxed on my couch.
She’s eating every ounce of this up.
“He asked what it was, and wouldn’t give it back, and then he suggested that he help me complete it, and I don’t know why.
I have no idea what his intentions with it are, but I said no.
He asked again and again, and I said no every single time, and then he just said okay, and wished me a good summer. ”
She tilts her head toward me like she’s waiting for something else.
“I don’t see the problem...” She shakes her head. “So you’re not into him like that... That’s fine, and he’s obviously a good guy, he’s not going to try and force you, or make you go out with him.”
I nod, agreeing with her partially.
“But?” She asks.
“But ever since I said no, and he said that’s fine, I have not been able to shut up that stupid little voice in the back of my head, and I can’t stop thinking about it, or him,” It almost burns my tongue admitting it out loud.
“Okay, that’s exciting. So when are you going to tell him? I have been waiting for this moment since the day you said you were tutoring Bellamy, he is-”
“No... No, absolutely not. I was telling you that so you could talk me out of it.”
“Then you’re shit out of luck because I was going to tell you that you should do it.”
I cover my face with a throw pillow and groan into it as loud as I can.
“Oh come on Kam. What’s the worst that could happen?”
I throw the pillow across the living room and sit up as quickly as possible.
“He falls head over heels in love with me, and I break his poor little heart.”
I’ve never seen Sienna roll her eyes as hard as she just did.
“Okay, when I don’t know what to do, I make a pros and cons list, so that’s what you’re going to do. So pros... I don’t want you to talk, I’ll tell you what they are. He’s a quarterback which means he has quarterback hands.”
“Quarterback what?” I interrupt.
“Quarterback hands… Oh my god, do you know anything? Not only him, but practically every football player has hot hands. You can’t tell me you never noticed them,” She says as I continue to shake my head, having no clue what she’s talking about.
“Okay, well, you’re in for a treat. He probably knows just how to use his large, football player hands too. .. That’s a very very big pro.”
Sienna doesn’t let up about the hand thing.
“I don’t care about his hands. I care about the fact that Bellamy has never been the type to do casual. He’s more like you, and I’m more like… Like his best friend Lawson who can’t keep it in his pants,” I shrug, and Sienna’s eyes go wide.
“Okay, well… Did he says he wanted more than the list?”
I shake my head no to her question.
“No, he was the one who said casual, no strings attached,” I sigh the words out.
“What things were on this list?” Sienna asks, and I rattle off some of the contents.
“I just don’t know,” I admit to her.
“Well, I do... He has made it very clear that he has no intentions of anything more. He said no strings attached first. He’s literally one of the most attractive men that walk this campus, and honestly, probably the world.
You get sex, you get good experiences and fun memories, and you get to complete the list, and then go home.
.. If anything more happens, that’s not on you.
.. You’ve clarified what you want. If he expects more. He fucked up, not you.”
The turning in my stomach continues, nothing making it subside.
“I just don’t want... I don’t want things to be awkward or anything.
.. What if I end up able to help the football team next semester?
Then how am I going to act like nothing happened?
” I truly don’t think I’d be able to live with myself if this messed anything up for me being able to do what I love.
I want to work with the football team more than any other sport at Seattle Pike University. I’m in good graces as of right now with the coach.
“You’ve slept with at least five guys on the football team, and kicked them out after…
If that’s not going to be awkward, then why would this be?
You’re friends with him, it would probably be less awkward if anything.
I seriously don’t see a single con to this, I mean it.
.. You know I would try my hardest to turn you away from anything I thought was a dumb idea, but this? This is genius.”
I run my hands over my face, and harshly through my hair, “It was three football players... But either way, should I text him?”
“He’s at drills... Or he’s about to be. He wouldn’t answer... I mean, you could just show up?”
“Drive me to the field?”
She’s off the couch before I can even blink.
From the second we get in the car I start questioning my mental state.
I question exactly how I thought this was a good idea for even a split second.
I know I’m sweating too. This will end badly.
I have a gut feeling about just how poorly this is going to end.
I nestle myself into the passenger seat, crossing my arms over my stomach as I panic mentally.
I think I’m going to vomit. Profusely. Exorcism-type vomit all over this car, or possibly the football field.
“You’re not backing out.”
I open my mouth to argue but she doesn’t let me.