Breaking Rule Number Two

Chapter Four

Throughout their mini-study session, she realized one of two things.

One.

Charlie Harrison reminded her of a Golden Retriever. Random things caught his attention and their study talk would turn into what she thought about living off campus and if she liked watching hockey. Each time she'd give a short answer and direct him back to his work, each time more exhausting than the next.

And then two.

She enjoyed their time together more than she cared to admit. Her afternoon flew by and when he said he had to leave for hockey practice she sat in silence at the coffee shop, feeling oddly more alone than she ever had.

Charlie was a bundle of energy and brightened whatever room he walked into so when he left she felt as if something was off, missing even.

She fell onto her couch in the communal living room with an exaggerated sigh. She was not going to be thinking of Charlie Harrison anymore.

She burrows her head farther into the pillow with Matt Damon's face on it. She knew she was supposed to make dinner and get showered, but the idea of making food made her chest feel all heavy and her eyes prickle with tears.

She couldn't explain it, but she felt off. Her morning had been fine, but now that she was home, she was paralyzed in this haze of anxiety and numbness.

She didn't know why, she only knew she usually couldn't shake it once it started.

"Wow, your day must have sucked," Bella says from the kitchen right before taking a huge bite of an apple.

Lorelei turned so she was facing the ceiling. "Quite the contrary actually."

Bella tilts her head to squint at her roommate. "So you're wallowing on the couch because you had a good day?"

"Yes."

Bella rolls her eyes. "God. You're so weird."

Lorelei gives another sigh even more exaggerated than the first. "Is Casey up and moving yet?"

"Yeah, but there's a boy in her room."

Lorelei sits up. A boy? She'd just left a boy's room that morning and a boy was in her room now? She never brought guys over.

Bella tightened her sneakers, already knowing what Lorelei wanted to know next. "And no, I have no idea who he is."

Lorelei and Bella might have been the most estranged of the roommate dynamics, but at least Bella was nice to her... for the most part.

"And I'm not going to describe him," Bella finishes as she straightens.

Lorelei stands. "You have to tell me if he at least has a handlebar mustache."

Bella gives her roommate an annoyed glare. "I'm going over to Bellamy's."

"Blink once for yes, twice for no. Bella. Bella–" Bella was already halfway out the door. "How am I going to be able to estimate the threat level? Bella–" The door slams shut.

Lorelei glances at the half-eaten apple on the counter and then beside it a water bottle she'd never seen before.

Most of her roommates preferred colors like pink and yellow so the grey and black water bottle stood out.

Lorelei picked it up. The name Damien was written on the bottom of it in a black sharpie.

Just then, Casey's door opens and the water bottle goes sailing across the living room. Her instinct told her to throw and think later instead of simply setting it back down on the counter before Casey saw her.