Tangled With My Roommate

Chapter-37: Please Be Safe

|| Theo ||

From the moment Ara left this morning, I had been on edge. There was a churning feeling in my stomach that told me something would go wrong today, and I couldn't stop fidgeting as I worried about her.

"—Theo? Theo!"

I snapped out of my trance and looked up to see my friends staring at me. "Ah, I'm sorry."

"Where are you lost, bro?" Jeremy asked.

I shook my head and said, "Nowhere."

"I bet he just misses Annabelle," Taylor commented and laughed by himself.

"Yeah, I'm just gonna check up on her for a bit," I said and got up from the living room floor.

"Hey, that's the fifth time you're calling Annabelle after we came. Won't she get irritated?" Jackson said.

I huffed and sat back down. "I know, but I'm just getting a bad feeling."

"I never thought a day would come when I would see Theo's nose buried in his phone for his girlfriend during a math session," Rose commented, and everyone laughed from my team.

I checked the photos that Ara sent me last from her lunch, and I smiled seeing her happy face.

She's fine, I told myself and took a deep breath. "Never mind. I'm sorry for getting distracted. Let's start again."

The five of us worked on a few advanced problems. Somewhere in between that, Wyatt came back home. He stayed in his room after greeting my friends.

It was around nine at night when I finally bid goodbye to them and plopped down on the couch.

"When's Ara coming back?" Wyatt asked after coming out of his room.

"I don't know. Late, probably."

Wyatt hummed. "Bachelorette parties sure take a lot of time." He was scrolling through his phone and suddenly exclaimed, "Holy shit! Ara is drunk."

"What?" I bolted up and snatched his phone to check Coral's Instagram story where Ara was slurring something gibberish to a good-looking man in his early twenties. "Her friends better be fending off these creeps hitting on her, or else, I swear to God..." I trailed off and immediately called Ara.

She didn't pick up the first time. "Why did you get so drunk?" I asked immediately when she received the call the second time.

"Heyyyyy, baby," Ara greeted in a shrill voice. I could hear loud music being played in the background along with cheers and glasses clinking.

"Hi," I greeted back, trying to keep my calm. "Why are you drunk?"

"I— not drun— I think you are." She giggled. "Do you— to come and grab— lemonade with me?" Some of her words were cut off due to the loud noises from her side.

"Yes, I'll come, but not for lemonade. To pick you up. So now, tell me where are you," I asked.

"No. They said no o— leave— before twelve— I won't leave. I wanna dance more!"

"Yes, yes, you can. But can I join you, please?"

"No, thi— isn't for guys. No men allo— unless you— a stripper."

"You've got a stripper there?" I asked, mortified.

"What's a bachelorette party without a stripper?"

"I just saw a guy in Coral's story a few minutes ago!"

"That was— stripper before he stripped!" she exclaimed, sounding like she was about to cry.