"Do you want some tea?"
Rob nodded and smiled. "What kind do you have?"
I'd let him in the living room, forcing him to stay seated on the couch as he protested, declaring that he only needed to say a couple of words. Eventually, he got tired and followed along, finally settling down.
"I think you'd like jasmine, I don't know, what kind do you prefer?"
He shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I'm more of a coffee person."
"Everyone seems to be," I said, raising my eyebrows.
"Jasmine is fine."
"And jasmine it is," I said, leaving him in the living room with the dog as I walked over to the kitchen.
I brought the tea over to Rob after I was done preparing it.
He thanked me, supporting the tea cup with both hands, making the cup seem tiny in comparison to his giant looking hands.
"Is everything okay?" I finally asked.
Rob took a sip of his tea, then gently placed it on the coffee table.
"I need your advice," he said.
I winced. "Please tell me you're not about to come out to me."
He grinned. "Does that happen a lot to you?"
I scoffed, which seemed to be a good enough answer for Rob, who carried on with what he was saying.
"No," he said. "I'm not gay."
"Okay, then, what is it?"
"I like someone."
Only then did I realize how much I hated that sentence.
I've always hated. It was the sentence that Devin always used whenever he found a new girlfriend. It was the sentence he used before he told me he liked Ian.
Most importantly, it contained the word 'like' in it.
And that word reminded me of Jake.
"You're scared," he'd said.
Scared.
I shook the thought away, not now.
"So what if you like someone?" I asked.
"I don't know if you've noticed but I don't usually date woman. I usually just fu-"
"Okay, okay. I get it," I interrupted him before he got to say the full word. "You...use them and then you dispose of them. Yeah, I noticed."
He frowned as he nodded. "But this one's different. She's...different."
"Aren't they all?" I drawled lazily.
Rob didn't seem concerned with my tone, he didn't even notice it. "She's beautiful."
His eyes were distant, focused on the wall behind me, his forehead lined with trouble that seemed to physically weigh him down.
"Okay," I said. "How is this different from all the other times you slept with women?"
"Because I like her!"
"Don't you like all the women you sleep with?"
He shook his head. "Not the way I like Adrianna. With the others it was plain physical attraction, now it's different. It's deeper than that."
"So, what's the problem?"
"I want to be with her but she's so out of my league..."
I blinked. "Wow, she got you bad."
He let out a struggling laugh. "You have no idea."
"Ask her out."
"What if she says no?"
I shrugged. "What if she says yes?"
He shook his head, looking sick to the stomach just at the thought of asking this woman out.
"Okay...try talking to her first. Let her see you for you," I tried.
"How?"
"Rob, what do people love the most about you?"
He shrugged. "My skills. In bed."
I almost face plamed. "I meant personality wise."
He frowned. "I don't know."
"Well, you're kind of funny. And you're always happy to help out," I said. "Show her that. Talk to her, be yourself, and I'm sure all those traits will come out of you naturally."
I watched as his face slowly transformed from distraught to hope. The creases on his face smoothed out and his frown turned upside down.
Then he stood abruptly and said, "Thank you so much, Nate."
"Sure."
"I'll see you around!" he grinned and rushed to the door.
"You're going now?" I asked, standing up from my position.
"Yes! Thanks again, bye!" he grinned before rushing out the door.
I watched the door shut behind him and I sunk back in the couch.
I wasn't usually one to give advice. Usually, advice would be given to me, not the other way around.
Usually, I wouldn't feel so sad after seeing someone so happy.
But usually I was alone, and that's exactly how I felt then.
Alone. Lonely.
~
"So...I kind of just left," I said as I finished summing up what happened with Devin, Ian, and most importantly (to Tom, at least) Jake.
The café was having one of its lazy days, where not many customers filled up the chairs, and the band's only audience were the workers and the few people in the building itself.
"Wait, you guys broke up?"
"That's the thing," I said. "We were never really together to begin with. You said it yourself, things with him were not...normal."
"I know. What you had was dangerous, and one of you was bound to get hurt. It just happened to be Jake."
"I'm hurting too," I said, but both of us knew it wasn't the same kind of hurt.
"What went wrong?"
I shrugged. "He said he liked me and I just freaked."
"Why?"
"I don't know!"
Tom sighed. "He said you were scared..."
"Do you think he's right?" I asked, my heart clenching.
"Maybe," he shrugged.
"I know. But it doesn't make sense..."
"What?"
"The way I feel," I said impatiently as I rapidly tapped my shoe against the tiles. "My stomach flips when he kisses me, my heart races, I feel butterflies and all that cheesy stuff...you know, the signs."
He frowned. "Could it be lust?"
I mirrored his expression. "Lust?"
"Yeah," he leaned forward. "Lust. That could be it."
I leaned back against my chair as I stared at the untouched drink in my hands. "Lust...Why?"
Tom raised his eyebrows at me. "Gee, lemme think."
I bit my lower lip as I thought it through. Lust. It was definitely a possibility.
"How do I know?" I asked.
"Think about it. Do you get excited to see him for him, or for the things you'll do," he said, looking away awkwardly.
I didn't say anything as my mind wandered back to the times I hung out with Jake.
"I like him," I said. "I just can't see us together."
"That sucks. I mean, you guys have known each other for a long time."
"Two years isn't that long."
"I only knew Jesse for a few days until we started dating."
"I never dated Jake," I pointed out.
"You know what I mean."
"Tell me more about Jesse," I said, finally lifting the mildly warm mug of tea to my lips.
"What do you want to know?" He didn't seem too keen on the change of subject.
"Stuff."
His face reddened. "I met his parents."
"What?! When?"
"A few days ago. He picked me up at around six thirty, maybe seven, and drove us over to his parents' house," he smiled at the memory. "They're really nice. And his mom makes the best pasta in history. I've never tasted anything better than that. Oh, and his dad used to work at this old Mexican restaurant and we got to talk about all the different things we have to face at work and stuff. Then Jesse drove me back home and we talked in his car for a while before..."
My eyes widened. "Tom!"
His face flushed even further. "We didn't do anything! He just kissed me and it was nice...Until my mom showed up."
I laughed. "What happened?"
"Jesse had just stopped kissing me to, um, move further down towards my neck when my mom knocked on the window. I got so freaked out, my head hit the ceiling of his car and I almost kicked him the in stomach." He laughed nervously.
"Then what?"
He shrugged. "We said goodnight and I left."
"What did your mom say?"
"Nothing, she just laughed at me as I tried not to kill myself. God, it was so embarrassing."
I chuckled as I imagined Tom's embarrassed face as he walked away with his tail between his legs.
"Anyway, what are you going to do now? Will you have to find a new tutor?" he asked.
I frowned. "I'll have to talk to Jake about that."
He raised his eyebrows. "You think he'll still want to go on tutoring you?"
"Maybe he won't mind."
"Don't get your hopes up."
I bit my lower lip and nodded. "I should get going, I've missed a few days of work."
"Right, I'll see you around."
"Yeah, we should hang out more," I said. "Definitely with Jesse around."
Tom faked a double take. "I'm surprised you say that."
I scoffed. "Shut up."
"Seriously, when did you care about socializing."
"I don't. I just want to get to know Jesse better," I protested as I stood up.
"I have so many friends I want to introduce you to-"
"No way."
"C'mon!"
"Bye, Tom." I walked away as I heard him call after me, struggling to suppress a tiny smile from appearing on my lips.
I left the café, the door whooshing shut behind me. I shivered as I tightened my jacket around me, the cold hitting me hard and I could nearly feel the redness form across my nose and cheeks.
I got to my floor and walked past Rob's door when I heard something. Frozen in my spot, I managed to edge closer to the door and gently placed my ear against the wooden door.
"Adrianna, please!"
It was Rob's voice, and I recognized the woman's name from our earlier conversation.
The woman's voice was a lot softer than Rob's so I couldn't hear anything she said but the conversation was definitely getting heated.
Then I heard a loud crash.
Followed by another.
And another.
I blinked a few times before deciding that I should probably see what was going on.
Knocking on the door, I called, "Rob?'"
After a few seconds with no reply, I knocked again. "Rob? Is everything okay?"
Finally, I heard him call back. "Everything's fine, Nate!"
"Are you sure?"
I knew Rob wasn't capable of murder, but those crashing noises didn't sound reassuring at all.
The door opened, revealing a distressed looking Rob, who kept glancing behind his back. "Hey, Nate."
"Hi, Rob...I heard something break?"
"Oh, uh, I bumped into a few plates in the kitchen, no big deal." He scratched his ear.
"Rob-"
"Rob!" a woman screamed.
Rob jumped, his face turning red. "Uh, one second."
I frowned as Rob disappeared back into his apartment.
I waited a few seconds, playing with my fingers before deciding I should go in.
There were those few rare times where I'd had to walk into Rob's apartment. When he needed my help to carry some heavy boxes (not that I made much of a difference), or when I had to fix his computer because Rob was gullible enough to download some phony program.
His apartment was never the cleanest. But this time, it was even worse than before.
Some chairs were knocked over, shards of glass and ceramic were scattered all over the floor, and someone's thong hung over the corner of a painting.
I stared at the piece of underwear before quickly looking away.
My gaze instantly fell against an open door.
I titled my head to the side. I'm gonna regret this, I thought as I walked over to the open door and peaked in.
"Oh, God!" I yelled, my hand instantly rushed to cover my eyes. "What the eff?"
A woman screamed as Rob started stammering.
I stumbled out of the doorway, both hands over my eyes. "Don't you know how to close the freakin' door?!"
"Uh..."
I finally managed to turn around, my back to the open door, which was slammed shut a few seconds later.
"I'm sorry you had to see that, Nate."
I finally released my hands, but my eyes were still squeezed shut. "Ew, ew, ew."
"Nate-"
"Why was she...Never mind, I don't want to know," I said, finally opening my eyes to look at Rob who was staring at me nervously.
"I told you to stay at the door!"
"Are you kidding? No one listens to that!" I said.
"Nate, I don't know what to say-"
"You're officially my dog's babysitter, my personal slave, and chef. Those are my conditions."
"Okay, okay."
I sighed, relaxing slowly. "I thought she was different."
"She is!"
"But you're..." I waved my hand.
Rob shrugged with a smile. "We like to move fast."
I scrunched my nose. "That's disgusting."
Rob chuckled nervously. "I don't know if anything's going to happen after this. Between me and Adrianna."
"Why? I didn't see much..." I shuddered.
"She's just like me."
"In a way that you like to you know...?" I guessed nervously.
"Yeah, how I was before I met her."
"Did you use my advice, though?"
"Didn't have to," he sighed. His shoulders slumped in defeat as he ran a hand through his hair.
"I'm sorry. Maybe you should try again."
"I don't think it'll work."
"You should," I pressed on.
"How do you know it'll work?"
I shrugged. "I don't. But I know that I wish I tried. Well, not anymore, but...never mind."
He stared at his hands, both clenched together tightly.
"I should get going," I said.
He nodded. "I'm sorry, again."
"I'll get over it."
After I look up hot pictures of men on Tumblr for four hours straight. Actually, make that four.
Hey hey hey! Sorry for the late-ish update, I kind of lost inspiration for a bit. Also, school is driving me insane.
Can we talk about how there's finally a female character? Lol, took me long enough.
And OMG OMG we hit over 10K reads WTH that's freaking awesome!! Aaaah! *mind blown*
Question: who's your number one ship? I know a lot of you (okay, no, most of you) ship Nate and Jake, so you can mention your second choice if that's the case. Does that make sense? Eh.