Chapter Eleven
"Lacie went on a date with Trent and I'm just finding out about this now?" Megan asks shooting up from my bed.
"Yup and they kissed," Stephanie answers twirling a strand of blue hair around her finger and my eyes widen.
"How did you—?"
"They kissed!" Megan yells and Stephanie nods leaning back against her bed pillows. Then my phone beeps in front of me and I lean forward to check it.
Wherefore art thou, Vanilla?
A goofy smile spreads across my lips before I can stop it.
"Oh my god, look at her face. She totally likes him." Megan's voice brings my head back up, but then my phone beeps again and I look back down. "What did he say?" She asks and the bed squeaks as she leans over.
"He asked if I wanted to come over and watch a movie in his dorm," I say, but Stephanie's gasp has me looking back up. "What?"
"That's code for 'come over and let's make out.'"
"...And maybe do other things," Savannah continues and they giggle while my eyes widen.
"Oh man, it's been awhile since I've been with a guy," Stephanie says stretching her legs out.
"Wait, who was your first?" Savannah asks turning to her cousin.
"Patrick Gemski on Prom night."
"Are you serious?" Savannah gawks and Stephanie grins.
"Yeah, and he was good too."
"Oh god." Savannah slaps her arm.
"Hey!" Stephanie rubs the spot she slapped. "What about you?"
"An old friend." Savannah shrugs and Stephanie nods before looking over at me.
"What about you, Lacie? How did you lose it?"
"I, uh..." I don't even bother to continuing knowing my face clearly says it all.
"Oh. My. God." Stephanie sits up straight. "You're still a..." She trails off and I think my whole face just about turns bright red. "Oh. My. God."
"Jeez, you make it sound like a bad thing," Megan grumbles beside me and Savannah gasps.
"You too, Meg?"
"What?" Megan shrugs. "Doesn't anyone wait until marriage anymore?"
Stephanie slumps back against the wall. "I don't necessarily think you have to. I think all you need is someone you're comfortable with."
"And you were comfortable with Patrick Gemski?" Savannah quips and Stephanie shoves her before they both laugh.
"What did you tell him?" Megan asks beside me and nods to my phone.
"Oh, I'll just tell him I can't come," I say, picking up my phone.
"Oh no," Stephanie comes over and rips the phone out of my hands. "You're going."
"Wait, but I have a lab write-up due—" My protest is in vain as I go to grab the phone back from her, but she holds it away from me.
"Too late, I already said yes."
"Great," I mutter and fall back onto my bed.
Stephanie laughs dropping my phone beside me. "Oh come' on, Lacie, it's been like two days since your date."
"Three," I say sitting back up and she just waves her hand.
"Whatever, it's a Saturday night and you're going."
"Plus, we could be wrong," Savannah adds. "You really could just be watching a movie."
"Yeah," Stephanie nods. "... And maybe some kissing."
I sigh and fall back onto my bed again covering my face with my hands. "Okay, maybe kissing doesn't sound that bad." I mumble into my hands and they all laugh.
****
My friends all giggle beside me as they walk me across campus to the boy's dorm building. Since it's getting pretty dark out they didn't want me to get killed walking across campus alone.
As we near the building I see Trent leaning against it scrolling through his phone. As if on cue, he looks up and spotting us, he pockets his phone and steps away from the wall.
"Hey," he greets meeting us halfway. I take in his black sweatpants and maroon sweatshirt before Stephanie shoves me forward. I stumble over my own feet and land in Trent's chest.
"Bye, Lacie!"
"Have fun!"
"Love you!"
They all call running away and Trent chuckles. I stand up straight and noticing that my hand still has Trent's sweatshirt in a death grip, I slowly let go before bringing my gaze up to his.
"Hi," I say sheepishly tucking a strand of hair behind my ear as Trent just continues to grin down at me. I stare up into his eyes for a extra second before I shake my head and take a step back. "Um..."
"Want to go inside?" Trent points his thumb behind him with an amused look on his face and I nod.
"Yes."
His grin remains as he starts walking toward the door. He holds it open for me and I walk past him inside. He leads me up two flights of stairs and a few steps down a hallway before we stop in front of a door. He grabs the handle and glances over his shoulder at me.
"You ready?" I panic for a second as my mind flashes back to the conversation in my dorm room, but then Trent opens the door and walks in.
"Welcome to la casa de Trent," he says spreading his arms open and I'm surprised at the relief that floods through me. "Zack's at the frat house, so I figured we could just hang out." He unzips his sweatshirt and chucks it on the desk chair before turning back over to me. He stares at my fidgeting form in the doorway for a second before walking back over. "I don't have a large selection of dvd's, but we also have Netflix." He grabs my wrist and walks me into the middle of the room. "We're also going to have to suffer with my small laptop screen, but it has good sound." He goes back over and shuts the door while I take a glance around his dorm.
It's pretty neat, just with a few clothing items scattered around. I glance at the beds and the one closest to me has a half closed silver laptop on it, so I assume it's Trent's. Trent goes over and flops down on it, confirming my thoughts. He pushes the screen back and shifts on the bed so he's leaning against the back wall.
"So I know horror movies are out," He says and glances up at me from the screen.
"Yes, anything but horror please." Is my immediate reply and he chuckles looking back down.
I put my hands inside my sweatshirt sleeves and glance around again. My eyes find Trent's again, realizing his eyes never left me, and he pats the spot next to him. I languidly shuffle my way over to the bed and kick off my sneakers before slowly sitting down close to the edge as the mattress creaks underneath me. I wring my hands together on my lap and focus on the laptop screen all the while feeling Trent's eyes.
"Lacie?" He asks.
"Yeah?" I answer with my eyes still trained in front of me.
"I need to tell you something."
"What?" I finally turn to him already knowing the unnecessary nerves are written all over my face.
"I like to cuddle."
"Oh," I nod looking away for a second before whipping my head back in his direction. "Wait—what?" He chuckles looking away and shaking his head at my shocked face. With the dim light from the lamp on his nightstand and the light from the laptop screen I can't help but notice the light stubble on his jaw.
"I said," He turns back to me with his eyes glittering in amusement. "I like to cuddle."
"So um..." I trail off.
"So," he gestures to the good amount of space I put between us. "This isn't going to work for me."
"But I—" I pause before bringing my hand up between us. "It's awkward."
His nose scrunches up. "What?"
I bring a hand up and scratch the tip of my nose. "Cuddling is..." I drop my hand. "Weird."
His eyebrows go up in surprise. "I've never met a girl that doesn't like to cuddle."
"It's just awkward, like you have to hold the person, but what if you're hungry, or you have to go to the bathroom? Then instead of getting up you have to untangle yourself from the other person and then it's unbearable silence because you're the one that had to pee and I just," I pause my ramble and look back over at Trent only to see he's staring back at me completely amused, so I throw my hands up, "I never met a guy that actually likes to cuddle!"
He throws his head back and lets out another laugh before looking back at me with amusement written all over his face.
"Okay, here's how we're going to do this." He wraps his arms around my waist and drags me right next to him. Then leaving one arm around my back he pulls one of his blankets up and covers us both before dragging his laptop back onto his lap. "There, you see? Now we're all cozy." I glance down at the blanket, the very fuzzy blanket may I add, before looking back at Trent and he shakes his head. "Don't give me that look. I'm going to find a way to make you love cuddling."
I let out a laugh. "Just pick a movie."
"Comedy?" He asks with a raise of his brow.
"Comedy." I nod and he nods, confirming the notion, before looking back over at his laptop screen. He scrolls through on Netflix before picking one of the new releases and a few minutes into the movie I find myself relaxing into his side.
****
I go to turn around in my bed, but a weight on my stomach prevents me from moving. Assuming it's probably a stray pillow I allow my eyes to flutter open, but seeing a light grey v-neck t-shirt in front of me I yelp and jump back only to end up tumbling off the edge of the bed. I land on the scratchy carpeted floor with a thud and all my senses seem to go into overdrive. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
I snatch my phone up off the ground as it seemed to have slipped out of my sweatshirt pocket while the bed creaks above me.
"Lacie?" I hear Trent mumble as I quickly scramble to my feet. "Shit," He says sounding more alert. "Lacie, wait!" But I'm already out the door and dashing down the hallway.
"Whoa." I almost crash into someone, but they move out of my way. "Peas?" Crap. I keep running without a glance back, adrenaline being the only thing keeping my body alert.
I run all the way back to the girl's dorm building like a mad women until I reach my door. I stop, resting my hands on my hips, and take in a few deep breaths before slowly twisting the handle. I walk in seeing Stephanie's still sleeping in her bed and quietly close the door, not wanting to wake her up.
"You little devil!" I yelp jumping away from the door and turn to see Stephanie sitting upright in her bed with her hair all tousled.
"You're supposed to be sleeping!" I yell back and she points her finger at me.
"Oh my god, did you—"
"No!" I cut her off and yank my sweatshirt over my head revealing the camisole I have on underneath.
"But then why—?"
"We fell asleep." I kick off my shoes.
"But how? You got there at six." I sigh and start tying my hair up into a ponytail.
"We watched one movie and then it ended around eight, so we decided to watch another one and I guess because we were staring at the screen for so long, we just kind of fell asleep." My phone starts to ring, but I shut it off before walking over to my bed and pulling the covers back.
"So nothing happened?" She asks and I meet her gaze.
"Nothing happened."
She sighs in response and flops back down onto her pillow. Too lazy to change out of my jeans I flop down in my own bed.
This is why I don't like to cuddle.