Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

Jace

I need to get out of this house. Being here just reminds me of Nikki and then I think of Carter and imagine them together and want to punch my hand through a wall.

I can’t believe that bastard betrayed me like that. And Nikki. I thought she was different. I didn’t think she was one of those girls who cheats on the guy she claims to love. I know it happens. It’s happened to guys on the team, but I didn’t think it’d happen to me. I trusted Nikki. I thought I knew her. I thought I loved her.

I grab my keys and go out the front door. I start to run down the steps but stop suddenly when I notice someone in my way. There’s a girl sitting on my porch steps.

“Hey.” I stand behind her and am about to tell her to move, but then notice she’s crying, or more like sobbing, her head bent over, her body shaking.

I sigh, not wanting to deal with this but also feeling kind of bad for her.

“Hey, you okay?” I sit down beside her. I’m not sure if she heard me so I nudge her side. “Hey.”

She slowly turns her head toward me.

“Who are you ?” she asks, sniffling.

Her nose is red and mascara is running down her cheeks. Even though she’s a mess, she’s kind of cute in a girl-next-door kind of way. She has dark brown hair that hangs in loose waves around her face and big brown eyes, which at the moment look so sad that I actually feel a little sad myself.

“I’m Jace,” I tell her. “I live here.”

She glances back at my house. “Oh. Sorry. I didn’t know anyone was home. I’ll go.” She starts to get up.

“Hold on. I wasn’t saying you had to leave.”

She sighs and lowers back down to the step.

“So what’s going on?” I ask.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Worse.”

I look out at the sidewalk, where people are milling about, holding cardboard boxes and plastic bins. Two guys walk by holding a couch that looks older than me. The one guy trips on a crack in the sidewalk and almost drops the couch but catches it before it hits the ground.

“Did someone die?” I ask, then realize that sounds insensitive, but how else do you ask a question like that?

“No one died. But it’s almost as bad.”

My gaze returns to her as she swipes the back of her hand over her dripping nose, then rubs it over her denim skirt. It’s a really short skirt that shows off her legs. She has nice legs; long and lean and really tan. My eyes move up to her shirt. A pink tank top that clings to her boobs and is low enough to show off some cleavage.

Why am I checking her out? I’m done with girls, at least for a while. I need a break from dating and relationships and all the shit that comes with it.

“I had a bad day too,” I say, looking back at the people walking by.

“Can’t be nearly as bad as mine,” she mutters.

“Well, let’s see.” I lean back on my hands. “Today is my two year anniversary of meeting my girlfriend so I got her a dozen roses and was about to make her a gourmet dinner but then found her fucking my roommate who just happens to be one of my closest friends.”

The girl stops crying and looks at me. “What did you say?”

“You really want me to repeat it? Because saying it out loud made me feel like shit and I really don’t want to feel even shittier than I already do.”

She swallows and takes a moment to catch her breath. “She cheated on you?”

I nod.

“Today?”

I nod again.

The girl cocks her head to the side. “With your friend?”

“Friend and roommate. We’ve been roommates for over a year. He was on the basketball team with me until I injured my shoulder last spring. I’m guessing that’s why Nikki wanted him. She wants a jock, and my jock days are over.”

“And you’d dated her for two years?”

“Well, technically, we met two years ago today. We didn’t start dating until later that week. I was going to celebrate that too. Our first date. I had it all planned out, but that won’t be happening now.” I clear my throat and try to act like none of what I just said bothers me, even though it’s killing me just to think about what happened. How could it be over? All that time we spent together. All the plans we made. It’s all just over in an instant.

“I’m really sorry,” the girl says. “That’s horrible.”

“So how about you? Want to tell me why this is such a bad day?”

She takes a breath and lets it out. “Liam and I started dating in high school. We were supposed to get married. The past two years have been tough because we had to live apart. I didn’t have money for four years at Parkshire so I went to community college for two years. Now that’s done and Liam and I were finally going to be together.”

I’m getting the feeling I know how this story ends, but I keep quiet and let her continue.

“I was going to surprise him. I told him I was coming here tomorrow, but I couldn’t wait to see him so I came a day early and when I got to his house…” She hiccups the words, tears falling again. “He was with some other girl.”

“Shit,” I mutter.

“She was in his room.” She sniffles. “He was holding her. Against the wall. They were—”

“Yeah, I got it.”

She breaks down crying. “How could he do this to me? And why? I’ve done everything possible to make him happy. Sure, we fought now and then but for the most part, we got along great. He was my best friend, or at least I thought he was.” She swallows and takes a breath. “It was all lies. I’m starting to think he never even loved me.”

“I’m sure that’s not true. Some guys are just jerks.”

She turns to me, her eyes wide. “But Liam wasn’t one of those guys. He was a really great boyfriend.”

She’s just like me. Seeing her ex as this perfect person because we’re blinded by love. We can’t see their flaws, and if someone points them out, we refuse to believe it. My friends kept warning me about Nikki, but I wouldn’t listen. I kept telling them they didn’t know her like I did.

She wipes her eyes. “I don’t know what to do now.”

“You try to forget about him and move on. I have to do the same with Nikki. I know it sounds impossible right now but—”

“It’s not just that.”

“Just what?”

“Getting over Liam.” She sniffles. “It’s what happens now that we’re broken up. I was supposed to move in with him. He rented a house for us. But now that we’re not together, I have nowhere to go. The dorms are full, there aren’t any apartments available, and everyone who wanted a roommate already has one.”

A thought pops in my head. I shouldn’t do this. I don’t even know this girl. But I do need a roommate. My uncle needs the rent money to pay the mortgage and other household expenses, and the little he charges me isn’t enough.

“ I don’t,” I say.

“Don’t what?”

“I don’t have a roommate. But I need one now that I kicked Carter out. I don’t know if you’d be interested but—”

“How much?” she asks.

I shrug. “Carter was paying six hundred a month, but maybe I could get my uncle to give you a deal and do it for five hundred. My uncle owns the house and rents it out to college students. Since I’m living here now, he lets me pick my roommate. I know we just met but you seem like an okay person. I doubt you’d trash the place.”

A slight smile appears on her mascara-stained face. “I’d never trash the place. I’m very clean. And very quiet. I promise I’d be a good roommate.”

“So you’re interested?”

“More than interested. I’m desperate. If I don’t take this place, I’ll be homeless.”

“You want to see it before you make your final decision?”

“Sure.”

We go inside and I give her a quick tour. It’s such a small place there isn’t much to see, but I thought she should at least look at the place before agreeing to rent it.

“It’s perfect,” she says. “And if your uncle says six hundred, that’s fine. I’m sure that’s the going rate for rent around here.”

“Depends on where you live. Let me talk to him. He might be willing to go lower.” I walk her to the door. “I’m Jace, by the way.”

“Kenzie.” She smiles, and for the first time since finding my girlfriend cheating, I feel myself relaxing a little.

I like this girl. She makes me feel… I don’t know the right word… maybe comfortable? At ease? Whatever it is, I no longer want to punch my hand through a wall, and that’s saying a lot because a few minutes ago, I was ready to do just that.

“You need help with your stuff?”

“If you could, that’d be great.” She opens the door. “It’s right out here.”

I follow her outside to an old red station wagon packed to the ceiling with boxes and other stuff.

“It’s my mom’s car,” she says when she notices me looking at it. “It’s really old but it still runs so she refuses to get a new one.”

Kenzie pops open the back and a rolled-up comforter falls out.

“I got it,” I say, grabbing it from the ground. “What else can I take?”

She hands me a duffle bag and a backpack that feels like it’s full of heavy books. “Is that too much?”

“No, it’s fine,” I say, although the weight of the backpack is hurting my shoulder.

I watch as she reaches into the car to get a box. It causes her skirt to ride up and show off more of her legs. I shouldn’t look, but I can’t help myself. She’s got a great body. Long legs. Curvy hips. Round ass.

“We’ll have to make a few trips,” she says, resting the box on her hip as she shuts the door.

“If you have your mom’s car,” I say as we walk to the house, “then what’s your mom using to get around?”

“She isn’t home. She went to South Africa for a semester. She teaches at a community college and they have this teacher exchange thing with the school they just opened in South Africa. She’s always wanted to live in a different country so this is like a dream come true for her. Right now, she’s on a safari with some of her students.”

We go in the house and I lead her to the room that used to belong to Carter.

“It’s not much,” I say, dropping the duffle bag on the bed, “but it’s bigger than a dorm room.”

“It’s great.” She sets the box down and looks around. “A lot better than being homeless.”

“You can do what you want with the room. Move the furniture around. Hang stuff on the walls. Just don’t paint the walls pink.” I smile. “My uncle wouldn’t be okay with that.”

“Got it. No pink walls.” She glances around the room. “How about purple? Like maybe a soft lavender color?”

I’m not sure if she’s serious so I keep quiet as she walks over to the window and opens the drapes.

She looks back at me and smiles. “I was kidding. The wall color is fine. I was just trying to make you laugh.”

“That’s kind of hard to do right now.”

“I feel the same way.” She walks back to me. “But hey, things are already getting better. Just a half hour ago, I thought my world was ending, but then you gave me a place to live and now I feel a little better. It’s amazing how just one little thing can make a big difference. Not that letting me live here is a little thing. You’re doing me a huge favor, but you know what I mean, right?”

“Yeah. And actually, you’re doing me a favor too. If you hadn’t shown up, I’d have to put an ad up for a roommate, then go through the whole interview process to make sure the person isn’t crazy.” I eye her. “You’re not crazy, are you?”

She laughs. “No. Are you?”

I shrug. “A little.”

She frowns. “What do you mean?”

“I’m joking,” I say with a laugh.

She points at me, smiling. “Made you laugh.”

“And I made you laugh. Must mean we’re a good match.”

“Well, we definitely have something in common. Both cheated on? And we find out on the exact same day?”

“With people we thought we had a future with? I assume you talked about the future with Shithead?”

“Shithead.” She laughs. “That’s a good name for him. And yeah, we’d talked about the future. We were going to get married after we graduate. We talked about what kind of house we wanted, how many kids we’d have. We even had names for the kids.” Sadness fills her eyes. “Why would he talk about us having a future if he didn’t want that? Why couldn’t he just tell me the truth?”

“Maybe because he didn’t want to disappoint you? Because he knew you wanted those things?”

“But lying about it only made it worse. He got my hopes up for something that’ll never happen.”

“I don’t know what to tell you other than that guys are stupid.”

“Except for you,” she says, her smile back.

“No, I’m pretty stupid. My girlfriend was cheating with my roommate and I had no clue. How could I not figure that out?”

“Because you didn’t want to believe it. Even if you suspected something was going on, you told yourself it’s not because you didn’t want it to be true.”

“Yeah, I guess.” I walk to the door. “Let’s get the rest of your stuff.”

After five trips to the car, we’ve got everything unloaded and put in Kenzie’s room.

“Need anything else?” I ask, standing at her door.

“Um, yeah, where’s the bathroom?”

“Sorry, I forgot about that.” I walk through her room to the closed door. “It’s through here.” I open the door. “It’s a pass-through bathroom, meaning my room connects to it on the other side.”

“So we have to share?” she asks, biting her lip.

“Yeah. Is that a problem?”

“Um, no, I guess not. I’ve just never shared a bathroom with a guy before, or a guy who wasn’t Liam.”

“I think we can make it work. Just make sure to lock the door on my side so I don’t accidentally walk in when you’re in there. And I’ll do the same when I’m using it.”

“So this is the only bathroom?”

“The only one with a shower. There’s a bathroom off the kitchen, but it only has a toilet and sink. The toilet always runs forever after you flush it so I don’t ever use that bathroom. But if you want to, you can.”

“That’s okay. I’ll just use this one.”

We go back in her room and she sits on the bed. “Any other house rules I should know about?”

“I don’t think so.”

“What about food?”

“What about it?”

“Any rules about the fridge? Like do we have our own shelves?”

“No rules. You can put food wherever you want in there.”

“Should I write my name on what I buy so we don’t mix stuff up?”

“You don’t need to. I don’t keep much food around. I usually eat out or get takeout. If you look in the fridge, you’ll find energy drinks, hot sauce, and eggs. That’s about all I buy.”

“So you eat out for every meal?”

“Not breakfast. I have a protein bar when I get up. Sometimes I’ll have one for lunch too. Depends on my class schedule and if I have time to grab lunch or not. If I’m home for dinner, I’ll make eggs or a chicken breast or just mix up a protein shake.”

“What’s with all the protein? Is it because you’re an athlete?”

“It’s because I work out a lot. My athlete days are over now that I busted my shoulder.”

“Your shoulder! I totally forgot you said that earlier. I shouldn’t have let you help me move in.”

She sounds really worried about me, which is nice for a change. Nikki never cared about my shoulder. A week after my surgery she bought a new chair and wanted me to carry it up three flights of stairs to her apartment. When I told her I physically couldn’t do it, she got angry and said I was being a baby.

“Don’t worry about it,” I say to Kenzie. “My shoulder’s better now. Moving your stuff didn’t make it worse.”

“Are you doing physical therapy?”

“I did, but I’m done with it now. I just need to keep working on strengthening it.” I walk to the door. “I should leave you alone so you can unpack.”

“Actually, I kind of like having company.”

I like it too. Being alone makes my mind go back to Nikki and then I see images of her with Carter.

I go back in her room. “Need some help unpacking, or should I just—”

I’m interrupted by a knocking sound coming from the front door. Kenzie and I look at each other.

“It’s not Liam,” she says. “He doesn’t know I live here.”

“It can’t be Nikki. She’ll expect me to go to her , even though she’s the one who cheated.”

It’s funny how Kenzie and I both thought it was our exes at the door. Even though you know it’s not them, there’s a part of you that wishes they’d show up and beg for your forgiveness, telling you they were wrong and then apologizing over and over again and saying what a huge mistake they made.

Nikki would never do that, and yet as I walk to the door, part of me is hoping she’s the one knocking, here to beg me to come back to her. But as expected, it’s not her. It’s Dax.

“Hey, man,” he says, coming inside. “I heard what happened. Just wanted to see how you’re doing.”

“I’m okay.” I shut the door.

“We both know that’s a lie.” He pulls a bottle of whiskey from the paper sack he was holding. “But this should help.”

He hands it to me, then goes to the kitchen and starts searching the cupboards for glasses as I sit on the couch.

“I don’t want any right now,” I tell him, setting the whiskey down.

“Why? You already drank too much?”

“No. I just don’t feel like it. I haven’t eaten for hours and drinking without food will make me hurl.”

“So we’ll order a pizza.” He returns to the living room with two glasses and sits beside me on the couch. “You don’t look as bad as I thought you would.” He pours the whiskey into a glass and offers it to me.

“I really don’t want it right now.”

He eyes me. “What’s going on with you? You never turn down whiskey. I even splurged and got your favorite kind.”

“Thanks, man, but not now. Maybe later.”

“You care if I have some?”

“Go ahead.”

He takes a swig from the glass and leans back on the couch. “You gotta work tonight?”

I stop to think. “Shit, you’re right. I do have to work tonight.”

“Call in sick. Or just quit. You only got that job so you could buy stuff for Nikki. With her gone, you don’t need the money.”

It’s true. I got a job at the gym so I could afford to take Nikki out and buy her flowers and presents. She was always wanting stuff, and no matter how much I got her, it was never enough. She was just using me. Using me to buy her stuff and using me to make herself popular back when I was a star athlete. I see that now, but why didn’t I see it before?