Beautiful Disaster

apartment. “Any humiliated, stranded girls in there I need to give a ride?”

Travis glared at Parker. “Don’t start with me.”

Parker smiled and winked. “I’m always giving him a hard time. I don’t get to quite as often since he’s realized it’s easier if he can get them to drive their own cars.”

“I guess that does simplify things,” I said, teasing Travis.

“Not funny, Pidge.”

“Pidge?” Parker asked.

“It’s uh…short for Pigeon. It’s just a nickname, I don’t even know where he came up with it,” I said. It was the first time I’d felt awkward about the name Travis had bestowed on me the night we met.

“You’re going to have to fill me in when you find out. Sounds like a good story,” Parker smiled. “Night, Abby.”

“Don’t you mean good morning?” I said, watching him trot down the stairs.

“That too,” he called back with a sweet smile.

Travis slammed the door, and I had to jerk my head back before it caught me in the face. “What?” I snapped.

Travis shook his head, and walked to his bedroom. I followed him, and then hopped on one foot to pull off my heel. “He’s nice, Trav.”

He sighed and walked over to me. “You’re gonna hurt yourself,” he said, hooking his arm around my waist with one hand, and pulling off my heels with the other. He tossed them into the closet, and then pulled off his shirt, making his way to the bed.

I unzipped my dress and shimmied it over my hips, kicking it into the corner. I yanked a t-shirt over my head, then unsnapped my bra, pulling it through the sleeve of my shirt. When I wrapped my hair into a bun on top of my head, I noticed him staring.

“I’m sure there’s nothing I have that you haven’t seen before,” I said, rolling my eyes. I slid under the covers and settled against my pillow, curling into a ball. He unbuckled his belt and pulled his jeans down, stepping out of them.

I waited while he stood quietly for a moment. I had my back to him, so I wondered what he was doing, standing beside the bed in silence. The bed concaved when he finally crawled onto the mattress beside me, and I stiffened when his hand rested on my hip.

“I missed a fight tonight,” he said. “Adam called. I didn’t go.”

“Why?” I said, turning to face him.

“I wanted to make sure you got home.”

I wrinkled my nose. “You didn’t have to babysit me.”

He traced the length of my arm with his finger, sending shivers up my spine. “I know. I guess I still feel bad about the other night.”

“I told you I didn’t care.”

He sat up on his elbow, a dubious frown on his face. “Is that why you slept on the recliner? Because you didn’t care?”

“I couldn’t fall asleep after your… friends left.”

“You slept just fine in the recliner. Why couldn’t you sleep with me?”

“You mean next to a guy who still smelled like the pair of bar flies he had just sent home? I don’t know! How selfish of me!”

Travis winced. “I said I was sorry.”

“And I said I didn’t care. Goodnight,” I said, turning over.

Several moments of silence passed. He slid his hand across the top of my pillow, resting his hand on mine. He caressed the delicate pieces of skin between my fingers, and then he pressed his lips against my hair. “As worried as I was that you’d never speak to me again…I think it’s worse that you’re indifferent.”

My eyes closed. “What do you want from me, Travis? You don’t want me to be upset about what you did, but you want me to care. You tell America that you don’t want to date me, but you get so pissed off when I say the same thing, that you storm out and get ridiculously drunk. You don’t make any sense.”

“Is that why you said those things to America? Because I said I wouldn’t date you?”

My teeth clenched. He had just insinuated that I was playing games with him. I formed the most direct answer I could think of. “No, I meant what I said. I just didn’t mean it as an insult.”

Travis sighed. “I just said that because,” he scratched his short hair nervously, “I don’t want to ruin anything, Pigeon. I wouldn’t even know how to go about being who you deserve. I was just trying to get it worked out in my head.”

“Whatever that means. I have to get some sleep. I have a date tonight.”

“With Parker?” he asked, anger seeping through his tone.

“Yes. Can I please go to sleep?”

“Sure,” he said, shoving himself off the bed and then slamming the door behind him. The recliner squeaked under his weight and then muffled voices from the television drifted down the hall. I forced my eyes shut and tried to calm down enough to doze off, even if it was just for a few hours.

The clock read three P.M. when I peeled my eyes open. I grabbed a towel and my robe, and then trudged into the bathroom. As soon as I closed the shower curtain, the door opened and shut. I waited for someone to speak, but the only sound was the toilet lid smacking against porcelain.

“Travis?”

“Nope, it’s me,” America said.

“Do you have to pee in here? You have your own bathroom.”

“Shep has been in there for half an hour with the beer shits. Not going in there.”

“Nice.”

“I hear you have a date tonight. Travis is pissed!” she lilted.

“At six! He is so sweet, America. He’s just…” I trailed off, sighing. I was gushing, and it wasn’t like me to gush. I kept thinking about how perfect he had been since the moment we’d met. He was exactly what I needed, the polar opposite of Travis.

“Rendered you speechless?” she giggled.

I poked my head from the curtain. “I didn’t want to come home! I could have talked to him forever!”

“Sounds promising. Isn’t it kind of weird that you’re here, though?”

I ducked under the water, rinsing away the suds. “I explained it to him.”

The toilet flushed, and the faucet turned on, making the water flash cold for a moment. I cried out and the door flew open.

“Pidge?” Travis said.

America laughed. “I just flushed the toilet, Trav, calm down.”

“Oh. You all right, Pigeon?”

“I’m great. Get out.” The door shut again and I sighed. “Is it too much to ask for locks on the doors?” America didn’t answer. “Mare?”

“It’s really too bad you two couldn’t get on the same page. You’re the only girl that could have….” she sighed. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter, now.”

I turned off the water and wrapped myself in a towel. “You’re as bad as he is. It’s a sickness…no one here makes sense. You’re pissed at him, remember?”

“I know,” she nodded.

I turned on my new hairdryer and began the process of primping for my date with Parker. I curled my hair, and painted my nails and lips a deep shade of red. It was a bit much for a first date. I frowned at myself in the mirror. It wasn’t Parker I was trying to impress. I wasn’t in a position to be insulted when Travis accused me of playing games, after all.

Taking one last glance at myself in the mirror, guilt washed over me. Travis was trying so hard, and I was being a stubborn brat. I walked out into the living room and Travis smiled, not the reaction I expected at all.

“You…are beautiful.”

“Thank you,” I said, rattled by the absence of irritation or jealousy in his voice.

Shepley whistled. “Nice choice, Abby. Guys dig red.”