“I went to Duke’s last night,” I told him. He nearly swerved the car when I said that, making me grab my door in surprise.
“You went to Duke’s?” he asked, shock clear in his voice. It was unexpected behavior on my part, so I understood his confusion.
“Yeah, with Chelsea,” I explained. “I didn’t stay long though, Chelsea was being well, Chelsea,” I continued. He grinned, returning to normal.
“I didn’t know you guys ever went there,” he said casually.
“We’ve only been once before but I’m really not a fan of the place,” I told him and his body language told me he was clearly more relaxed now. “Can we stay in tonight?” I asked, changing the topic as he drove by my apartment, clearly set on going to his.
“Sure,” he agreed easily, a first. We went inside his giant apartment. He shared it with his four roommates: Jeremy, Alex, Sean, and Lloyd. They all greeted me when I came in and then continued playing Madden on the PS4.
“You guys coming out, Mathers?” Lloyd asked Chris. They all referred to each other by their last names. It was a sports thing but it annoyed me, because none of them actually played sports, unless it was gaming, which didn’t count. Chris shook his head no.
“Whipped!” Jeremy called out, earning himself a chorus of laughs.
“Shut up Rhodes,” Chris shouted at Jeremy, leading me up to his room. His room was big, bigger than my entire apartment, twice the size actually. He had a giant king size mattress and a large desk that was used as a drop-off point for all of his clothes, a leather couch, and a nice wooden coffee table, with a large 70-in flat screen TV to top it all off. His place was actually pretty nice, despite the fact that it was always a mess and there was a permanent smell of musty clothes and stale beer in the air.
We decided on Chinese takeout and a movie, in bed of course. I got cuddled up next to him waiting for the Chinese to arrive and went to check my phone, to see how much longer it would be because I was starving. My phone slipped from my hand and fell onto the plush carpet flooring, just under the edge of the bed. I leaned over looking for it and found it right away. There was a bunch of clothes under his bed, of course.
“You really have to clean your room once in a while,” I laughed at him. “You have another closet going on under here,” I joked, picking up my phone, noticing all the socks scattered under his bed, as well as, a pair of boxers, a bra, and a few shirts. Wait a bra? I felt my pulse quicken and my skin turned to ice. I stared at it blinking, I must be imagining this. I blinked a few more times but it still lay there. I felt the blood drain from my face and pulled it out and held it in my hands examining it. Yes, it in fact was definitely a bra and it was definitely not mine. It was a 36B and I was a 34C. The extremely padded white push-up bra lay in my hands as I wordlessly stared at it.
“Oh my God!” Chris said, jumping out of the bed and facing me. “It’s not what it looks like,” he said in a rush of words which were clearly a lie.
“To me it looks like I found another girl’s bra under your bed,” I said, my voice scarily calm even to my own ears. It did not match the feelings that were coursing through me.
“The guys had some girls over and one of them used my room to change. She must have forgotten it here,” he said, his voice an octave higher than usual. I let the lies flow freely from his mouth. I was too focused on the object in my hands. The left breast had a small red stain on it, from a bottle of red wine.
“Nothing happened. I swear I didn’t do anything,” he vowed but I was more concerned with the stain than his words, I knew that stain. I had tried to remove it even, but it was stuck and there was no way it was ever coming out. I felt betrayed.
“Stop,” I uttered finally, calmly looking back up to him where he was pacing. “How long?” I asked, my voice still too calm to my ears.
“No babe. Nothing happened,” he said, coming over to me, his eyes big and pleading. I wasn’t going to fall for that, never again. I felt my skin thaw and turn to liquid fire in a nanosecond.
“You mother fucking bastard,” I shouted louder than I’d ever shouted in my entire life. I knew his friends heard me, heck the neighbors had probably heard me but I didn’t care. They knew, everyone probably knew but me. I felt like a complete idiot. “Not only have you been fucking around behind my back,” I started, still yelling, “but with Chelsea!” I full-on screamed. “My best friend! You and Chelsea!” I continued screaming. Chris turned white with shock. I’d never so much as raised my voice in a fight but now I was letting it all out, everything I had bottled up. He moved to come near me and that was his first mistake. I rounded on him, swinging my fist and connected it straight with his jaw. He fell to the floor and I just walked over him, grabbing my purse as I left him there in shock.
“Lee, wait!” he shouted after me, running down the stairs to follow me as I walked out. I passed his friends on the way. They were all frozen in shock as well and watched us, unable to look away.
“Fuck off Chris,” I told him. “Leave me alone, better yet go die in a hole, you fucking bastard,” I
