Page 156 of Damaged Protector

I smiled. “Like the reindeer?”

His lip curled up into a sneer, and he snapped, “No.”

Well, isn’t this nice? I made a friend.

I made it through my first two weeks of physical therapy school, and I absolutely adored my classes. What I didn’t adore was my roommate. Or her not a reindeer boyfriend. He was here. All. The. Time. He literally spent every night in Starla’s bed, and they were very… active, sexually speaking. With me in the room.

It was Friday afternoon, and I was running on fumes when I entered my dorm room to find Starla sitting alone on her bed. The TV was turned up to full blast, and I was pretty sure my blood pressure was nearing a dangerous level.

This was the first occasion that she’d been here without her boyfriend, so I decided to take advantage of his absence to have a little chat. I motioned for her to turn down the television, and she did with a roll of her eyes. She did that any time I tried to speak to her, to the point that I became concerned she might have some kind of extraocular muscle disease.

“Starla, hi. How has your week gone?” I asked politely.

She stared down at her laptop. “Fine.”

“Are your classes going well?”

She inhaled and blew it out like I was annoying her. “Fine.”

“Where’s Donner?”

Starla kept her gaze on the screen when she answered. “Went to get us some food.”

“I’ve been wanting to talk to you about some things,” I said, flipping through my mental list. “I was wondering if we could establish some quiet times each day. My coursework is very rigorous, and I need to do a lot of studying.”

My roommate was majoring in something called Ethical Hacking, whatever the hell that meant. I hadn’t seen her crack a book since we’d started classes.

“I like some noise when I’m studying or relaxing,” she replied in a bored voice.

“Yes, well, I don’t, and I live here too.”

“Then go study at the library. They have a couple quiet floors there.”

I gritted my teeth and resisted the urge to throw my shoe at her. “Since you enjoy spending time with Donner so much, I thought maybe you two could stay at his place sometimes. That would give me some time to study and maybe get a good night’s sleep without all the… noise.”

Starla was a screamer.

Her eyes flicked up to me briefly before going back to her magazine. “He doesn’t have a place. He got kicked out, so he’s staying with me until he finds another place to stay.”

What the hell?

“So, he’s living here,” I stated, and she shrugged.

“No. He’s just staying here.”

Searching deep inside myself for a shred of patience, I said, “Starla, this room is small even for two people. With three, it’s pretty cramped.”

“Then go stay somewhere else,” she retorted.

“No, I paid for my housing here. Donner did not. I don’t mind if he visits, but he can’t live here.” She didn’t say anything, so I went on. “And when he does come for visits, could you please ask him to put the toilet seat down when he’s done?” And possibly try to improve his aim.

In response, she picked up the remote and turned the TV back up to full volume before going back to her computer.

This bitch…

Starla was seriously at risk of ending up with my hands around her skinny throat. Picking up my backpack, I stormed from the room, seeing fucking Donner headed toward me in the hallway.

“Hey, hold that door for me,” he requested, and that was literally the first time he’d spoken to me since move-in day.

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