Page 99 of Fostering Chemistry
“Thanks for the lunch, dude.”
28
MIA
I was sittingon my bed, still fuming from the disastrous lunch out back, when I heard the soft knock on my door. After all the drama and tense talk, I found myself hoping it was Jenna, Evan, or even Raymond. He was growing on me.
But no such luck.
“Mia?” Diego’s voice was quiet, uncertain. “Can we talk? Maybe you could come downstairs?”
“No,” I said without getting up. “I’m not going anywhere. You can come in here if you feel the need to talk.”
There was a long pause. I could practically hear him hesitating in the hallway. “I think it would be better if we go down?—”
“Grow up,” I said, louder this time.
“Ouch,” came his voice through the door.
I felt only a tiny bit bad. “Sorry.”
“I’m not saying it’s undeserved,” he said, and I heard the door handle turn.
Diego stepped into my room, looking uncomfortable and out of place. He glanced around like he’d never seen it before, taking in my unmade bed, the textbooks scattered on my desk, the laundry I’d thrown in the corner.
“I’m sorry about lunch,” he said.
“Why? Isn’t that why you invited us out there? To accuse me of two-timing my roommates?” I stared at him and thought about what Cody had implied. “Or maybe three-timing?”
He didn’t answer that, but he finally sat down in my desk chair. I’d had so many visitors lately, I probably needed to replace the seat cushion. “Things got complicated,” he said finally. “Starting with the Halloween party.”
“You could say that.”
“That was the day you found out about Sara, right?” he asked suddenly, his voice gentle. “It took me a while to put two and two together.”
I nodded, not trusting my voice. Just thinking about that day made my chest tight.
“I… that was a difficult day for me, too.” He didn’t elaborate, but then he sighed. “I don’t remember a lot of it. Do you know… how much we did?”
Heat flooded my cheeks. “We were in the middle of a room full of people.”
His tan skin didn’t often flush, but it did now. “Yeah, but at college parties, that doesn’t always mean very much.”
“My friends eventually found me and pulled me off you,” I said, the words coming out in a rush.
Diego groaned, putting his head in his hands. “Oh god. Not your friends from the scavenger hunt?”
“Yep.”
“And they recognized me?”
“Yep.”
“Holy shit.” He buried his face deeper in his palms. “I need to transfer to a new school.”
“Tori and Jayden aren’t the judgmental type.”
He didn’t look as if he believed that when he finally raised his head to look at me. “I had such a hangover the next day that I didn’t spend much time about thinking what had happened at the party. I was too hung up on why I was there in the first place.”
