Page 4 of My Ex's Roommates
Carter looked up from his phone suddenly, eyes wide. “Why the fuck did an almost naked Harper walk her dress out to the trashcan?”
When he turned his phone to us I saw the doorbell footage of just that, a nearly naked Harper dragging that ruined dress down the driveway. Again, I forced my eyes away from her body.
“I told her to take it off and throw it away but I assumed she’d go upstairs to do it. I didn’t think for a second that the perfect princess would just strip down right there in the doorway.” Silas groaned as more crying sounds reached us. “I’m going to find Jake and murder him for leaving this shit for us to clean up.”
I watched Carter pull out one of the premade sandwiches we kept in the fridge and frowned as he ate it over the island, letting crumbs fall as he did. “Dude.”
He rolled his eyes and grabbed a plate. “Happy now?”
Ignoring him, I pulled out my phone and swore at the deluge of messages and notifications I had. “I don’t even know where to start.”
“Start with the photos that Savannah Walls has been posting.” Silas pushed away from the island and growled when more sobbing sounded through the house. “What the fuck do we do? If one of you had been cheated on and publicly humiliated, I’d just bring you a bottle of Jack Daniels and punch you in the arm. Her? I have no fucking clue. It feels savage to just walk by the door and ignore her crying but I’m not about to go in there and comfort the princess. I resent the fuck out of everyone right now for making me feel anything even close to sorry for that girl.”
The latest photo Savannah had tagged Jake in was of the two of them decked out in SoCal gear. I turned my phone over, decided getting angrier wasn’t going to help with anything. I replayed what Silas had said and shook my head. “She wouldn’t welcome our comfort anyway. She likes us about as much as we like her. Just let her cry it out. Maybe she’ll wake up tomorrow and eagerly get her shit out of our garage and be on her way.”
When we went to our rooms later that night, I laid in bed for a solid hour before guilt set in. Swearing at myself for not being able to just leave shit alone, I got up and yanked the blanket off my bed. I’d seen Jake’s stripped mattress and I doubted Harper had taken the time from crying to find her own bedding in all of the boxes downstairs.
I paused outside of the door and didn’t hear anything so I slowly opened it and stuck my head in. The overhead light was still on and I could see her curled up on the bed in a tight ball. A pink robe was crumpled over her but it was obvious that she was freezing. Calling myself every name in the book, I walked closer and gently put my blanket over her. Almost instantly I could see her muscles loosen and her body unfold.
Even in her sleep, she looked pained. Her face pinched and I could see her eyes moving rapidly beneath her eyelids. She muttered Jake’s name and then let out a whimper that hit me straight in the chest.
No matter what I thought of her, she didn’t deserve what Jake did.
I turned the light off as I left and went back to my own bed to have my own restless night of sleep. I had a lot more to worry about than Harper. I was the captain of a football team that had just been betrayed and left in the lurches. Our plays were built around Jake’s powerful arm. I’d step in as quarterback but I didn’t have the precision that Jake had. Self-doubt loomed heavily with everything else and by the time morning came, I was fucking glad for it.
Downstairs in the kitchen, I was less glad for it. Standing in the far corner, Harper stood with a bottle of water clutched in her hands and a vacant stare on her face. I wanted to spin around and get the hell out of there but her eyes flicked up to mine and I knew I was caught.
Not knowing what to say, I walked to the fridge and grabbed a protein shake. The silence stretched on until I was about ready to break out in song to make the room feel less suffocating.
Harper saved me from that disgrace, though. She cleared her throat and when she spoke, her voice was huskier than normal. “I know you guys don’t like me.”
My eyes went to her and I noticed she’d woken up and fixed her makeup and hair but nothing could hide the swollen, red state of her eyes. “Uh…”
“I was supposed to move into a new place with Jake today. There is no new place, though.” She stopped and I watched her swallow down a wave of emotion. “I gave up my apartment and now I have nowhere to go. I know you don’t like me but I need help.”
My stomach soured. I didn’t like where the conversation was headed but I hated how broken she sounded.
“If you guys let me stay here, I’ll find a new place as soon as I can. I can take on more hours at the library and pay whateverJake paid for rent. I wouldn’t ask if I had any other options.” She kept her head down, eyes on the floor, and her arms wrapped tightly around herself.
I felt like a deer in headlights. The last thing I wanted was Harper living with us. “Don’t you have a bunch of sorority girls who would take their bestie in?”
She looked up at me then and I saw a flash of raw pain in her hazel eyes. “Apparently, when your boyfriend fucks over the university, you become a social pariah. It doesn’t matter if you knew nothing and are just as shocked as everyone else. Judging by some of the texts I’ve gotten this morning, the census is that if I’d been better, he wouldn’t have strayed. Better at what, I don’t know. So, no, Dylan, I don’t have anyone to go to.”
5.
***Dylan***
Harper hurriedly swiped at her eyes and looked away. “I have nowhere else to go. I’m sorry that I have to ask you for this and I know it’s not a small deal. Trust me, if I could go anywhere else, I would. It’s not easy to stand here and beg for a place to live.”
The front door opened and a shirtless Carter jogged inside from his morning run. He pulled his earbuds from his ears and looked between me and Harper. His eyebrows slowly rose. “This looks like loads of fun.”
Silas stomped down the stairs, his hair sticking out in every direction and his face already in its resting scowl. He took the same doubletake around the kitchen that Carter had. “What’s going on?”
I gestured to Harper. “It wouldn’t be up to just me. Ask them.”
Silas held up his hands. “Don’t ask me anything.”
I had to give Harper credit. She squared her shoulders and lifted her gaze to his. “I don’t have anywhere else to go. If you guys let me stay here I’ll pay whatever Jake paid and I’ll leave as soon as I can. I know-”
