Page 2 of The List of Things

My jaw drops, “Bellamy! I pegged you as many things, but not a cheater!” I know he’s joking, but still.

“Pegged?” He wiggles his eyebrows, and I swat at him with my notebook.

He stands next to me, towering over me as the two of us walk from the student center together. He opens the door for me, and I walk under his arm, scurrying outside into the warm night air. It’s dark outside, the only light coming from the street lamps that cast a yellowish glow around campus.

“I’ll see you in a few days. Keep studying okay? Text me with questions if you need me,” I start to walk toward my apartment complex, and Bellamy grabs my backpack, pulling me backward.

“You don’t think I’m going to let you walk home in the dark all alone do you?” He tilts his head.

We’re normally finished before the sun sets but today he had practice which meant we needed to push tutoring. We always seem to work around his football schedule. It’s what’s expected of me considering how sport-oriented Seattle Pike University is.

“Are you offering me a ride, or are you planning on kidnapping me?” I turn, and he lets go of my backpack.

“Just get in my car, and tell me where to go,” He shakes his head and lets out the lightest chuckle.

I walk to his car, seeing the reddish tint of the Jeep. It’s far too dark to notice much else about it. He gets in, and I do just as he asks, telling him directions over the soft hum of music that comes from the radio, it’s classic rock I don’t fully recognize. Bellamy pulls up to the front of my complex, and I grab my things and hop from the tall Jeep.

“Thank you. I’ll see you,” I wave to him, and he nods.

“See you later Hart!” He calls after me.

“It’s Kamryn!” I yell back and escape into my apartment building.

When I finally make it up to my floor, and through my front door, there’s a pillow being hurled at my head.

“Hey! Throw pillows aren’t meant to be thrown Sienna, get it together,” I throw the pillow back at her and drop my backpack in the middle of the living room.

“You took too long,” Sienna grumbles, and I sigh.

“It’s Bellamy’s fault, not mine, and either way, you had a pre-summer game thingy or whatever it was. Your curls are still wet so you can’t lie and tell me you didn’t either,” I raise my eyebrows at her.

“The drills I called for the team ended hours ago. I just went to the gym, but you’re still late!” She pulls the blanket over her body, curling it on her body tighter.

Sienna is captain of the girl’s lacrosse team and probably the most active person I know. She and I have been friends since my freshman year, but we didn’t get as close as we are now until this year.

I start stripping in the middle of my apartment, leaving my clothes laying on the floor as I walk to the giant gray chair that is my designated laundry chair. By designated laundry chair I mean the chair that is piled with weeks of laundry so bad that it’s pouring over the sides and onto the floor.

I’ll do it soon. Swear.

“You have a key to my apartment for a reason because I’m never here on time to let you in,” I laugh while digging through the heap of clothes.

I change into something comfy, and out of my outfit from the day. I look over to my curly-haired best friend and she’s in a lacrosse t-shirt, and shorts. Perfect movie night attire. I get a running start, and Sienna shields herself as I take a giant leap onto the long gray couch. There’s a floor-length lamp to the left of the couch that’s casting a glow over the room. I look at the TV with my body pressed into the cushions. Sienna hasLove, Simonqueued up and ready to play, and I’m so glad because I absolutely love this movie.

“What took you so long? Were you making out with the hot football player in the student center? Naughty tutor sleeps with her student?” Sienna wiggles her eyebrows.

“First of all, life isn’t a porno, and second of all you already know you’d be the first person I would tell if I slept with Bellamy or any other hot football player. I always tell you who I sleep with,” I settle into the couch, Sienna and I on opposite sides with our feet meeting in the middle.

I cuddle myself into my light pink throw pillow, and Sienna turns on the movie.

“All I’m saying is that Bellamy is a catch, no pun int-”

“Sienna, I want to work with football players, not fuck them.”

We both pause, and I recount the few football players I’ve already slept with. Sienna jokingly starts counting on her fingers, and we both burst into laughter.

“Shh. Watch the movie, no more sex talk,” I turn my attention in front of me and fall in love with this film all over again.

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