Page 12 of Puck Me

Crap. Crap, crap, crap.

I’m dreaming, right? This is my guilty conscience manifesting my fears in the form of a stomach dropping, nausea inducing nightmare. In real life, this wouldn’t happen, would it? I wouldn’t wake up to find Corey standing in my room, holding a box of donuts. Of all things. It’s too surreal.

But I feel Ryder behind me. I even feel his morning wood pressing into my lower back until he sort of scoots away like he wants to prove to Corey there’s nothing going on. Like she didn’t walk in on anything.

Something tells me it doesn’t matter.

Her mouth is hanging open and her body is frozen like she’s in shock. “Corey,” I whisper, trembling.

That seems to snap her out of it. She stands up straighter, blinking rapidly. “I’m sorry. I’ll, uh, get out of here.” She’s already down the hall before I can take a breath, and soon her footsteps patter down the stairs. I half expect her to bolt out the front door, but she doesn’t — at least, I don’t hear anything that sounds like it.

“Oh, my God.” I drop back onto my pillow and bunch it up around my face. Maybe if I close my eyes tight enough and wish this away, everything will be alright. I can go back to the point in my life where my friend didn’t walk in on me and a man I should not be sleeping with.

“I’m sorry.” Ryder gives my shoulder an awkward pat. “I must’ve been out cold. I didn’t hear her come in.”

“Neither did I.” The memory flashes across my mind’s eye, and I remember giving her a key when she was staying here. Silly me, not imagining that backfiring at any point.

“What do you want me to do?” All of the usual brashness is gone, replaced by concern. At least he sees how monumental this is. At least he’s not making a joke out of it.

“Can you turn back time and get out of here before she shows up?” I haven’t heard the front door open and close, so I’m assuming she’s still around. “I can’t believe this. Of all the stupid ways for somebody to find out…”

The ironic part is, nothing actually happened. All we did was sleep. But considering Ryder’s in nothing but his underwear, it can’t look good from Corey’s perspective.

“You know, the longer we hang out in here, the worse this looks.”

He’s absolutely right. “I guess we need to face the music.” No idea has ever appealed to me less, but I can’t run and hide. Ryder pulls his clothes on while I grab my bathrobe and slide into it. A quick glimpse of my reflection in the mirror confirms I don’t have sex hair or anything like that– nothing about my appearance could give her the impression I’m trying to hide something.

Maybe I should try to stop trembling.

She’s in the kitchen fixing coffee when I reach the bottom of the stairs. Right away, she blurts out, “I’m so sorry. I only brought the donuts over as a thank you for helping me. I didn’t notice the other car sitting out front. I’m such an idiot.”

“You’re not an idiot. You couldn’t have known.”

She’s about to say something else, but Ryder’s entrance cuts her off. “Hi,” she murmurs, and the way she blushes only makes things worse. I want to crawl into a hole, I swear.

“Hey.” He shoots me a questioning look — as if I have the first clue how to navigate this situation. She hasn’t screamed or pointed fingers or called anybody names, so I’m guessing that means she’s okay with what she found upstairs.Please, let her be okay with it.Otherwise, this could get ugly.

“Are you hungry?” She nudges the donuts his way. “Please, help yourself.”

Could this be more awkward? “Thanks.”

“I hope you don’t mind me coming in unannounced.” She fishes the key out of her pocket and plops it on the counter. “I guess I should give this back to you while I’m thinking about it.”

“I honestly don’t mind you having it — it’s kind of nice knowing somebody could come over here if I needed them to.”

“Okay, cool.”

Yet another awkward silence falls over us. I want to scream, I really do. This is so painfully awkward.

“I better go.” Ryder lifts his donut on his way toward the door. “See you later.” I sort of wish he wouldn’t leave me alone, but I understand why he wants to go. I almost wish I could go with him.

He’s barely out the door before Corey practically jumps on me. “Oh, my God!” she gasps. “Since when? No, let me guess. It happened in Seattle. I knew it!”

“Calm down.” I’m starting to get a headache. I rub my temples, but it’s no use. “Nothing happened. He just slept here.”

“Sure, sure.”

“I’m serious. He slept over. That’s it. We went out to get something to eat after the game and came back here, but all we did was sleep.”

---