“Oh my God, I don’t even know if I can talk about it.” She sat up in the bed just then, intending to, in fact, tell me all about it, but she took one look at me and asked, “Um, Layla, why are you naked?”
I’d been standing there holding my shirt and shorts in front of me, not bothering to put them on for the short walk between Trip’s room and mine. The rest of the guys wouldn’t have had any reason to come upstairs and I’d assumed Lisa and Pickford were already long asleep, so I’d made a break for it. Thankfully, it was only Lisa who busted me.
“Don’t ask,” I replied, and threw the clothes onto the nightstand between our two bunkbeds. I scrounged around in my bag for a Ginny-T and cotton shorts, flashdanced the bra from under my top and climbed into the bed opposite Lisa. “Okay, so I’m not naked anymore, so spill it. What’s going on between you and Pick?”
“What do you think?” She flopped back down on her bed and sighed dramatically, posing a question to the heavens, “God, why are you taking him away from me?” her words filtered on their way to Him through the bed above her.
I propped my head on an elbow so I could face her. “Come on, Lis. Not this again. You gotta cut it out. Why are you doing this to yourself?”
Lisa mirrored my pose. “I know, I know. I just can’t stop thinking about it, you know? I just can’t stop thinking about the fact that he’ll be gone soon.” She pulled the sheet up under her neck, warding off a chill even though the room was an oven. “What am I going to do without him?”
I knew that Lisa and Pick were pretty serious, but I’d always registered it as high-school-serious, not like life-or-death-serious. They were eighteen, for godsakes. I thought my friend was being overly dramatic. Like, okay, you’re assigned a locker next to someone, but what are the odds that that person is actually your soulmate?
Then again, high school sweethearts got married all the time, didn’t they? The DeSantos were a good example. My parents... not so much. But happy or not, married people had to meet somewhere. Why not high school?
Just then I thought about Trip, snoring away in the next room and my heart lurched. What a total hypocrite I could be. I made myself remember that my poor friend’s world was coming apart.
“I don’t know, Lis,” I said, trying to come up with something positive to contribute. “I guess you guys will figure it out if it’s meant to be.”
I felt my eyelids getting heavy and added through a yawn, “But you gotta stop spending what little time you two have left together being miserable. There’ll be plenty of time for that after he leaves, okay?” I snuggled down into the mattress and added, “And hey, when that happens, you’ll still have me, right?”
Lisa yawned too. “Yeah. Some consolation that’ll be.” I let out a tired snicker. If I wasn’t half-asleep, I would have busted out laughing at her next line, because the last thing I remember her saying was, “Ya gonna grow a dick for me, too?”
Chapter 30
DELIRIOUS
That night, I had a dream that Trip was hovering over me. I could feel his hands braced on either side of my head, his sandy hair brushing my cheek as he nuzzled into my neck, running heated kisses along my collarbone. My arms went around him and pulled his body on top of mine, my legs wrapping around his waist, his hand sliding up my shirt, my fingers raking down his bare back, down to his thighs, pulling him tighter against me...
When I heard his laugh against my throat, I woke up and realized it was dawn. There he was, actually tangled in my arms, better than any dream could ever be. I looked over at the other bed and saw that Lisa was already long gone. I made a mental note to check in on her the first chance I got. Well, the second chance I got.
“Good morning,” he whispered into my neck, the full weight of him pressing me into the pillows.
“Mmm. Good morning,” I answered back, smelling the sleepy warmth of his skin. We twisted to our sides, facing each other, my one leg still draped across his hip.
The wakeup call would have been perfect if not for the word “DICKNOSE” written across Trip’s forehead in black marker. I guessed Cooper at long last had found an opportunity to seek out his revenge.
I started laughing. “I’m gonna go out on a limb here and assume that you haven’t seen a mirror yet this morning.”
Trip looked at me like I was nuts before vaulting out of bed and heading for the bathroom. One second later, I heard him spit, “Sonofabitch!” which made me just crack up.
I heard the sink running and figured that Trip would come back to bed smelling not only soapy, but minty, too, and followed him into the bathroom. I thought it’d be best to brush the morning breath out of my mouth before we got too chummy.