Avoiding The Bad Boy

Chapter Two

Graciela’s POV

Finally! I have finally got here! All those years of slogging my guts out, keeping up at 4.0 GPA, no end of community service volunteering, extra curricular activities and working dead end jobs for references, and I’ve earned my place at the College of my dreams.

Gripping the box of nik naks tightly under one arm, I stood in front of the huge building that would be housing me for the next four years.

‘You can do this Gracie’ I muttered to myself, squaring my shoulders. ‘Your room mate is going to be kick ass, you’ll be like BFF’s in no time, she’ll totally think you are awesome and be super impressed that you worked your ass off to get here. There will be no looking down on the scholarship girl by any of the rich bitches, you worked for this, you earned this now get your butt in there and show them what Graciela Valerie Frost is all about.’

Nodding to myself, I grabbed the handle of my suitcase, turning it around from it’s position against my leg where I had placed it to stop it toppling over, and started to walk toward the student dorms, trying to exude confidence that had fled from me about halfway through the ten hour bus ride it had taken me to get here.

Reaching the door, I let go of my suitcase handle to rummage for the scrap of paper that had my entry code written on it, my case tipped forward from the weight and in slow motion fell to the ground, the barely holding zip ripping open and spilling my clothes everywhere.

‘Nooooooo’ I hissed, dropping the box I was still holding and reaching for my clothing that was now covering most of the path.

‘Need a hand?’ came a gruff voice from above me, cursing all deity’s that came to mind, I slowly moved my gaze upwards to find a muscular jock squatting beside me, a pair of my over sized granny panties that I lovingly called my period panties in his hand as he looked down at me in amusement.

Sue me, I like comfort when Aunt Flo comes to visit and it’s not like anyone is going to see them! Well, that was until now when an obvious football player with a sexy smile and muscles for days decided to happen across me at the worst moment of my life, and that’s saying something as I’ve had some shittastic days throughout my eighteen years.

Snatching the offending underwear from his fingers, I tried to halt the red heat crawling up my face as I stuffed them under the clothes still inside the remnants of my suitcase. ‘No, no, I’m fine, just carry on about your day and pretend that we never met’ I replied shrilly, reaching for my scattered clothes with lightning speed and shoving everything haphazardly back into the case before trying to force the broken zip to move so I could rezip it.

The jock laughed as he reached over and wrapped those droolworthy arms around my case, lifting it easily and holding it closed as he nodded toward the door in front of us. ‘Lincoln?’ he asked.

Giving him a confused look I grabbed my box and straightened up, ‘he was the sixteenth president’ I replied dumbly.

Mr sexy jock chuckled as he nodded toward the building, ‘you’re in Lincoln dorms’ he repeated.

Palm meet face, here five minutes and already I’m the weirdo dork, ‘yeah, um yes, I’m in Lincoln’ I agreed hastily. ‘Well not IN Lincoln you know cos he’s dead . . not that I would be if he was alive . . though I’m sure he was quite the catch in his day . . . not that I’ve drooled over his photos or anything . . .‘

Mr forearms that make a girls lady bits tingle, was staring at me as I rambled on, Jesus, was it getting hot out here, were we having an Indian summer all of a sudden, I really need to shut the hell up right now.

‘Wanna open the door?’ he asked, nodding at the building again.

Wishing the ground would swallow me whole, I rummaged again for my scrap of paper, pulling it out and punching in the number for the electronic lock. Pulling the door open, I held it wide so Mr Cover Model could precede me into the foyer, my eyes in no way checking out his ass as he walked in and stood to the side, me stopping behind him awkwardly.

Clearing his throat, the guy gave me an expectant look as I just stared at him, ‘you wanna show the way to your dorm room?’ he questioned, an amused smile gracing his lips.

‘Right, yes!’ I hurried toward the stairs, taking them two at a time for the first two flights before my lungs realised that I was attempting physical exercise and started to retaliate. By the top of the third flight I was gasping for breath and slightly dizzy as I rounded the bend to start on the fourth set. Behind me, Mr pin up calendar was easily keeping pace with me, his long legs making easy work of the climb. Dragging myself to the top, I pulled open the door and threw myself through it, leaning against the wall as I tried to force air into my protesting body.

‘You OK?’ the beefcake behind me asked, holding up a finger to show that I needed a second, I nodded my head.

‘Fine’ I gasped out, ‘just fine, be with you in just a moment.’

Yummy Jockstick nodded, smiling widely until I was able to stand and pushed myself away from my support wall. ‘Just down here’ I said brightly, ‘442’ I muttered under my breath, reading the numbers as I passed them before stopping outside my dorm room and pulling out my keyring that held the key to my room.

Sliding it into the lock, I pushed open the door to find my eyes assaulted by pink fluffy crap everywhere.

‘Wow, your roommate looks . . . fun’ Jocky Mc Jockster murmured behind me as I walked over to the empty side of the room, trying not to vomit from the sheer overwhelming sparkly, fluffy pink spectacle on the other side of the room to me.

Placing the suitcase on my bed, Muscle mania rubbed the back of his neck as he looked at me, ‘umm, thanks for the help’ I mumbled, not sure what I was supposed to do now. Maybe I was supposed to give him like a friendly bro hug or do the whole girly peck on the cheek thing. I went for my default, stand awkwardly in silence until the person opposite me gets uncomfortable and looks for a way to leave.

‘No worries’ he replied with a small smile, ‘the name’s Trey by the way’ he added.

My eyes widened, OK, so we are exchanging names? Well this is new, ‘Uhh, Graciela, but I was known at boarding school as Gracie, but you can call me Graciela if you prefer or Grace, or Ella . . choice is yours’ I added with a shrill giggle. Dear God, if you love me at all, please make the last fifteen minutes vanish from this man’s memory tonight.

‘Ooooook, well it was a pleasure meeting you Graciela’ Trey replied with a chuckle.

Moving toward the door, I followed him, watching as he strode back down the corridor and past the doorway to the stairwell.

‘Wait!’ I yelled, waving my arms frantically, ‘the stairs are there’ I added weakly as he turned to look at me.

Trey nodded as he grinned, ‘I know’ he replied, ‘but I figured four flights was enough for one day, so I’d just take the lift back down again.’

Chuckling at my very obviously red face, Trey gave me a quick wave before turning back and jogging the extra few feet to what I could just make out to be nice shiny metal doors that could only house an elevator.

‘A lift’ I muttered as I backed into the room and shut the door, ‘there’s a lift and I just let Hotty Mc Totty watch me almost pass out from walking up four flights of stairs.'

Groaning loudly, I dropped onto my mattress, grabbing the pillow from the end of the bed and using it to cover my face as I let out a strangled scream of frustration. ‘i***t!’ I yelled into the padding, ‘absolute i***t! You were supposed to be cool and . . . you know! Normal!’

‘Uhh, you OK?’ came a female voice from the doorway, snapping me out of my mini nervous breakdown. Looking up, over the edge of the pillow, my gaze moved to the door where I found a tall, slim blonde watching me worriedly, a key in her hand that she had obviously just used to unlock the door.

‘I’m your new room mate’ she mumbled, moving into the room reluctantly, shutting the door behind her.

‘Hey!’ I gushed, trying not to come off as the crazy, keeps dead mice in a shoe box under her bed, probably going to cut bits of your hair off while you sleep, psychopath that she obviously thought I was. ‘I’m Graciela’ I added, holding out a hand around the large pillow that I was still clutching like a security blanket.

‘I’m Addison’ the blonde replied, reaching out tentatively for my hand and shaking it.

‘Great! It’s nice to meet you’ I gushed over enthusiastically, trying not to cringe at the fear in the other girl’s eyes. ‘I swear I’m not a serial killer’ I added with a manical laugh, ‘I just had so much cola on the bus down here, I’m like fruit loopy right now.’

‘Sure, OK’ Addison replied, inching backwards from me as I grinned wildly at her. For the love of God girl you need to tone down the crazy before your roommate demands housing find you somewhere else to live.

‘Uhh, I like your décor’ I rambled, trying to make myself seem as normal as possible, not an easy feat but I’ll give it the good ol college try.

Addison perked up as she ran her gaze over the glitter explosion behind her, ‘oh thank you! I love pink, it’s my favourite colour.’ She giggled self consciously before turning back to me, the sparkle leaving her eyes again as it she had just remembered that she was rooming with the prodigy of Hannibal Lecter.

‘I’m more into purples’ I said, trying to keep the conversation going, ‘so that will make for a nice complementary colour scheme.’

The other teenager nodded slowly, ‘I guess’ she replied, eyeing my busted suitcase behind me. ‘Did you have problems?’ she asked, pointing to the zipper that I now realised was snagged on my favourite sweater from where I’d tried to force it closed again.

‘Yeah, I kinda embarrassed the crap out of myself by having my suitcase burst open outside the dorms and the hottest guy I’d ever seen found me, offered to help and the first thing he picked up were my granny sized period underwear’ I muttered, deciding I might as well own the psycho label now, there was no getting away from it.

Addison stared at me for a second before she burst out laughing, ‘was that why you were screaming at a pillow just now?’ she queried.

I nodded, giving her a weak smile, ‘that wasn’t even the worst part’ I groaned, ‘I made him walk up four flights of stairs, carrying my busted suitcase whilst I gasped my way up in front of him like some forty a day smoker only to find that we have a lift.’

I covered my burning face with my hands in mortification, ‘you can ask for a new roommate’ I mumbled through my hands, ‘I won’t take it personally, even I don’t want to be around me that often, I’m a disaster, I’ll only pull you down with me.’

Walking over, Addison sank down on the mattress beside me, ‘nah’ she said decisively, ‘at least you’ll be interesting, my friend Layla? Her roommate keeps a pet turtle and talks to the sunflower she’s growing on her windowsill.’

Looking up hopefully, I gave the girl a tentative smile, ‘don’t say I didn’t warn you’ I huffed with a small laugh.

‘Hey, you said you weren’t a serial killer right? So I take that as a win’ the girl replied, knocking my shoulder with hers.