Chapter Sixteen

The next day, I beat on Noah’s door until he answered. Grumpy, disheveled, and in his super hero pajamas—complete with cape—he ushered me inside. I followed him through the formal dining room and into the kitchen. I opened my mouth to speak, but before the air could leave my lungs to make a sound, he looked at me with the most withering look I had ever received from someone other than my mother.

I leaned against the smooth, marble counter as he pulled a mug from the cabinet and placed it under the spout of the coffee machine. I hadn’t met anyone who loved coffee quite as much as Noah did—for him, it was close to a religious experience. He jabbed at the buttons on the fancy contraption, and it immediately began producing Noah’s elixir of life. He pulled the mug from the machine, steam rising in happy little swirls above it. He lowered his head to inhale deeply and then set about adding creamer and sugar. Only after the coffee had cooled and Noah had taken three long drags from the mug did he speak.

“You know, I could charge you with cruel and unusual punishment for waking me before noon this often.”

“The world does not always wait for you before it begins turning, Noah. My world is spinning, and I thought you would want to know about it.”

“Well, go get your hamsters calibrated and stop waking me at the crack of dawn.”

“Ugh! Whatever.” I rolled my eyes and chose to ignore him. A goofy smile spread across my face, and I told him, “I kissed someone.”

“Shut up and tell me everything.” He playfully slapped my arm and refilled his coffee.

I told him everything. Then he made himself presentable to the rest of the world and we went out for lunch.

When I had finally finished over analyzing everything, Noah said, “Make sure she’s not your rebound. You know, someone you shove all of the feelings from your old relationship onto. Making the new relationship too intense and too much, too quickly. Rebound relationships are doomed to failure and the consequences of the fall-out are horrible for all parties, including but not limited to friends and family. I don’t want to go down like that.” He added the last part with a smile and a wink.

“I don’t think I am. I’m just excited! I hadn’t even thought about Summer until just now, thanks for that,” I said, Noah rolling his eyes at me. “How do I know if it’s a rebound?”

“Well, I would have told you to take it slow. But as you have already sucked half of her face off from the sound of it, I would start taking her out. I mean, don’t just sit in your room and make out all the time. Why don’t you bring her to a LGBTQA meeting?”

“I think I will.” I smiled at him. “I’m seeing her again tonight.” My face spread into a grin at the mention of seeing her.

We ate and chatted about Sophia and kissing then moved on to school and club stuff. After lunch, we went our separate ways, and I went back to my dorm room to get ready to see Sophia again. She was going to come over so we could work on our project some more.

She knocked on the door around four, and I leapt off my bed to yank open the door. She stood on the other side of it beaming at me. I bowed slightly and swept my arm to indicate for her to enter the room. She stepped in the room then pulled me in after her and shut the door. Her mouth was on mine before I had uttered a word. All thoughts of talking to her about anything flew out of my mind. We were lost in each other until Alyssa opened the door. We broke apart like we had been doing something wrong. I began giggling and Sophia followed. When Alyssa caught sight of us around the door, she stopped dead in her tracks. I hadn’t been able to share my news with her yet.

“Well, hello,” Alyssa said and wiggled her eyebrows at me then looked meaning fully at Sophia.

“Hi,” I said. “This is Sophia.”

Alyssa rounded the bottom of my bed and came to where Sophia and I were standing. She stuck out her hand and said, “My name’s Alyssa.”

They shook hands, which seemed oddly formal, and then Alyssa perched on the edge of her bed and stared at us. I looked from her to Sophia and knew that it was now time to actually work on the project. I slid the poster board from under my bed where I had stowed it and tapped on Sophia’s shoe so she would move. She climbed onto the bed, and I swept the board into the middle of the room.

“Whatcha doin’?” asked Alyssa. Her eyes had not moved from us since she sat down.

“Working on a project for our gender studies class,” replied Sophia while she pulled her laptop from her bag and turned it on.

“Fascinating.” Alyssa’s tone dripped sarcasm.

“Alyssa,” I said, smiling far larger than the situation warranted. “Can I speak with you in the hallway?”

“Why sure,” she simpered.

Had Sophia known anything about Alyssa, this would have been a huge tipoff to the storm brewing inside of her, but as it stood—I was to handle the gale force winds alone. We stepped into the hallway, and I closed the door behind me.

“Excuse me, what is your problem?” I demanded.

“I know what you’re doing,” she said, dropping all pretenses of being happy or nice.

“What? Working on a project? Kissing my classmate? Moving on!”

There had been a sneaking suspicion building in the back of my mind for a little while now. One that included Alyssa being “Team Summer,” and I had a sharp feeling that it was about to be confirmed.

“I thought you loved Summer?”

“You know I do!” I cried, feeling a little affronted at the accusation and a little upset about having been right in my fears and—of course—guilty for kissing Sophia.

“Then what are you doing? You’re in the middle of trying to sort things out, yet you’re making out with someone else?”

“There is no ‘working things out.’ Summer doesn’t want me—she has a boyfriend.”

“She has a distraction, and you’re butt-hurt, which is understandable, but now you’re dragging someone else into the mix. Now there is no way that someone won’t end up hurt.”

“Me, Alyssa! I’m hurt, and I’m trying to move past being rejected by someone I loved for years.”

“Does she know she’s a rebound?”

“She’s not a rebound. I’m keeping my feelings for Summer separate—I’m starting something new.”

“This is a rebound, and you’re lying to her like you’re lying to yourself.”

Irritated, Alyssa turned on her heels and stomped down the hallway. I turned to go back into the dorm and realized that Sophia and I would be alone again, only this time I wasn’t excited about it. Alyssa’s words made me feel bad, but they also made me more thoughtful of what I was doing, which probably wasn’t a bad thing.

Sophia was sitting on the bed where I had left her, diligently typing at her computer—assumedly working on the project.

“Is everything alright?” she asked.

“Yeah, she wanted a word. She wants the dorm to herself later, so we should get to work.”

Sophia eyed me a little oddly, but must have assumed it was for the best not to comment on the inner-workings of my roommate relationship. We worked semi-diligently after that. Really, the project shouldn’t take more than two or three meetings, but we were both dragging our feet, looking for a reason to continue meeting.

We worked in silence for a bit, small questions or one of us sharing something we had found here and there until I remembered about asking her to a club meeting.

“Hey,” I said to Sophia, startling her a little. “You want to go with me to the LGBTQA meeting tomorrow?”

“Sure, sounds like fun,” she replied. “We’re almost done with the project, despite my best efforts, so I need another excuse to follow you around.”

“Oh, have my own little stalker do I?” I giggled.

“You have no idea,” she said as she put her computer aside and scooted closer to me on the bed.

We kissed for a bit, but—thanks to Alyssa—I couldn’t get Summer out of my head. I pulled back and so did Sophia with a sound of reluctance.

I pecked her once more then said, “I think it’s time to call it a night. Alyssa will be back soon, and we should save some of the good stuff for later.” I smiled a little devilishly to imply my meaning.

“Or we could have more of the good stuff now,” she replied, her own look far surpassing my own. “We could go somewhere else. I bet we could find a place in the library again.” She reached for me and pulled me to her.

“Uh, I think not,” I said, an uneasy feeling seeping into my stomach. I put my hands on her shoulders to keep us apart—I could feel her still pulling on me. “It’s time for you to go. I’ll see you for the meeting tomorrow.”

“But…” she began.

“No buts, time to go. I need to clear out of here and I have other homework to do,” I said as I pushed her toward the door.

To my relief, she pecked me on the cheek at the door and left quietly. I crawled back into bed and had a small cry over my hurt feelings about Summer and my almost instant panic when Sophia was pulling on me after I had said no. I knew she didn’t mean harm but that didn’t mean she hadn’t caused any. I was still raw from my ordeal with Clayton, and she had pushed just enough to bring it back.