Chapter 3.

I feared that my gut was in fact not wrong. My roommate truly did not like me, and now, she had a reason to.

Last night, Avery Palmer had outright admitted to my face that she did not like me. It was not in my head anymore.

What had happened last night to trigger this event was an honest, and truly horrific mistake. I would never have intentionally walked in on anyone having sex. It was the worst possible thing I could have walked into. But, in my defense, if Kiara hadn't blown me off yesterday afternoon, I would have known not to go in when I did. I would have done anything to erase what I saw from my memory.

"Where is this Avery girl now?" A very sympathetic Kelsey asked through my phone screen. I was in major need of a facetime therapy session my best friend. Dylan, being the most unserious male, was not going to cut it.

My eyes flickered over to Avery's side of the room. Her bed was still messy from when she and the guy stormed out of the dorms last night. "I'm guessing avoiding the room since she knows I'm here."

Kelsey frowned. "I'm sorry Lil. It sucks that you are off to such a rocky start with your roommate. Maybe you can get a transfer?"

The thought had crossed my mind, I'll admit it. But I feared that it was way too soon into the school year. Classes didn't even start for a few more days.

"You know," Kelsey smirked. "Maybe she will be like Madison. You guys didn't get along at all in high school when you first met, but you ended up being great friends after a few months."

I shook my head violently. "Not likely. And besides, at least Madison had a reason to hate me when she first met me."

When I first met Madison, I had already been crushing hard on her boyfriend. Hell, I was trying to steal her boyfriend. Madison had more than enough reason to want me dead.

"Well, sounds like she has a reason now," Kelsey teased. Her smile fell from her face in an instant when she saw the deadpan look on my face. Too soon.

A knock at the door interrupted our conversation. I raised an eyebrow, eying the door skeptically. "Hold on a second," I mumbled into the phone before I slid off my bed.

I walked to the door, swung it open expecting it to be Dylan. Only it wasn't. It was another tall, lean man who stood in front of me instead.

"Hi," He offered a sly smile, a pair of dark eyes met mine. "Is Avery here?"

My eyes glanced over him. He was definitely tall like Dylan, but he lacked the muscle so I guessed he was not a football player. He had dirty blonde hair that was messily falling just above his eyes, and he was dressed in black t-shirt with dark wash denim. I couldn't place where I had seen him, be he seemed vaguely familiar.

I shook my head. "No. She's not. Is there anything I can help you with?"

The stranger shook his head, shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans.

When the man failed to leave after a few seconds, I raised my eyebrows. "Are you sure?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. If he knew that Keira wasn't here, then why wasn't he leaving?

Several long, awkward seconds of silence passed before the man finally let out a long sigh. "I haven't seen her since she left my place last night, so I was just wanting to check in on her."

I swallowed a large lump that had instantly formed in my throat. Holy crap. He was the guy from last night.

"Hey Kelsey," I called out of my shoulder to my friend who was still on the phone. "I'm going to have to call you back."

I didn't hear if Kelsey said in response, but I heard the beep that indicated the end of the call, so I knew that she had in fact heard me.

"Why don't you come in?" I offered, forced a smile to my face as I took a step backward out of the doorway.

The guy accepted my invitation, strolled past me as if he believed he belonged here. "Sorry about last night. Avery promised me you weren't coming back to the room last night."

I could feel the heat rush to my cheeks from the embarrassment. I quickly swung the door shut, turned to face him. "I'm the one who should be apologizing to you. I did not mean to interrupt you. Avery didn't want to talk to me at all yesterday, so she never told me that she was having someone over."

He smiled sheepishly, ran his right hand over the sleeve of hoodie. "Yeah," he admitted. "She doesn't seem to like you very much."

"I don't know why, we don't even know each other," I scoffed.

He chuckled, putting his hands back into the front pockets to his jeans once again. "Eh, don't let it bother you too much. Avery is a little stand offish to new people."

Standoffish? Don't let it bother me? I wasn't sure that it was possible at this point to not let it bother me. And I was certain that Avery was way past just being standoffish.

I sucked in a large breath of air, elected to take the bigger path. "What's your name by the way? I'm Lilly."

"Will," he answered with a cheeky grin. "I'm serious Lilly, I wouldn't let Avery get to you. I promise you that she is all bark and no bite."

Whether it was true that was all bark and no bite, it certainly didn't feel that way. Her words seemed to have plenty of bite last night when she was chewing me out.

"She straight up said she hated me to my face last night."

Will's grin didn't falter. "She says that a lot."

"You sound like you know her pretty well. How did you meet?" I wanted to derail our conversation off of Avery's new fond hatred of me. Maybe I could learn some more about her from Will and find a way to get on her good side.

"Avery and I have been friends since grade school. We grew up together on the same street, just a few houses away from one another."

I smiled. Childhood friends to lovers. That was actually really sweet. "Oh, so you guys are high school sweethearts. That's so cute."

Will shrugged off my assumption with a lopsided grin still on his face. "More like friends with benefits."

More heat flooded my face. Oh.

Words were unable to escape my lips, so we sat in the most awkward silence for what felt like forever. I knew that to many people sex was no big deal, but my brain could not fathom how two friends could just sleep together with no strings attached. It made my stomach twist at the thought.

Will leaned backward against Keira's bed. "I take it that's not your thing."

My cheeks were raging with heat. I wished that I could just disappear already from the embarrassment. I wasn't trying to be judgmental; I just really didn't understand how someone could make light of something that was so personal.

It was as if my lips were glued shut. Either that or I had momentarily forgotten how to speak all together. Judging from the raging silence between us, either was plausible.

Will smirked at my silence, straightened up from the bed. "I will let you get back to it. If Keira happens to find her way back here, let me know, yah?"

"I doubt she will," I grumbled. Words seemed to have found their way back to my body.

Will walked over to me, shoved his phone into my hands. "Put your number in. If you ever need an ally against Avery, I will be one text away."

Eying Will skeptically, I found myself accepting his phone to punch my number in. It didn't seem like such a bad idea to have someone who is on Keira's good side also be on my side.

Will took his phone back, typed something, then I heard my phone ding. He wiggled the phone. "I just texted you, so now you have my number. If you see Avery, let me know."

Then he was out the door without even so much as a goodbye. I blinked, bewildered by the strange events that had just unfolded. Had I gained a friend or an ally?

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