Walking STD
A few days later, I still hadn’t figured out exactly what Taylor’s problem was. I had too much homework to really worry about that, though. We had just gotten our outlines back and were supposed to start working on drafts of all the differences between the book and movie. On top of that, I had tests coming up in two of my gen ed classes. Staying holed up in my dorm room working on all of that seemed preferable to leaving my room and dealing with things like Taylor, Zac and Bella.
Of course, the universe had other plans for me. Plans with a bad tan and short shorts.
“Georgina,” Bella drawled, tapping the door I had stupidly left unlocked and open. “Aren’t we going to work on our drafts together?”
“Aren’t we?” I repeated mockingly.
“You know we’ll get better grades if we work on this together…”
No, I didn’t know that. I knew she would get a better grade if I allowed her to copy my work, and I was certain she knew that, too. She did, after all, have to keep up a certain GPA to get in and stay in the sorority. And unfortunately for me, I was a pushover. It was far easier to just give in and work with her than to fight with her.
“Okay,” I sighed out. “Let me get my notebook and I’ll come out there. We can work in the living room.”
“Great!” She chirped, clapping her hands.
Once she was gone, I let out a huge groan. Not actually feeling any better after that, I knew I had no choice left but just to gather up my things and go out into the living room. It took a little effort to balance my laptop, cell phone, notebook and copy of Sorcerer’s Stone all in my arms, but I managed. When I finally made it into the living room, Bella was already glued to her laptop, staring mindlessly at the screen while filing her nails.
I could already tell things were off to a great start.
From there, things went roughly as I expected. Bella barely even noticed when I walked into the room, her heavily lined eyes fluttering my way for a split second for they went straight back to her laptop screen.
“So,” I said, clearing my throat as I sat down on the couch. “I guess we basically need to take the points we put in our outlines and write paragraphs detailing them. Then we fill in later with our analysis of what it means, but basically this draft is just like a big outline.”
“Ugh, it’s so many steps,” Bella whined.
“Well, it’s all to hopefully get us to the best final paper, I guess,” I replied listlessly.
I had already proven myself a nerd to her, so I really didn’t feel like defending how well structured I thought the assignment was. It wasn’t as though I were trying to hide my nerdiness, but it had made me even more of a pariah in college than it did in high school. Drawing any excess attention ot it, especially to someone like Bella, just seemed unwise.
She sighed and made a show of opening her notebook and slamming it down on the coffee table. “Let’s just get this over with, okay?”
I could only reply to that with a little grunt. There was no real need to express my annoyance with her; it wouldn’t make her any less annoying. If anything, I thought it might make her worse. She was just like that. All I could do was just try to get through this one night… then the next… then the one after that… until I finally snapped and killed the bitch.
We worked for what felt like forever, and I wasn’t sure which of us I would kill first, when the door finally opened and gave me a distraction. That distraction came in the form of Molly, who looked… strange. She looked exhausted, really, and I wondered how rough her TA session must have been.
“Oh, Molly,” I said, leaning back to watch her wander around the kitchen in search of a snack. “Just getting back from the TA?”
“No, this is Thursday,” she replied. She looked like she wanted to say more, but made a point of stopping herself.
“Oh,” I replied. “It is, isn’t it? So no TA tonight?”
“No,” she replied curtly, grabbing a banana from the counter and wandering off toward her room without another word.
“That was weird, wasn’t it?” I remarked idly, before realizing that I really didn’t want to discuss Molly with Bella.
She just shrugged. “Whatever. She can go where she wants, can’t she?”
“I guess…” I mumbled, then glanced back down at my notes. “We need to get this finished, though.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Bella replied. “I have plans with Zac later.”
Plans? Later? It was already after eight o’clock. I knew that wasn’t that late, but who made plans for any later than that on a weeknight? Even as I thought it, I realized I sounded more like a little old lady than a college student. It wasn’t hard to guess what sort of plans Bella and Zac had for the night, and that thought made me sick. I had already come close enough to seeing them having sex; I didn’t need to picture it, too.
“Yeah, okay,” I practically snapped not looking Bella’s way at all.
“Oh, you aren’t still upset about us dating, are you?” Bella giggled. “I know it was sudden and he really should have told you first, since it’s just so awkward for your roommate to date your best friend, but… honestly, I thought we could get over that little misunderstanding.”
I wasn’t sure exactly what I was supposed to have misunderstood, and I didn’t want to ask. Bella was just so intent on making it into some silly little thing that was all my fault. Maybe it was. As Taylor had pointed out, I had no claim on Zac. Just my crush. Considering the fact that he didn’t even know about that, he couldn’t be expected to act according to it, especially when it was clear that he didn’t feel the same way at all. True, I wasn’t being fair to him, but he wasn’t being fair to me by dating someone I despised. That was a fact, crush or no crush.
“Oh, honestly, Georgina,” Bella continued, drawling the words. “This is just such a silly little argument. I don’t want you to be mad at me or at Zac just because of this.”
“Yeah, well, we can’t always get what we want,” I replied, not even carrying how bitter I sounded.
I wondered if Bella knew how true of a statement it was. I wasn’t just talking about her supposed desire to see us all be one big happy family. I was also talking about my desire to be with Zac. Clearly, I wasn’t going to get what I wanted, and as long as she had it, I really didn’t see us being anything but enemies. We would never be friends, and I hated that she kept trying to force it, even while it was obvious she didn’t like anything about me.
Before I could actually start steaming out my ears from all those thoughts, my phone buzzed and distracted me. I hated how the sound made me jump, especially because I had no doubt who the message was from—and I was right.
Taylor, of course. It was fairly subtle, as far as his booty calls went. I still wondered why he thought I had ignored one the other night. I hadn’t even gotten one from him for days. Sometimes he really made no sense at all. Before I could type a reply to him, my phone buzzed again.
There was the Taylor I knew and barely tolerated. As annoying as he was, it gave me a pretty good excuse to leave and get far, far away from Bella. Of course, I couldn’t tell her what that excuse was. I struggled to think of some believable lie, anything at all to explain why I needed to cut our little study session short. While I tried to think of a suitable excuse, I sent Taylor a quick reply.
I tried not to giggle as I typed it, because I could only imagine Taylor’s response. It didn’t slip by me that I had referred to him as a walking STD on more than one occasion. When I had started to see him differently, I didn’t really know. In fact, I really didn’t see him differently. He was still annoying, obnoxious, self centered and not at all the sort of guy I wanted to date. We didn’t talk or hang out any more than we did before we started having sex. We had only ever been friends because of Zac, and strangely, we had become fuck buddies because of him, too. But that was all we were. Fuck buddies. I certainly didn’t respect him any more than I did before I let him deflower me, as he insisted upon describing it.
Slowly, I realized that I was just staring down at my phone, and even someone as vapid as Bella had to be wondering what the hell was wrong with me. I glanced up at her, my brain turning a million miles a minute as it tried to come up with some reason I needed to leave. Finally, I stuttered out, “Oh, umm. I need to go get some notes for my chemistry test. I mean, I let someone borrow them and I need them back so that I can finish studying, too. And the test is tomorrow, so…”
It wasn’t a lie that I had a chemistry test the next morning. The rest of what I had rambled out was a lie, though, and I could only hope Bella didn’t see through it.
“Oh,” Bella said, blinking. “Well, alright then. Can you at least leave me your notes?”
“Yeah, alright,” I said, grateful that she wasn’t questioning my story.
With that excuse made almost too easily, I scurried off to the bathroom to freshen up a bit. I felt so stupid for wanting to impress Taylor, but nevertheless, it was how I felt. It wasn’t like he hadn’t already seen me at my worst, from my tomboy childhood all the way through my awkward puberty. And he had never hesitated to poke fun at my looks, although over the last few years, he had started flirting, too. That, I thought, was just an attempt to get under Zac’s skin. Then again, he didn’t seem to mind having sex with me, so maybe he did find me attractive. Still, brushing my hair, swishing a little mouthwash and changing into something other than ratty old pajamas couldn’t hurt.
Once I decided I was presentable enough, I grabbed my keys and headed back out into the living room. I closed my laptop and snatched my cell phone up from where it had fallen on the couch. Bella barely even acknowledged my presence, which was fine by me. As I turned to leave, without bothering to say goodbye to her, the door to Molly’s room opened and she walked out.
“Are you going somewhere?” She asked.
“Umm,” I stuttered out. “Yeah, I need to go get my chemistry notes back from someone.”
Molly gave me a pointed look, then glanced over my shoulder, presumably at Bella. I guessed she must have been paying attention to us, because Molly’s mouth closed just as quickly as it had opened. She was going to ask if I was going to see the guy I had been so vague about, I was sure, but she thought better of it. I was glad, because I didn’t need to give Bella any reason to suspect I had lied to her.
It would have been bad enough for Molly to know the truth about who I was going to see, but for Bella to know… that would have been absolutely unbearable.