Chapter 84

The first thing I did waking up that morning was think. Poetic, I know, but I had to. I had so many things rushing through my mind I found it harder and harder to keep track of them. Sometimes I believed I thought too much about things, other times I thought too little to the point I was careless. Now? I didn't know how and what I was thinking of, but one thing was for sure, I needed to figure out this whole Roman thing.

You see, my plan originally was keeping it to just the deal, clinical almost, but now... now I knew too much. Now I was Roman's friend. How could I go back to being Roman's friend when all I wanted to do was rip his clothes off every time I saw him? I tried not to think of it – really, I did. However, it was inevitable, and the inevitable had a horrible way of sneaking up on you, especially considering the Spring Fling was right around the corner.

I let out a long sigh and reached my hand to the other side of the bed. I didn't remember Roman leaving, but he must have as I rubbed my hand around the empty sheets. He was gone.

Sitting up, I looked over at the void where his body was, and a chill of coldness spread throughout my body. Where was he? I pressed my feet against the cold, wooden floor and padded over to my drawers to find some fresh underwear, considering I wasn't wearing any, and a pair of shorts that became hidden as I slipped them on under the oversized, red hoodie that once belong to Roman, now belonging to me.

I waited at the top of the stairs, listening to see if my parents were awake. The clattering of pots and pans told me they were, and I trekked down the stairs, letting the delicious smell of bacon and eggs waft over my senses.

As I reached the bottom however, I was met with I sight I didn't expect to see. There was Roman. By the stove. Cooking bacon. And my parents were with him!

I almost screamed for several reasons; one being the fact that my mom never let anyone cook in the kitchen besides herself, occasionally my dad and I with given instructions, and two, Roman wore the same clothes as yesterday making it obvious to the fact that he slept over and my parents were not dumb, so leading on to number three, they most likely knew that Roman and I had sex last night and I had absolutely no idea how to feel content with that knowledge.

"Morning, sweetheart." My dad noticed me standing at the bottom of the stairs as he sat at the breakfast table drinking his coffee.

"Yes, morning, sweetheart." My mom stared at me with a little knowing glint in her eyes. I almost died right there and then.

"What... What's this?" 'this' meaning this whole situation. My mom got up from her seat and walked over to me with a smile on her face.

"Roman here wanted to cook breakfast." Her smile never faded. "Isn't that lovely?"

"Yes..." I spoke very slowly. "Very –" I coughed, "– lovely."

"Here." My mom passed me a mug of piping hot coffee. "You look like you need some." I didn't miss the wink as she walked away. Without a second to spare, I rushed over to Roman, frantically sipping my coffee as if to wake myself up from whatever the hell was going on.

"What the hell are you doing?" I snapped as I got close enough for only him to hear me.

"I told you," he answered, "I'm having a 'Roman Day'." Roman Day. Right.

"Yeah, but I didn't realise that 'Roman Day' meant having breakfast with my parents too." I hissed.

"We played Scrabble with your parents last night." He reminded.

"Yeah, but breakfast is... different." Adam never even had breakfast with my parents let alone made it.

"Look, I was only going to make us breakfast and then they came down and I felt bad for not offering so here we are." Part of it melted my heart and the other part still made me anxious. "Just relax, okay?"

"Relax?! You want me to relax when –"

"Sienna? Stop pestering, Roman." My dad laughed and I heard Roman chuckle by my side. Oh my god, end me now, God. Just end me.

 My face burned as I walked back to sit at the table, sipping my coffee to avoid further embarrassment.

Breakfast was good, like seriously good. I had no idea Roman could cook so well. I scoffed it down in no time, my stomach mewing at the delicious flavours, and once done, gulped down the rest of my orange juice. Roman insisted he did the dishes afterwards but that was where my mom drew the line.

"If you don't cook, you clean up." She explained. "Are you two planning on going anywhere today?"

I looked back at Roman. "I don't know –"

"Yeah." He cut me off and looked at me. "We should get going soon." Get going soon to where? Before I could even ask, my mom said she'd clean up so we could get ready, and I found confusion whirling around my head as I walked up the stairs with Roman by my side.

"Where are we going?" I asked after a few minutes of silence.

"It's a surprise." He answered. "But I need to go round mine first to get clean clothes." I wanted to ask more but Roman was too smart for me to outsmart the answers out of him and so I decided to keep quiet and head up to my room.

I showered first, giving me enough time to get ready whilst Roman took his turn. As he got out, my straighteners had heated up. My natural hair was curly. Bouncy curls that would fluff up if I didn't put some sort of oil or cream in. Most of the time I didn't bother taking care of them because I'd straighten them to death which would cause them to become damaged and even fluffier.

"Leave it." Roman said as he walked past. The towel hung low on the V of his hips and his gorgeous body glistened with water. His hair looked darker and longer when wet and I couldn't help but miss his longer hair. Maybe not as long or the damaged and deadness of it before but I felt like the longer hair suited him more, especially if he took care of it.

"Huh?" I didn't exactly know what he meant.

"I like your hair like that, it's cute." I suddenly realised how he was one of the few people who had ever seen me so... natural. Usually for school I made sure I looked my best to fit the persona I wanted. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved makeup and loved watching hundreds of tutorials online to admire the sheer talent it took to create those gorgeous looks. However, I felt so judged if I didn't wear it. It was more of a personal issue than anything. I was supposed to look my best, I was supposed to fit this popular and pretty mean girl persona, and no one ever depicted the pretty girls as those without the casual beach waves, doll-like or catty eyes, glowing, unblemished skin, and pink petalled lips.

"Um, thanks." I was used to the regular compliments of 'oh, I like your outfit', or 'I love ass', or 'urgh, you're so hot' which was nice, don't get me wrong but they felt almost generic. Here I was, showing Roman a natural feature of myself and he liked it. He complimented it. And I stupidly didn't know how to take it.

I hesitantly took his advice and put some cream in it to help define my curls more so they didn't get frizzy. I finished up the rest of my makeup and went to grab some clothes. "Where are we going then? The last thing I wanted to do was dress up for the entirely wrong occasion.

"I told you, it's a surprise." He answered, his back facing me as he dropped the towel. Instinctively, I turned away and heard a small chuckle leave his lips. God, Sienna, you've had sex with this guy and you're suddenly so shy to see him naked? What the hell?

I gulped and took in a long breath. "What should I wear then?"

He took a minute to respond, "I don't know, a top and pants." The vagueness of boys when it came to women's fashion really made me roll my eyes.

"Wow, thanks." I sarcastically muttered and decided to grab a pair of leggings and a cropped, white hoodie. I slipped on the new sneakers Rya had gotten me for Christmas with gold detailing around the laces and put on a pair hoop earrings. By the time I was ready, Roman was too and we made our way downstairs to the kitchen.

Everything had been cleared and my mom was busy playing some memory game on her phone. I swore she was on level three-hundred-and-something with that thing.

She took a double take as I came back downstairs and smiled widely. "I absolutely love your hair like that." I knew she did. I knew my dad did too, but I always assumed they said it because I was their daughter and parents always had a thing about their kid's 'natural beauty'. I mean, check every Facebook photo of theirs I am in.

"Are going to be gone all day?"

I looked up at Roman.

"Probably." He replied. My mom nodded with a smile still glued to her face.

"Well, you kids have fun." She waved us off and I didn't miss her subtle wink.

Roman chuckled as he walked to his chair. "I love your parents."

We drove to his house and he told me to wait in the car as he got changed. I suspected he had family round for the day and the thought of him coming in with a girl would obviously cause some sort of chaos or gossip he wasn't prepared for. I waited, listening to the radio playing lightly in the car until he came back. This time he wore a pair of denim jeans, a grey hoodie with a jean jacket over the top, looking a little flustered which I assumed was due to the efforts of trying to dodge his pestering relatives.

When he got back in, I finally asked, "Now can you tell me where we're going?"

"Nope." He said, popping the 'p', a smile glued to his lips. I rolled my eyes and leaned back in the seat as he began to drive.