Chapter Five

Sara When I woke up in the morning, my mind was blissful. I was warm and drowsy and my body was exhausted but good. With a smile, I remembered last night, and the bliss doubled. My smile grew broader and my eyes fluttered open.

I rolled, and when I still saw nothing, I frowned. I sat up, and the bed covers slipped down my body, revealing my naked breasts. Blushing a little, I pulled them back up to cover my chest. When I looked around again, I realized there was no point. I was alone in the room.

Noah was gone.

“What the heck,” I muttered.

There was nowhere he could have hidden, but I still slipped off the bed, and dragged my sheet with me as I wrapped it around my body to look around. He wasn’t in the room. More than that, I couldn’t see any of his things, though I could clearly remember him tossing all our clothes to the floor as we stripped.

Did he seriously leave?

I’d fallen asleep in his arms. It had felt amazing, especially in the afterglow from my first ever orgasm. I was disappointed that he’d left, of course, but in a moment, I wanted to slap myself.

What did I expect?

This whole thing was pretty much a short-term contract for hire. He owed me nothing; he didn’t owe it to me to wait until I woke up before leaving. I paid him, and he’d said it himself, we had an hour. When I fell asleep in bliss, he’d probably snuck out, so I must have been alone in my bed all night.

“Fuck,” I muttered to myself.

I moved back to my bed and sat down, blinking my suddenly blurry eyes. I couldn’t let myself cry over this. It wasn’t like I felt used just because he wasn’t there, though I had to admit that I was sad he hadn't been there to make the whole thing perfect. Only, he wasn’t my boyfriend, so he was under no obligation to do so.

After a moment of feeling pity for myself, I looked around the room. Then I looked over at my bed and wrinkled my nose when I saw the dark stain on it. The sheets were black, but even though the stain wasn’t red, I knew it was blood from last night. Come to think of it, I’d been dazed before, so I hadn't noticed, but my body was feeling achy.

Crap.

I needed to clean up, and quickly. I fumbled to reach my phone on the nightstand, wincing when I felt muscles in my body that had never been worked before twinge in protest.

Hurrying, I tossed the sheet away and found my dress from last night. It wasn’t crumpled on the floor. Instead, it had been tossed onto the back of my chair, and I tugged it on. I needed to take a shower, and either do my laundry or hide my sheets. I decided to do the laundry. If I didn’t wash them, I would end up tossing them rather than try to use them again. I would be too embarrassed to give them to someone else, too.

It was still early in the morning, so I got lucky. There weren’t too many people moving around. I took care of my laundry, before I had a shower and got back to my room with a robe on and a towel wrapped around my hair. It had all taken an hour. I had the whole day free, but I was a little paranoid.

Not long after I got dressed and dried my hair, I realized I had good reason to be paranoid. Alicia and Caroline burst into my room, eyeing me intently, and waiting for all the juicy gossip I knew I could never tell them.

“So,” Alicia started, voice calm even though it was pointless after the way they rushed into my room. “How did last night go for you?”

I blinked at her, and pretended to be oblivious. My hands, that had carefully toweled at my dark hair, gave me away though, when they froze.

“Um, what do you mean?” I asked, my gaze frozen on a picture on the wall.

“Don’t play dumb,” Caroline said, her voice quiet even though it was just us three in the room. “That sext me thing! The guy showed up last night, didn’t he? Don’t tell me he didn’t show up?”

I looked down at my lap, but not at her, even though she sounded disappointed.

“You already sent the payment, right?” Alicia added, and I knew she was wondering if I could get the money back if he didn’t show.

I wanted to grimace, but I held it in. I hadn't forgotten that they would be here to question me, but wasn’t this a little too early? I’d only just gotten over my earlier disappointment; I didn’t have enough time to create a story to tell them.

“Yeah,” I murmured. “I sent it.” And a very hot senior showed up.

“Last night happened,” Alicia said with a wicked grin, her blue eyes hungry for information. “Now, tell us who it is.”

I moved to my chair, and the two of them moved to the bed. My chest tightened a little, even as I let out a little sigh of relief that I’d changed the sheets before they arrived. My room didn’t look like I’d had anyone else in it, and I was glad. Still, there was no way to lie; if I did, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t try make me do it again.

Not that I would mind if I got to see Noah again, but what if they insisted they had to stay with me this time? It had taken effort last night to convince them not to wait in the room with me. I didn’t have a roommate, there was only the one bed, and it had been midnight. He would have found it odd if extra people were here when he arrived. Even though I’d been nervous, I was glad now that I had insisted that they leave me alone.

“Um, do you guys mind if we do this later? I’m feeling a little hungry…”

It wasn’t a lie. I’d had a vigorous workout yesterday. My face blushed just at the memory of the night before, and I probably gave myself away.

“No way,” Alicia said immediately, and bounced on my bed as she grinned. “We’ve dying to know what happened, so spill. We can all go eat, but at least tell us before we go out, okay?”

I stalled some more. “Can I just dry my hair first?”

Before they could say a thing, I found my blow drier and turned it on, then found a comb and slowly worked through my still wet strands to stall some more. I took a whole five minutes but stopped at last because my hair was perfectly dry. I even burned myself a little, and I knew I had to turn it off or ruin my hair.

“You guys don’t want to eat first?” I suggested. “It’s on me this once.”

I hadn't exhausted my allowance for the month yet, even after last night, and if I needed more money, I could just make a few calls. It wouldn’t bother me a bit to drop a little money, if it got me out of this interrogation. It was a Saturday, too, and we had no classes. Alicia and Caroline liked to get out of campus and go to a café nearby. The prices weren’t cheap, but the selection of pastries and coffees was more than what we could get on campus, and they usually talked me into paying after we went the first time and I offered.

“Do you not want to tell us?” Alicia asked, her face a picture of disappointment.

I froze.

“Yeah,” Caroline added, suspicious now. “It’s not such a big deal, right? You’re just telling us some random guy’s name. It’s not like you know him, right?”

It was true that I didn’t know him, and that was partly what bothered me. If I told them his name and Alicia and Caroline told everybody… What would I do if he told people about me once he realized I was the one that told? Well, not that I thought he was that kind of guy after how amazing he was last night.

“Sorry, guys,” I said, though I didn’t sound sorry at all as I turned to look at them. “A girl never kisses and tells.”

I didn’t try to hide behind humor, because the questions wouldn’t stop. I wanted them to know I was serious about this. They got the message, but they were not happy about it.

Alicia frowned. “The only reason you even know about this is because of me, so tell us, alright? I even gave you the number.”

I sighed and leaned back on my desk. “See, that’s fine and all, but if you want to know, then try it for yourself.”

Her jaw dropped. “You have to pay first, and you saw how expensive it was.”

“Yeah,” Caroline added a little petulantly. “If it had been one of us, even if we put our funds together, no way could we afford half of it if we want to keep eating every day.”

I bit my lip, because I felt a bit undecided, though I didn’t waver. I considered them my friends, and I did a lot of things for them. I looked at them both now and I started to wonder why I had to do everything they said. Why I wanted them to be my friends so desperately that I felt like I had to meet every demand they made.

That’s the thing; I don’t actually have to.

“You can find a different way, then,” I said, and blinked a look that I hoped screamed ‘tough luck’ at them.

They watched me silently for a long moment, and even though I felt uneasy inside, I didn’t lower my head. After a long moment, Alicia sighed and got up. Caroline glanced at her before doing the same.

“I never thought you were that kind of girl,” Alicia said with a shake of her head and my eyes narrowed.

“It’s disappointing,” Caroline added. “But I guess it’s to be expected. Your mom’s rich, so you just wanted us to think you were cool to fit in, right? We can’t match your numbers.”

I pursed my lips but didn’t say anything. They weren’t the only people talking about my wealth. I didn’t even know how people knew, but the fact that my background was a bit higher than most of my classmates had gotten around. I’d tried to be careful because people could be awkward about that sort of thing, but somehow it still got out. It had been such a pain in high school; I guess I shouldn’t have expected college to be different.

“We’ll be heading out,” Alicia continued, her tone churlish. “But don’t worry, you don’t have to treat us to anything, we can pay for ourselves.”

They headed for the door, and I didn’t even think to stop them. My arms were crossed over my chest, and I held my hands in tight fists against my sides. They left the room, and I let out a sigh as all the tension left my body. I didn’t find myself all that sad, even though I had a feeling they would start avoiding me from then on.

Whatever. I realized now I was a never-ending wallet and little more to them.

My thoughts went back to Noah. A smile curved my lips. I didn’t regret not telling them about him. I wanted to see him again.

I can't just approach him, though.

In the few times I did see him around campus; he was almost always around people in his classes. When he was alone, he looked to be in a hurry, or busy on his phone. I’d never thought about approaching him before, but now that the thought had entered my mind, I realized it was entirely impossible. Besides, I’d only glanced at him a few times. I only knew he was a senior because we never went into the same buildings, he only went where the senior classes were held.

There was always that option, though.

Even if I wasn’t a virgin anymore, I intended to Sext him one more time.