Surviving Regret (33 page)

I heard the toilet seat shut. “I came to see if you wanted to go grab some lunch. I could show you around campus a little bit.” He cleared his throat. “Hailey said that Dominic split right after I left. If I had known, I’d have come back over.”

I rinsed the soap out of my hair. “Yeah, he left, but it’s okay. Hails and I unpacked some of our stuff and then we slept in. Dominic is busy right now, but he’s going to take me out to dinner.” Shutting off the water, I reached my hand out and grabbed my towel. “Can you give me ten minutes?”

“You don’t have to hide from me CC; it’s not like I’ve never seen you.” I blushed, remembering the time at home when I had just opened the shower curtain to step out at the exact same time that Hunter came barging into the bathroom.

I wrapped myself in the towel, pulled the shower curtain back and glared at him.

Hunter stood, and put both of his hands up. “Okay, okay, I’m going.” He turned, and strolled out of the room, laughing.

After Hailey and I were ready, Hunter took us out to lunch, and showed us around town before my dinner date with Dominic. Hunter dropped us off when Dominic came to collect me for dinner, and then on to a movie back in his room.

Dominic took me to The Raven. He said they had great food, and he was right. We both ate until we were stuffed. The Raven was across the street from the beach, so after eating, we decided to walk off a little of our dinner.

We went back to his room, and Dominic walked over to the bookstand where he kept his movies. “So, what movie do you want to watch?”

“Whatever, it doesn’t matter to me.” I knew we were not going to be watching it anyway; he could barely keep his hands off me all night.

As we were lying on Dominic’s bed, making out, someone knocked on his door.

He rolled off me with a groan. “Be right back.” He grabbed a pair of sweat pants off the floor, put them on and then went over to answer the door.

I sat up on his bed, and pulled the covers up to cover my boobs, in case it was his roommate coming back. Dom had told me they had a room rule. If there was a sock on the doorknob, you had to knock before you walked in. I hoped that rule was for his roommate and not Dominic, since I had just gotten here last night. From where I was sitting on the bed, I couldn’t see Dominic, but I could hear a girl’s voice.

“I told you, I was busy tonight.” I heard Dominic say to whoever was standing there.

“Who is in there with you?” the girl asked.

“It doesn’t matter. Look, I’ve got to go.” Dominic shut and locked the door before he came back over to the bed. I reached for my shirt. The mood was completely ruined.

Dominic frowned. “Where are you going, baby? We were just getting started.”

“Who was that at the door?” I asked.

Dominic sat on the bed and tried to reach for me, but I moved before he could touch me. “She’s no one. She was looking for Tommy.”

“You said, ‘
I told you I was busy
.’” Something
was not
adding up here
.

“Because I’m busy, and I wanted her to get lost.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me towards him. “Baby, stay here with me.”

I shook my head. “I shouldn’t. I don’t want to leave Hailey alone all night. She doesn’t know anyone yet.”

He dropped my hand and huffed. “Fine, I forgot everything is always about Hailey.”

Now he was acting like a two year old and pissing me off. “Really? Are you going to act like that? I texted you today, and asked you to lunch and you blew me off for your roommate.”

He walked over to the door, and opened it. “Whatever. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

The asshole wouldn’t even walk me to my room.

When I got back to the room, Hailey was on her bed, Hunter sat in the chair next to her and they were playing cards.

“Hey, you’re back early. I didn’t expect to see you until tomorrow.” Hailey looked up from the cards in her hand. By the look on his face, Hunter was surprised to see me too.

I tried to make it sound as if it was not a huge deal. “I didn’t want to leave you by yourself already. We just got here. Besides, I’ll have plenty of time with Dominic.”

“CC…” Hunter said, in that
we know you too well for your bullshit
voice. “I know you better than that. What did he do?”

I crossed my arms over my chest and defiantly said, “Nothing.”

Hailey shook her head, knowing I was not going to say anymore. “Alright then, you want to play?”

I felt Hunter’s eyes on me. “What?”

“Nothing.” Then he studied his cards, ending the conversation.

After playing cards for a few hours, we called it a night. Our first classes were in the morning, and we needed to get some sleep.

CHAPTER SIX

I barely slept, worrying about how Dominic and I had left things and worrying about my first day of classes. Hailey and I had our first class together, and we were lucky it didn’t start until 10 a.m. Dominic had to be up at 5 a.m. to run with the football team, and then they had practice and meetings until noon. He was not going to be around much to walk me to class, but I wish he could have today so we could talk about what happened last night.

I gathered up my books and purse, getting ready to head out to class when there was a knock at the door. I was shocked to see Dominic. He had his arm up against the doorframe, and his hair was still damp from his shower. He was wearing my favorite jeans and a Yankees t-shirt. “Are you ready to leave, Kenzie? We have a little bit of a walk.”

“What are you doing here? I thought you had practice.”

“They let us go after our workout since it’s the first day of classes.” He closed the distance between us and moved his hand to cup my face. “I’m sorry about last night. That wasn’t how I saw the night going.”

I shrugged. “It’s okay. We will talk about it later.” I didn’t want to be late on my first day. I yelled over my shoulder. “Hails, let’s go.”

She came out looking all disorganized. “Ok, ok I’m ready.”

It was about a fifteen-minute walk to class, and we arrived after most of the other students. Dominic spotted Logan, a football teammate of his. He gestured him over to introduce us. Hailey nudged me in the ribs and wiggled her eyebrows at me.

“Geez, Hails, you haven’t even talked to him yet,” I said.

With a dreamy look on her face, she said, “Who needs to talk when he looks like that?”

Laughing, I cannot help but think she truly is something else. “You’re impossible, you know that right?”

Logan was a handsome guy. He was tall and skinny and his t-shirt stretched across his toned chest. He had hair that was sticking up all over the place, but it looked good on him. I also noticed a tattoo on his upper arm that was peeking out from his t-shirt. He was just Hailey’s type.

After introducing everyone, Logan asked Dominic, “Are you going to the party on Friday night?”

“Of course I’m going; I haven’t missed a party yet.”

I snapped my head towards Hailey, and gave her a
what the hell
look. I now know what he has been doing every weekend since he got here.

Logan looked over in Hailey’s direction, with a twinkle in his eye. “Hailey, are you going to come to the party with MacKenzie?”

I looked over at Dominic, and answered Logan for Hailey, “No, Hailey isn’t coming with me because I wasn’t invited.”

Dominic slung his arm around my shoulder, “Babe, of course your invited.”

“How do you know I don’t already have plans? It would have been nice of you to invite me first.”

“Well, do you have plans?” he asked.

“No. What plans could I possibly have already? I don’t know anyone here.”

He squeezed my shoulder a little. “Good, then it is settled. You and Hailey are coming to the party. I’ll pick you girls up at 9.”

I looked at Hailey to see if she was ok with that. She nodded and I said, “All right, we’ll go.”

He kissed the side of my head. “Sorry, I just assumed you would want to go. You never had a problem going to parties with me when we were at home.”

“Yeah, well, I knew about those.”

After class was over, I said goodbye to Hailey. On the way to my second class, I heard someone call my name. I turned around and saw Hunter jogging towards me. A few girls did a double take as he passed them. He was wearing his favorite black Yankees hat, a tight-fitting black and white Yankees t-shirt and dark blue jeans.

“Hey, CC, how was your first class? Did you find it okay?” Hunter asked.

“Yeah, Dominic walked Hailey and me to class.” I looked at the door, and then back to Hunter. “Do you have a class in this building?”

“Yeah,” he looked down at his watch. “In about ten minutes.”

My stomach grumbled. “Nice, want to grab lunch after this?”

He held the door open for me. “Yeah, sure, I’ll meet you here after class.”

My class seemed to drag on forever. I was hungry, but I was also looking forward to spending some time with Hunter too. After the class let out, Hunter was leaning against the railing with his foot propped up, waiting for me.

***

As the rest of the week went by, Hailey and I had a little routine going. She and I would walk to class in the mornings. Afterwards, Hunter and I would go grab some lunch. The middle of the second week, Hailey and I met Gracie and Zoey. They were also in the same building as us, they started walking with us in the mornings. Gracie and Zoey were both getting their bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education, like myself. Now I know if I started to struggle I could get some help from them.

Friday, after I had lunch with Hunter, I came home and there was a black box with a pink bow sitting on my bed.

“What’s this?” I asked Hailey, who was lying on her bed reading, a magazine.

She put the magazine down on her stomach. “It was sitting against the door when I got here. The card has your name on it.”

I slipped off the pink bow, lifted the top up and removed the tissue paper. There was a pair of pink studded earrings, a pair of pink peep toe heels, and a little black dress.

As I laid it all out on my bed, Hailey came over to see what it was. “Damn, Kenzie, that’s hot.” She picked up the card that Dominic had put on the box, and read it. “Dominic is doing some serious ass-kissing. He needs to after the way he has been treating you.”

“Yeah, I guess he is.” Grinning like a fool, I sent a quick text to Dominic, thanking him for the gift.

“Well, let’s get ready. I want to curl my hair, so I’m going to need your help.” I took my curling iron into the bathroom and plugged it in the outlet.

Hailey walked in behind me with a huge-ass grin on her face. “You have got to find me something just as hot to wear tonight. I’m hoping that a certain football player will pay attention to me.” Then she winked at me, and went to the closet to go through my clothes.

I couldn’t figure out why she was not the crazy, happy girl she normally was. Ever since we came here, she had been just a little different. Then it dawned on me. I wondered if she missed Mason.

“So, Hails, are you going to tell me what’s going on with Mase?”

Groaning, she said, “I told you and everyone else, there is nothing going on with us. We’re just friends. Besides, I don’t think he wants anything more than that anyway.”

I smiled. “If you say so. One day, you are going to spill and tell me everything. It’s just a matter of time.”

“Whatever, now shut up and help me pick something out already.”

I texted Dominic, asked for the address and told him we were just going to grab a cab. We were going to be a little late and didn’t want to hold him up.

We were about an hour late to the party, since it took us twice as long to curl our hair. We pulled up to a gorgeous contemporary house that was a cheery yellow color. There was no way a college student could afford a place like this. The property was right on the beach, and I knew from my parents’ house that it cost a pretty penny. When we walked in, the party was already in full swing. There were people everywhere, dancing, playing poker, guys doing body shots off girls in the kitchen and people playing beer pong on the kitchen table. I knew there was no way I would find Dominic, so I texted him, told him we were in the kitchen and to come get us.

We made our way around a crowd that was surrounding some girls on the table. We found the guy who was manning the keg; he asked us if we wanted a beer. We both took the beer he offered to us, and he introduced himself as Bentley and told us that this was his house.

“You live in this big ass house all by yourself?” Hailey asked, looking around. Everything was stainless steel and modern. The kitchen even had one of those flat surface stoves, very similar to the one my mom had.

Bentley looked Hailey up and down, and gave her a sly smile. “No, I have a roommate, but he’s working tonight. There’s an extra bedroom, if you want to move in, too.”

Bentley was definitely not Hailey’s type. He was a scrawny tall kid with bright red hair and brown eyes. Hailey liked a guy with meat on his bones.