Girl You Fucked Before (18+)

Dirty Little Secrets

Vanessa

"Hey, I know you. Aren't you that girl that locked herself out of her dorm room last fall?"

It was the first day back at University and I was sitting at my desk, doodling little flowers into my notebook while waiting for my Creative Writing class to begin. I glanced up to see a familiar face turned around in the row in front of me, studying me with piercing soft green eyes.

I closed my book and sat up straighter. "Uh, yea. That's me. It's Vanessa by the way." I pointed at him. "Ryan, right?"

He nodded. "That's correct." He got up from his chair and moved so that he was occupying the previously empty one beside me.

"I'm glad to see you decided to stick it out and give NYU another chance." His lips tugged up into a smile. "What was the deciding factor?"

"It was too late to apply anywhere else," I grumbled, not joking around. By the time I had sat down at my desk to complete applications, I realized that all the deadlines had passed.

He waved me off. "You made the right decision by coming back. I know that you might not believe me right now, but its hard not to fall in love with New York once you get to know the city."

Fiddling with the pencil between my fingers, I titled my head to study him. "How about if we start off by calling it more of a tolerance for Manhattan, at the moment?"

He snickered as he stuck out his hand. "Deal."

I grasped his hand to shake it, the warmth of his fingers searing my skin and sending a tingling sensation all the way down to my toes. Reign it in, Vanessa, you're in a happy committed relationship.

I glanced down at the silver ring wrapped around my finger, feeling as though the piece of jewelry had shrunk two sizes overnight. I toyed with the metal, wondering if I should even be chatting with Ryan now that I had promised myself to another man.

Ryan's gaze fell to the piece, and he lifted a brow. "That's pretty. Was it a gift?"

I shrugged. "You could say that."

Relief flooded through me as the professor walked into the classroom and I was saved from having to continue the conversation about how my boyfriend had all but asked me to marry him at the young age of twenty.

I pulled at the neck of sweater, suddenly feeling as though the fabric was restricting my breathing and clinging to me as though it were plastic wrap.

"Good morning, class," the teacher greeted warmly, setting a worn briefcase down on the desk in the corner. Her blue eyes sparkled beneath wire=rimmed glasses and the first signs of grey was woven in throughout her blonde bun.

"Welcome to Creative Writing," she announced, gesturing around to all of us. "I'm Miss Juniper and I'm so pleased that each and every one of you elected to take this class this semester. By the time we are done, my hope is that you all will have improved vastly in your writing skills. We have a lot of ground to cover so we're just going to jump right into it."

Some students flipped through notebooks, pens poised while others awakened their laptops with a touch of button, both ready to absorb the lecture.

"The first assignment," Miss Juniper began, plucking a red dry erase marker from the desk and turning towards the whiteboard. "Will be a short novel. I want you all to become well acquainted with one another by the end of the semester and there is no matter way of achieving that by choosing a partner to star as your main character."

Ryan glanced over at me, a smirk on his face and I could feel his excitement radiating from him.

The professor wrote the word character on the board and underlined it three times. "What makes for an intriguing read is having a character with depth otherwise why should the reader care about their life if they have no attachment to them?"

"I want to know what makes your main hero or heroine tick. What is their personality like? What is their backstory?" She waved her hands with vigor as she rattled off the bullet points. "So, for your homework, you will spend no less than an hour with your partner to learn the basics about them and start constructing the foundation for your character building."

I raised my hand and the teacher nodded at me. "Go ahead, miss."

"Will we get to have a say in what our partner writes about us? What if we disagree with how they perceive us?"

"I'm not going to paint you as this evil King Kong that's intent on trampling the skyscrapers, if that's what you're worried about." Ryan whispered, a grin on his face.

Miss Juniper leaned against the desk. "Excellent question. While the creative control behind the story should predominantly reside with the author, I do encourage a collaborative effort along the way to ensure that both parties are happy with the outcome. But remember, it's a work of fiction so not every detail needs to be accurate."

She glanced around the classroom. "Are there any other questions?" When she was left with only stares and closed mouths, she continued. "Alright, then please choose a partner but I do encourage you to pick wisely. "You will be working very closely with this person for the next four months and perhaps find yourself revealing some deeply personal information about yourself in the process."

Ryan swiveled in his chair to face me, and I gulped. "So clearly, I've already seen you at your worst," he teased. "That makes the stakes low for you which is why you should elect me as your partner."

I giggled. "You make it sound as though you're running for presidential candidacy."

"I got you back into your dorm after I vowed I would, didn't I?" He joked, his peridots dancing with a twinkling glimmer. "I've shown that I am a man who will deliver on his promises which is why I'm the clear option."

He leaned in close. "Besides, I already know all your dirty little secrets. Aren't you the least bit curious about mine?"

"Fine," I said, making a show of rolling my eyes even though I was nowhere close to being annoyed. "But if I discover that you've killed someone and you show me where you've buried their body, I'm dropping out of this class and going back to Connecticut."

He threw his head back as he let out a hearty laugh. "Hey! Why can just pretend that piece of the story is fiction. No one has to know the truth."

He gave me a wink and my stomach did a teensy somersault. It's just a homework assignment, Vanessa. You aren't breaking any relationship rules by hanging out with him and doing as the teacher instructed.

He tore off a scrap of paper from his notebook and jotted down an address on it. "Here's the location of that body...er...I mean my apartment. Can you swing by tomorrow afternoon, and we can get started on the project?"

I furrow my brows as I studied his messy scrawl. "What happened to your dorm? Are you seriously telling me that my supply of unlimited Oreos has been cut off?"

He chuckled. "The goods are still available. It's just that the walk is a tad farther now." Standing up, he shrugged on his backpack and picked up the easel that he had propped up against the seat in front of him. "And to answer your question, I moved. I'm not leaving the city and figured it was about time that I got my own place."

"I see..." I studied the paper, the blue ink blurring together into one jumbled scribble.

What would Matt say if he knew that I was going to be alone in the swanky city apartment of some guy I barely even knew? Did I even have a choice? It was for school after all.

Biting my lip, I glanced up at Ryan. "How about we get coffee instead?" I suggested. "I'm sure you know a ton of fantastic cafes that you could recommend."

He waved me off. "Nah. Those are all so impersonal. The best way to get to know me is for you to come see my living quarters. Someone's space can tell you a lot about who they are as a person."

He began jogging down the steps, turning around briefly to catch my eye. "And besides, if the view of Manhattan from my rooftop doesn't make you swoon for the city, then I don't know what will."

He gave me a beaming smile and another wink, and it occurred to me that perhaps, I already was swooning ever so slightly.