The Roommate

10

I woke up the next morning feeling excited. I bounced out of bed dashing into the kitchen. Chase laughed at me from the couch. He'd just woken up and was groggily getting to his feet. He walked into the kitchen watching me jump around to the music I was playing from the speakers. He just watched me chuckling to himself as he began to make pancakes.

I began to shout the lyrics of this one song as he finished up putting them on plates and setting them on the counter. I sat down gulping them down and thanking him as I ran to get ready for work. I dressed making my way to the bathroom to do my make up. He followed me in brushing his teeth as I applied my mascara. It was kind of odd having to share a bathroom with him... but we made it work. I mean we kind of made it work.

He washed out his mouth making an 'ahhh' sound and grinning into the mirror as I finished up too. He turned around smiling at me I began to leave the bathroom but he pressed me against the wall using his back. I made a loud grunting noise and he began to laugh at me as I wiggled from behind him. "CHASE!" I cried, "Move!"

"I can't hear you!" He yelled.

I rolled my eyes pushing him off, but he pushed me back up on the wall this time facing me, his hands on either side of me pressed on the wall. I scrunched my face up turning away from him as he lowered really close to my face laughing the whole time. "You've got issues." I joked.

"I know." He replied kissing my cheek.

With that he let me be walking out into the living room pulling on a t-shirt. I felt stunned, why the hell would he do that? I cautiously made my way into the living room watching him. He grinned at me turning off the TV that was always on. "See you later?" he asked making his way to the door to leave for work.

"Uh huh..."

"Bye Emerson!"

"Bye..."

~

"He kissed you on the cheek?" Andrea laughed as we stood behind the counter. It was a slow day.

"Yea..."

"How cuteee." She cooed.

"This isn't elementary school, if he likes me he should say something-"

"Well Emerson you do play a little hard to get, maybe you should try initiating something." She offered.

"But why would I do that? I never said I liked him!"

"Well you do talk about him an awful lot." Andrea shrugged.

"I do not!" I protested.

Someone walked into the diner taking their seat, so Andrea got to her feet walking over to take their order leaving me alone. I guess it could have been a friendly gesture, but it bothered me. I didn't want Chase or Andrea getting the wrong idea. Maybe I was over analyzing. So I let it go not thinking about it the whole day.

When I returned home Chase was playing video games. He paused the game, "How was your day?"

"It was okay, yours?"

"Perfect! Want to play?" He asked motioning to the game.

"I don't know how..."

"I can teach you!"

I sat down as he showed me all the controls and the basics of the game. When we hit play he was talking again. "Well listen, I just felt like I should warn you... Ian's coming over tomorrow."

"Oh joy..."

"I'm sorry, but he's my friend-"

"It's fine Chase, I'm over it."

He let out a sigh of relief, "Okay good." And then he completely changed the subject. "So you know... we don't know a whole lot about each other."

"Like..."

"Like... when's your birthday?"

"August 2nd." I replied.

"December 19."

"Favorite candy?" I asked.

"Sour Patch Kids."

"Same." I laughed.

"Middle name?"

"Oh god..." I sighed leaning my head on the couch as I lost the game, "Blue. I don't know what my parents were thinking."

"Emerson Blue Jordan, that's cute. I don't have one."

"You don't have a middle name? You liar!"

"I don't! Seriously!"

"Why'd you ask then?"

"Because no one likes their middle name, so I wanted to make you angry." He chuckled starting a new game.

"You're an ass."

"You have a nice ass." I elbowed him in the arm, "Just kidding! I'm not like my friends, I swear." He cried.

"You know you are." I rolled my eyes.

"Yea, but I'm not as bad."

"I guess you're a little better." I teased.

I glanced at him, but he was already watching me. I just smiled, I felt color rising in my cheeks. I didn't even know why I was blushing, I just... was. I knew what this meant, but I didn't want it to mean that- so I was unsure if that's what it really meant. I just turned back to the game right as I beat him. He cried out falling off the couch and I laughed at him. He stared up at me as he sat lying on his back. "You're such an idiot." I said playfully.

"I'm your favorite idiot though, right?" he asked grinning.

"Hmm... this is a hard one..." I pretended to think about it, "I guess it's you..."

He closed his eyes, "Good."

I got off the couch joining him on the floor, "This is relaxing."

"I always do this."

"You must not do much huh?" I taunted.

"Well I do more than you." I laughed at this because it was kind of true. "Hey, can we like... forget about everything for a second?"

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Like... for one minute can we just say whatever we want, and then when a minute's up we don't ever have to talk about anything we said ever again unless we both want to?"

"Okay... Go."

"Okay, I know I'm an ass to girls, and I'm supposed to be some disrespectful player like my friends but when I'm with you I don't want to be that guy. You're not like other girls, you don't really care... and I mean you've got a personality. That's great, that's wonderful actually. You're wonderful. And I know you don't remember this but that night when you were drunk you tried to do some... stuff with me, and I stopped you. I didn't really want to, to be honest and I know at one point I acted like I did, but I just... I care about you a lot. It hurt me to take advantage of you, not like you're my sister but like you're just... special. I just wanted you to know I'm not a pig."

I knew I only had a couple seconds left to say what I wanted, "Thank you." I said softly, "I never thought you were a pig, you've always been really nice to me."

"That's a minute." He stated.

So I got up walking to my room thinking about what he'd just said. Chase was weird, he completely confused me sometimes. He said things like that at the most random times. I felt mixed signals, but then again I'm almost positive he got mixed signals from me. I laid in bed, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. And the next day it was apparent neither of us could stop thinking about it. We tip-toed around each other, even accidentally bumping into each other made us flustered.

So the next night as I laid wide awake in bed thinking about him and those words I decided I couldn't take it anymore. I got out of bed walking into the living room, sure enough he was wide awake on the couch. I laid down next to him facing him. He stared at me, not moving.

"I want to talk about it." I said.

"Me too."

~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cliffhanger hahahah