Promises Made, Promises Broken - SYTYCW (Bad Reputation)

Present Day (Chapter Fifteen) Tuesday

Tucker

I led Joey through the hall with a warning about being quiet, and didn't breathe easily until I'd let him into my room and closed the door behind us.

"Home sweet home," I said, knowing I sounded almost as nervous as I felt. 

I had never told anyone the story of how I got my name before, and I felt a weird mix of embarrassment and relief.  I was glad I had told him.  I wanted him to understand where I came from, even if it meant sharing the more complicated parts of my background.

But I wasn't sure how he'd taken it.  

"What happened in here?" Joey asked with a chuckle as I turned on the light in my room.

My bed was made and my side of the room was tidy, but Liandra's looked like it had been hit by a clothing tornado.

I shrugged. "Who knows? The clean half is mine."

"Uh huh. No roommate tonight?"

"Nope. And I wouldn't have invite you in if she was going to be here." I blushed as I quickly added, "Not for that reason."

But as Joey made himself comfortable on the floor - the one bare surface in the room besides my bed - I became very conscious of how small the space was.  Joey sat between the beds with his back pressed against the cluttered computer chair, and his hulking body took up nearly the whole width of space.  No matter where I chose to sit, we would somehow wind up brushing against each.

I stood at the edge of the room awkwardly.

"Are you sure she's not here? She could be under that pile of clothes," Joey joked. "Anybody home?"

He picked up a pair of questionably clean jeans and shook them.  A piece of yellow scrap paper floated out onto the floor.

"A clue!" Joey whispered in a mockingly excited voice.

"You're a big nerd," I told him, as I grabbed the paper and read it over. "It's just a note. It says that Liandra couldn't find her cell phone, but she didn't want me to worry when she didn't make it home in time for curfew."

"Curfew?" Joey groaned. "Great."

"Don't be dramatic. The dorm maintains midnight curfew so we don't disturb each other at all hours of the night."

"I'm not being dramatic," he replied. "I just realized I've missed my own."

"You have a curfew? The mighty Joey Fox?"

"Now who's being dramatic?" he replied. "My dad has specific, detailed rules that he expects me to follow or - "

"Or what? He's going to ground you?"

"Something like that."

I read his face and then I groaned. "Oh, my god. He takes away your allowance, doesn't he?"

Joey met my gaze steadily.  A deep red flush crept up from underneath his shirt.  I watched in fascination as it moved from his sternum - exposed by the v-shaped collar line - to his neck, then up to his cheeks.

At first I thought he was embarrassed, but then I realized that what he actually was, was royally pissed off.  The stiff set of his jaw, the dark look in his eyes, and the clenched fists gave it away.

"Joey?"

"My dad makes me angry," he admitted. "Even talking about him pisses me off."

"I can see that," I replied gently.