Fifty Shades of Average

Chapter 16

Rather than interrupt their conversation and confront the issue at hand, I walked up to my dorm and pretended like I saw nothing.

That was 45 minutes ago.

Now, I wait impatiently in my room, waiting for some sort of update on how Talie is. What exactly happened last night?

I throw my phone on the seat nearby, after checking it for what seems like the 50th time. She still hasn't responded to the text I sent her this morning. I did receive a text telling me that my application for Grey Enterprises was received and is under consideration, but I soon realized that it was sent to everyone that applied for the internship position, so there's that. I haven't necessarily been very productive throughout the past forty-five minutes either... Unless if you would count social networking productive. I rap my fingers against the thumb pad of my laptop, a sure sign of boredom.

Moments later, a knock sounds at my door, and I immediately get out of my bed to answer it. Not to my surprise, Talie is standing there by herself, and rather than wearing her clothes, she is wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt that are both much too big for her. Placing a hand on my hip, I raise my eyebrow in question.

"My head hurts, holy hangover," she whines.

Rather than ask her why she hasn't been responding to my text messages, I sway my hand across my body, signaling permission for her to enter.

"I should've told you everything that happened with Pierce from the start," she admits. "I'm sorry."

By the expression on my face, she must've guessed where this conversation was headed and gave it a kick start. I simply nod my head, because she really should have told me.

"Why didn't you tell me anything?" I accuse. "I thought we were years past that."

"We are years past that. It's just, I don't even know... I guess I felt like a badass having Pierce as my," she puts her fingers up and makes air quotations, "secret affair."

At this, I can't help but laugh. "Really Tal? A secret affair?"

She shrugs. "It was a nice while it lasted."

"I want you to know that you can come to me for anything, okay?" I squeeze her shoulder before patting the spot next to me on my bed.

"Okay, start from the beginning, I want to know all the details." I urge her on.

She flips her hair out of her face before speaking. "Okay, so basically I met Pierce through Axel, apparently they're best friends or some shit like that. Anyway, it's guy code to not date a friend's sister, but Pierce, being the badass he is, went for me anyway."

I interrupt. "And when was this?"

"Last month. Around the first week of August, since I started my semester a month earlier than you."

"So were you two dating or no?"

"In all honesty, I myself am not even completely sure what went on between us. I stopped it before it could get to last base."

"Oooh, is he a good kisser? How was he?" I poke her in the stomach and tease her about it.

"Calm down, we didn't have sex! I may not be a virgin, but I can still stop myself if I have to." Talie says with a hint of a smile. "And hell yeah, he's definitely at the top of my list for best kissers," she adds.

Before I can interrupt her with a side comment, she continues. "Anyway, yeah so we basically made out every time we saw each other for the past month. Pierce treated me nicely too - he said sweet things, etc. But the thing is, we agreed we weren't necessarily dating because it wasn't committed. Call it friends with benefits if you will. So that's basically it."

"Talie got herself a man." I smirk.

She swats my arm before saying, "I told you it wasn't like that! I don't even know why I got mad at him last night. Since we weren't dating, it shouldn't really matter what his relationship with Carmen is."

"Don't feel guilty for getting mad. Even though you guys were friends with benefits, I personally think that you have every right to know who he's with." I state firmly.

"That's besides the point anyway." She brushes me off. "I was overly emotional last night, probably because it's that time of month. Since I was upset, I danced with multiple random guys and drank myself into oblivion. Later on in the night, Pierce saw the drunken version of me leaving with this guy I had just met." Talie holds up her hand to stop me from asking the question that she knows I'm about to ask. "I had no idea what the fuck I was doing, please don't ask."

I throw my hands up in surrender. "Hey now, I don't judge."

"So yeah, he stopped me from making that mistake. But to cut a long story short, he thought I was much too drunk to continue partying, so he took off of his shift from the bar and used my car to drive us to his dorm room, which isn't that far from yours since you and Pierce both go to UCLA."

"Why didn't you just come here?"

"I dunno, I was drunk. I barely even knew my own name, let alone paid attention to my whereabouts." She shakes her head, "Not one of my brightest moments... but anyway, I woke up with an aching hangover in his bed! The worst part is, we were cuddled together, spooning, and it felt...right."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"His hand was thrown across my waist and my back faced his front. I surprised myself by taking his hand and intertwining it with mine. At that point, even though we weren't facing each other, I knew he was awake, because I could hear his breathing get heavier."

"Very forward," I comment.

"I didn't plan on doing it, it just happened. Like I was thinking of taking his hand and next thing I know, my hands were intertwined with his. But whatever I'm rambling on and on. To cut it short, I could tell he was annoyed at me for not being careful enough with my actions last night, and he also apologized for his actions with Carmen and Desiree," she scrunches her nose at their names. "He seemed genuinely sorry for hooking up with either of them, but I still cut off the friends with benefits relationship we had going on. It was for the best."

"That's what you guys were talking about in your car?"

"Yeah," she laughs softly and then frowns. "He had to walk back to his dorms because we used my car. Even though it's a fifteen minute walk, I still feel really bad."

"What if he really likes you? Maybe that's why he danced with Desiree, to make you jealous."

"Maybe," she ponders, "But probably not, no definitely not. Enough relationship talk, my head hurts enough. Now that you know the details of my nonexistent love life, can I crash on your bed? I'm tired as hell."

I respond, "Go for it," at the same time that my phone rings with an unknown number.

Picking up my phone, I answer, "Hello?"

There is a slight pause and the sound of shuffled papers makes its way through the phone line before a soft feminine voice asks, "Is this Miss Esmeralda Chambers?"

I shift uncomfortably in my current position and respond firmly, "Yes, this is her. May I ask who is calling?"

"Oh yes, of course. I was worried that I didn't get the right number," she mumbles more to herself than me. "But this is Adrianna Lopez, the assistant to Chris Grey at Grey Enterprise Inc. I was calling to let you know that our CEO has reviewed your application and would like for you to come in for an interview as soon as possible. Are you free anytime today?"

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