Page 65 of Puck with Karma
“Oh my god,” I jump out of bed, then rush to pull a t-shirt and underwear on. I feel naked and vulnerable right now. “I can’t believe you think I’d do that.”
Xander remains in bed, watching me thoughtfully.
“I don’t know you that well,” he shrugs. “But even if I did,” he adds, “I recently learned that not everyone has my best interests at heart, not even the people who should care about me the most.”
I’m sure this has something to do with what I overhead the other day, but I don’t want to ask. It seems to be a trigger for him.
Scared that I’ll hear things I don’t want to hear, I turn around and grab some clothes from my minuscule closet.
“I need to go now,” I mumble under my breath and march to the bathroom. I close and lock the door before leaning against it for support.
I press a hand to my chest, trying to calm my raging heart. I am so nervous around Xander all of a sudden. I don’t know him well enough to pry into his life or question anything he might tell me.
Suddenly, I am terrified that I have a stranger in my small apartment. I truly lived a sheltered life before coming here, and I don’t know how to deal in real life.
“Get your shit together, Abby,” I whisper to myself.
Without another thought, I rush and pull on the pair of jeans I grabbed from the closet. That’s followed by a sweater. When I look in the mirror, I thank God that my chest is small and perky enough where me not wearing a bra is not that big of a deal.
I wash my face really quick, trying to scrub off the traces of makeup I still have on from earlier. I put some tinted moisturizer on and pretend that I am a completely different person.
Feeling more confident than when I came into the bathroom, I touch the doorknob, prepared to yank the door open and walk in there like I own the world.
To my disdain, the door doesn’t budge. I twist and turn the knob, pulling with all my might, but nothing. I drop to my knees to take a better look at the small button that locks it. It is pushed all the way in, and it doesn’t show any signs of wanting to pop back out.
“Hello?” I knock on the door, like someone locked me in here and I didn’t do it of my own volition. “Xander, are you still out there?”
I hope to God he didn’t just get up and leave after I threw my hissy fit.
“Yes,” comes his gruff answer.
I drop my forehead against the door, wondering how to proceed.
“This is embarrassing to ask,” I start. “But…”
“I can’t believe this,” he mutters from the other side of the door. He sounds like he is closer now, definitely not in bed anymore. “Are you about to finally fess up that you got the hots for Brandon Karlsberg?”
The question is so out of the left field, I just bust out laughing in disbelief.
“What?”
“What else am I to believe?” he snaps at me through the door. “Every time I turn around, you have him either on your computer or your phone. That’s some bullshit.”
He sounds like a petulant child, and, one can hope, slightly jealous? I want to call him out on it, but I want to do it face to face.
“Xander,” I interrupt him. “I have a situation.”
“What’s that? You want me to introduce you to him now? I hate that fucking guy.”
The smile falls off my face, and I am grateful that he can’t see me. I don’t understand why he hates my brother so much. I know there’s some rivalry between the respective teams the two play for, but why so much animosity toward Brandon?
Annoyed with the entire situation, I try the doorknob again, hoping that there is a God after all and he decided to unlock the door for me.
“I can’t open the door,” I finally say, sounding angry.
“Oh, so you just want me to leave then?” he yells back. “That’s just great. And very classy, Abigail. Real classy.”
“Oh my god! You are an asshole right now, Xander!”
