Roommates with Benefits [18+ only]

7. It's a cringy nickname

One of the greatest pleasures in my life is the relaxing bath I gift myself with before and after work. It prepares me to long hours among loud and rude people, or it frees me of all the accumulated stress.

After five days of living with Lukas Bennet, my stress levels have skyrocketed. Not that he's that much around, oddly enough, he's really preparing for the beginning of his freshman year, but the times he is, I usually disappear into my room as fast as possible.

I still haven't told Sheila about him. I don't know how to, really. We barely talk as it is, what if this is the last straw? The reason for us to finally fall out for good. Lukas can say all he wants that it was nothing, but I saw them, I saw her, how jealous she got when he flirted with some other girl.

In a way, it's funny, Sheila made me feel like such an idiot for falling into Jason's trap, but is her case that much different? She had the very same deal with Lukas, and even though – at least according to him – he made it crystal clear that it was just sex, she got carried away, just like I did. The only difference here probably is that I actually swallowed my fears for once, and confessed my feelings to Jason, she never said a word to Lukas.

Sighing, I sank into the bathtub, until only my face remained above water, and I closed my eyes. The worst part is that, deep down something wants me to acknowledge the fact that Sheila hasn't been a great friend lately. Losing contact a bit after high school is normal, but this much, and for two like us that were supposed to have such a tight bond ... not really.

It's also true that our friendship was never the kind where we tell each other secrets and do crazy things together. We didn't have sleepovers and I never went to the parties she threw when her parents weren't home, or to any other she was invited to. But that's on me, I was so shy, never interested in social activities. I think I went to one single party throughout high school and I hated it from start to finish.

Hell, it's even absurd that I joined my classmates for Spring Break in Florida. I only did because Kelly forced me to: she literally took my keys and kicked me out of the house, claiming she would not let me back in until the end of Spring Break.

Of course, later on, after the stuff with Jason happened, she apologized, feeling responsible: hadn't she forced me to go, I would have never started the whole friends with benefits thing with Jason, I wouldn't have fallen for him, I wouldn't have gotten my heart ripped out and brutally destroyed.

Maybe, hadn't Jason happened, I would have been able to give my all to Aaron. He was really the right person at the wrong time. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if we met in a few years.

Jumping into a relationship after barely 9 months from that day at Jason's place was the second biggest mistake of my life. The first one, obviously, was accepting to be Jason's fuck buddy. The third one would be accepting to be Lukas' roommates with benefits.

🔥🔥🔥

"Go away." I groaned when I heard a knock on the door just as I'd decided to get up. I remained in the tub so long that the bubbles were almost completely gone.

"Your phone is ringing, baby." Lukas announced from the other side of the door. "Shall I come in and give it to you?" He suggested. "... the phone, I mean." He laughed, I guess proud of his dirty joke.

"Who is it?" I asked, standing up to get out of the bathtub.

"Uh ... Fran?"

I frowned. Why would my boss call so early? Unless ... "Lukas, what time is it?"

"Four pm, baby."

Shit. I spent much more time than I thought in the tub, it felt like 30 minutes, instead it was 2 hours. Needing to hurry, I stepped a foot outside in a rush, knowing full well that my employer will want to eat me alive for being an hour late, but because there was water on the floor, I inevitably slipped and fell with a loud thud. "Ow." My poor butt got its second blow within a few days. I swear, I spend more time hugging the floor than actually sweeping it.