Periwinkle

4| THE GIFT

I was afraid to open Leo's gift.

Okay, not exactly afraid but wary.

I had been avoiding it since the moment I had stepped into my room and dropped it on the bed before going along with my usual routine. I even cleaned my room which had been turned into a cluttered, barely functional art studio over the years since I've been staying here. Once I was done cleaning my room, I felt weirdly proud to complete the task. That might have been because it had been quite a long time since the last time my room looked so clean. At least Leo's gift caused me to clean my room. Speaking about the gift...

I had been staring at the box for at least five minutes straight now.

I sighed and took the box in my hands tentatively. It shouldn't have unnerved me as much as it did. I usually enjoyed gifts and surprises, but something about this told me I wouldn't like what was in the box. I was so focused on the gift that I had forgotten all about what had happened in today's art history class, about what had happened in the cafe with Professor Carver, and also about meeting him tomorrow.

I knew it couldn't be anything that would actually hurt me. Leo would never do that, and I trusted the guy with my life. But I had a feeling this was going to be some sick prank.

Don't open it until you're in your room.

Yeah, this was going to be bad.

At least my roommate wasn't here. Whatever this gift was, it was better that she wasn't here because I might scream after opening it, either from frustration or because it would just downright scare me.

You never knew with Leo.

I tried to think of any hints he might have given about what was in it. Even if he had said anything, I couldn't figure it out. My mind flashed back to the way he had smiled.

Oh, this was going to be so, so bad.

I should just get this over with. The sooner I did it, the better.

So, sitting on the bed, I opened it, tearing away at the wrapper.

There was a note inside it, and I recognized Leo's sloppy handwriting as I read it: To help with your little problem.

Tossing the note aside, I looked inside the box.

I ground my teeth so hard, I was afraid I was going to snap my jaw. But if I didn't do that, I'd be screaming out of frustration by now.

I knew it.

Count on Leo to gift his best friend, me, a sex toy as a joke.

I could literally hear him snickering in my mind.

He had been bugging about me needing to get laid since yesterday. I should've known something like this would happen. It was all a joke to him, but it was becoming more of an annoying need for me the longer I kept ignoring it and the more he kept bringing up the subject. What I was getting up to in their kitchen yesterday was enough for me to admit that I really did need it. I just would never admit that to Leo. It didn't matter how right he was about the fact that I really did need to get laid. He already had too much ego; I wasn't going to increase it by telling him he was right.

It wasn't like I didn't have a toy of my own. But I sure as hell did not have one as expensive as the one that I was holding in my hand right now.

So, even if I wanted to chuck it at Leo's head the next time I saw him, I couldn't. It wasn't every day that I got nice things, even if it happened to be a sex toy as a joke from my best friend. It was, no doubt, going to be a nice replacement for the cheap vibrator I'd been using.