A Secret Love Affair

Chapter 5

"So, my plane arrives at 8:00 am do you think you can pick me up at the airport?" Andrew asked, while on a video call with Sienna. His room was just the way Sienna remembered it, the blue walls and baseball trophies and medals lined the shelf behind him.

"I don't know if you coming here is such a good idea, Andrew. The semester just started and you'd have to stay off campus or I could get kicked out." Sienna answered, stretching her legs in her twin size bed and feeling like Andrew had cornered her into a position she wasn't comfortable in.

"Babe, don't you want to see me? I miss you, I think we need to reconnect. Maybe have a date night, take it back to how it used to be before you left Arkansas. Besides, I'll arrive Friday morning and then we can spend the weekend together without any class interruptions." He said, sounding like a boy begging for a useless cheap toy at the drugstore.

"Ok. There's a Hyatt Place about a mile from campus, just get a room there and we can take it from there." Sienna said.

"Cool, cool! You're gonna stay with me right? What are the rules over there, is there like a curfew or something? Can you stay off campus if you want?" Andrew asked, running his fingers through his hair giving her a cute boyish smile.

Sienna knew the rules and she knew she could go off campus if she wanted to but did she really want to spend the night with Andrew? She decided to play dumb and tell him that she'd read the handbook the RA gave her on the day she arrived.

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The week of Andrews arrival was slow and torturous. It seemed like Paige had a different girl in her bed every single night of the week. Sienna had gotten very little sleep and at this point she and Paige had gone from enemies to people who didn't acknowledge each other's existence. Sienna couldn't figure out which of the two was worse, at least as enemies she had Paige's smart remarks to keep her on her toes.

After an extraordinarily long workout, Sienna arrived back at her dorm room. The workout endorphins were still flowing through her body and for the first time in almost a week she felt full of energy. Her muscle tee clung to her body with sweat and she felt the temperature change from sweltering hot to unbelievably cold in the dorm room. She walked inside and made a grab for her stuff since she was in desperate need of a shower but couldn't help but overhear the conversation Paige was having on the phone.

"Absolutely not. I don't know what sort of parenting kick you're on or what youtube series you're watching on raising your kids but I am not getting a job. The agreement was to come to school, get my shit together and you'd keep taking care of my bills. You are not switching this up on me now, Doug" Paige confidently said, sounding like a lawyer who was in the middle of their closing argument.

Sienna could not tell what was being said on the other end but the context clues were all there. She lingered a little, gathering her things and continued to overhear what was going on. Then she heard Paige end the conversation without saying goodbye and the thud of her phone hitting the mattress.

"Hey, you good?" Sienna asked, trying to sound cool, calm and collected. Almost like it was no big deal and like she hadn't just seen and heard her roommate throw a full blown tantrum.

Paige looked Sienna up and down, almost as if she had seen her for the first time. It seemed she had been so involved in the conversation that she hadn't even noticed existence. She tilted her head to the side, as if processing Sienna's question and deciding on whether she should answer or not.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Did you come from a workout or did someone dump a bucket of water on you?" She asked, not taking her eyes off Sienna.

"I may have overdone it a little. I rode my bike to the gym, then did a full gym workout and rode my bike back. It was an 18 mile ride both ways, let's just say it seemed like a good idea this morning after I ate my weight in carbs. Now, not so much." Sienna said, sitting down on her bed rubbing her calves.