The Replacement Boyfriend

Chapter 9

Tace

The first week of college past by in a blur of introductions of the students, teachers and the subjects – whether they were majors or minors. I tried hard to keep up with the curriculum and with the other students who spoke to me, without freaking out. But mostly, Yu Na and Ahana stuck by my side since the three of us shared an apartment in Stony Island and they felt out of place, too. The other students in the psychology department lived in other dorms and some even lived off-campus.

Cassidy and I grew closer in the weeks that passed than anyone could imagine. We tried to eat all our meals together in the dining hall with Zayne, his roommate – Asher, Yu Na and Ahana, unless Jax called Cassidy to eat at his apartment. She always invited me, too, but I'd refuse since I had Zayne to eat with. But when Cassidy and I would go back to our room at the end of the night, we'd tell each other about what had happened in class or through the day. I never had much to tell but apparently the visual arts department had a lot of interesting people which made for the interesting stories Cassidy would tell me.

"Red!" Zayne caught me as I was entering my dorm with Cassidy at the end of the third week since our classes had started.

I stopped outside the door of my apartment and turned around to find Zayne rushing up to meet me. He looked at me nervously as I raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to speak.

"Speak up, man," Cassidy urged him. "Tace promised to help me with this assignment I have."

"Uh," he stammered which was so unlike him. "We're going out for dinner tonight, okay? Just you and me," he touched my shoulder and I stared up at him, confused.

"But we were going to Bar Louie tonight!" Cassidy argued. "And by we, I mean Jax, his roommates and the two of us."

"I'm sorry to take Tace out of your plan but I need to tell her something important," he said, confusing me.

What could he possibly need to tell me? We were with each other every day and I was pretty sure nothing of such importance happened for him to tell me.

I watched him as he ran his hand through his hair awkwardly, waiting for me to answer whether I was going with him or sticking to my original plan of going out with Cassidy and Jax. I mean, I had side-stepped Cassidy's invites over at Jax's place even when she told me he was inviting me, too, because I didn't want to leave Zayne out which was stupid since Zayne had Asher anyway. But it felt like I would be breaking some secret childhood best friend code if I did.

"I did promise Jax," I said slowly and his eyes widened as if he was scared. "Can't you just tell me now?"

"Red, you know I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important," he said in a low tone. "I need to tell you this and I need time to explain it."

"You should go," Cassidy butted in. "I mean, it'll be stupid that I'm going out with my brother on a Friday night but I guess we can do something tomorrow."

I gave her an are-you-sure look and she nodded, smiling half-heartedly. I turned back to Zayne and nodded, agreeing to meet him by 9 o'clock before he turned around to leave.

"I think he's going to tell you that he likes you," Cassidy giggled as we entered our room.

"Shut up, no way," I laughed it off because I knew for a fact that Zayne wouldn't like me, not after I had dated his brother for four years.

"Well, whatever it is, it seems serious," she shrugged as we dumped our bags onto our beds. "So I guess we can go out tomorrow instead. I'll plan it out with Jax. We can call Yu Na and Ahana, too."

I agreed and then Cassidy started with her assignment and I tried to complete mine before I helped her with hers.

Later that evening, I watched Cassidy pick out her clothes for Bar Louie and listened to her ramble on about how one of Jax's roommates were so adorable. In the end, she picked out a blood red top which she tied at the bottom to make it shorter, black high-wasted shorts which were so short, I was sure Jax would not approve. She was pulling on her thigh high socks when she realized that I hadn't even started getting ready yet.

"Shouldn't you get ready?" she asked me. "It's already 8 o'clock."

"I'm freaking out about what he wants to tell me," I admitted, taking a deep breath and letting it go in the hopes that I'd breathe out all the anxiety with it. "I have a really bad feeling."

"Hey, chill out!" she laughed, slipping her feet into her high heeled ankle boots. "I'm sure it's nothing."

"It's just that Zayne's never that serious about anything," I told her, watching her go over to the mirror we had put up in the room.

She was applying her eyeliner and listening to me ramble on about Zayne. Finally, she finished with her make-up and went back to the closet. She went through my clothes without saying anything. She pulled out a pair of jeans and an off shouldered lace top.

"Wear this and I'll do your make-up," she told me and I took the dress from her.

She turned around as I undressed and pulled on my black jeans and white lace off shouldered top. I slipped on a pair of white wedge heels and then plopped myself on her bed. She set her make-up kit on her table and started off with eyeliner first.

She hummed the tune of some song I never heard which seemed to calm me down and when she was done, she sat down and started talking to me about her other siblings – Amelia and Erin.