Lennox. Me. & Apartment C.

016.

I found chips and beef jerky in my desk drawer so that was my dinner. I could have left my room but then Lennox could have ran in and my plan would backfire on me. That, and my pride wouldn't let me show my face. I eventually went through the bathroom and unlocked Lennox's door and opened it so he knew that he had regained access. The bathroom door remain locked for awhile after that though. I quelled all fears that he would have to sleep in the living room on the leather Sweat Sofa.

I nonetheless continued to let him think that he would have to use a neighbor's bathroom or pee outside after I quietly unlocked the bathroom door for him. Eventually, Lennox must have tried the door and realized he had access to the bathroom because I heard a soft knock on my door around 10 o'clock that night. I was getting ready to go to bed, which was really just me refreshing my social media feed and scrolling through photos on my phone.

"What?" I called out.

Lennox leaned his head in, "I don't want you to go to bed mad at me."

"Ok," I inhaled as I looked at him and put my phone down.

Lennox crossed my room and sat cross-legged at the bottom of my bed. "Quinn, we can't keep fighting like this."

"Are you blaming me right now?" I huffed in disbelief. "Lennox, you knew I had a crush on him and you purposely tried to get in the way and keep him from asking me out. Not cool, I've never done that to you."

"I haven't brought a girl home since I met you," Lennox added.

"Still, if you had or tried to or told me you were into someone, I wouldn't get in the way. That's not what friends do."

I stared at Lennox as I tried to calmly explain to him why I was upset. I just saw his jaw clench though and he refused to make eye contact with me. He was still upset.

"Talk to me," I pleaded. "I don't want you to go to bed mad at me. I'm trying."

Lennox looked back at me and an almost-smile threatened to break across his face. It was a borderline smirk— closer to a grimace— but it lacked the smugness and cockiness that his signature smirks usually held. "I'm fine— I just wanted to look out for you."

He paused for a moment before continuing, "But that wasn't my place. And I'm sorry."

"I forgive you," I said. I really had. Maybe it was the hunger or the fact that Lennox wasn't trying to be a jerk or awful, but instead protective and helpful, which made me so easily get over it.

"So, uh, are you going to sleep with me again?" Lennox tried. "I mean— I don't know how your back is doing and if it helped or if you just wanted to."

"Eh, it was fine," I started. "Nothing magical happened but the first day is the worst day: I'll be Ok. Thanks though," I said as I turned over to head to grab my book off my stand. I had to read Plato's Republic for class— it wasn't awful. I just didn't know what was going on.

I heard Lennox exhale as I turned my back. It sounded like he had been holding his breath but I didn't worry about it.

"Yeah, yeah, no problem," he tried to recover as I tried to get comfortable and snuggle myself further between my blankets. I liked to cocoon myself in blankets with the only thing exposed to the world are my eyes to read and my hands to flip pages.

I must have looked strange as I worked my way into the blankets and try to become a human burrito because Lennox asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to read and get cozy but I still need to flip pages of this stupid book and I need my phone nearby so I can look up translations to figure out what is going on."

"Do you need help?" Lennox offered. "I took Jacobi's class last semester. That's who you have right?"

"Yeah?" I answered cautiously but that didn't stop Lennox as he began to climb further in my bed and whip blankets around me.

I tried to protest when he took the book out of my hands but it didn't help. "Lean forward," he said. Though I probably should have put up more resistance, I complied. Lennox slid in the space behind me and my headboard and sat down. I was wrapped up in the blankets of my cocoon, while his arms came around me to hold the book in front of me. I felt his chin come down to rest on my shoulder, "Ready?"

I craned my neck to get a better glimpse of him. He looked back at me and blinked. "Are you serious right now? Lennox, move! I have work to do."

"I'm so serious. Let me explain it to you as go along," my roommate offered.

"Don't you have work to do? How come I never see you doing homework?"

"Because I'm magical like that," Lennox said, brushing me aside. "Also, because we don't have real homework. We're put into cohorts at the beginning of the year and our assignments are in the same group and we have a huge presentation in May— in front of people who work at large companies and stuff. Then, after the presentations, they offer us our summer jobs."

"Must be nice," I muttered.

"Oh, it is, Darling, because that means I get to spend the rest of my time, helping you understand Jacobi."

"I actually really enjoy philosophy!" I tried.

"I know, I know," Lennox said rubbing my shoulders in a way that was both condescending but still felt very good.

"But she is another thing entirely— I just don't pick out what she wants me to get!"

"That's why I'm here," Lennox said. He picked up the book that had gotten dropped onto his leg at some point during this exchange, held it front of me, and I leaned into him as we read together.