Bad Things

Chapter 8

Eight
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I ended up sleeping with him in his bed that night. Since my clothes were wet too and it was pretty late at night, none of us really wanted to go out again. I could swear I was literally trembling and blushing blood-red when he, completely nonchalant and composed, shirtless and bold, leaning back with his elbows on the pillows, invited me to share his bed with him.

Standing by the curtain in one of his t-shirts and boxer, my nails sunk into my palms and I struggled to keep my composure. Sure, we'd kissed but the quiet, calculating look in his eyes as he waited for me seemed to wrecked me right in my gut. I had never slept with any other guy besides Drew before and I had been sleeping with Drew ever since kindergarten. It was different with him. And it was different with Jay too.

"Why are you still standing there? Come on in."

"Sure." I nodded and went forward. His gaze never left me even as I quietly climbed in and settled down at the far edge of the bed.

Jay laughed and said, "You sure are a virgin, aren't you, Lola?"

Strangely, I felt comfortable enough to tell him truthfully that I haven't had sex at all. "Today was my first real kiss."

He looked at me for a long moment without a word, with a face so straight and unreadable. He shifted his gaze away and got under the cover, saying, "Don't let anybody else touch you."

Flustered by his rather odd demand, I asked him, "Why?"

He simply gave me a cryptic smile and said nothing more. I dropped further questions, thinking it would come across as being too pushy and overly curious. Without another word, I too quietly slipped under the cover.

"Come closer," he said.

I moved over towards him a little. His hand came under the sheet to grab me by my waist. Then he yanked me in and hooked his arm around my chest. He snuggled closer, buried his face into my neck, and closed his eyes.

For minutes that followed, I was very conscious of my rapid pulses, my galloping heartbeat, my breathlessness, but when he didn't open his eyes again or said nothing more, I too drifted off to sleep.

A noise from the street below, someone calling out for Jay, woke me up from my slumber the next morning. Forcing my eyelids open and stretching out, I found myself alone on the bed. I rolled over to my front, hugged a pillow, and listened for a moment, trying to guess where Jay was and what the guy wanted with him. Then I heard Jay pull up the shutter and open the window.

"Send it up!" He said.

I stepped down from the bed and ran my fingers through my hair. My breath hitches immediately in panic. I ran to his dresser and got my heartbroken, seeing that I looked as if an angry hairdresser had given me a new perm during the night. Jay didn't have a hairdryer so I had slept with damp hair.

I shouldn't have.

I tried to smooth it down but nothing helped. I looked for my hair tie everywhere only to realize it was in the pocket of my jeans that I'd left on top of the washing machine in the bedroom. So, no matter how funny I looked, I had to see Jay this way.

I moved the curtain and walked out to the middle of his apartment, holding my hair behind my neck so it wouldn't spring open like a giant nest. Jay, still shirtless and in his jeans, was leaning through the window and peering down at the street below, a clanking noise of metal chains clashing together coming from the outside. With his broad, inked back facing me, he reached down and pulled up a metal basket. In that, I saw a packet of milk and two boxes of phones.