Booty Call
“You did Aaron Penn!You did AaronPenn!”
“Oh my god Alice, that’s not a song. Stop trying to make that into asong.”
Alice just keeps dancing around my room, continuing to sing out her words in an operavoice.
“You did Aaron Penn! He put his penis in yourvaginaaaaaa.”
“ALICE!” I throw a pillow at her from where I’m sitting on thebed.
“I can’t believe you did himagain,” she says, finally giving up with the singing and plopping down next to me. “I mean, I actually kind of believed you after the first time, when you said it was just a heat of the moment kind of thing. I always knew you guys wanted to do each other, but now it’s clear you actuallylikehim. Like,likelike.”
“Stop saying like. Also I don’t know if that’s how I feel about him. I haven’t given myself time to think aboutit.”
“Too busy getting your brains fucked out every otherday?”
“Alice Strauss!” I hit her with another pillow. “As you well know, we have only actually had intercoursetwice.”
“Intercourse? Ew. What are you, a grandma?” She wrinkles her nose. “Also, that may be the case, but from what you’ve told me he’s still very well acquainted with your hoo-ha,granny.”
“He certainly knows how to work a hoo-ha,” I admit, letting myself fall back onto thebed.
“Oh by the way,” Alice remarks. She starts to bounce up and down with excitement over whatever she’s about to say next. “You know Carl, that dude you guys made me drunk text when we were playingJenga?”
“Of course I know Sexy Carl. You’ve had a crush on him forforever.”
To the point where we mutually refer to him as ‘SexyCarl.’
“Well, I didn’t tell you this yet because I didn’t want to jinx it, but he responded to my text. Then I responded to his. We’ve been texting back and forth ever since, and we’re going on a date tomorrownight.”
“Alice!” I shout, sitting back up and once more hitting her with the pillow. “That’s awesome! You’re finally going to bang SexyCarl!”
She grins and nods vigorously. “You may be dating the most famously hot dude on campus, but Sexy Carl’s got quite a reputation for himself too. We’ll be like college royaltysoon.”
A feel a shifting unease in the bottom of my stomach. “I mean, I’m notdatingAaron.”
“Do you want to be?” Aliceasks.
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly. “It’s...complicated.”
It’s too personal of a thing to mention to Alice, but hearing I was the first person he’d slept with in a year shocked me more than I let on to even Aaronhimself.
I mean, this is a guy who’s probably had to get a second SIM card just to hold all the phone numbers he’s been offered. With just a flash of that panty-dropping smirk, I’m pretty sure he could have a different girl warming his bed every night of theweek.
If he hasn’t been with anyone, it’s because he hasn’t wanted to be. I can see a hesitancy in him sometimes when we’re together, a crack running through whatever mask he wears, revealing a scar so deep it makes me ache. Then there’s his mysterious request to keep his photography a secret. I can tell there’s something dark there, some kind of hurt I can’t help wanting to heal, but that would be a dive into the emotional deep end I don’t know if I want totake.
He’s Aaron Penn, for god’s sake. He may be able to work my body as well as he can work a camera, but he’s still the douchebag who insists on calling me Peaches and wearing a beanie wherever he goes. I’ve spent so long despising him it’s hard not to gag at the thought of him actually being myboyfriend.
Alice draws me out of my reverie by blasting Avril Lavigne’s ‘Complicated’ on her phone and belting out the lyrics over thenoise.
“Meu Deus!” I shout. “You have aproblem,Alice!”
* * *
I’m takingsome summer courses this year, so I only have a few short weeks before classes start up again. I’ve decided to fill the time with working extra hard on my freelance business and following up with all the connections I made at theshowcase.
I’ve sent emails to everyone who seemed impressed by our project, thanking them for coming and expressing interest in any openings they might have in the future. So far I’ve only gotten a few of the typical ‘We have no openings at this time but will keep your resume on file’ responses, but I’ve yet to hear anything from both Epsilon and P&T. They seemed to be our most promising leads, not to mention the most impressiveones.
