The Comforter

A story about two college students who see each other behind a friend's back.

When her phone went off in the middle of the night, she could usually guess who it was. The adrenaline rush from the phone ringing made her heart jump. She scrambled to pick up, before she woke anyone in the room.

A low, sexy, sweet voice was on the end, “Aye, you sleep”, he asked. “Yeah”, she breathed out. Even though she had class at 8 that morning didn’t matter when he called. “Aight,”, he answered. He didn’t have to say anything else; he knew that she would be coming through within the hour.

London had, had her eye on him since junior year when her and her boyfriend split for the final time. There was something about his chocolate colored skin and light brown eyes that instantly had her hooked. There was chemistry from the beginning, before they had exchanged numbers that day in class. It started out with questions about the assignments from class and quickly moved to “How’s your day going?” later. Until that day, she had never known that he had even had any interest in her which took her by complete surprise. She knew in her heart that this wasn’t right, but like he had once said to her, “You can’t help who you like.”

The first time they met up for a late night rendezvous it was at her room. He was very cautious about creeping on campus late because of his ex’s. They both knew they needed to keep their cover.  There was always the possibility of the other late night creepers seeing you and then not to mention the “Nosies” who stayed up at all hours of the night, with nothing to do but talk on the phone and look out the window. So after that he just had her come to his spot.

Brent lived across town with his frat brother in a two-bedroom apartment. She definitely wasn’t expecting him to call tonight, being a school night. He usually hit her up on weekend nights when nothing was going on or after parties. She slowly saw up and looked around the dark room and gathered herself. She grabbed her backpack already filled with her notebooks and books for the next day and stuffed a shirt and jeans in for the next day. She grabbed her toothbrush and toothpaste and snuck out her room, shutting the door softly and locking it with ease.

Slipping through the door to her suite, she pulled the hood of her jacket over her head trying to stay incognito and warm at the same time. As the soft breeze of the night hit her face, she looked around before walking softly down the metal stairs to the parking lot, down to her car. London turned the radio up as soon as she was on the street only to hear love songs on the late night radio show.

She started trying to remember happier times when she had a love to call her own. Even though Brent had been a comforter, in these months following the breakup from her longtime boyfriend she knew it couldn’t last long. She was about to graduate and he still had a few semesters.

As she drove through town and past her ex’s old apartments, she wondered what he was doing and what he would think about her lusting after one of his friends. In her mind it didn’t matter what he though. He had his chance. Several chances, in fact. Maybe, it was the anger she felt of being hurt, maybe it was the fact that someone she liked, liked her back. However, London tried to process it in her mind, it was none of her ex’s concern.

Once she pulled into the apartment complex’s entrance she made a quick grab for her phone and turned down her radio. “Hey, I’m here,” she whispered.  “Come all the way to the back,” he whispered. As if he might wake up his neighbors. She searched for the silver car that she thought maybe parked somewhat close to his building. There weren’t any numbers above the entrances to the apartment buildings like the other complex she had been to. She picked up the phone again and just before she pressed the button to dial the phone rang, “I’m coming to get you,” he whispered. 

She parked and turned the car off. The chill of the fall air was the only thing keeping her awake, she was so tired. She looked around and then glanced in her rearview mirror, to see him standing at the top of the staircase behind her waving his brightly lit phone in the darkness as if to land a plane. She grabbed her bag and run up the stairs. He extended his arms for a hug as he always did when he greeted her. His short but sculpted frame embraced her as if they hadn’t seen each other in years. She took the opportunity to inhale the smell of his cologne and document it to memory.  

Stepping inside the almost completely dark apartment, London glanced and noticed a fairly tall shadow standing by the patio door with a phone held up to his ear. The figure turned towards her and the light from outside bounced off his dark face. She saw the body shape and new it was his roommate.

He grabbed her hand and guided her straight down the hallway toward the light where his room, was. He pressed on the slightly closed door and she got a glimpse at what was sincerely a bachelor pad. There was a TV, a bed, and black and silver trimmed bookshelf. That was it.

She was surprised to see that he had the new HD 50” flat screen TV. He motioned me toward the bed and closed his door. She sat down on one side, he sat on the other. “So, how you been doin’,” he said softly. “Tired, I have two tests next week.” “That’s no good,” he replied.

“Well do you want something to drink? I think we have Kool-Aid and some wine coolers”, he said looking up like he was trying to really remember. “No thank you”. She decided not to drink anything because she knew she would have to go to the bathroom. She knew guys were typically had nasty restrooms. Others she had dealt with before had pee on the toilet seats, no toilet paper and no soap. She always kept tissue with her, because most of the time they didn’t have any.

As she plopped down on the plush bed, she wondered what he was thinking when he always sent those random messages. He was so hard to read! Whether it was 1pm in the afternoon or 1am in the morning, they never really had much conversation. He always seemed to just want a bit of conversation, to cuddle make out and fall asleep. This had been going on for about 6 months and it was never nothing more, nothing less.

Most weekends she didn’t mind coming over because she could catch up on sleep. Even though it was a “frat house”, most of the time he had the place to himself. She never was able to sleep through the whole night in her dorm room with her roommate snoring loudly and the other loud noises of their suitemates. She usually never slept comfortably with another in the bed unless she was in love with them, which certainly was not the case here.

She lay down and got comfortable, she turned toward his bookshelf and noticed that he had a picture of his mom, him and little brother, an old football trophy, some candles and frat memorabilia in the bookcase. As she cuddled up next to him, she felt him kiss the back of her neck.

She wanted to know more about him, but how? They basically communicated through actions. To her this was all uncharted and undefined territory. Grey area. She had been there before and didn’t like for things to “just be”. But she didn’t want these little escapades to end.

As she stared at the ceiling she wondered what would ever become of this. What was she doing? She smiled at the thought of being able to tell her girlfriends she had finally seen the inside of his bedroom. Even though she ended up falling fast asleep in his arms, she dreamed of what was to come of this, if anything.

Author's Note

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