The Wild Ones (35 page)

       “Hey, man. No, I just got here. Room 203. Yeah, that would be great...” He nudged the door shut and I glanced at Renee and Darah.

       “I didn't think we were going to have to do this so early, but I think we need a roommate meeting,” I said. We'd agreed that we would have weekly roommate meetings to air our grievances. I was all for getting that shit out in the open so we didn't end up hating each other. I'd had a horrible roommate last year, and I didn't want to deal with that again.

       I listened, but it sounded like Hunter was still on the phone. I could hear him rummaging, and prayed he wouldn't break anything. Then I would kill him.

       “I don't see what the big deal is,” Renee said. “I mean, it would be the same if one of us had a boyfriend staying over. Paul stayed over all the time when Darah and I lived here last year.”
            “But that was because you were sleeping with him,” I said.

       “Maybe I'll sleep with Hunter,” she shot back. Renee had broken up with Paul extremely recently, and was on the prowl for a rebound. We all knew she and Paul were meant to be and that they would eventually realize that. But Renee was still in the anger stage.

       “Are you uncomfortable with staying with him, Taylor? It's okay if you are.”

       “I can't imagine why I would be uncomfortable about sharing an extremely small room with a guy I've known all of a half-hour who keeps making creepy comments. Yeah, I have
no
problem with that.”

       “If you want, Renee and I can switch. I'll stay with him and Renee can stay with you,” Darah said.
            “Why can't he stay with me?” Renee whined.

       “Because you'll rape him in his sleep,” I said.

       “You can't rape the willing, Tay,” she said, winking.

       “You're disgusting.”

       “How about we draw straws?” Darah said.

       “Do we even have straws?” Renee said. “How about we do numbers or something. Here,” she said, grabbing a UMaine notepad that someone had left on the kitchen counter, along with a pen. “I'll write our names down and we'll put it in...” she grabbed my baseball cap I'd discarded earlier, “and Hunter will pick. There you go. Problem solved.”

       My door opened and Hunter emerged, another grin on his face.

       “You weren't talking about me, were you? Like he didn't know. I rolled my eyes as Renee wrote each of our names on little bits of paper and tossed them in my hat. She put her hand over the top and shook it up.

       “Pick one,” she said, shoving the hat in his face.

       “Okay,” he said, sticking his hand in and pulling out a folded slip of paper. Renee slowly unfolded it. We all waited as she paused dramatically.

       “Taylor,” she said, turning it around so we could all read my name in black and white.

       “Shit,” I said.