I decide to directly deal with Mitch’s absentee roommate by...well. I guess you can say I test him during team bonding Tea Time.  

“Maya!” Seth hisses over my shoulder while the freshman boy lingering in front of him covers his face, having clearly overheard every word I’ve just said. “You can’t ask Q about that. It’s none of your business.”

“Hush up and get to know your own date!” I reposition myself so Quinn, now chuckling into his fist, has to look over me to catch that cocky senior’s apologetic expression that’s no doubt forming behind my back. “Focus.” I snap my fingers in an arc until those pale gray orbs are settled on me. “You already had your turn with Sethenal.”

“Sorry,” he mumbles, his rasp barely audible over the absolute commotion of Hank’s apartment attempting to hold both our classes at once. “To answer your question, I-”

“Here.” I tap my ear, not having the patience or the ability to actually decipher what he’s trying to say as pink tickles the freckles sprinkling his cheeks. 

The kid named Quinn leans down without hesitation, his auburn mess of hair brushing my neck while he clears his throat right fucking there. He smells like strawberries. Odd.

“No, I’m not sneaking off each night for…what’d you call it?” A stray chuckle sweeps brief heat over my skin before he tilts away with a grin stretching his narrow face. 

“Romantic rendezvous.”

“Right.” He nods, his fingers curling over his bangs before flicking them up and back. “I just-”

Ear tap.

Quinn’s sigh is only noticeable because he laughs just before releasing it. I flinch when he cups his hand by my head, but immediately relax when he dips forward to tell me his secrets.  

“I can’t sleep in the dorms when it’s this hot,” he says rather deeply, then leans away, shrugging slightly while he peers around the crowded room. “That’s why I’m not there at night.”

“Follow-up?” 

His shoulders tense when his eyes pop for a moment, then he relaxes into a series of chuckles. “Sure.” 

“Are you a vampire?”

“Good grief!” Seth’s hand lands on my shoulder, and he promptly ushers Quinn on to the next person in line.

“It was a valid question.” I glare up at his furrowed brow and grab the can from his hand. “How else do you explain just...not sleeping? Unless he’s going elsewhere-” 

“Give me my beer.”

“Hah.” I glance down at the stained yellow rim and give it a quick sniff. “This isn’t anything remotely close to alcohol. It’s more like hyena piss-”

“Maya!” 

“Fine, geez.” I crush the thing a little before passing it back. “You clearly need it more than I do.” 

~

An absolute dumpster of an electronic attempt at music pounds against my headache, so I make my way outside for a breath of air instead of sweat and perfume. The team party has been going on for what feels like hours now, but it’s probably only been forty minutes or so. 

My lungs welcome the late night breeze while I make my way towards the ledge overlooking the trees below. The apartment buildings on Carmen’s campus aren’t too shabby, and Hank struck gold when he and his roommates scored the one with a view of actual nature.

“Hey.” A low voice interrupts me pulling my shorts down my legs as the chafing calls to me from between my thighs. 

“Awww, hi.” I lift an arm and Mitch slips right on in for a side hug. “How’s my freshman buddy enjoying his first Swim and Dive Team extravaganza?” 

“Drunk,” he mumbles, before chuckling immediately after because apparently that’s hilarious. 

“I see.” I do a quick scan of his spiky blond hair gathered in weird clumps from the humidity happening inside, before landing on those bloodshot blue eyes squinting down at me. 

“I talked to him,” he slurs through a small burp. “My roomie.”

“When?!”

“Just now.” He nods, nearly tipping forward onto my shoulder. “He said sorry and we’re having a slumber party tonight to make up for lost time.”

“Oh, so…” My words catch while I try not to gag on the whiff of cheap beer wafting off him. “It went well, then?” 

“Yep.” A rasped word from behind me makes my entire body jolt. 

Mitch fucking beams, all red-cheeked and giggly while I peer up at the towering ginger-man-child fiddling with his tattered black tank top. 

“Where the hell did you come from?!” I basically shout, causing Quinn to freeze mid-step in his approach. 

“Um-”

“The treeeees.” Mitch pats my bun, which is absolutely unacceptable. “We had our deep talk,” he says so softly, I actually don’t snap his wrist in half for daring to touch my hair like that. 

Slight shock overtakes me while I watch the little blond boy lean over the ledge beside us, his glassy gaze wandering to the forest below. “You guys walked in the woods at night?” I ask, keeping a hand on Mitch’s back while I narrow my eyes on the roommate. 

Quinn blinks and bites his bottom lip, then decides to step beside us instead of directly responding. But I get enough of an answer when he moves. The shift in the wind brings the horrid stench of cigarettes right into my brain, and a part of me explodes. That’s a banned substance.

“You…!” I grit my teeth and scrunch my nose in an attempt to close it from the world forever. My eyes dart to his faded tan cargo shorts just as his hand clamps over the front pocket. “How dare you break policy?!”

“Mine,” he says tightly, angling away when my fingers reach for the atrocities hidden there. 

“But-”

“It’s okayyyyy, Maya.” Mitch slumps over my shoulder with his chin perched heavily enough to make me stumble. “He promised to have just one a week. For party purposes.”

“Buffalo shit!”

“Roommate pact!” The kid practically screeches in my ear. “Oh my god, you guys...” His weight lifts off me when he flings himself to his roommate, and I catch Quinn’s stare slipping towards the doorway to the apartment building before I can demand what the fuck that was about. 

“What?” I ask, watching while a group of freshmen girls tumbles from the entrance. 

“It’s...it’s her.” Mitch’s voice is so much higher suddenly, that I can’t help but laugh.