Freshmen Dorms

"Ahhh! Son of a--" Jacob winced, and drew in quick breaths. Why did she always intent on doing such damage to his head? Jacob got up and grabbed her arms wrapping them behind her back.

He rested his chin on her shoulder and said into her ear, "Ha! Got you!"

Seth had Connor open the suite door for him and then Connor took off to his own suite for a bit while Seth went inside. He headed over to the fridge and attempted to work out how to shove a whole tiered cake in there.

"Fuck, this will be a problem," he mused.

***

Evelyn gave a surprised squeak and caught her breath, freezing instantly. Her stomach began to skitter with nerves. She staggered a bit (now on tiled floor again) and turned her head so Jake's breath didn't tickle her cheek. "Let go, you salsa-dancing creep!" She brought up her foot and attempted to stomp on his. But given she was just wearing sneakers, it didn't do much. She huffed, frustrated, and attempted to shrug his head off her shoulder.

Jacob grit his teeth, trying to conceal his sudden pain. That had hurt but he was real grateful she wasn't wearing heels.

He pulled his chin off her shoulder and tried to keep her in that hold, but he had lost his footing and fell on his butt, bringing Evelyn down with him.

Evelyn was in his lap and he grabbed her hands so she wouldn't punch him, "Ha. Got you!" He said breathlessly.

Seth heard a muffled thud down the hall. He figured Lucifer was in Jake's room or something and shrugged it off. He picked up his box of cake again and headed out of the suite, kicking the door open.

Jake and his roomies didn't need cake as badly as someone else did! He figured he'd get his roomies to join up later. But for now.

Seth marched toward the elevator. Some girl had pressed the button and he got in with her, saying, "Seven please?"

***

Evelyn squirmed madly, attempting to punch any inch of Jake she could - but his hands were huge compared to hers and she couldn't move. She gritted her teeth and jerked her head forward and then back, hitting him in the forehead with a loud THUD.

"Ow....you bastard," she whimpered, feeling her head ache with pain. She slumped back against his chest, seeing flashing lights for a second. "I hope you get conc...concussed."

"Christ.... Red! God damnit!" Was all Jake could say, why was his head always apart all of her attack methods, his head was really pounding now. First the back of it and now the front.

Seth waddled out onto the seventh floor hallway. His box teetered in his arms. He headed down the hall.

***

Evelyn shook her head, feeling the ache go away. She still felt shockingly dizzy, so she didn't move anywhere, dropping her head back onto his conveniently located shoulder. But she was also starting to feel guilty again.

But still...

She lifted her chin up, turning her head so she could see Jake's face, which was now scrunched up in pain. "You're such a girl. Damsel-in-distress much?" she asked cheekily.

"You're always bashing my head into concrete, well in this case cheap linoleum, Spartacus, I kind of have the right to bitch. "Jake groaned quietly, and closed his eyes taking in a deep breath to settle his pain.

"Spartacus?" Evelyn pulled a face. "Well I'm sorry you're so accident-prone, Longbottom." She turned her head to face the wall and her hair ended up in Jake's face.

Jake pushed her hair off his face, and looked up at her, "Hey Mufasa I would appreciate it if you kept your vivacious mane out of my injured brains way. "He smirked behind her curtain of hair.

Seth wobbled to a stop in front of a suite at the end of the boys' hallway and banged on it with his foot. "YO! OPEN UP! I BRING PEACE AND CAKE!"

A few people on this innocent floor, who clearly were not aware of the chaos two floors below, turned ot stare at him.

Luke, inside in his room finishing off his homework, glanced up and pulled his headphones down on his neck. He leaned over to see out his dorm room door. "James? Can you get that?" Joel was in the shower or something and Taylor's whereabouts were unknown.

***

Evelyn lifted her head forward off his shoulder and reached up to pat her hair down. Damned thing was chaotically curling as it dried. She glanced over her shoulder, amusement in her expression. "Did that gaping hole in the back of your head stop oozing brain fluid yet?" She was feeling kind of bad for snapping so quickly. She massaged the back of her own head with one hand, wondering why she was sitting so comfortably - oh shit, I'm on his freaking lap. Again. Evelyn paled but tried ot pass this off as a small thing so she didn't freak out and leap away from him like she really wanted to, but stayed where she was.

Jake shrugged, "Whatever I'll live, its feeling slightly better, you know I thought girls were supposed to be nurturing or maternal. I don't know what the word is. I thought they take care of people who are hurt? I mean are you the type of person that would trip your grandpa when he was walking with a cane?" He asked her, he could totally imagine a small bronze haired girl sticking her leg out to trip a poor elderly looking man.

***

James got up off his bed, he had managed to actually do some homework which throughly shocked him. He went to the door and opened it, and raised an eyebrow when he saw Seth standing in his doorway with appeared to be (or probably was) a wedding cake, "Um.... hey Seth, what do you have there?" He asked him.

Evelyn's guilty conscience was now reminding her of the whole (long) list of times she'd managed to injure (or cause to be injured) Jake on some occasion in the three weeks she'd known him.

It was an ugly list.

She sighed and turned around a bit on his lap so she could see him. She pulled a disgruntled face. "Well it's not like I can do a lot," she said logically. She examined the spot on his forehead where she'd hit him. It didn't seem to be too bad there. It was probably worse on the back of his head. She cringed.

"Well, I could dump cold water on the back of your head," she suggested nonchalantly. "It might help the swelling. But then you'd probably catch a fever and die." She lifted an arm around his neck to carefully (this time, gently) test the bruise behind his head. It would probably go down, she figured, in a few hours.

***

"Yo, I got somethin' to cheer ya up!" Seth announced, shoving past James and then walking to the coffeetable to place the cakebox down. "I bought you cake! It's not so custom, but hey, it's the thought that counts, right? Open it!"

James eyed the box (and Seth) suspiciously, he wanted to open it but at the same time he was afraid to because knowing Seth, the cake would probably explode or something when he opened the lid. He opened it carefully and his jaw dropped when he saw a wedding cake! Exactly what he thought it was, it was all white, with a floral like decoration on the cakes, and it had the bride and groom topper on the cake, and at the bottom of the cake there was a slab of chocolate.

Written in really nice cursive it said, Congratulations, Katherine & Stephen

James' blue eyes looked up at Seth's mischievous ones, "Dude wait a minute?! You stole someones legit wedding cake and brought it here?!"

***

Jacob flinched slightly, it still hurt but at least this time she didn't beat the damn bruise with a hammer, or at least it felt like it did when she jabbed her fingers down onto it, "Yeah true but just saying even if you had proper supplies around you, you'd probably find some way to poison me with the peroxide or something like that." He grinned widely.

Seth realized this might look kind of odd to most normal people. He shrugged. "Make room in the fridge?" he said sheepishly. "I was hungry, Connor was with me, we were bored.....not a good equation. But I didn't STEAL it!" he said hastily. "I paid a grand for it. And then we ran off with it...who cares if it was consensual? Plus, you looked like you needed cheering up."

***

"Well, you are a tool," Evelyn told Jake sincerely. She dropped her hand from his head, arm draped on the crook of his shoulder. She pondered what they could do to tackle his injury, and glanced around the tiny room. Seth had done a thorough job. Evelyn felt miffed. Did he really distrust them that much?

"I'm kidding,' she said, turning to look up at the Spaniard, and cracking a brief smile. "I don't yet despise you that much."

James shook his head in disbelief there was a wedding cake, in his dorm right now. Because Seth who had stolen it, yes he still stole it even though he paid for it, "Dude.. I mean okay yeah you paid for it, but this is for someones wedding, not for us to eat unless were attending said wedding.." James sighed and looked at Seth, is this something Jake dealt with a lot?

"Fuck it, get plates I'm hungry I want some of this thousand dollar cake you stole." James said throwing his hands in the air.

***

"Oh thanks, for your kind words. I'll cherish them forever." Jake said sarcastically, and he punched Evelyn lightly in the arm, and smiled, "Nah I guess you're not so bad yourself sometimes either." Jacob looked at her, she actually looked cute in his sweater since it was so big on her, and it didn't really bother him that she was on his lap, it actually felt comfortable.

Jake spotted a loose bronze curl on her face, and reached out and put the piece behind her ear, his fingers brushing her cheek they lingered there for a moment.

"Cake?" Luke asked, putting his headphones down onhis desk and getting up to come out to the living room. His eyes widened when e saw it.

"What the - ?!"

Seth was rummaging in the kitchen cabinets. He came back with plates and spoons, grinning. "Want?"

Luke threw him a disbelieving look and then surprisingly just shrugged. "Whatever, sure."

He read the names on the cake and grimaced. "Just for the record, if you do this on my wedding day, I will kick your ass."

Seth pretended not to hear as he put the plates on the coffeetable by the cake. He handed James a large knife. "Do the honors, bro."

***

Evelyn froze, breath catching in her chest. She felt a small shiver run through her, spreading from her cheek. Instinctively, she turned her head away just slightly to shake Jake's hand off, biting her lip.

Guilt. Damned guilt all over again. What was he doing?

She hated feeling guilty for something she was perfectly within her rights to be doing. She hated James right at that moment, so much. She wanted to be rid of that hesitation that always seized her, even in Seattle. Every time there was a boy around who wasn't him, she felt like a cheat.

Evelyn turned to face Jake's dark eyes - so unlike James' deep blue ones. Her tongue felt like it had tied itself into silence. She swallowed tentatively and reached up, catching his hand before it fell, intertwining their fingers. She felt utterly confused right now. This was probably going to turn out badly. Jake's face was about two inches from hers.

"I - I can't...." She stopped there and licked her lips, not sure what she was trying to say. It wasn't like she didn't want to. That would be a lie. She just knew it would end ugly. "This is a bad idea," she whispered.

James took the knife, and started humming the wedding march as he dug the knife into the side of the cake, cutting large triangular pieces, he put one on a plate and handed it to Luke, and the other to Seth and took the last one for himself.

James took a bite, of the sweet chocolate cake which to his surprise was good. Usually wedding cakes looked nice but half the time he ate them they usually tasted stale, "Wow... this is actually good."

***

Jake sat up, closing the space between them, he whispered, "You're not doing anything wrong... just don't think about it..." He closed his eyes and kissed her like he wanted to so many times earlier.

"No, shit. The dough I paid for it, it better be or I'll go find that fucker and kick his ass for letting me steal his bad cake."

Luke turned to stare at Seth, who was now chewing carefully. "Are you sober?" Luke asked seriously.

Seth blinked, and then glanced at James as he swallowed. "Why do people always ask me that?" he wondered.

***

There was probably some part of Evelyn that would always feel guilty for anything not pro-James.

Right now, she beat that part back, closed her eyes against Jake's lips and sat up, wrapping her arms around his neck and returning his kiss with just a tiny amount of regret. And as it had last time, she felt a part of her heart die inside. There was really no going back after this. And she and Jake both understood that. She'd probably cringe every time she saw James.

But for now, she didn't care. She genuinely did like Jake - his asshole tendencies aside - and he was a great kisser. If her breathing going irregular and her insides melting was any indication. The last thing they'd both had was gum; she could still taste it on his lips and it was made colder by the fact that they were both kind of damp. A moment later, she pulled back just slightly, resting her forehead against his and inhaled sharply, eyes fluttering open and then going wide. "Um..."

It just struck her that this was going to probably bite her in the butt later.

James chuckled, shoveling another piece of cake into his mouth, "So you stole a cake? Does this happen often, cause if so next time I'd like to join in on the festivites."

***

"Hmmm..." Was all Jake managed to say as she pulled away from him, she was a good kisser, he knew this was wrong and things were going to be real bad after but he didn't care.

Seth snickered. "I don't plan this. I didn't plan ending up in juvie either but hey."

"You went to juvie?" Luke asked, amused. He didn't know why this shocked him. He could kind of picture Seth in there perfectly.

Seth snickered. "With Jake. We're criminals in training."

Luke's smile flickered. "Jake?" he asked slowly.

Seth nodded, taking another bite of cake. "He wush wun badth kidth," he mumbled. He swallowed. "He looks like a regular nice guy, I know. He's blown up shit before."

Luke threw James a disturbed glance. Evelyn hung out with Jake so often....did she know? Luke gritted his teeth. If she did...Was she on crack?

***

Evelyn lowered her gaze, completely bemused. She tilted her chin up again, frowning slightly. "We shouldn't have done that. I...you...it's...." She was really overthinking this. But she didn't want to fall any deeper into this mistake than she had already. Getting away from James had been a nightmare.

Completely frustrated, Evelyn couldn't work out exactly what she should be doing. She groaned and dropped her head onto Jake's shoulder. "I'd slap you right now but that would kind of make me a hypocrite," she mumbled into his wifebeater.

"Wow really? How long were you guys in there for? I mean I've been arrested before but the most that's happened was probation." James stated, which to his luck, he almost ended up in juvie for it.

***

Jake sighed and he straightened a bit, he placed his finger under her chin and stared her right in the pretty green eyes, "Evelyn just shhh... okay. Stop thinking.." Their lips touched again, and he kissed her for a long moment, his arm wrapped around her waist.

"Six months?" Seth tried to remember his sentence. "I dunno about Jake. I met him in there so I can't tell. But yeah, match made in hell, my mom called it. But dude, my probation officer had a smokin' daughter."

"I like that that's probably the only thing he's sure he remembers from juvie," Luke said to James.

***

Evelyn didn't stop Jake this time either, even though her brain was pleading with her to remember the consequences of this. She was sick of thinking so much. She'd given herself a damned fever thinking about James. She shifted slightly on Jake's lap, feeling her face flush and then pulled away from him a little to breathe, "You're an idiot," into his mouth.

"Lucky! My probation officer looked like a butch lesbian! The justice system was so unfair!" James pouted.

***

"You love it." Was his breathy response, as he just let himself get caught up in the moment, he embraced with her trying to close the gaps, he moved his lips down her chin, trailing soft kisses on her neck, and right back up teasingly to her lips.

Seth, not noticing Luke troubled expression, laughed as he helped himself to more cake. "Dude, my officer was pretty good-looking. Just too old for me. Had me some tricky in the back with her little Andrea, though," he said, smugly. "I think she was just along for the day. Probably around my age, give or take a year. Juvie was fun."

"So..." Luke began, discretely kicking James' leg as he sat down on the couch. "Why was Jake in there?"

Seth frowned as he tried to recall Jake's charges. "Um, there was the South Carolina incident...he blew up a warehouse or some shit with messy fireworks....random vandalism like cake stealing of course. Not that we ever stole a cake before," he added. "We had some GTA later, after we got out, but we returned the car. We just needed to borrow it for a bit. What else did he...oh. Random assault here and there, but you know how it is, you get into it with random drunks on the streets, who doesn't, right? Jake just had a short temper so he got busted for it.

"I can't remember what else. If it hadn't been for Lola's bitching, Jake would've been on parole now, though. Not that I was any better."

He wondered why Luke, who normally couldn't give much of a damn about him or Jake, was suddenly so interested. "Why?" Seth asked suspiciously.

He had the bad feeling damage had already been done. Luke shot him an unreadable glance. "Just interested. Haven't met a lot of juvie inmates."

Seth felt a flicker of unease. But still, not like Luke could do a lot with this. Jake would have probably boasted about it if to Luke if he'd asked the Spaniard. It wasn't important knowledge.

Speaking of Jake...

Seth set down his plate. "So, uh....he paused, thinking it over. "You mind if I, uh, get Jake up here? I mean...I know, last night was bad. But....it was really unintentional on his part. He really didn't know what Red looped him into when she asked him to fake it. And you know her. She's a fucking tease; poor guy probably didn't realize he was falling till he hit rock bottom. He's pissed at her though. He didn't want to be pitted against you," he said to James loyally.

***

Rather contrary to everything Seth was saying, Evelyn and Jake were getting along very well.

Too well, Evelyn thought, feeling the room get extremely hot all of a sudden. She let out a small gasp when Jake's mouth burned against the cold skin of her neck. This was unfamiliar territory to anyone expect James - she usually kept everyone else at least a foot away from where Jake was now.

When he kissed her again she lifted her hand, half with the intention of pushing him away and then faltered, forgetting what she was doing. She knitted her fingers into his hair instead, carefully skimming past the bruise there. Feeling breathless, she instinctively bit down on his bottom lip to stop him. "Can...can't breathe."

James looked at Seth, and back at Luke for a moment. He couldn't really be too mad at Jake, since he did come out with the truth and if anything the guy needed to get away from her while he could.

Plus he didn't seem too bad and they might as well get along like Jake said the night before, "Yeah that's cool bring him up."

***

Jake pulled away and forgot in his excitement that he too needed to breathe, he took a breath ,and looked at her. "You okay?"