Freshmen Dorms

Seth nodded and got up, figuring he'd let poor Jake and Evelyn out now. He was mildly afraid of what he'd find down there.

He headed out of the suite, down the hall to the elevator.

***

Evelyn had a sudden urge to laugh. Her hands linked behind his neck, she sat back, almost falling off Jake's lap, and then felt oddly embarrassed all of a sudden. Her cheeks flared and she had a hard time meeting his eyes. Oh, great, bring on the awkwardness.

"Um," she cleared her throat and unlinked her hands to run one of them through her now tousled hair, sweeping it out of her face. "Let's not do that again?"

Jake caught Evelyn as she toppled a bit, he smiled devilshily at her, "Don't do what again? This?" He planted a small kiss on her lips, and pulled back his dark eyes glittering, "Or this..." He whispered onto her neck, trailing slow lingering kisses onto her skin.

Seth whistled to himself as he rode the elevator to the fifth floor. He was kind of worried, if truth be told. He wasn't sure what he expected. It coudl go either way.

"Hey," he said to some cute girl in the elevator. "You look like a porn star."

"Excuse me?!"

"Well, you're sexy, you have those long legs, great assets. I call 'em like I see 'em," Seth said nonchalantly to her. Her mouth opened and closed a few times, evidently, she was unable to decide if she should be flattered or furious.

She giggled.

Score! Seth thought.

***

"You're a real bastard," Evelyn muttered, closing her eyes and leaning forwards to rest her forehead against Jake's chest. She turned her head away so he wouldn't see her worried expression. "I just..." She drew in a sharp breath when he continued trailing kisses down her neck, shivered and pushed his head away gently. "I meant, let's be real, okay? For a moment."

Jake pulled away and sighed, "Okay fine, we'll be real, what's up?" He asked.

By the time the shitty lift hit the fifth floor, Seth had the girl's number in his phone. She giggled and waved him off and Seth, with a promise to call her, stepped out, heading cheerfully toward his suite. He pulled out his phone and texted Ashlee. Lettin them out now. U wana show up so they dont both attack me?

***

Evelyn, now no longer feeling cold, stared up at Jake for a moment, thinking. "I, uh..." She paused, and tried to work out the problem. She glanced down, picked up his hand and laced her fingers through his to stall. "We just sort of said that, um...I mean...I kind of assumed when I said I'd get over m fear of, um intimacy, it wouldn't really be with you. Because you said, you know, that you didn't want...um...anything, I guess?" She bit her lip, which was now rather raw after their kissing session. "I just....I wanted to respect that," she said quickly, finally looking up at him and grimacing slightly. "I don't....don't you think it would be a good idea to...I don't know. I just, it was on my mind," she finished in a jumble, thoroughly confused.

Ashlee had gotten Seth's text and lucky for her she had returned to campus because a friend from one of her classes invited her to the dorms to hang out, she texted Seth back, Hey, yeah I"ll meet you on the fifth, I was just visiting a friend on the third..

Ashlee got up slinging her purse and Evelyn's over her shoulder, she walked out into the hallways and opted for using the stairs since she hated that elevator.

Ashlee ran up the stairs, and came out of the fifth floor entrance and saw Seth walking to his suite, she came up to him and tapped him on the shoulder, "Hey there, so is it time to release them warden?"

***

Jake wanted to know what Evelyn was saying but all he heard was a lot of mumbling for some reason, "Hey just take a deep breath and relax. And don't kill me but can you repeat what you said. I couldn't hear you and you're right here."

Seth grinned and then felt guilty when he looked up and saw Ashlee. "Oh, hey, you! Yeah, I think five hours of isolation should have done them some good. Ooh, you want cake after this? I sto-uh, bought some."

***

Evelyn blinked at Jake and then said, "What? I just said...ugh. I was explaining that I didn't think it would be a good idea for us to do this bec- why didn't you hear me the first time?" she asked, annoyed. She hadn't been that jumbled, had she? She probably had. But she was confused!

"Oooh cake! Yeah sure I'd love some, I'm kind of hungry."Ashlee chirped.

***

"You just sounded mumbly is all, and I heard you and..." Jake stopped for a moment and looked at her.

"I know, I know we said we shouldn't do this, its just I tried real hard not to do anything, but its gonna be hard. I just can't make this go away like that."Jake told her.

"It's at James' suite," Seth informed Ashlee. "We'll take Jake along, and Red too..."

His smile faded. "Ah shit. If we take your friend along, it might cause some tension with James....and I don't mean Jake faking it with her or whatever. I told James earlier that Jake didn't intend to be like, pitted against him."

***

Evelyn ran her hand through her hair. She exhaled and said slowly, "But i want to respect the fact that you don't want to go anywhere with this." She shifted a little, and squeezed his fingers in the hand she held. "I mean, we both know we're extremely messed-up people when it comes to opening up. Why encourage this...whatever it is?" Her stomach dropped unpredictably when she said it.

Ashlee pulled a face and looked up at Seth, "Um actually no don't bring Ev, James can be really hostile. You take Jake and I'll grab Ev and me and her can go out or hang at her dorm."

***

Jacob bit his lip and let out a slow breath, he traced small circles on her hand with his thumb, "I know, I know well consider it this. We don't have to call this anything. Just us screwing around I guess. You can do that when you're single you know. Don't worry about me or your feelings, consider this your step into kind of breaking that cold shell of yours." Jake said hoping that this didn't affect him too much.

Seth unlocked the door of his suite, nodding. "But we have a shitload of cake," he countered. "Don't you think James can just man up and ignore her?"

***

Evelyn's stomach knotted, but it wasn't in a good way. She waited a moment and then tugged her hand away, clasping both her hands together on her lap. She bit her lip hard but couldn't really think of anything to counter the logic in what he'd said. She hoped this "screwing around" was all it ever would be.

She straightened and climbed off his lap, hardly noticing the action; she'd been sitting there for so long, it felt natural. She scooted away from him, back against the wall by the door, knees pulled up to her chest. She placed her hands on her knees, thought for a moment, and then smiled briefly at Jake, who looked uncharacteristically somber. It really didn't suit him at all so she decided to lighten the tense atmosphere.

"Well, it was a hell of a large step."

Ashlee snorted, "Its obvious you don't know James very well, Evelyn doesn't even have to say anything to him to get under his skin, listen after last night I doubt he even wants to see her. Vice versa, listen Seth things will just get bad, I really don't think you should push that she join us."


Jacob smiled, "It always is Red, don't worry though you'll enjoy yourself soon enough, and I'll bounce back. Like you said there are plenty of guys and girls in this city. I'm glad I could be the first, I feel honored, since I don't have time to thank the entire academy, I'll thank the essentials, mom, dad, Nova, my boy Jesus... you know the basics." He grinned.

Seth heaved a sigh. "It just seems incredibly...weird, is all I'm saying. But I get what you mean."

He stepped through the door and held it open for her.

***

Evelyn cracked another smile. "Hey. you have really cute roommates," she realized. "Yes, life goes on." She stretched tiredly. "God, I'm starving, wet and my back is about to break sitting on hard surfaces for five hours." She paused. "On a more serious note, um....after we get out of here, which is looking like never, um...I mean, I'll see you when I give you Nova but other than that..." She trailed off, uncertain. While she enjoyed hanging with him, it would just kind of hurt and make things weird. And how the hell was she supposed to bounce back if she hung around him?

"Its gonna be weird for awhile but, listen. James just needs to get over her and him seeing her will just drive him nuts even though it shouldn't. So yeah like I said we can ask but she'll reject it." Ashlee said walking into their suite they stopped in front of the bathroom door and she looked up at him.

"Should we tell them we're here or surprise them?" She asked her accomplice.


"You'll be avoiding me like the plague? Nah I get it, its okay you used me. I'm used to it. Drove your ex crazy, you got to use me as your human punching bag, kidnap my dog, concussed me a couple of times, climbed through your window, got into fights, made fake sex tapes, hell we even got to make out a few times." He winked at her and continued with his big speech, We laughed, we cried, its one of the weirdest, relationship/non relationship I've ever had, and the only one that made me fear for my life on more than one occasion." He crawled over from his spot right next to where Evelyn was sitting and pulled her into a large bear hug.

"But its okay! Because now you can walk out of this bathroom, starved, probably with swine flu and hold your head up high and be like I used Jacob Salazar as a pawn to further my life and make me a better human being." Jacob snickered, and looked down at her, "You filthy whore." He joked.

Seth paused to text Connor quickly.

Get ur ass 2 James' - suite 714.

He glanced up at Ashlee as he said, "I'll move he chair real quick and you swing open the door....hopefully they're not sitting right in front of it because that would fucking hurt."

He stuck his phone back in his pocket, grinning. He braced a hand on the chair. "Ready?"

***

Evelyn was frozen in mild disbelief, and then she threw back her head and laughed. She reached up and wrapped her arms around Jake's neck, returning his hug. He had a major point. Had all that seriously happened?!

"That is just freaking unbelievable, that all that shit happened in three weeks," she said into his ear, grinning.

Gettin' shoes. Y though? o_o Connor sent back as he yanked on his Nikes again and his leather jacket, rubbing at his face to rid of the obviousness of him just napping as he stumbled over to the door.

"Sure as hell, I still have a hard time believing it did too. You're talking to the kid who jumped off cliffs remember? Speaking of which." Jake pulled her away, his hands on her shoulders so he could stare right at her, "If ever some time in the future, when you decide you want to seek the thrill of jumping off a cliff or do anything adrenaline related. I want you be able to look at me from a far, or tackle me. Which ever gets my attention better and be like, "Bitch! You're taking me cliff diving!" Or whatever it is you want to do. You got me?"


Ashlee nodded, putting her hands on the door knob, she really didn't know what to expect. Although she had a strong feeling that Evelyn and Jake would come out of there and attack her and Seth both, "Okay, okay, I'm ready... on the count of three okay? One... two.... three!"

Seth jerked the chair away so Ashlee could swing open the door.

***

Evelyn grinned at Jake. "I might just take you up on tha-"

The bathroom door swung open and banged off the wall behind it. Evelyn shrieked in fear for her head that had come dangerously close to being knocked off (again), and jerked away, practically leaping into Jake's arms.

"Shit, that was a little too hard," Seth's voice said. Evelyn's eyes widened and she loosened her grip around Jake's shoulders.

"You gotta be kidding," she said through gritted teeth.

Seth had let Ashlee go ahead and he texted Connor back. Im bored. We got cake. Y else?

***

Luke was flipping through his phone contacts when he looked up at James across the room. "Should I call Alexis up too? I mean, I haven't really talked to her since we called it a truce. Might be a good time to make things work out okay again."

He texted her: Hey, u free atm?

Jake's eyes went wide, and he almost wanted to shield his head as a defense mechanism when he heard the door slam into the wall, he looked up and saw Seth and Ashlee standing out there, he stood up and helped Evelyn up.

Ashlee stood in the door way and smiled nervously, "Heeyyy guys... how are ya?"

***

James shrugged, "Do whatever I don't care."

Oooh, true. B there soon! Connor smirked, sending it off before heading out of to the elevator.

*****

Alexis looked away from talking with Rose and grabbed up her phone, texting back. yeah, me & rose r just hanging.

Luke pulled a face at James' general lack of helpfulness. He replied: Come up to suite 714? James n I movd in. Havin cake party with stolen weding cake. Its awsum!

***

Seth glanced furtively into the room. He'd seen Evelyn jump, so there was really nothing that exciting going on after all. She'd only done that out of fear.

He grinned at Jake sheepishly. "So, uh....we have a cake waiting. You guys want some?"

Evelyn allowed Jake to tug her to her feet, still a little dazed. "What?" she asked, then noticed Seth looking curiously at her and Jake's linked hands and pulled free hastily, stepping out of the bathroom and shoving past Seth to where Ashlee stood with her bag. She slung her bag over her shoulder and then realized she was still wearing Jake's football sweater. She cursed mentally. No wonder Seth looked suspicious.

"Upstairs," Seth said to Jake, still frowning. "It's a wedding cake. Don't ask. It tastes real good though."

THAT'S what that asshole of a cousin was running with, wasn't it? sure, me and her will be up soon. Alexis smirked and looked over at Rose. "Cake party at James and Luke's. Wanna come with?"

"James? You mean James from c-"

"YES, THAT JAMES." Alexis said quickly, giving her a annoyed look which just made her grin in amusement.

"Sure, cake's always nice." Rosemary chirped, getting up before heading out with Alexis.

Luke blinked when he read Alexis' text. He laughed and looked up at James. "So apparently Connor was with Seth in his moment of petty larceny. Alexis and her friend, Rose, I think, are coming over. Seth will probably be back soon."

Jacobs' stomach almost on cue grumbled loudly at the sound of cake, he grinned, "Yeah that sounds so good, I'm just gonna change really quick before I die." He walked past Seth and into his room, closing his door a crack so he could change out of his damp clothes into some dry ones.

Ashlee bit her lip looking over Evelyn, she was wearing Jake's sweater but she didn't want to assume anything happened until Evelyn told her something but it was it did seem kind of obvious, she blinked a couple of times and asked Evelyn, "Do you want to go back to your place and change, maybe get cake? If you don't want you and I can go out and grab something?" She suggested so Evelyn didn't feel like she had to go to James' dorm.

***

"Rose really?" James asked, turning to face Luke, he smiled a bit he hadn't talked to her in awhile and he figured that would be a nice change of scenery as opposed to Evelyn, he didn't mind Connor, he seemed like a cool guy and Alexis whatever argument he had with her he already forgot about.

"Sounds cool to me dude." James smiled.

Luke cracked a grin just as someone knocked on the door. He got up to open it and let Connor in. "Hey, man. How've you been?" He gave Connor a half hug.

***

"I'd like cake," Evelyn said, shrugging as she and Ashlee headed back toward her suite. Seth's grin had widened before he closed the door. She shivered in a cool draft down the hallway. "By the way, you owe me dinner. You left me in there for five hours. What did you DO?"

***

Seth ran a brush through his hair an carefully made sure it looked good before hollering, "Salazar, get out here, we're going!" He headed for the front door and paused there.