Freshmen Dorms

He wasn't going to cut her a break, was he?

Evelyn lifted her head, biting her lower lip hard. She met his eyes as she said, "A week ago, I woke up freaking married and with the knowledge I apparently threw my virginity away. Excuse me if I'm not feeling up to a romance right now." She was aiming to be firm but she was exhausted from puking her intestines out all morning so her voice wavered.

"If you want to know how I feel about getting with you right now...right now, I - I'm just confused and disoriented and possibly food-poisoned a - an - and," She sucked in a sharp breath. Her eyes stung as she looked back down at her pillow. "I'm scared. What happened in Vegas...I don't want to be the type of girl that gets drunk and hooks up, and I - I'm afraid now that I did it once, I'm capable of doing it again."

She recalled Ashlee telling her she had been acting kind of sober but Evelyn didn't want to acknowledge that fact.

Was it worse or better that she might have been slightly sober that night? That Jake might have been somewhat sober that night?

She knew, even though her heart was protesting, that the only sort of romance she was capable of right now was playfully platonic. She knew Jake wasn't looking for being friends, but that had been why she'd offered him that. She poked at the edge of her pillowcase. "So I just...I'm not the kind of girl who gives it up, even if it's to some guy I'm with. I don't put out and I'm afraid I'll mess up again, so I'd be cautious, and a really shitty girlfriend right now," she admitted finally, not looking at him but at her plain, boring pillow.

Jake sighed looking down at her, "Listen Red, I wouldn't force you or anything like that to have sex if you didn't want to. And you can be cautious I won't murder you for it. Plus how do you know you'd make a shitty girlfriend if you don't even try."

"I know what happened freaked you out or whatever. I get it. But its not fair to have to go back and forth like this. And you can keep yourself from doing that, I know you're not one of those girls that gets trashed and hooks up with guys. You made a mistake, it could have happened to anyone." Jake told her, grabbing her hand that she was poking the pillow with.

She started slightly when he took her hand, and then looked up at him, biting her lower lip hard.

So she still had misgivings, and if she was honest, she'd forgiven Jake for the incident at the frat party - but she hadn't forgotten it. Not by a long shot.

She knew she was going to start worrying the second he was at some party without her where alcohol and skanks were readily available. She wouldn't be able to help it and she knew it'd start annoying him after a while, until she learned to trust him again.

Evelyn's eyes flicked from Jake's over to her dresser, where a family photo stood framed in blue. It was the last shot taken with both her parents in it, two months before her mother's death and a month before her parents split.

Ever since she'd learned her mother had not just mysteriously died, and the real reason behind her tumor had risen, Evelyn had hated cheaters with a fiery passion. Dishonesty, as her mother had proved, could kill you. Literally. Was that love?

Because it was a very sick kind of love if it drove you to so much worry, paranoia and fear over your loved one betraying you, that you freaking died of stress.

Evelyn pulled her gaze back to Jake, dragging herself out of the past and into her current situation. She hesitated a moment, held back by the old, cautious wall that had kept her from really letting James in.

She pulled her hand free of Jake's and sat up, no longer caring about her current state of dress. He'd seen her in less, after all. Evelyn stared at her hand a moment and then, something broke the dam that kept her safe. She didn't know what exactly it was. She couldn't name it, because it wasn't a thing. Not a memory, just that weird, crazy, unnamed thing that had existed in her ever since she'd first grabbed Jake's hand and threatened him to play her fake boyfriend.

She couldn't be cautious forever, this unnamed thing murmured to her. She had to let go sometime.

She leaned forwards, threw her arms around his neck and whispered, "Okay, yes, is that clear? And I'm sorry."

Jake wrapped his arms around her, "Its okay, I'm here for you. I promised." He pressed his lips lightly to her head.

"No, I meant, yes, as in, I don't want to play this back and forth game," Evelyn murmured into his shoulder. "Yes, I want it to work out with us, but you have to understand, even though I've forgiven you, doesn't mean I forgot. It'll affect things no matter how much I try not to let it."

Jake sat there for a moment, he wasn't sure whether or not to be happy or upset? Was she willing to try sure she said she was. He sat there for a moment not really sure what to do or say.

When he didn't answer, Evelyn pulled away, looking up at him, half-wondering if she'd started to scare him off already.

She wouldn't blame him, honestly. She came with a shitload of baggage. But then, so did he.

"You know," she said somewhat grumpily, "I was hoping for a slightly happier reaction when I said yes."

***

"What are you doing?"

Seth looked up at Ashton, and took the tape dispenser out of his mouth. "This is becoming our regular thing, ain't it?"

"Shut up," Ashton replied, examining the sign Seth had pasted over the front door of their suite. In large boldface type, it read:

IF THE MUSIC'S TOO LOUD--YOU'RE TOO OLD.

"Seth, the Don is gonna kick your ass," Ashton said, worriedly. The boys had already gotten a warning for being too loud. Apparently one of the suites downstairs had overly sensitive people in it who had nothing better to do than complain.

Seth shrugged and carried the tape dispenser inside. Ashton decided to keep his mouth shut and let Antonio and Jake find out for themselves.

"So Ashlee's brother added me on Facebook," Seth said, strutting to Antonio's room and grabbing a roll of plastic wrap from the kitchen along the way. He unwrapped the plastic wrap as he talked. "I'm guessing he's gonna pop in for a visit. Be a good boy and serve him some of our best alcohol."

Ashton glared at him.

Seth widened his eyes as he taped one end of the roll of plastic wrap to the top of one side of Antonio's closed doorway. He began taping plastic wrap slowly over the whole doorway, keeping it crinkle-free so it was pretty much invisible. "What? Gotta keep the ex-in-laws happy."

"I'm happy I am, I'm sorry. I was a little confused." Jake said, although he wasn't sure if he should have said that.

Evelyn blinked at him. She lifted an eyebrow, noting his somewhat unreadable expression, and then grabbed the pillow beside her and smacked Jake in the face with it.

Antonio got up,mostly because he was hungry. He rolled out of bed, scratching his side, and opened his door. As soon as he did he found himself walking into something sticking and clinging all over him. Antonio sputtered as he waved his arms around, and found clear tape sticking to his arms.

Only one person would find the time to do this, "SETH!"

***

Jake grunted when the pillow smacked him in the face, he furrowed his brows at her. Then grabbed the pillow and smacked her back with it.

She gave a startled yelp and batted the pillow away. She reached up and grabbed the pillow from him. "Oh, you're not tearing this thing to shreds." Evelyn maturely set it back down by her.

Then she stuck out a leg and kicked Jake sideways off her bed. "That's for your shitty luck giving me rotten McDonald's last night," she informed him, tugging the hem of her nightie down and leaning over the edge of the mattress.

***

Ashton and Seth were standing in the kitchen. Both were sniggering as they heard Antonio's yell. "YEAH, TIG?" Seth hollered.

Antonio was going to say something but he decided to be cool, so he stood tall and walked with tape clinging to his arms and hair into the kitchen, "Nothing, what's for breakfast?" He asked looking into the fridge.

***

"OW MY LIVER!" Jake hollered flailing like the duck he was and falling into the ground, he looked up at Evelyn and scoffed, "I don't know what you're saying. I ate there last night and I'm fine, maybe your body is too dainty to handle food." Jake snorted.

Evelyn glanced at her door. There was no way Alexis didn't know Jake was in here. Oh great. Talk about awkward conversation later.

She really hoped Alexis had her headphones on.

Evelyn narrowed her eyes down at Jake and then reached out a leg and jabbed her bare foot into his ribcage. "Just so you know, I've thrown up about six times this morning," she said indignantly. "I puked up twice just looking at the pancakes Alexis was making - and I love pancakes!" She poked him again. "It's either the McDonalds or a really late allergic reaction to you."

***

Ashton and Seth didn't answer because the effort not ot laugh was costing them everything they had. They simply clamped their hands over their mouths and coughed and choked a bit.

"Nothing," Ashton managed to gasp out between suppressed laughter. Antonio's face was shiny with plastic wrap.

Seth discretely took a photo from the side. "Cereal," he said cheerfully.

"Ew get your dirty dogs away from me! Take some Pepto then girl." Jake said swatting her foot away from him. If it had been McDonald's then he would have been throwing up too, but he seemed fine. Maybe it was just her food then.

"Plus I'm adorable, no one could be allergic to me." Jake grinned, widely.

***

"Cool beans." Antonio said nonchalantly grabbing a bowl and pouring himself some cereal. He went and grabbed a spoon, then sat down with his bowl and before taking a spoonful he removed some of the tape from his face and began eating.

Evelyn rolled her eyes at this announcement and got off the bed, striding over to her closet and rifling through it. She couldn't sit around in her damn nightie all day! "Just out of curiosity," she said, rifling through hung-up blouses, "what on earth motivated you to crash in here? The Facebook profile pic?"

***

Seth decided, at this point, to go to his room before he exploded with a fit of laughter.

Ashton calmed himself and then went and sat down by his brother. "Good one," he said quietly after Seth was gone.

"Something like that, oooh picking out something sexy for me?" Jake said getting up and sauntering to her closet. He picked out a sheer looking shirt, "Here wear this." He winked at her.

***

Antonio peered around a bit for Seth before he, flapped his arms taking the tape off and shoving it into the trash. He returned to eating his cereal grumbling under his breath, this was going to take awhile to get used to.

Evelyn looked at the mesh tank and then grinned a little over her shoulder at Jake. "Sure, let me go find the full-sleeved nun's dress that comes with," she retorted, grabbing a long-sleeved [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and some jeans.

Jake frowned, "But you will wear it someday... or later." He winked nudging her.

"The nun outfit?" Evelyn asked, taking the mesh tank from him and hanging it back. She closed her closet door. "If it's the shirt itself, sure. At someone's bachelorette party."

She waved a hand at him. "Stay here! Don't destroy anything, please!" She headed out of her room and to the bathroom, changing quickly.

Ashlee had arrived with her brother at Seth's dorm. Before she knocked on the door she looked up at her brother, "Before we go in there, I don't want you being all dad like alright? Seth is actually well... just you have to get used to him."

"Calm down sis, I'm not gonna kill him I just wanna talk to him that's all." Jesse reassured her sister.

Ashlee wasn't sure whether or not to believe him so she just knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer.

***

Jake nodded and stood there for a moment shifting his weight from one foot to the other, when then it hit him! He was in her room by himself with out her! A mischievous smile twitched his lips, and he saw Nova who was snoozing in his little dog bed. And decided to do some exploring.

He opened up her closet again going through her clothes, "Hmmmm lets see what sexy things she has." Although after a minute or so he got bored looking through her closet, but not before finding a random beret of her's, "Oh how French of her." He put it on his head, but not before finding some large pearly looking necklaces and draping those around his neck.

Jake walked on over to her desk where he saw her laptop sitting there, unprotected. He opened it up and the screen lit back up showing the log in screen. But to his surprise she didn't have a password so he hit enter and logged himself into her computer. He went and opened up the camera program and began snapping really ugly pictures of himself on her camera. He pulled all sorts of weird faces and such, and then made one of them her background.

Jake then flipped over to her iTunes and went searching through her songs, and landed on Britney Spears. "Home girl does not look like she'd like B Spears." Jake then turned the volume up as Oops I Did It Again blared from the speakers, he then spun around in her chair and rolled himself across the floor to her drawers.

He opened them up looking through them, when he landed on her underwear drawer, "Oooh!" Jake said looking through them, and found one of her lacy looking bra's and decided to put it on with his chic outfit, grabbing a hair brush from her dresser as the chorus came in he jumped out of his seat and began dancing.

"OOPS I DID IT AGAIN! I PLAYED WITH YOUR HEART! GOT LOST IN THE GAME!
Oooh baby baby! OOPS YOU THINK I'M IN LOVEEEE!
BUT I'M SENT FROM ABOVEEE!!
I'M NOT THAT INNOCENT!! "

Ashton got up from the table and walked the few steps tot eh front door, swinging it open. "Ashlee?!" he asked, and then his eyes landed on the black-haired guy beside her.

Uh oh.

"Hey, come in," he said, grinning a little, and pulling open the door. Just then, he remembered plastic-wrapped Antonio sitting at the table just feet away.

Oh well. Ashlee's brother could get a mini sample of his ex-brother-in-law.

***

Evelyn had peered in at Alexis before changing, and Alexis was immersed in her music. So Evelyn slid Alexis' bedroom door shut and then went to change.

Just as she was done, she heard a horrible, unearthly warbling next door.

Oh my God...The merpeople have invaded.

She threw open the door and darted down the hall to her dorom room. As she got closer, she began to make out Jake's words clearly.

Evelyn skidded to a stop before her dorm room door and sincerely wondered why she had said yes earlier.

She threw open her door and barged in - and skidded to a completely stop again.

Apparently, Shakira was now a man with terrible taste in clothes.

Evelyn slammed her door behind her and leaned against it - and burst out laughing so hard, her eyes shed tears and it hurt to breathe. She doubled over and gasped for breath and then straightened finally. "You - you, oh God, I can't - you look -" she spluttered, and then went into peals of laughter again.

Jake did a spin and saw Evelyn sitting on the floor there, and wiggled his eyebrows at her. "Ahh Mi amor Dance with me." He said picking her up and spinning her and then dipping her.

Oops! I! Did it again to your heart!
Got lost in this game ooh baby! " Jake yelled, shaking his butt, and doing the dance motions from the video he could remember.

***

"Hey Ashton, um Jesse this is Ashton, one of Seth's roommates. Ashton this is my brother Jesse." Ashlee introduced him as they walked into the living area.

"Hey dude." Jesse greeted Ashton walking in and he sort of stopped when he saw a tape clad Antonio eating cereal, "Um whose the tape guy?" He asked staring at the white haired twin eating his breakfast.

Ashlee saw Antonio eating, and stifled a few giggles, "Um this is Ashton's twin brother, Antonio."

Antonio looked up and nodded at Jesse, "Sup dude." He said mouthful of cereal.

Ashton decided not to explain that this was Ashlee's ex-husband's work, both the white hair and the plastic-wrap. "Come sit?" he asked, gesturing over to the couch. He idly wondered if Seth had heard and was now escaping onto the ledge.

***

Evelyn was doing a combination of laughing and choking on her laughter when Jake spun her airborne. She was extremely relieved when he set her down, though, and she staggered backward away from him, grabbing her phone off her nightstand. She turned - and her eyes landed on her open laptop.

"Oh you...you did not!" She darted across the room, clicked iTunes out of the way and stared at her background in horror. "Oh God, it's effeminate Eminem!" she exclaimed.

"Pfft gurl please! Eminem wish he look like me okay?" Jake z snapped, sitting down on Evelyn's lap and looking at that photo, that was probably the least ugliest of the ones he took. "Here let's take one together." He said opening up the camera, "One two three smile!" He said kissing her cheek as the camera snapped on the laptop again.

***

"Sure." Jesse said sitting down on the couch, and Ashlee took the single seat.

"Where's Seth at?" She asked Ashton since she knew her brother was probably waiting to meet him.

Ashton wondered if Ashlee had seen the notice outside their suite door. "Well, he was, um, decorating our door," he said, nodding his head at the front door. "I think he's probably finding ways to break into -" he looked at Jesse and decided, for Seth's sake, not to finish that sentence. "I'll go get him. Tony will entertain you."

He walked hastily out of the living room, saying, as he passed Antonio, "Take the plastic wrap off your ears, Tones."

Seth was reclining on his bed, surfing the web on his laptop instead of finishing homework, when Ashton knocked. Seth got up and let him in. "Your in-laws are here," Ashton said bluntly.

Seth quirked an eyebrow. He went back to his closet and pulled out a blue-brown overshirt since he was only in a black wifebeater and lightwash jeans. He tugged the overshirt on, buttoning it up carefully. "Gotta make an impression."

"They already saw the sign on the front door, Antonio's white hair and his plastic wrap. I don't think you need to make anymore impressions," Ashton remarked, leaning against the doorway and watching Seth preen himself in his mirror.

***

Evelyn spluttered angrily. "JAKE! You're squishing me!" she gasped, trying to breathe with the giant sitting on her. She shoved him hard off of her.