“Jesus, Evel—” he groans, but the soft creak of the door opening followed by a sharp gasp muffles whatever he’s saying. It takes me a moment to process that we’ve been caught, and then, I stumble away from him. Covering my mouth with my hand, I start to turn my back to the intruders in embarrassment but not before I meet Mac’s wide brown eyes and that of the tall, skinny guy standing beside her.
“Ahh shit,” she mutters. Then, shoving the guy out the practice room, she slams the door behind them.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Hey, can you give us a few?” Mac questions Nathan two nights later after she tracks us down at the D-hall. He looks from her to his half-eaten tray and then back again. Releasing a sigh, Mac sits down across from me and supports her chin in her hand.
“If you’d like to hear about how heavy my flow is this week, you’re more than welcome to stay, Nathan.” Glancing at me, she adds, “I’m really thinking about upping my birth control and—”
“And I’m leaving.” Nathan rolls his blue eyes as he grabs his tray. “Don’t forget about meeting me in the library tomorrow morning,” he reminds me, referring to our current Sight Singing and Dictation assignment—finding a song that’s in a unique time signature. He makes a face at Mac. “Thank you for officially fucking up my meal, Mackenzie. I can always depend on you to make things awkward.”
She shrugs. “Anytime. Always more than happy to enlighten you with entries from my Kotex Diaries.” Wiggling her fingers at him, she watches as he disappears from earshot, and then she twists around in her seat to narrow her brown eyes at me. “You, my friend, have been avoiding me all day.”
Of course I’ve been avoiding her. She’d walked in on me with my face jammed between Rhys’ legs. I’m not ashamed of what we were doing, but the fact we’d been caught literally with his pants down—well, that’s an entirely different story.
“If I told you that it wasn’t what you thought it was, would you believe me?”
“Umm, no.” She leans in to me, dropping her voice to a gentle whisper. “I’m not a virgin, Evie. It’s not like you were doing something I haven’t done or seen—yes, that is me admitting that I watch porn.” When my lips twitch into a smile, she sighs. “Look, there’s no need for you whatsoever to think I’m judging you or thinking badly of you. I’m not. If anything, I should be saying sorry to you. My dumbass didn’t even pay attention to the Occupied sign on the door.”
“We should have been more careful,” I say softly. I was stupid to go after him in the music department practice room of all places. What if one of my professors had walked in on us instead?
Twisting her pink lips to the side, she lifts her shoulders. “Things happen. I mean, unless you’re holed up in a room somewhere with all the doors locked, there’s always the chance of someone walking in on you.” When my worried expression doesn’t change, she continues, “During my freshman year, I had a roommate who’d always pick the exact moment Eli and I were in bed to come home. It never failed.”
I snort. “So, what did you do about it?”
“Let’s just say poor Eli suffered quite a bit that year.”
Poor guy, indeed. I can’t help but feel sorry for him. “Still, I’m sorry you had to walk in on that.”
She brushes off my apology and plucks a fry off my tray. “What I’m more interested in knowing is how long you and Rhys have been dating.” Chewing the fry slowly, she rubs her chin thoughtfully. “Were you two together when we went to the Red Denial show? I definitely noticed you two doing that undressing thing with your eyes, but I didn’t think that—”
“No,” I cut her off quickly. “Rhys and I—it’s something recent.”
“Nice.”
Of course she’d say that. “You’re not going to say anything about what you saw, are you?”
She scrunches her features into an offended look. “Why would I? You’re both consenting adults. It’s none of my business what you’re doing behind closed doors.” She steals a few more of my fries. “Your sexy love affair is safe with me.”
After she finishes polishing off the rest of my fries, she walks with me on my way out of the D-hall. The sun has already started to go down, and it’s chilly out. I stare longingly at Mac’s thick hoodie, wishing I’d left my dorm wearing something more than a thin t-shirt and jeans.
“Alright,” she says, “I have to go home and start writing this Behemoth of a paper I’ve got due tomorrow. If you see me tomorrow and I seem all cracked out, rest assured that it’s all the 5-Hour Energy I’m about to consume.”
“Good luck, and please, please don’t start texting me when you can’t sleep tonight.”
“Thanks, I’ll need it. I promise you’ll be the first person I text when I’m all jacked up on energy drinks.” Flashing me a parting grin, she turns in the opposite direction to leave, but then something hits me—I haven’t even considered the guy who walked in on us yesterday. I call out her name, and she turns slowly. “Yes?”
“That guy you were with yesterday?”
She sucks in her cheeks. “Adam. We’re planning on giving “Make Our Garden Grow” a whack for Cameron. So far it’s not sounding so good.”
Because the song is from Candide, which is my favorite operetta, it takes a lot of effort for me to not ask her a million questions about how the piece is coming along. I know she’s in a hurry to leave. Plus, there’s the big question burning on my mind.
“He’s not going to say anything either, is he?”
Giving her blond head a quick jerk to each side, she scrunches her nose. “I don’t think he can manage more than a few words when he’s not singing, but I’ll give him a call and make sure he knows how badly I’ll crush his balls if he opens his mouth.” Waving goodbye to me, she turns on the heels of her boots. “I’ll text you after I get in touch with him.”
Of course, when Mac actually does follow through on her promise of sending me a late night text, she tells me that she hasn’t been able to get in touch with Adam. I spend the rest of the night tossing and turning, unable to sleep because I’m suddenly worried that he’s going to out my practice room romp to anyone who’ll listen. Even though Rhys assures me that Adam is a good guy—Professor Cameron is his advisor, too—it still doesn’t stop the gnawing fear deep in the pit of my stomach.
And after classes are over and I’ve practiced with Rhys only to go back to my room to find an email from Professor Cameron, I start to freak out.
From: CameronH@founders.edu
To: evelyn.miller13@founders.edu
Date: Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 9:55AM
Subject: Meeting
Evelyn,
I hope this message finds you well. I would very much like to meet with you to discuss a few concerns. Will this afternoon at five PM be possible? Please let me know soonest.
Best Wishes,
H. Cameron
When I release a curse, Corinne glances up hesitantly from her homework. “Are you al—” She scrunches the tip of her nose. “Wow, you look like you’re about to puke.”
“I’m not,” I snap. Taking a deep breath to calm my racing thoughts, I shoot Corinne an apologetic look before checking the time on my phone. Damn. I only have eight minutes to make it across campus to the music department. “Meeting with my advisor. Be back soon.”
“I’m going to dinner with Ella, so I might not be here when you get back,” she calls after me as I sprint out the door. I run like a woman possessed to get to Cameron’s office on time, but she doesn’t even mention that I’m a couple minutes late as she closes the door behind us.
With a deep frown creasing her face, my advisor sits down across from me in her yellow and brown chair. She taps a pen against her lips for a few moments, which only makes my palms sweat even more. I keep my gaze off hers, focusing instead on the top of her graying pixie cut.