When it came to clothes, disorderly was the word used to describe Graham. However, he always seemed to know where everything was. He kept his wallet and keys in a dish on top of his dresser, which made them easy to find in the darkness.
Outside his dorm room, he slipped his shoes on and walked down the hall as quietly and quickly as he could. If his resident advisor saw him leave, he would ask questions. The dorms had curfews, and his RA was a stickler for the rules. With the recent spike in gang-related activity, San Jose State University wanted their students to be safe. Leaving at three in the morning to drive to Santa Clara University wouldn’t fall under the safety category.
The motion-sensor lights on campus forced Graham to stay in the shadows until he reached the parking lot. He had an excuse ready if campus security stopped him: he needed antacids. Graham was a pro at faking a stomachache.
Graham’s four-door silver Honda came to life on the second try. He slipped it into reverse and pulled out of the parking spot, purposely keeping his lights off until he faced away from the dorms. When he came to the intersection to leave campus, he turned his lights on and signaled to merge onto the road and drove the little over seven miles down the road to Rennie’s school. He parked near the student center, a place where he was unlikely to get a ticket, and walked through campus to her dorm. He hoped Rennie would be in the vestibule waiting for him. Otherwise, he had no chance of getting into her dorm.
As he grew closer, he saw her sitting on a bench. He sat down beside her and placed his arm behind her. She burrowed into him and clutched his T-shirt with her fist.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she told him. “I just needed to see you.”
Graham sighed. He suspected the guy she had been seeing dumped her, broke her heart because, according to her, he was the one. Graham hated every guy she dated. None of them were ever good enough, not when he was the one who wanted to be with her. Someday, Graham would take a chance on telling her, to put himself out there to her finally. He longed for a time when they would be more than friends with benefits, although he wasn’t willing to give that part of their relationship up anytime soon.
Graham adjusted the way he sat on the bench and held Rennie close to his chest. When it came down to why he was there, with her, it wouldn’t matter, because when she needed him, he ran to her.
Rennie shivered, and his grip tightened. “Do you want to tell me why you called at three a.m.?”
She picked her head up off his chest and angled herself to look at him. “Can’t a girl just call her best guy to come over when she needs him?”
“Aren’t you dating what’s his face?”
“You know his name is Thomas.”
“Right, Tommy,” Graham said with disdain.
“Thomas,” she corrected. Graham didn’t care. They weren’t friends and never would be.
“Whatev’, Ren.” He quieted and tried to pull her back to his chest.
“Anyway, we’re not really dating anymore. He moved to Venice to start some print shop or something. Told me to give him a call when I graduated, and we’d hook up.”
“What an idiot,” Graham mumbled. Rennie jabbed him in his side, and he flinched. “Sorry, can’t help it. You’re so much better than he is, and you’re better off without him. He brought you down to a level I didn’t like to see.” To Graham, Thomas was beneath Rennie. He didn’t have a car and used Rennie for a ride everywhere. No life ambition other than smoking weed and vegging out in front of the television. Graham had caught him mocking Rennie one time for her career choice, saying lawyers were nothing more than politicians trying to take away people’s rights. Rennie couldn’t see through Thomas’s bullshit, though, and that bothered Graham.
“Wanna go up to my room?”
He did. He would never turn her down. Graham nodded and held her hand all the way back to her room. When they entered, her desk light was on. “Where’s Kim?”
“With her boyfriend.”
Graham kicked his shoes off and crawled into Rennie’s twin bed. He was tired and needed sleep. Rennie snuggled into him and laid her head on his chest. “Do you like me?” she asked him.
He inhaled deeply and let his breath out slowly. “You have no idea how much, Rennie.”
“You’re the one guy that’ll never leave me, Graham.”
She spoke the truth.
Rennie lifted her head and kissed a path from Graham’s neck to his lips, and then Graham took over. He made love to Rennie that night and the following and continued to do so until he crossed paths with Monica Watson, the one woman to turn his eyes away from Rennie.