It was bound to happen eventually. I had been lucky up to that point. In a lot of ways. But eventually in the second to last week of the season I broke my foot. I had never really been injured before and it was a bad break. The conference championship was coming up and we were decent shots to win it and make the playoffs. The worst part was it wasn't even during a game, it was in practice. Just bad contact at a bad angle. I was devastated. I spent most of my time over the next two weeks brooding and avoiding social interaction. I studied hard and played a shit ton of video games. I couldn't give up my urge to compete.
Cat sent me some nice texts when she first heard about it, but I hadn't seen her in a while. She was too busy being a socialite as far as I knew. Lacey had sent me some...interesting encouragement in the form of her naked body in a jpeg. But I didn't respond because I wasn't sure I needed to be involved with someone like her. Whatever was happening in that family could stay well away from me. Terry had sent me nothing. Which only made me think about her more. When I would wake up in the morning I would have to rub one out to get the thought of her out of my mind. When I would go to bed at night I had to repeat.
Thanksgiving break was coming up and I would still be on crutches with the boot at that point. I was expecting to stay on campus and play or practice with the team so I had no flight booked and at this point it was too late to book one without breaking the bank.
I resigned myself to laying in bed all week and watching movies, playing games, and being a general all around fucking loser.
Until Tuesday night right before the break at about one a.m. when I was in the middle of a game my phone lit up. It was a message from a number I'd never seen before.
I heard you were going to be spending the break alone.
Then a pause before the next message came through.
It's Rachel.
My mind flashed back to the slender asian girl I had met at the halloween party a few weeks ago. She was small and her body was tight. She was a fencer on campus and if my horny little mind remembered right, just about every inch of her concealable body was covered in tattoos.
I thought about not texting her back, but what the hell. Misery loves company.
Yeah. I'll be here wallowing. Foot is pretty fucked.
I can bring you dinner tomorrow?
That was nice of her. It would be better than having to eat at the cafeteria.
Sure. You pick it up. I'll buy it. Do you have a favorite movie?
For some reason this was starting to feel like a date. Why didn't I word my shit better?
I liked the one Lacey showed me. I think you were in it.
I froze. Fuck. That bitch had shown her the video of my questionable intercourse with Amanda. Christ. I felt so embarrassed. She texted me back again.
Sorry. Might have been too much. But now we both know a little bit about each other, right?
Lacey had done Rachel no favors that night either. She had revealed Rachel's little tattoo secret and forced her to confess her love for all things bondage. I thought about it for a moment and decided that at this point we were brothers in arms.
Don't sweat it. I'll have to plead the fifth on that one though.
We texted a bit more about the food details and what we wanted to watch and we settled on Eyes Wide Shut at her request. I didn't know anything about it except Tom Cruise was in it back when he wasn't unbearable so I figured it was probably a decent flick.
I spent the next day eagerly anticipating her arrival. I cleaned my apartment, all my roommates had left for the break, but they didn't take their mess with them. I even got some candles out. I don't know what exactly I was anticipating about her coming over. I think in the back of my mind I was sort of hoping I'd get laid, but I also just wanted someone to rant and vent to.
At 8 she texted me to let me know she was outside. I went down to let her in. It was colder than I thought it would be. North California can hit you real quick with that shit. She stepped out of her car to hurry to the door. She was wearing a tan overcoat, I would later find out it was Burberry (she's from a family of money in Malaysia, we get those a lot over here just not this far north usually) a black dress with some black hose underneath, some suede boots with heels and carried with her a black Longchamp bag. She looked like she was going to dinner at some 5 star restaurant and not about to eat some take-out lasagna and cheap wine from the mom-and-pop's up the highway.