Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Ren

The devil isn't here. Perhaps, he's busy hooking up with girls downstairs. I do some advance reading while I wait for Adam to come by as he said he would.

I hear a knock on my door and Megan comes in, "Hey Ren."

"Hey, where'd you disappear to?" I put a bookmark on my book before shutting it. I turn to look at Megan as she sits on my bed.

"Parents dropped by to see me," she shrugs. "Nothing special."

"Nothing special?" I raise an eyebrow at her.

She sighs, "They said they were visiting me but I knew they just wanted to see me in a bad state."

"Bad state?"

"Ren, they saw how my room looked like a hurricane came by, they found out about my drunk fiasco last night, and to top of my bad state, a guy I don't know thanked me for the hook up at the party," she exclaims.

Megan stays quiet and she lays down on my bed. "You should have seen their faces," she says. "Any parent would be disappointed but mine? They didn't even look surprised."

I get up from my seat and lay down beside her. We stare at the ceiling until I break the ice. "We should do something to get your mind off of your parents," I tell her.

She turns her head to look at me, "Got anything in mind?"

"When you left, Adam came to check on me and he's taking me somewhere later," I tell her. "You can join us if you like."

She smiles and shakes her head, "I think I'll pass and let you two have your fun," she wiggles her eyebrows and I punch her playfully.

"Anyway, there's another party tonight if you're in," she adds.

I scoff, "No offense but I don't feel like watching over your drunk ass. SO, I think I'll pass."

She waves me off. "Don't worry about me, my cousin's coming and she'll be there to watch me," she states.

"How about you don't get drunk so no one has to watch over you?" I suggest.

She thinks about for a moment then shakes her head, "Nah, where's the fun in that?"

"Which cousin are talking about anyway?"

"Bianca Hines," she says. "So can you please come?"

I sigh, "Fine."

She attacks me in a hug, "Yes!"

"But I am not wearing those tight dresses of yours and we have to be home before one in the morning," I point my finger at her.

She nods furiously, "Yes, yes."

As if on cue, my phone buzzes.

Running late and might take a few hours. I'll call when it's time for an adventure. –A

How did he get my number? I decide not to even try to ask and save his number. Megan and I leave the campus and head for the mall to go get ourselves some outfits for the party as if Megan hasn't have enough clothes.

"Too cute?" Megan asks, holding out a short purple dress with ruffles.

I shake my head, "More like too much ruffles."

She laughs, "True."

I search through the rack of dresses and find a light blue strapless dress. I hand it Megan and she quickly tries it on. She walks out of the fitting room and she looks beautiful in it. The dress is tight around her torso, thus, hugging her curves and it flows down right above her knee.

"I'm so getting this one," Megan smiles.

I manage to convince Megan that I didn't need any more clothes and that I already have an outfit plan. We drive back to the UNI and Megan accompanies me to my dorm.

"Where are you going?" I ask as she enter the bathroom. For some reason, she has been going in there a couple of times today.

"Need to check something," she says before disappearing inside. She comes back out and grins. "I'll see you later tonight, okay?"

"Wait. Not so fast," I stop her. "What'd you do in there?"

She grins mischievously, "You'll see later on."

"Megan..."

"Ren."

"What'd you do?" I ask again.

She shakes her head and opens the door, "I'll see you later." She leaves before I can say anything else and I sigh. I get back to reading my book when Austin and Travis come in.

I put my earphones on and play my music loud to distract me from them. Austin disappears inside the bathroom and Travis plops down on my bed in front of me.

He pokes my leg and I shake him off, ignoring him. He pokes me again and I remove my earphones and glare at him. "What do you want?"

"Ren, right?"

"Douchepants, right?" I ask and he frowns.

"Okay, I kind of deserve that-"

"Kind of?" I exclaim. "You offered to chop all my hair off."

"But it didn't go through, did it?" He points out and I narrow my eyes at him.

"You didn't answer my question," I say. "What do you want?"

He offers his hand and I look at it then at him. "I want truce," he says.

I cross my arms over my chest, "And what makes you think I'd want that?"

He leans back using his arms as support. He smiles smugly at me, "Because you need me."

I raise my eyebrow at him, "Need you?"

"Yep."

"And why is that?"

"You see if we were friends, I can detour all of Austin's hook ups from your room and you can study or do whatever it is you do here in peace," he says.

My jaw drops, "You can really do that?"

Imagine me studying in peace with no Austin or skank to ruin it. God that will be the best day of my life. But of course, an offer as good as this must come with a cost.

I sigh in disappointment. Of course there's a catch. "What's the catch?" I ask.

"Introduce me to that best friend of yours," he says. "Megan?"

A smile slowly forms in my face, "Really? You like her?"

His expression falters and he ends with a straight face. "Is it a deal or not?"

I shrug and shake his hand, "Deal."

Suddenly, Austin bursts out of the bathroom with green hair. "WHAT THE HELL?!" he yells.

"Whoa, your hair's green," Travis looks at him in shock.

"Someone placed dye in my shampoo!" he exclaims then he turns to me. He points a finger at me, "Did you do this?"

I shake my head and cover my mouth to stop me from laughing. He looks so stupid with green hair. Austin looks at himself once more in the bathroom mirror and groans in frustration.

He grabs some of his clothes and gets change in the bathroom. He comes out and grabs his phone, wallet, and keys. "Travis, let's go," he says before heading out the door.

"To where?" he asks standing up.

"To the damn salon," he growls and slams the door behind him.

A few seconds after they left, I call Megan. She picks up after the second ring. "You did that, didn't you?" I ask, referring to Austin's green hair.

She starts laughing hysterically, "Please tell me you took a picture."

"Of course not," I say sternly. I try to stay serious but the picture of Austin and his green hair cracks me up. "I can't believe you did that," I tell her.

"Payback for the stink bomb," Megan tells me.

I smile, "Thanks."

"Always got your back," she says.

I hang up and Adams texts me that he's on his way to my dorm. I take this time to change into shorts and a black tank top. As on cue, Adam knocks on the door and peeks his head inside with his eyes close.

"Clothes on?" he asks.

"Clothes on."

He enters the room and opens his eyes. He enters the bathroom and gets Austin's shampoo and tosses it in the trash. "You really pissed him off, you know?" he says.

"I didn't do it," I say. "Swear."

"Ready for an adventure?" he asks, grinning like a kid on Christmas day.

I grin back, "Let's go!"

-

"Nope," I refuse. "I'm heading back inside."

"Come on Ren. Live a little," he says.

"AND THIS IS YOUR DEFINITION OF LIVING?" I exclaim. "I'm going to die, Adam."

He rolls his eyes at me, "Stop overreacting."

"I'm not doing this."

"Just jump and the rope will do its thing," he says.

I turn to him, "And you've done this before?"

He shrugs, "I learned about it this morning."

My eyes widen, "You learned about it this morning? Are you kidding me?"

He grabs my shoulders and squeezes them. "If this wasn't safe I wouldn't have asked you to do this with me," he points out.

You are probably wondering what he planned for us and what the big adventure is and apparently, it's to jump off the roof of a twenty floor building.

"You're crazy," I mutter to him as I tighten my grip on the rope.

"On three, okay?" he says.

"Okay..."

"One-"

"Wait!"

"What?" he turns to me.

"We jump on three or after three?"

He rolls his eyes and goes back to holding his rope, "On three."

"One..." I hold the rope so tight my knuckles turn white.

"Two..." I close my eyes.

"Three!" we both jump and I let out a scream.

The wind blows through my hair and I feel like flying. I feel like the wind. I open my eyes and see everything coming so fast. The ground comes to view and I'm not slowing down. I grip my rope tighter. If this is end, I die flying.

The falling stop and I open my eyes and see I'm a foot above the ground. I unhook myself from the rope as Adam does the same. "And?" he asks.

I smile and attack him with a hug, "Thank you."

He laughs and hugs me too, "You're welcome."

I pull away and we remove our harnesses and set it aside. "Now you ready for a party?" he winks at me and offers his arm.

I take his arm and grin up at him, "Guess we're going to a party."

Adam leaves the rope and grabs the harness, shoving it inside a duffel bag. We walk to his car and he pops the trunk open and tosses the bag inside. I take the passenger seat as he take the driver's seat. He drives us out of campus and I look at him dumbfounded.

"Where are we going?" I ask.

"The party is ten minutes out of campus," he says.

"What? Why?"

"Because that's where Austin lives," he says in a 'duh' tone.

My eyes widen, "Austin's house? You're taking me to Austin's party? Adam, he thinks I dyed his hair green. The dude hates me."

He chuckles, "Don't worry. He won't bite."

I scoff, "I doubt that."

"Austin's a great guy, really," he states. "You just got to give him some time."

We arrive at the party and it's already at full swing. I look up at the house – no, mansion – and my jaw drops at how huge his house is. This guy's loaded. I her someone laugh beside me and I look to see Adam, "I had the exact same reaction when I first saw his place."

We walk together through the front door and I feel the ground shaking from the bass of the music. I feel a hand on my arm and Adam leads me through the crowd, not letting go of me. He leads me to the table full of drinks. He opens up a cooler and pulls out a soda before tossing it to me. I smile, thanking him.

"Ren!"

I turn around and Megan pulls me into a bear hug. She pulls away and puts both of her on my shoulders. "Where were you? I've been looking everywhere!" she exclaims.

I glance at Adam and her gaze shifts to him. He waves at her sheepishly and she looks back at me, wiggling her eyebrows. "It's not like that," I immediately tell her before she starts assuming things. "And why didn't you just call me?"

She raises her eyebrows at me. "I did!"

I furrow my brows and grab my phone from my pocket, pressing the lock button and find seven missed calls from Megan. I look back at her and smile bashfully and she merely frowns back.

I hear a squeal coming from behind Megan and see Bianca running towards me. I smile widely and open my arms as she runs into them. We spin each other and laugh hysterically.

"Bianca, I missed you!"

"I missed you too, Ren!"

We pull away from each other's arms and Adam coughs awkwardly. He taps my shoulder and I turn to him. "I'll leave you with your friends while I find mine, okay?"

I nod and pull him into a hug. I've been hugging a lot today. Weird. "Thank you for today," I say before pulling away.

He smiles down at me, "Anytime."

He leaves me with Bianca and Megan and we all head for the dance floor. The raise their red cups in the air as they sway their hips and I raise my soda can while I dance.

I hit my back against something hard and before I turn around I hear his familiar voice. "Well, well, well. Look what we have here." I bite the inside of my cheeks before turning around to meet Austin. "Funny seeing you in my party, Harper."

I bring my hands up. "Listen, I don't want any trouble-"

"Me neither."

"I didn't have anything to do with the dye and I-what?" I furrow brows in confusion.

He crosses his arms, making his biceps appear bigger than they usually do. He looks down at me and shrugs. "You just got here, so why don't you just enjoy the party," he slightly smirks and he tries to hide it but I see it.

I narrow my eyes at him and open my mouth but he turns on his heels and leaves before I could say anything else. I crane my neck and look around for Megan and Bianca. I go outside and check again, but no luck. I go back inside and walk around and finally find them cheering for a guy doing a handstand on a keg.

I need to keep my mind out of things. Out of Austin. Meeting him here and being in his party in his house makes me feel queasy. I shake my head and join the crowd and cheer the guy on the keg stand on.

I see people passing around brownies and my stomach grumbles. I should have ate something before coming over. I lean closer to the guy munching on one. "Hey, can I have some of that?" I ask and she smirks at me.

"You? You want some brownies?" she raises an eyebrow at me. Her expression shows how surprise she is at my question. I narrow my eyes at her and reluctantly nod.

"Well, why not? It's just brownies, right?"

She shrugs and hands me one, "Sure."

I ate it all at once and her eyes widen. I watch her stare at me horrifyingly until I feel my heart beating fast. And I mean really really fast.