Chapter 3

Nick covered his ears with a pillow to block out the giggling coming from the next room. He had discovered the real reason Michelle had moved to Ruskin. It wasn’t to inspire her for her artwork. Her boyfriend, Brad, was living in Tampa, and she couldn’t be in Atlanta, far away from him. She’d been living with him for only three nights, and Brad had been there through two of them. Now it was eight in the morning, and they were fooling around already. “They start early, don’t they?” They had succeeded in waking him up, as they had the day before.

After over a half an hour of giggling and moaning, he heard Michelle’s door open and heavy footsteps going down the stairs, followed by softer footsteps and muffled voices saying goodbye. Nick let out a sigh of relief. Finally, Brad was leaving. He couldn’t get back to sleep, but at least he didn’t have to hear anything. The front door opened and closed, and Michelle came back upstairs.

Nick rolled out of bed and stepped out of his room in his boxers as she was leaving her room. “Whoa, put some clothes on, buddy,” Michelle said. “I don’t need to see you half naked.”

“You’re walking around here in a sports bra and a pair of chick boxers,” he reminded her.

“I’m a girl. I’m allowed to do that. Besides, it’s not like you’ve never seen a girl naked before, I’m sure.” She began to go down the stairs.

“Well, I know for a fact you’ve seen a guy naked before.”

She whirled around, an angry expression on her face. “And how would you know that?”

“It’s kinda hard to miss when you’re in the room next to mine,” he stated. He went back into his room and threw on a wife-beater. Hopefully she wouldn’t have a problem with that, and if she did, oh, well. He was letting her live here as a favor, and he wasn’t about to change his lifestyle because of it. When he went downstairs, she was already eating breakfast.

After ten minutes of uncomfortable silence, she finally opened her mouth. “You’re a pervert, you know that?” she muttered between mouthfuls of Lucky Charms.

He narrowed his eyes. “Why am I a pervert?”

She laughed. “Why? You’re listening to me and my boyfriend fool around!”

“I wasn’t listening. I heard it, and I wouldn’t have heard if you weren’t so damned loud.”

“Whatever. I’m moving out of here as soon as I possibly can, so soon you won’t have to deal with it.” She paused. “And for your information, I happen to be a virgin.”

“What?”

“Just because we were making noise doesn’t mean we were necessarily having sex, you know. We were making out.”

“Fine, I apologize for my mistake,” he said mockingly.

“I don’t understand why you hate me.”

“Only because you’ve gotta be the biggest bitch I’ve ever met. I hope you find a new apartment really quick.” He got another bagel out of the refrigerator, cut it in half, and put it in the toaster.

“I hope I do, too,” she muttered. “I’m going to search for one, now, so I’ll unfortunately see you later.”

He felt like screaming in frustration as she left the house. There was no way she was going to find somewhere else that would live up to her standards. How was he going to make it through another week and a half until he could kick her out?

Chapter 4
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