The Only Exception

CHAPTER 7

I don’t know how I made it the next hour without pouncing on Trey, but somehow I did. I was just happy I didn’t have to see Trey in class the next day because I didn’t know what I would have done when all I could think about was kissing him.

“Are you okay?” Melanie knocked me out of one of my many day dreams of the day.

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” I said and went back to grinding coffee beans. I didn’t realize I just stopped in the middle of what I was doing. I would have to kick my Trey habit or feed it more regularly if I wanted to get through my days. The problem was, I didn’t know which one I wanted.

“You don’t seem fine. You seem totally out of it. Which would either mean that you’re sick or thinking about a boy.” She held her hand to my forehead and then pulled it back. “No fever, so it definitely means it’s a boy.”

I shook my head, shaking the last of the coffee beans in the filter and then placing it in the coffee pot. “Am not.”

“Is it that guy that was in here the other day? The governor’s son?” I turned to see her eyebrows were raised high on her head.

“No…” I said in a voice barely above a whisper. It may have been the afternoon and the place was pretty empty, but I didn’t want anyone to walk in on our conversation. I went the whole day without running into Trey or anyone that knew us. But I also knew that it seemed like someone would show up just as I started talking about him.

“Oh my God! You’re totally lying! Your face is as red as a tomato!” She shoved my arm.

“It is not!”

Melanie shook her head and placed her hand on the counter. “I wouldn’t believe it unless I saw it with my own eyes. Monica Remy has a crush on Trey Chapman.”

“It’s not a crush. That’s what little girls use to describe their love of boys in math class.” I groaned.

“Okay, then, what would you call it?” She tilted her chin down.

“It’s not anything. He’s just my neighbor, and a guy I’m working on a project with.” I paused and looked down at the ground, whispering, “and he just happens to also be a really good kisser.”

Melanie squealed, shoving my arm. I looked up to see her eyes were wide, and she was covering her mouth. “Shut up, you did not!”

“It was just a kiss, Mel. It’s not like I’m going to marry the guy. He probably kisses a lot of girls.” I may have said it out loud, but inside I was hoping it wasn’t true. Not the marrying part, but I hope he wasn’t going around kissing a lot of girls. Of course, a guy who asked my permission to kiss me probably wasn’t the type to go around and make out with every girl he met.

I didn’t even hear someone come up to the counter until I heard Sam yell. “Who are you kissing now, Monica?”

I gasped and turned to see my dreadlocked roommate standing at the counter with a big smirk on her red painted lips.

“Trey Chapman!” Melanie squealed.

I turned and glared at her.

“Sorry,” she said. “I couldn’t help it, and she’s your roommate so she has to know.”

“Oh, I witnessed the major eye f*cking they were doing last night. I just didn’t know it got to kissing, gross,” Sam said the words with disgust as if she were spitting them out.

I walked over to the counter with Melanie next to me. “It was just a simple kiss. When you put two people together in close quarters, sometimes things are bound to happen.”

Sam rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say, but if this thing is going to continue with you and Trey, just give me some sort of a warning. I don’t want to walk in on that again.” She set her hands on the counter. “And if he’s going to be your whatever and you want to have him at the apartment, I guess we can work out an arrangement if you can make some room for my hobbies.”

“I’ll think about that one,” I muttered.

“Good.” She smirked. “Now can I get a large white chocolate mocha with two extra espresso shots?”

I squinted my eyes in confusion, typing the order in on the register. “Whoa, that’s some pretty heavy stuff. Do you have a big test or something?”

Sam shook her head, pulling out some crumpled dollar bills from a duct-taped wallet. “No, it’s my usual. I work nights three days a week at a bank call center. It sucks, but it helps pay for my half of our nice, little apartment.”

Well, that explained how someone that wore ripped up t-shirts and fishnets could afford such a nice place.

“That’s cool,” I said, taking her money and putting it in the register.

Sam leaned in. She smelled like nicotine and foundation, not a good combination. “Look, my offer still stands. If you want Trey over, make room for my hobby, and he can stink up the apartment with his Republican musk.”

I bit my bottom lip, mulling over what she said. “How about if you don’t do it every night, and you have to keep it in your room?”

What was I saying? Was I really just planning on having Trey over more often?

She slammed her hand down on the counter. “You’ve got a deal, roommate.”

And it felt like I just made a deal with the devil. But if there would be more nights with Trey, I didn’t know if it was such a bad deal. We did have to work on our project after all…

***

After closing up work for the night, I got back to my apartment. Sam was gone, so I had the place to myself. I walked into my bedroom, setting my messenger bag on the floor and looking down at the coffee grounds on my shirt. It was probably time for a hot bath and some laundry. Gathering the rest of my dirty clothes, I walked into the kitchen. Our washer and dryer were basically in a tiny closet off the kitchen, but it worked for getting my few days worth of clothes in clean condition.

Once the washer was started, I went back into my bathroom and turned on the hot water, drizzling in a few bath salts. Pulling my hair into a bun, I eased into the warm water, letting it soak over my body. It was just what I needed. But just as I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the tub, my phone buzzed. I would have ignored it, but it buzzed again.

I groaned, leaning up and wiping my hand on a towel before grabbing my phone from where I set it on the closed toilet seat. There was a message from an unknown number.



Do you have plans tonight? I was hoping I could take you to dinner.





I didn’t have to know who the text was from; the context was enough to tell me it was Trey. I decided to text back anyway. There was no reason not to have a little fun with him.



I’m sorry, but if this is a telemarketer, I usually don’t accept propositions through text. You will have to call between the hours of eight a.m. and five p.m.



He responded quicker than I thought he would.

Miss Remy, I didn’t know you were going for a career in comedy. This is Trey.





I know. I responded.





Now that you know, and you have my number, how about dinner? I can pick you up in an hour.



The guy didn’t give up. It was a quality that was both a good and a bad thing. I liked someone who knew what they wanted, but sometimes it could be too much.

I believe this number was given to you to discuss our project, not about personal relations.





But this is about our project, Miss Remy. I want to sit and discuss my objectives with you over dinner.



I groaned. He was very persistent.

Mr. Chapman, I am going to have to decline. I have other obligations that I need to attend to. I will see you in our morning class.





With that I set my phone back down and rested my head back against the tub. My phone didn’t buzz again. I was expecting him to respond and felt a tinge of disappointment in the pit of my stomach that he didn’t. If he would have showed up at my door with his charming smile and those dimples…well, he probably could have convinced me.

After a few more minutes in the tub I got out and wrapped my towel around me. The pajamas that I’d been wearing all week were in the wash, but I knew I had another pair buried in my closet. I walked through the room and into my walk-in closet.

“Where the hell are those pink shorts?” I asked myself.

I fumbled through the stacks of sweaters that were at the back of my closet, but the shorts weren’t there. As I reached up to the top shelf my hand hit something hard. I grabbed the object and pulled it down. It was a small, wooden box, about the size of a shoe box. On the front was a crest with the words ‘Kappa Beta’ carved into it.

I sat on the floor and ran my fingers over the letters. I didn’t even remember packing it, and I hadn’t looked at it since I left Taylor. Slowly, I opened the box. The first thing I saw was a silver chain with the letters ‘KB’ dangling at the end, but the thing that caught my attention was the picture underneath it.

Four girls sat on a blue couch, all in Kappa Beta t-shirts and smiling like their lives depended on it. I was one of the four girls. I ran my fingers over the girl in the picture. The happy girl. The girl that didn’t speak sarcasm. After I left Taylor my mom used to ask what happened to her happy girl. As I looked at the date on the corner of the picture I knew what happened to that girl; she died inside the night the picture was taken. The girls sitting next to her were supposed to be her sisters. Her friends. They were supposed to protect her. Instead they just watched and said nothing.

As I felt tears slide down my cheek and onto the picture, I knew that the once happy girl was the reason I couldn’t be with Trey Chapman. His father’s politics were half the reason I would never be the same again and being with Trey would only remind me of that night.

“Um, I’m here to get the morning after pill?”

The pudgy nurse looked up from her copy of People magazine and quickly shoved it under her desk like I didn’t totally catch her reading it.

“Okay, hold on one moment.”

She went behind a few shelves full of bottles, leaving me standing there with my own thoughts. My feet tapped nervously at the ground. I still hadn’t slept. I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to sleep again.

The nurse came back up to the counter with a tiny package in her hands and then she typed a few things into the register. “Okay, that will be $101.50.”

“What?” I tried not to scream and looked around to see that there was no one else near me. No one would have been up that early on a weekend to go to the pharmacy anyway. “I thought it was supposed to be free, and I could just fill out a form?”

She held a tight-lipped smirk on her face. “That was before the contraception bill went into effect.”

“The what? What am I supposed to do?” I blinked back the tears fighting to get out. I had cried too much the past few hours, and I didn’t even know if I had it in me to cry again.

“Well, we could try to see if your insurance will cover it, but I’ve had quite a few girls in here that haven’t been able to get it covered.”

I shook my head, closing my eyes and then opening them again. “So I’m just stuck?”

The nurse put her hand on mine, patting it gently. “We aren’t supposed to get involved in politics, but I’ve seen too many situations like yours since Governor Chapman passed this bill. I just wished there was something more. If this is an urgent situation, you can always go to the emergency room, and they should be able to work their magic.”

I shook my head, pulling my hand away. “No, no emergency room. I’ll be fine.”

I put the picture back in the box and slid it on the shelf where I found it. I wiped away the last of my tears and then slid on the first pair of pajamas I found. Whether I liked it or not, I still had to live next door to the guy and at least work with him on our project. I walked out of the closet, grabbed my laptop and turned it on. I figured I would need to at least get started on my paper, because the sooner I got done with setting up our objectives, the sooner I would be able to stop working with Trey.

But as I looked down at my phone, seeing the last of my text messages, I couldn’t deny the butterflies that still fluttered in my stomach just thinking of him. I clutched my phone to my chest. My heart was leaning one way, but my mind would never forget the past. If I hated someone’s politics, could I still fall for them?