Harper's Rules 1 & 2

Chapter 34: Harper

"Harper, we need to talk."

With a low groan, I cracked open my eyes and met the nondescript white ceiling, whose only details were a few areas of chipped paint. I rolled my head sideways and saw, Li's eyes stared right into me, then passed down my body but what she looked for, I wasn't sure.

"I know..." I mumbled, stretched myself awake, then climbed down my bed ladder. A loud sighed rushed out of me while I flopped down in my still horribly uncomfortable desk chair.

Almost a week had passed after Li had walked in on my personal happy hour and bolted out of our room like her ass was on fire. Since then, Li had avoided any and all discussion about my masturbating as well as prolonged eye contact with me, which included any time longer than two seconds. The silence between us over the few days that followed grew until it was beyond uncomfortable.

"Harper," she started with her voice flooded with hesitation.

Since I knew I'd made her probably the most uncomfortable she'd felt in her twenty-two years, I kicked aside my backpack on the floor near my desk, sighed quietly, and cut her off, "It's okay, I'll pack."

"Right, I - what?" Her dark brown eyes blinked at me a few times. "Are you... moving out?"

"I assume you want me to." I reached for my phone to call Dad since at this stage, a hotel room was my only short-term option. "Sorry I made you uncomfortable."

No fucking way am I living in Jake's room.

"Wait, no, I don't want you to leave!" Li's eyes blinked rapidly and welled up with confusion as one her hands literally scratched the top of her head. "Unless you... you want to?"

"No, I don't." Now we both were confused and tension pressed into my forehead when my eyebrows drew together. "I just thought... what you saw... made you uncomfortable."

What I hadn't said was that I was sorry for what she'd caught me doing. Masturbation was normal, healthy, and unnecessarily way too taboo of a subject that it didn't deserve an apology. I still felt slightly bad at how I'd freaked out Li, especially to the point where she wanted a different roommate. But I'd played with myself within the confines of privacy, or at least what I'd thought was privacy, and no part of me felt ashamed for scratching my annoyingly persistent itch.

"You've been cursed with a very horny roommate Li." My nose cringed slightly at my admission, particularly the conversation I'd had last night with Jake.

Thankfully, Li was asleep when I got home, or at least she pretended she was. While part of me secretly died to know how her not-date with Kieran went, I was relieved because the entire drive back from USC wasn't long enough for my brain to form a coherent explanation of what Jake and I had agreed to.

Not sure I still understand it myself.

What I did know was that the edge of tension I'd felt towards the end of last week had been dulled after one finger-fuck session with the cocky asshole. And, contingent on his dick swab q-tip results being negative, for now he was safer than random hookups with strangers.

The baggage though... Not going to lie, I'm internally shitting myself about that part.

"But I promise not to be one of those roommates who brings random guys here, that's not in my rule book."

Forgot to mention rule number three, article a, subparagraph one to Jake, i.e., no sex at my place.

"No." Li's small hands waved frantically at me, then she rubbed one of them over her eyes. "I'm a BioPhys major, I know how bodily functions work. Wait, scratch that. I'm not explaining very well, here this might help."