I always tried my best not to wake her.
“I know you didn’t mean anything by it,” Charlie said to a small brunette, who I noticed had her arms crossed. “But he came into my room, uninvited, and we have a strict policy at Magnolia house.”
The brunette frowned. “Oh, and what’s that?”
“No boys allowed. Ever.”
“You realize how absurd that sounds, right? You expect me to believe that with three female roommates, you’ve never had a member of the opposite sex up here? Yeah, okay,” she said sarcastically, and I watched Charlie’s eyes widen. Uh oh. So not the right thing to say. “I call bullshit.”
“Honestly, I don’t care what you think,” Charlie said. “Who are you again? You haven’t even lived here five seconds, and you’re already breaking our only rule.”
“The name’s Emilia,” the mystery girl said, “like I told you a minute ago. And it’s my house now, too, so I should get a say in the rules.”
“One,” Charlie repeated, holding up a finger. “We had one rule, and you already broke it. You’re a freshman, right? I’m sure we can find a change of living situation. There’s usually plenty of room in the dorms.”
“No. No way,” the girl said. “I signed a contract, Charlene, so you’re stuck with me.”
“Like I told you, my name is Charlie,” my best friend said. “And nothing’s written in stone. But don’t worry. Some of the dorms are co-ed. You’d probably like it better there anyway.”
“Been there already. The girl I was supposed to room with liked to cut up and burn my clothes for fun, called them ‘too promiscuous’. Ironically, I later caught her and her boyfriend having sex—on my bed. I’m never going back there.”
Charlie and the newcomer looked like they were both about ready to blow, so I stepped in, hoping to keep the peace. Or create some peace because this was roommate war, right here.
“Hey guys,” I said, walking up to them, settling on a spot between the two so that it didn’t look like I was taking sides. “What’s all the fuss about?”
“I’m trying to tell the freshie here about our rule,” Charlie said, gesturing to the other girl, “but she’s not getting the message. Maybe she’s deaf in one ear or something. I don’t know.”
“I can hear you fine,” the girl muttered, and I turned to her.
“Hi, I’m Honor,” I said, holding out a hand. “You must be our new roommate. You’ll have to excuse Charlie, seems like she hasn’t had her morning coffee yet. It makes her irritable.”
The girl glanced at my hand then took it in a firm grip. “I’m Emilia. My friends call me Emmy. I was told it was okay to move in today, but apparently it’s some big inconvenience.”
Charlie grunted in agreement, but I shot her a glare.
“It’s fine,” I said. “Our other roommate told us you were coming. I don’t understand what the problem is.”
“The problem,” Charlie said, “is that she brought guys here. And I came out of the bathroom to find one of them twirling a pair of my underwear around his finger, saying ‘Look, what I found on the floor’.”
My eyebrows lifted as Emmy blushed. “Is that true?”
“Yeah,” she said quickly, “but I didn’t even invite him. He just showed up and was checking out my new living arrangements.”
Charlie’s eyes narrowed. “He was holding up my favorite pair of panties.”
“The pink lace ones with the cute little bow?” I asked.
Charlie nodded in the affirmative.
I sucked on my teeth as Emmy buried her head in her hands. “This doesn’t look good,” I said to her. “That’s pretty sacred right there.”
“Listen, I’m sorry,” she said, “but he’s my brother. Can you really hold me responsible for something my immature, deviant brother did?”
“Ouch,” said a male voice, and all of us looked to the door…only to see one of the O’Brien brothers standing in the entryway. It could’ve been Baylor or Chase—they were identical after all—but I thought it was Baylor based on the mischievous twinkle in his eyes. He was holding a cardboard box, feigning a wounded expression. “That really hurts, Emmy. I always thought I was secretly your favorite.”
Emmy just rolled her eyes, but my heart began to beat faster as another voice spoke up from behind him.
“Move, Bay. I’m carrying like twice the weight you are.” Pushing his brother out of the way, Dex suddenly appeared, carting two boxes of his own. “And stop pouting. Everyone knows Emmy loves me best.”
“But she called me a deviant,” Baylor said. “And