Naughty or Nice - Alexis Winter
One
Felicity
I’m sitting on my bed in my dorm room, cleaning out my desk to start the packing process. Tomorrow, I will be graduating and done with college. The thought excites me to no end. I mean, no more tests, no more term papers, no more early mornings and races to the coffee cart on my way to class. Tomorrow, I will be a college graduate!
As I look around my room that’s decorated with pictures of me and my friends from my time at college, I feel a little sad to be putting this chapter of my life behind me. It was a lot of work, but I did have some fun times. At least these last few years I knew what day-to-day life would look like. After tomorrow, I have no idea. It’s like a big blank chalkboard. I have no idea what I’m doing other than going back home with my mom after graduation. From there, I get to settle back into my old room while I apply for jobs and figure out my future.
Figure out my future.
Man, I can’t even explain how badly those words scare me. I’m terrified that I will get hired on some place only to find out that I don’t have what it takes. Then these last few years will have been nothing but a waste. Not only that, but the money that my mom spent on my college is wasted too. Good money that she worked hard for. Money that she could’ve used to re-roof the house instead of taking out a loan. Guilt eats at me, but it also pushes me forward. I can’t fail. I won’t fail.
I take a drawer out of my desk and shake it over the empty box on my bed, too lazy to actually go through it and throw shit away. My phone rings and when I see Carson’s name flashing on the screen, I drop the drawer onto my bed and answer it as quickly as I can.
“Hey, you,” I say, full of energy and excitement.
“Hi, sweetheart. What are you up to?” he asks in his thick, deep, raspy voice. His voice has always sent shivers down my spine. Goosebumps prickle my skin every time I hear it.
“Oh, you know. Cleaning out my desk and packing my whole life into a box. You?”
He ignores my question and instead focuses on me. “That’s right. Tomorrow is the big day. Are you nervous?”
I shrug out of habit to getting this question. “I’m not nervous about the concept of graduating, but I am nervous about what comes after it.”
“What do you mean? Going back home?”
“Yeah, that and having to figure out the rest of my life. I’m just scared that I’ll fail and let everyone down, you know?”
“Not possible.”
I snort and that makes him laugh.
“I wouldn’t expect you to listen to me, but you have to know that you’ve never been able to let any of us down. Not me. Not your mom.”
“Well, now I know that isn’t true,” I tease as I feel my face warm from his compliment.
He laughs. “When have you ever let us down?”
“How about that time that we got hammered and you had to throw me over your shoulder and carry me into the house even though I was puking down your back?”
He laughs at the memory. “That wasn’t your proudest moment, but neither of us were let down then either.”
“I don’t know. I seem to remember a very long, boring conversation with my mother the next day as she forced me to eat the world’s greasiest bacon and eggs.”
He laughs again and it makes my stomach muscles tighten as need for him floods my entire body. “Actually, I’m pretty proud of you for that. You beat the town drunk at a shots contest. You’re my hero. Have I told you that lately?” he teases as his laughter fills my ears.
“Yeah, yeah,” I say, not feeling like a hero to anyone. “I didn’t accomplish anything that night but getting wasted, dancing on a table, losing my bra somehow, and then puking down your back as you carried me to the house. You shouldn’t have picked me up over your shoulder like that. All that pressure on my stomach forced all the alcohol up.”
He chuckles. “You lost your bra because you weren’t just dancing on that table. You were stripping, or at least attempting to. And I had to pick you up like that. You refused to come in the house.”
I gasp. “You never told me