Kerri

"What do you mean, you don't drive, Kerri? I thought you were, like, from the country or something, where cars are necessary?" My roommate Annie asked, her perfect, pretty face scrunched up in a puzzled way that the beautiful but very dim girl often wore. Annie was not the brightest lightbulb in the pack, that was for certain.

"I am from the country, but I've never learned to drive," I answered softly, not wanting to admit to a girl I'd barely spoken to more than five times over the last year that I was terrified of driving anything. I couldn't even use riding lawnmowers. My dad had tried, but I was just too afraid of getting hurt or breaking anything.

"So, you're waiting for a ride then?" she asked, packing her bag as she judged me, because that's exactly what she was doing.

"Yes, I am." I looked over at my bags, packed and waiting to be taken downstairs when Shelby made it to my dorm.

Shelby was my dad's best friend, trouble with a capital T, but somehow, he and Dad got along great. I thought, in a way, they balanced each other out. Dad calmed Shelby down when he was in a raging mood and Shelby could usually get my dad to have a little fun, to lighten up when he was being too anal retentive. I didn't claim to understand the friendship, I just knew it existed, even if my mom hated Shelby. With a capital H.

I tried not to let my thoughts dwell too much on Shelby, that was a rabbit hole of complex thoughts and emotions I didn't need to go down. Instead, I looked over at Annie again, wondering why she was even talking to me when she spent our freshman year at the university basically ignoring the fact that I existed. She forgot that I existed to the point that I'd witnessed more than one of her many hookups with football and basketball players. The girl liked to have fun and didn't care who knew it. Even if I didn't necessarily want to know it.

I was looking forward to spring break, at least I'd be able to sleep in my old bedroom without someone in a single bed ten feet away getting it on loudly and boisterously. The girl also had stamina.

"What's up with you? Why are you even talking to me?" I asked, pushing for an answer. I was the cliché, bookworm, good girl in the room, she was the congenial, flirtatious...well, popular girl, let's use that word. Popular. Very popular.

"I just noticed you sitting there all packed and ready to go but you haven't moved. I was curious. That's all." Annie shrugged defensively, making the blond hair curled perfectly over her shoulders shimmer in the morning sunlight. The downward slant of her dark green eyes, much prettier than my light green ones, told me she was bored with the conversation already. "Whatever."

I was about to reply but decided picking an argument with my roommate was pointless. We had to live in the same dorm together until the end of the year, I might as well keep it peaceful. I kept my mouth shut and studied my wall of books. A lot of them were textbooks that I'd keep for future reference, nonfiction books about the existence of aliens that had made Annie roll her eyes the one time she looked them over, and a few romance novels that I'd tried to hide in the mix. Now, those had caught Annie's eyes, but she'd never read them.

My phone pinged before I could think of a way to change the subject. Shelby was downstairs, on his way up. I wanted to tell him not to bother coming up, but it was too late. He was already knocking on our door. Annie bounced over to the door and opened it, the frown on her face quickly blending into a huge grin.

"Why, hello there, stranger, what can I do for you?" she asked breathily, and I rolled my eyes behind her. Annie was in Flirtatious Mode, then. It always happened when a cute guy showed up at our door, for whatever reason they might be there. Only, Shelby was a man. A grown man, with a grown man's beard covering his lower face, perfectly groomed to not look wild. A grown man who was old enough to be my father.

A grown man that filled every sexual fantasy I'd ever had. Along with another grown man, but I wouldn't think about him right now. He was even more off-limits than Shelby was. I put on a patient smile and stood up to nudge Annie away from Shelby.

His gray eyes sent me a look of thanks as I stepped into the hallway, my rolling suitcases behind me. "Hi, Ker, ready to go?"

"Yeah, sure, Shelby. Thanks for coming to get me," I mumbled, trying to close the door but Annie was in the way.

"Kerri! Aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?" Annie purred, her eyes on the six foot five inch frame of Shelby Summers, not on me. She was definitely interested.

"What?" I pretended to not know what she was talking about. "Oh, Shelby? This is my roommate, Annie. Annie, this is Shelby."

"Nice to meet you," Annie said, her eyes wide and bright as she leaned against the doorframe. "You bringing our little angel back after spring break?"

"I, uh, I don't know yet. Nice to meet you, Annie." Shelby stumbled over his words with a frown that made me feel bad for him. He was looking everywhere but at the scantily clad Annie, still in a silky gray nightgown that barely covered anything. "Let's go, Kerrie."

Oh no, I thought as my stomach plummeted, Shelby was in a bad mood now. I glared over at Annie, blaming her since she'd embarrassed him with her little temptress act, and grabbed my bags. Only, Shelby Summers already had both heavy cases under his arms and was down the stairs. It was obvious he wanted to get back on the road, so I scooted after him, feeling like I was more trouble than I was worth.

"Sorry," I muttered as he pulled onto the road a few minutes later, clicking my seatbelt together in his light blue 1966 Ford Bronco soft-top while staring out of the window at the sunny day outside. I had hoped I could get up the courage to talk to him, that he'd be in a good mood, but he was always in a bad mood around me, and I could barely speak to him since the first time I'd had a sex dream about him when I was fifteen.

"For what, Ker?" he asked, smoothly changing gears to pick up speed when he took the exit to the interstate.

"For making you have to come pick me up?" I offered, not really sure why he was mad.

"It's not a problem," he answered shortly, swerving into traffic as if he dared anyone not to get out of his way. "You'll be back home before you know it.

"Yeah, thanks." I sighed as I spoke, picking up my phone to open a book up to read. Shelby preferred to listen to his old guy jams from bands like Silverchair and Fuel than to talk while he was driving. I settled into the seat and wished I could be as bold as Annie for the hundredth time. I wasn't though, so I was stuck listening to music that was older than me and trying not to annoy Shelby more than I already had.

Yay, spring break, or something.

If only this could be a great one, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. I was too much of a virgin for that.