Being a good brother to Jasper was a full time job. More importantly, it was exhausting. Ty had thought about telling his sister she was on her own multiple times throughout the day. Of course he never would, but the urge to sure was there. If Ty were to leave her by herself with no one to rant to, there was no telling what Jasper would have done (especially to the people who snickered and called her a whore).
A defeated sigh as he unlocked the door to his apartment, Ty swung the door open with a sigh. Dropping his backpack on the floor, the young man grabbed a beer from the fridge before popping the top off of the bottle and taking a sip. It had been a long ass day, and Tiberius was ready to relax. Taking his jacket off and hanging it on the back of one of the arm chairs, he slowly made his way over to his unmade bed. Placing the beer on the bedside table, he picked up the blanket from where it was halfway off the bed, exposing a pair of shoes underneath.
Fuck!
Junie.
Ty had been meaning to call his favorite red head today, but he had been so caught up with Jasper that he had forgotten - a fact that he was ashamed to admit. He hadn’t called her this weekend because he figured that it would have been to soon. He had turned his phone off earlier that day to stop the notifications from coming through. After all - he needed to focus on class, and unplugging for a bit was a good thing from time to time.
Powering up his phone, Ty was bombarded by a flood of notifications coming through. Opening his messages, he quickly spotted one from Junie. Opening it up, he saw that it wasn’t addressed to him, but rather someone named Elliot. A sudden small flash of anger flashed over him before Ty shoved the cellular device into his pocket and grabbed the shoes. Storming out of the apartment, Ty walked across the street (yes, he’d been lucky enough to score an apartment that close to campus) as his legs carried him to his destination.
Knocking on the door to the sorority house impatiently, Ty was approached by a small blonde, confused girl.
“Who are you?”
“I’m here for Junie,” he said. ”Is she here?”
“I’m not answering your question until you answer mine,” the blonde said, looking him up and down in defiance.
“I’m Ty. Tiberius. I’m a friend of J’s. Now just -- is she here?”
The young woman laughed, giving him a once over again. “Of course you’re Ty,” she said, before turning her head to look over her shoulders where the stairs were. “Junie! Your boy toy wants to talk to you!”
In the kitchen of the Delta Phi Nu household, Junie was making a giant salad for her girls, with organic produce that required her to chop from scratch. Lettuce, baby spinach, parsley, broccoli, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, carrots, celery, black olives, red cabbage, and avocado. She was on the carrots. See, she was unfazed with the sudden visitor because the Delta girls always had one person on the lookout. What if a guy was coming to break up with one of them? As a sisterhood, it was necessary to prepare their friends, and stall if needed. A strategic plan to keep said boy busy could give the girl enough time to dress up, in her hottest wear, and make him regret even thinking of the idea of leaving her.
In this case, Junie didn’t need stalling. From when Evie sent the text around lunch time, she calculated how long it could take him to get in contact with her. One option being not until he got back to his dorm from a long day of forgetting about her, only to realize he indeed forgot about her. Bingo! We have a winner. She didn’t expect him to come around right when she was preparing dinner, but that’s okay, she was good at improvising. “Hm. Boy toy. Is it Elliot or the other one?”
Not one to question Junie’s actions, the blonde chuckled, “The other one!”
“Ah.” Keeping silent for a moment too long, she loudly chopped the carrots, hiding the emotions she was clearly feeling behind a smile. “Send him over, Mia.”
“Well, good luck, Ty!” The tiny blonde grinned up at him, in a mischievous way, before pointing behind her, through the common area, to the door where the kitchen awaited him.
The other one? What the fuck?
Doing his absolute best to relax his now clenched jaw as he walked towards the kitchen, Ty realized that he didn’t really have a reason to be angry. Sure, he had had a thing for Junie for a while now, but they weren’t a thing. They had only banged once. So why was it that the mention of another guy potentially sleeping with Junie made him so upset?
Oh. The territorial thing, right.
Stepping into the kitchen, Ty stopped at the entryway, holding up her shoes. “I uh… I figured I’d bring these back to you. Sorry it took so long. I was swamped with papers and then the whole thing with Jazzy today. I just - yeah. Sorry.”
Hopefully Junie wouldn’t take the mention of his sister or essays to be an excuse. While both the essays and Jasper had offered him a distraction from the constant urge to text Junie, he didn’t mean for them to come off as an excuse.
“Sorry? What are you sorry for?” Junie looked up from cutting, locking her gaze with his. An unsettling, sweet smile gracing her face. Without looking at what she was doing, her chopping sped and she continued to talk, “People that are sorry feel a sense of guilt. Why should you feel guilty about anything? You’re just focusing on doing you.” At the end of her response, her knife stopped at the tip of her fingers. It almost seemed like she’d cut them off.
“Thirsty?” With smooth agility, she stabbed her refined knife into the cutting board. There was enough force to make the weapon stand up. “Mm, how about wine?” Leaving the island, Junie calmly, yet with a chilling aura, opened the glass cupboard, before asking, “Red or white?” Only a fool would not take the offer. It was clear Junie wasn’t going to take no for an answer. She didn’t really give a damn if whiskey was his preferred choice. He would drink what she’d offer, and leave on her terms.
Watching as Junie chopped and diced, Ty felt a lump growing in his throat. They said you learned something new everyday, and Ty had been fortunate enough to learn two things within the last five minutes. Number one: Don’t say sorry to Junie. Number two: Crazy red haired chicks with knives were a huge turn on.
“I’m sorry that I didn’t…. Return the shoes sooner,” he said, watching as she opened the cupboard. “You know how everyone has their favorite pair of shoes and I didn’t know if you needed these this weekend and --” Realizing how much more of a hole he was digging himself in to, Ty stopped his rambling to answer her question. “Red, please.”
Instead of responding, the fiery sorority girl kept silent, as she grabbed the traditional red wine glasses. A larger bowl than other glasses with a fair amount of height to create distance between the wine and the drinker. Cabernet was high in both alcohol and tannin, so choosing the right glass mattered. Especially for the aroma. There were a few minutes of nothing but silence and her moving around. Eventually though, she offered him to take a seat at the dining table, taking his glass and her’s with her. Her Chatea Margaux brand of Cabernet came straight from Bordeaux, France. They were known for earthy, rich, powerful, and age-worthy wines.
After handing over his glass, she took her wine and sat down. Once she was done with a long, leisure sip, she finally spoke, “Do you really think I give a damn about shoes?”
A little too intimidated to even take a drink from the glass, Ty took the cup from Junie and sat it on the table. Sitting down, he figured that the safest route was to let her talk first. Ty already appeared to have dug himself a large enough hole.
With a sigh, Ty finally managed to take a sip of the wine. Eyebrows slightly raised in surprise as he savored the taste, he sat the glass back down on the table before speaking.
“No, I don’t think you really care about shoes that much - especially a pair you left at my apartment for a few days. I just…” Stop hesitating, you idiot. Nut up, or shut up. There’s nothing wrong with saying what’s actually on your mind. “Listen, J. I suck at starting conversations - that’s why I opened with shoes. I didn’t forget about you. I didn’t want to message you over the weekend because I thought it might seem clingy or some shit and my past experiences have shown me that chicks don’t like clingy. I really did have essays this weekend. Today, I got caught up in Jasper’s shit and I just -- I had a really great time the other night. But like I said - I didn’t forget you. I had to fight the urge to message you all weekend.”
After he was done nervously rambling, Ty took another sip of liquid courage. “Who the fuck is Elliot, by the way?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Junie hissed, tapping her right hand’s manicure nails on the table. Seemingly disregarding his long winded excuse, Junie shrugged with indifference written on her face, “Why does it matter? It isn’t like I’m yours.” With her left hand, she brought the glass to her lips and aimed daggers at him with her blue eyes. More perturbed than she was at the start, she guzzled down the rest of her wine and forced her glass down on the table.
Standing up now, she shook her head and lifted three fingers, “First mistake, thinking I’m like other girls.” She brought her ring finger down, pacing around the room like a predator circling her prey. “Second mistake, you DID forget about me. It takes one second to send a text. Hell, you could’ve sent a heart emoji. But no, I’m just a hit it and quit it bitch. Fuck me, then ignore me, right?” Oof. She started to curse. Oh how she hated cursing. Her middle finger went down.
“Third mistake.” Finally, she was hovering over him, inches away, and her anger turned into a frown, “You really think I’m some slut, don’t you?” The fact that he didn’t realize how into him she was, and how easily he believed she’d sleep with some other guy, actually hurt. She wanted to get a rise in him, which she did, but part of her was hoping he knew it was just to get him to text her… or call her… or this. Visit her. Did she have to mention a guy just to get him to take action? If that was the case, maybe she was mistaken. Maybe she fell too deep before he could show her he would treat her right. Typical, Junie.
“I don’t think you’re like other girls,” Ty said, taking another drink, dismissing most of what she had said. “If I thought you were a hit it and quit it kind of gal, I wouldn’t be here. I’ve done flings. I don’t return shoes to girls I don’t think aren’t worth my time.” Placing his glass back on the table, he turned his head up to look her in the eye before standing and closing the distance between them. “And I know you’re not mine,” he said, placing each hand on one of her hips and pulling her towards him. ”But you could be.” Using his right hand, he brushed her hair behind her ear.
“I promise to at least send an emoji from now on - but only if you let me make it up to you this Friday.”
Although he danced around most of her words, he did comment on the points that she cared about the most, and his next move caused her to purse her lips. Clever boy. Yes, his touch dissolved her anger. His focused, lustful, and tender stare sent chills through her body. He said all the right things that she wanted to hear, like how she could be his. More importantly though, he declared that he would redeem himself by taking her out on a date.
Looks like a stalemate to her. Her urges were strong, but she was stubborn and selfish. She refused to give into them until he earned it. She was not easy and if he thought bringing her close would give him a piece of cake, he was terribly mistaken. Without this play, she wouldn’t have calmed down and she wouldn’t have heard him out, so it was necessary, but gaining anything more from this was NOT happening.
Resting her hands on his chest, she leaned up as if she was going in for a kiss. Before he could touch her lips, she stopped him with her pointer finger, “Friday then.” Pushing him back, against the table, with enough force to get him off of her, she turned around and headed back to the kitchen, “Thanks for my shoes! You can show yourself to the door, or Mia can escort you.” Before she sauntered through the archway, she looked over her shoulder back at him, “You’re right, I could be yours, but I’m not. Byebye, Ty.” And with that, she was gone.
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Over the week, Ty had been sure to message Junie
at least twice a day. Sometimes they would exchange memes, or he would pretend that he needed help with a homework question for one of their psychology classes. She had agreed to her end of the bargain, which meant that he had to keep his. After all - Tiberius Delamar was a man of his word. He had spent the whole week asking around and gathering extra information about what he could do to make it up to her. While he was sure that Junie’s friends had told her that he was asking, all he could do was hope that she would appreciate the sentiment.
After much digging, Ty found out that Junie’s favorite cuisine was sushi. Truth to be told, he didn’t know that much about sushi other than the few bites Jasper had made him try for her culinary class. Regardless, tonight was about making things up to Junie - not about what he did or didn’t know about sushi.
Dragging out one of his
suits for the night, Ty arrived back at the sorority house as eight o’clock Friday night. With a bouquet of sunflowers in hand, Ty knocked on the door.
Member
Little Bird
EricWald
Dion
shylarah
Nallore
duskshine749
NegroSlayer
CitrusArms
Charley
_________________________________________________________________________
