Bad Rep (Bad Rep #1)(2)
Author: A. Meredith Walters

Riley propped herself up on the stool at the tiny island in the middle of the kitchen. She folded her long legs awkwardly underneath her and looked thoughtful. I tapped my foot impatiently. I loved Riley. We had become fast friends during freshman orientation two years ago. Riley was the out- spoken and passionate hippie who had lived three doors down from me in our all girl dormitory. Even as I made new friends and we began to move in different social circles, we always stayed loyal to each other.

Icouldn’t be as relaxed with anyone else the way I could be with Riley. We just got each other. Even finishing each other’s sentences at times. We clicked. But it didn’t change the fact that there were definite things about my friend that annoyed the crap out of me. One being how calm and unconcerned Riley could be when I was seconds away from freaking out.

“So, any ideas?” I finally asked impatiently. Riley tapped her finger over her mouth.

“Well, I was going to head down to Barton’s in a bit to put in an application. They’re hiring wait staff for their evening rush. Might be an idea for you to come with me. Put in an application for yourself. It’s a bar, so you could work evening shifts and it wouldn’t mess with your classes and shifts at Bibi’s,” Riley offered.

Ismiled and reached over to hug her. “Riley, you’re a god send. That’s a perfect idea.” Riley pulled back, always some what uncomfortable with any kind of physical affection.

“Well, I’m about to hop in the shower and then we’ll head down there.” I nodded and felt a little bit better about the impossible situation I had found myself in when I had opened my mail that morning.

My phone beeped in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw I had a missed call from Eli. I grabbed my pack of cigarettes from the counter and went out the sliding doors onto the small balcony.

I loved the tiny apartment that I shared with Riley. I had hated living in the dorms, with the paper thin walls and communal showers. So, when Riley suggested we look for a place to live together for our last two years of school, I had jumped at the chance. I was also happy to be able to tell my parents that it was cheaper to live off campus than to pay the room and board through the school.

My academic scholarship only covered tuition and books, leaving my already cash strapped folks to cough up the rest. I pitched in by getting a job to cover food and other living expenses. I had felt really good with how mature I was being, well until the credit card statement made me realize my maturity still had a long way to go.

I sat down in one of the two white lawn chairs that Riley had gotten and tapped out a cigarette. I lit it and took a drag, feeling my nerves a little less jangly with every puff. It was a nasty habit and I had every intention of quitting. Just not right now.

I put the phone to my ear and listened to it ring. “Hey baby,” Eli’s slow drawl came through on the other end. I couldn’t help but grin and exhale a lung full of smoke.

“Hey, sorry I missed your call. What’s up?” I could hear Eli lighting his own cigarette, or maybe something else, on the other end and take a long inhale.

“Nothin’. Just wanted to see what you had going on today. I was thinking of going to Randall’s to hang for a bit, you wanna meet me over there?” I stubbed out my smoke and stretched out my legs. I had only been dating Eli for a few weeks. It wasn’t anything serious. Eli’s cousin Randall lived down the hall and that’s how we had met.

Riley and I had been coming in from getting breakfast and I had seen this guy lugging a guitar case up the stairs and into the hallway. He had short blond hair and a nice, easy smile. I was instantly entranced.

Later that same day, as I was leaving for work, I had come out into the hallway to find the same guy playing on that same guitar on the steps leading outside. He had been playing the melody from Under the Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers and I couldn’t help myself from stopping to listen. He wasn’t that great or anything, mediocre at best. But I used it as an excuse to stop and sit down beside him.

He was good looking, in that slacker, grungy kind of way. With messy blond hair that always hung in his face and hooded blue eyes. I had ended up calling in sick to work in favor of hanging out listening to this guy play his guitar. Afterward I sat with him in his cousin’s apartment while he smoked a joint and talked about the fate of modern music ad nauseum.

I found out the guitar guy, Eli Bray, lived in town and worked at a local garage. He had no plans to go to college and barely made it through high school. He smoked pot like crazy and did little more than hang out with his cousin Randall and his cousin’s girlfriend, Cicely, playing his guitar.

When I really thought about it, I was slightly mortified to be attracted to someone like that. I was the complete opposite of Eli in every possible way. But considering my recent descent into slackerdom, perhaps that explained the inexplicable attraction.

Riley hated him and made that clear on the few times I had invited Eli over. Riley had barely spoken to him and often opted to pretend he wasn’t there at all. So I started waiting for my roommate to leave before asking Eli to come over, which annoyed me because it felt too reminiscent of living at home with my folks again.

Despite the fact that Eli was motivationally challenged, he was pretty fun to hang out with. And shit, to be totally honest, he turned me on like crazy. We hadn’t slept together yet, but there were plenty of other lust-fueled activities to spend our time on. And truthfully, that was the sole basis for the relationship.

So when Eli suggested that I hang with him at Randall’s, I had a hard time resisting the offer. Considering I knew we would put in an obligatory show for about twenty minutes before Eli would drag me into the spare bedroom. It made me tingle to think of spending an afternoon like that.

But I had other priorities just then. Ones that unfortunately, didn’t involve hot guitar boy’s tongue.

“Can’t, I have to go find a second job. Had the heart attack surprise of an overly inflated credit card bill this month.” I picked up my pack of cigarettes and headed inside.

The beautiful thing about Eli is that he didn’t immediately chastise me like Riley had. He didn’t question what I had spent the money on. It could have been he was being respectful, or more likely, he just didn’t care. He simply took my word that I had other plans and didn’t push me for more. But on the other hand, it made me feel like he really could have cared less about what was going on in my life. Which is the very reason I could never contemplate taking this thing we had going on to any sort of other level. Eli Bray and boyfriend didn’t belong in the same sentence. And for now, I could live with that.