Mixed Messages

Christen woke up the next morning and felt something heavy over her back.  Her entire body ached and her head was throbbing.  She couldn’t turn the whole way but could see Kelley was spooned in next to her.  What the hell, Kelley.

“Stop moving,” Kelley moaned.

“Why are you in my bed?” Christen asked, one eye closed and the other focusing on the clock.  “It’s six am.”  

Kelley rolled off of her and her eyes popped open.  “I thought this was my bed.”  It hurt to laugh.  “No, it’s definitely not.  What time did you get in?”  

“I have no idea.”  The two laid on their backs in the same position, trying to piece together the puzzle of Kelley’s night. The only thing they came up with us that she left with Allie and Jose and stopped for a slice of pizza where she saw the girl she’d been talking to before summer started and they walked home together.  “Oh my God.  I think she’s here...downstairs….on our couch. Will you go look, please?  I can’t face her.”

Christen agreed, mostly because she wanted to get something to drink and eat right away with the ibuprofen she was about to take.  “Yeah, give me a couple of minutes.”  She crept down the steps, creaking them here and there.  She saw a silhouette on the couch in their living room couch and knew it was the girl.  The common room door was also opened and she could see a body on the couch.  Alex.  Christen closed it, unable to look at her.  The noise was a lot louder than she wanted, startling Kelley’s girl awake.  “Sorry,” she whispered.  

“It’s ok.  Um, what time is it?”

“A little after six.” Christen wasn’t sure if she should offer her anything or introduce herself.

“Shoot, I have to go,” she said.  “If you see Kelley can you tell her I’ll text her later?”  

“No problem.”  

Christen got what she needed from the kitchen and walked back upstairs.  “She just left and said she’ll talk to you later.”  She waited for Kelley to move so she could lay down in her own comfy bed.  “Now move it.”

Christen didn’t move from her bed all morning.  Lunch time creeped up and she could hear movement about the house.  She wanted to avoid everyone at the moment, mostly because of her outburst to Tobin last night.  Hopefully it would be swept under the rug and she wouldn’t have to talk about it.  

Around 2 she heard a soft knock at her door.  “Christen?”

Shoot.  It was Tobin. Quick, pretend you’re asleep.  A louder knock.  “Kelley said you were up here.  Can we talk for a minute?”  Thanks, Kelley.

Christen stood up and put on her best performance.  She opened the door and pretended to yawn.  “Hey, sorry I was sleeping.”  Tobin looked her up and down, trying to determine if she was telling the truth.  She herself looked exhausted but had clearly showered and changed already.  

“Can I come in?”  

“Yep.”  Christen retreated to her bed, letting Tobin close the door behind her.  Tobin stood there and took a moment before she spoke.  “I’m really sorry if I said something last night that offended you.  Trust me, that wasn’t my intention.”  

“You didn’t.”  Christen held her gaze across the room.  

“Did I do something wrong then?” Tobin looked deeply into her, trying her best to understand where the resentment was coming from.

“No, you didn’t.”  

Silence.

Ok Christen, stop.  Don’t do this, she didn’t do anything wrong.  Alex is the one you should be mad at.  “I had way too much to drink, I’m sorry.  I get snappy sometimes when I do. Really, Tobin.  I’m sorry.” Christen looked at her face and felt guilty about the concern she’d caused.  This was the second time she’d seen that look on Tobin’s face and hated it.  

“It’s okay.  I was wondering if you maybe wanted to grab dinner tonight if you’re up to it?”  Tobin jammed her hands into the pockets of her sweatpants.  

“Where’s Alex?”  was her immediate reaction.  

“We’re not attached at the hip you know,” Tobin laughed.  Christen weighed her options.  “Okay,” she agreed.  

“Great.  I’ll wait for you in the common room at like 5:30?  Any preference where to go?”  

“No,” Christen answered.  “Anywhere is good.”

Tobin smiled and started to leave the room.  “Great, it’s a date.”

…………...

Christen finished her second slice of pizza in the busy restaurant down the street from their house, Tobin already on her third.  “I can’t believe I can actually stomach this right now,” she commented.

“You were pretty drunk when you got home,” Tobin laughed.  “It was kinda cute.”  What?  Is she hitting on me?  Christen looked at her confused.  Maybe she and Alex have some kind of like weird open relationship or something.

“Not as drunk as Alex,” she shot back.  

Tobin laughed harder.  “No definitely not.  Poor girl couldn’t even get off the couch today.  That’ll teach her though.  Stick to one type of drink.”  

“How did you two meet?” Christen boldly asked, not believing her own forwardness.  

Tobin sat back into the booth and stared up at the football games on the flat screens.  “Funny story actually.  I didn’t like her at first.  We were paired together for freshman athlete orientation where you spend the weekend on campus going through like meetings and trainings.  We were roommates and couldn’t find anything to talk about.  I mean nothing besides soccer.  We still don’t have a ton in common but over the few months we found a mutual respect and then an honest friendship that grew.”  

“And you’ve been together ever since?”

I guess you could say that,” Tobin said hesitantly.  

“So what, you’ve been dating for like two years then?”

Tobin coughed and nearly spit out her drink.  “WHAT?”

Christen registered the shock on Tobin’s face. “You and Alex…” her voice trailed off.  

Tobin’s eyes grew wide.  “You think Alex and I are together?”  Her voice was high and she leaned forward into the edge of the table.  

Now she was completely embarrassed.  Had she read the entire situation wrong?  “Well, Kelley told me you might have a girlfriend and I just assumed it was Alex because you seem really close.”

Tobin shook her head.  “No, we are most definitely not together.  Christen, Alex is my best friend - don’t tell Allie I said that - and we are close.  But not in that way.”  

“How many times am I going to put my foot in my mouth around you,” Christen groaned, covering her face with her hands.  She was going to burst into tears any second.  Tobin got up and came over to her side of the booth.  “It’s okay,” she assured her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.  “Honest mistake.  And one I’m not offended by, Alex is considered a catch!”

That made Christen laugh and take down her hands.  Tobin was looking at her with a smile, her golden eyes focused on her own.  Suddenly her face dropped and turned serious. “But seriously if you tell Allie I just said that I’ll kill you.”  

She laughed and assured her that the secret was safe.  “So what made you think we were together,” Tobin asked happily resuming eating her pizza.  

“I don’t know, I think you guys just seem really comfortable with each other.  Touchy-feely too.”  

“We can be but it’s innocent.  We both genuinely love each other and show it.”  Christen processed the statement and realized she had read the entire thing wrong.    “Well as if I can’t feel more like a huge idiot, there’s something else I have to confess.  My little outburst last night was because of Alex.”  

“What do you mean?” Tobin smirked at her.  

“Ready for this?  Last night I went upstairs to the bathroom and saw her making out with some guy in one of the bedrooms.  Well since I thought you two were together, I got so mad because there she was cheating on you.  I went outside to get some air so I could think about whether I should tell you or not and…”

“I was outside and made you sit with me.” Tobin finished.

“Yes.”

“Man, this is too funny.”  

“Stop!” Christen begged.  “So I was going to tell you what happened but chickened out.  I thought if I take you upstairs to go to the bathroom you’d see it with your own eyes and I wouldn’t be the bearer of bad news.  Which I realize is completely sick and kinda evil but you know we’ve only known each other for a week and I was confused.”

Tobin let her continue, nodding along with her story.  

“But there was Alex, not with the guy.  I was so mad when I saw you touch her and she acted like nothing happened.”

“Servando.”

“What?” Christen asked confused.

“That’s the guy.  He and Alex have been hooking up for a few weeks but no one really knows.  I could see she was a disheveled and didn’t want her to embarrass herself in front of him.  That’s why I got her out of there.  She’s used to just seeing guys for a few weeks then breaking it off but I think she really likes this one.  I wanted to give her a chance.”

“That makes a lot of sense. Anyway, I snapped at you when we got home because I thought you were teasing me about my love life when I knew, or at least thought, yours wasn’t so hot yourself.”

Tobin howled.  “I’m actually really impressed you held your ground and didn’t blurt it all out then.”  

“Yeah well…” Christen stopped herself.  “Anyway, sorry for that.  I shouldn’t have assumed anything.”

“I can’t wait to tell Alex all of this.”

Christen leaned in across the table and glared.  “If you tell her, I’m telling Allie what you said.”

“Touche.”