My Ex’s Roommates: A Reverse Harem College Sports Romance (Ex Marks the Spot)
My Ex’s Roommates: Chapter 3

Of course, I couldn’t run away from a fancy party in nice weather while wearing waterproof mascara. I ran away in the pouring rain and my eyes burned from my mascara running into them. My dress had instantly become a twenty-pound weight hanging off of me and I hadn’t even made it off the hotel property before my heel got stuck in a grate and snapped. I limped down the street to a park and plopped myself down on a wooden bench to cry.

I didn’t know what I was going to do. I felt a million things all at once but the biggest one was fear. I didn’t have anywhere to live. I’d given up my apartment to live with Jake. All of my things were packed up and stored in Jake’s garage. I was homeless. Even at the worst times growing up with my piece of shit dad, I’d never once worried about being homeless because my brothers took care of me. Sitting on a park bench in a gown I’d spent too much money on to impress a man who only ever saw me as trailer trash, I had no one.

I’d never missed my brothers more. Danny, Jay, and Matt would’ve found a way to call me back if I left a message with one of the guards but I didn’t want them to hear me crying. They were serving year two of a five-year sentence and there was nothing they could do to make my situation better. I’d gotten myself into it and I had to get myself out of it. Somehow. Still, hearing their voices would’ve made me feel less alone and hopeless.

The rain slowed and then stopped and people filtered in and out of the park again. The smell of wet earth hung heavily around me as snippets of conversations battered at my soured brain. I wanted the rain back. I wanted all the people to go away and leave me to my misery.

A cop walked past me and winced before hurrying along. That’s how I knew I looked as bad as I felt. I couldn’t make myself care, though. Everyone at the university would’ve seen the picture of Jake and Savannah by then. Everyone would’ve heard about how I’d run out of the banquet crying, the sad dumped girl who was too stupid to see that her boyfriend was cheating on her.

When the skies opened up again, I welcomed the cold rain. Thunder cracked overhead and I sighed. I figured if I got struck by lightning it would at least solve the homeless problem.

My phone vibrated in the hidden pocket of my dress and I fought the wet folds of fabric to reach it, only to see it was a text from Jake.

My stuff is out of the house. You need to get your shit out, too.

A bitter laugh turned into more body-shaking sobs. It didn’t make any sense to me. I thought he loved me. I loved him. Had he always been a monster and I just hadn’t seen it?

I slipped off my shoes and tossed them in a trashcan on my way out of the park. With nowhere else to go and the storm raging once more, I started walking in the direction of my things. Maybe Jake’s roommates would kick me out right away or call the cops to have me thrown out, but I didn’t think that would even make my night feel worse than it already did so I was taking the chance.

My dress snagged on rough concrete multiple times, the weight of it making it drag the ground. My feet scuffed along that same rough concrete and I could tell that it should’ve hurt, that it would hurt later, but right then, I didn’t feel a thing. The campus was blissfully empty as I walked through it but I could hear laughter from one of the dorms’ open windows.

Was it at me? Had the word already spread?

I got to Jake’s house- not Jake’s house- and stood at the front door, unsure of what I should do. Letting myself in seemed like something that was no longer appropriate. I lifted my hand to knock a time or two but I couldn’t make myself do it. Jake’s roommates hated me. They weren’t going to want me in their house. Suddenly, the idea of being somewhere I wasn’t wanted felt like knives raking over my flesh.

Before I could turn around and leave, the door was yanked open. Standing on the other side was Dylan, his mouth tight with anger and pursed like he was about to tell me off. I watched as something about me seemed to suck the wind out of his sails. He let out a heavy sigh and stepped back, letting me in.

That kindness, no matter how small it was for him, brought fresh tears to my eyes. I stood just inside the front door, dress dripping on the floor around me. I looked down at it helplessly and then up at Dylan. Arms crossed, he was a wall of anger and disgust.

“Are you just going to stand there and drip all over the fucking floor all night?” Silas stared at me from the kitchen, his face hard. “Take the fucking thing off and throw it away. It’s ruined anyway.”

I reached behind me and contorted myself so I could pull the zipper down. Pushing the dress off my shoulders, my skin erupted in goosebumps as the cold air touched it. I had on a strapless bra and underwear under the dress and I told myself it was no different than a swimsuit as I stepped out of the dress completely. I opened the front door again and dragged the dress out. I shivered as I dragged it down to the trashcan at the end of the drive and wrestled it into the can. Once it was out of my sight, I went back inside.

Standing in front of them with barely any clothes on, my hair hanging in strings around my shoulders, and tears still streaming down my face, I had nothing I could say. I didn’t even know if I could speak if I tried. When they didn’t tell me to leave I slowly moved up the stairs and slipped into Jake’s room.

All of his things that I’d carefully packed for him were gone. The bedding was even gone. Unsure of what else to do, I grabbed my bathrobe and curled up under it on the bare mattress. Sleep didn’t come fast but once I was out, there was just blissful blankness.