Roommates

Angelo mixes the sheets in the bowl, smiling wickedly. This guy frightens me. I have no clue what he's up to.

There is a way he gets to people that makes them do things they aren't supposed to do. Just as I gave in and told him about the marked mate ceremony. Nevertheless, he adapts well and accepts anything. I respect the guy for that. But when it comes to his puzzles, you can't predict anything.

Angelo holds the bowl up to Gilbert and he immediately scowls at him as soon as he sees it inches away from his face. Gilbert reaches out to take a piece of paper and murmurs, "don't be her goddess.". I know he is talking about me. Despite the fact that we didn't meet, he must have gotten a bad impression of me.

When Gilbert opens the paper, he reads out Nicolas name. As he relaxes, I do as well. I didn't want to deal with him today. There is no way to avoid dealing with him tomorrow, so peace for now.

Angelo turns to me and winks. This retarded. I will do myself a favour tomorrow and kick him in the shins. Or maybe the reverse happens. Exercise hasn't been part of my routine for the last three years.

Nicolas gets up to give Gilbert a wolf hug. Both say their goodbyes and leave. As Nicolas walks, he looks at me. Then I realized I had been staring at him. His green eyes stare at my browns as he smirks. The same as Roman, I think and I look away. Although his eyes and skin may resemble those of Romans, he is blonde and he is not Roman.

Roman…….

Feeling my stomach twist, I tighten my grip on my pillow. Like a tsunami, my mind floods with memories and my breath becomes short. I promised myself that I wouldn't cry over him. That's why I won't. But the memory of him telling me he still loves his dead mate is still fresh in my mind.

My hands start shaking with an emotion I can't decipher and I hide them behind the large pillow. Looking up, I see Ren and Zico leaving. Another roommate pair.

Not even a few seconds later the bowl is in front of Greyson. I thought I was next. Angelo winks at me and I understand what he means. He wants to save me for the end. There is a childlike glint in his eyes that tells me he is enjoying himself.

Greyson reads the name, Valerian. As Greyson turns to me, he smiles sadly.

“In case you need assistance”, he says, “come to me”.

I stare at him, wondering where is the Greyson I met and what has he done with him. Taking my silence, he gets up and leaves with the shy Russian. Valerian behaving there all timid while he stands tall as a tree is quite unimaginable.

The bowl is passed to Luciano. With his long thumb and index finger, he picks up a piece of paper. A flick of his finger opens it and he looks at Angelo. Luciano does everything effortlessly. There are some natural beta qualities he has that most contestants lack. Getting up, he pats Angelo on the shoulder. Apparently, he does not have to say anything. They are both sharing a room.

There are only a few of us left. The four of us still need a roommate. Casper, David, Julian, and me. As Casper toys with his beard, he throws and catches a paperweight. Angelo and the bowl remain as Julian's only focus. While David seems tense. I didn't notice it earlier but his eyebrows are furrowed and his beautiful brown eyes hold worry.

Angelo walks towards me sitting next to me.

“Princess, it's your turn”.

I feel him put an arm around me, putting his palm on the couch beside me. I stare at the bowl. Even though I didn't meet Julian and David, we know who we are. Casper stares at me up and down before smirking and going back to his game.

The trembling in my hands has stopped by now. I put my hands forward and take a piece of paper. I slowly opened them, revealing the name David. That's fine. I look up to him and I see that he visibly relaxes. As I saw him relax, it made me think. He didn't want to share a room with either Casper or Julian. Why?

“It looks like you two man buns are sharing a room”. Angelo says.

As I leave the living room, I take my luggage. I approach Dan's desk and I see him sitting there. David follows behind. Dan's eyes shift behind me as he tenses his eyebrows. He fumbles with his pen.

“Keys?”, I say looking at him. His eyes snap to mine and gone is my playful best friend. He looks at me and David once again. As I look at David, he is looking at his phone.

Dan hands me the keys while staring at David the whole time. Is my best friend crushing on David? David is both handsome and strong. You can see that by looking at his thick arms that are so big that his shirt is struggling not to tear.

The keys are in my hands, and I walk toward the room. Upon entering the room, I begin unpacking on my side of the room, keeping everything in the correct order. David is still outside. It would be good if we could get comfortable as we are sharing a room now.

He seems like a nice guy. He didn't give me a stink stare like Gilbert, or a mischievous smirk like Angelo, or confine me to a wall like Gregson, or be smug to me like Casper. Most of all he didn't try to kill me like Oliver.

After a while, I finished packing. I went to the bathroom. Then, when I came out, I found David on his bed looking at his phone. It appears as if his face is flushed, but he remains calm as he presses the phone against his face.

“David”, I try to strike a conversation with him. He ignores me as I sit on my bed.

“David”, I speak a bit loudly. He stares at me and his eyes are wide open.

“We didn't get a chance to speak. I thought we could talk now since we will be sharing a room”. I gesture to the wide room.

He keeps his phone down and focuses all of his attention on me.

“Taylor”. He says, looking at me.

“Yes”.

“Are you friends with Dan?” It's just as I expected. It may be that Dan is irritating him, and now if David complains about him, Dan will have a problem.

“Has he been bothering you?” I ask softly, I don't want my friend to get in trouble.

As he looks at me, his face changes to one that indicates he feels uncomfortable.

“Do I need to leave? I will return after some time. You can get adjusted”. I say after the look on his face.

Nodding at me, he goes back to his phone. After leaving the room, I go to the reception. It's possible that Dan is still around. I need to discuss with him why he has been bothering David so much. Approaching the large desk, I see him behind it.

He adjusts his jaw while looking at the computer. So I sneak behind him as a way to scare him. As I am about to attack, I notice that he is playing a video game.

“You know I can hear you right?” He says.

Popping on the seat beside him, I groaned. Taking a look at me briefly, he goes back to his game. It looks like he is playing with a team, so I pull closer to find out who he is. Is that him and David? Has David been playing games in the room? I only gave him space so he could play video games with Dan?

This is what it's about. David is being forced to play games by Dan. It's nothing serious, so I leave it at that.

“I am going out. I will be back after some time”. Dan must have heard me as he waved me off to continue on my way.

Lauren must be with her mate after what happened, and I don't want to disturb her. Dan is playing video games with my roommate. Also, it's not like I can knock on the other doors in the quarters for a chat. So I decided to go for a run. Since Gilbert indirectly sneered at my hopeless attempt to cover my belly, I am deeply offended.

I begin jogging slowly, picking up the pace. As I walk around the party grounds, everything is completely replaced. It's as if the incident never happened.

While I was running, I passed the place where Roman calmed me from my panic attack. My path had taken me past the hospital where I met Roman and he told me he still loves his first mate. As I ran past my home, I remembered Roman telling me he does not want me.

My pace increased minute by minute with anger. It's impossible for me not to see and feel the memories wherever I go. After I've had enough, I turn away and go straight to the forest. It took me some time to find the perfect spot, but I eventually got there.

Night has fallen and I'm feeling the night breeze on my stomach and arms. I lay on the grass feeling the cool breeze on my face. The closest view of the city is from here. It appears that thousands of small stars have come here to rest like me as I look at the city light from here. As the big trees move, a soothing sound is created. I lean back and breathe in the cool air, taking in the dark sky above.

Tomorrow is going to be a big day. I will get to train with the contestants and evaluate them. Thinking about evaluation, I still need to write today’s and report it to my father.

As I go back to the quarters, I take a long route avoiding the places that remind me of Roman. As I enter the room, I pull a key out of my pocket and open the door.

In the next moment, my best friend moans as he is pinned underneath David. David’s naked butt is on display and before my look travels to where they are connected, I snap my eyes to them. They look at me wide-eyed. They're......are they.....fucking?