Tangled Up in Blue

(Read this story from the beginning)

Keegan

Two kegs sit in the far corner of the living room. Dozens of plastic cups litter the floor.

With the windows that line two sides of the room open and a hot wind blowing through, I can smell the stale beer.

There's nothing else in the room. Not a stick of furniture. And obviously, they aren't running the air-conditioning. Or there is no AC.

Yikes.

The living room floor squeaks with each step I take into the house, and my flip-flops stick to the boards.

I see the kitchen through an entryway on one side of the stairs that rise from the middle of the far wall. There's a closed door—I assume it's a bedroom—on the other side of the stairs.

Blue crosses the living room and sets his share of my stuff on the stairs, and I do the same.

"So, you had a party in here last night, I guess?" I ask, pulling off my sunglasses and tucking them into the front of my shirt. "You moved the furniture somewhere?"

Blue crouches to pick up a drumstick lying on the floor and slides it into his jeans pocket.

"No furniture in this room," he responds with a tight smile. "Makes it easier for the bands to set up."

He laughs as my jaw drops. "You know we have parties here most weekends, with live bands, right? We're known all over campus for our parties."

"Uh, no," I respond, running a distraught hand through my hair. "I didn't know that. The only time I've been on campus was for my interview last spring."

I sound less than thrilled because I am. This place is apparently the 21st-century equivalent of Animal House.

"Wow, that's something I wish I'd known about," I can't help adding.

I'm pissed, mostly at myself. I fought to get into Ikana's top-notch journalism program, and I've got a full load of classes my first semester.

How am I going to get straight As and work my ass off at the campus newspaper—assuming I can persuade the editor to give me a job—if I'm living in a party house?

"Last night's band was really a good one," Blue says, as if that makes a difference. "The lead singer's kind of a douche, but he's got a great voice. We had 100 people just in this room."

He chuckles at the dismal expression on my face. "C'mon, Keegan. It's not that bad. You'll meet a lot of really cool people."

I just look away. Then I hear what sounds like a dog whining from the front porch.

Blue glances out the living room window. "That'll be Max," he says. "I need to get him inside."

I follow him out the front door, seeing a long canine snout thrust through a hole in the porch. It's the same spot where Blue was lying when I first pulled up.

"There you are." Blue smiles down at the friendly brown eyes staring up at him.

"Oh!" I exclaim. "That's who you were talking to when I first got out of the car."

Now it's making more sense.

Blue smiles, nodding. "Yeah. That's Max. I forgot to lock him in my room last night, and all the noise from the party freaked him out. When he gets scared, he hides under the house."

He shakes his head, then whistles as the dog disappears under the porch.

"He has to exit from the backyard. I left the kitchen door open for him. He'll show up in the house in a minute."

He waves me back inside. "Let me show you your room, and then I'll bring in the rest of your stuff."

I should carry in my own possessions. I don't need him to do it. But I forget about pointing that out because Blue is yawning and rubbing his muscular abs, and my mutinous eyes can't stop ogling him.

What the hell is happening to me? How am I supposed to live under the same roof as this guy?

Blue yawns. "The only problem with the parties is cleaning it all up the next day."

Nope. That's not the only problem.

He heads back into the house, holding the door open so I can follow him.

"It'll probably be a while before the other two lazy-asses are awake," he says. "You can meet them later."

It's impossible not to shudder again at the poor guy's scarred back. I'm dying to know what happened to him. What did he mean when he said it was a war wound?

From a window halfway up the stairs, I can see a back deck that is strewn with more cups.

Is the entire house trashed?

Blue pauses to stare at something in the yard. "Max!" he yells out the open window. "What are you doing out there?"

Then he whistles. "Max, come inside!"

After a moment, he yells again. "Corey? Is that you? Man, why are you still here?"

I peer around Blue in time to see a German Shepherd sniffing a form that is slowly getting up from the ground. It appears to be a grubby-looking male with bushy brown hair. He's rubbing his eyes and blocking the sun with his hands as if it hurts him.

"Corey! Go home!"

Blue laughs. "He's a member of the band," he explains, continuing up the stairs. "Passed out in the yard last night, I guess. Idiot."

I follow him again, trying to look everywhere but at his back.

"So is Max your dog?" I ask, needing something to say.

"He's kind of the house dog, although I seem to be the one who takes care of him most of the time. He showed up here one day, mangy and starving. We tried to find his owner, but no one ever claimed him."

"Aw. Poor thing."

We reach the top of the stairs, and I glance from right to left. I see three bedrooms, all with their doors closed. And one bathroom, door open. I spot an old-fashioned claw-foot bathtub inside.

Blue sets my possessions in front of the bedroom across from the bathroom.

"You're the last one in, so you get the smallest room," he says apologetically. "But at least the AC unit in that room works well."

He points at the door next to mine. "That's Kendra's room. And I'm next to her. Hunter's got the big bedroom downstairs, the only one with its own bathroom. His stepdad owns this house, and trust me, he won't let you forget it."

He turns the knob and pushes my door open, then steps aside to let me pass.

"Here we are."

I walk into the room and gasp at the sight of a naked couple passed out on my bed.

~~~

Thanks for reading Tangled Up in Blue! What do you think so far? There's lots more to come. :) CH