Chapter 6

As usual when visiting Collette, Bobby's size meant he could blend in and follow someone into the dorm building without seeming out of place.

For college students, it was still prohibitively early on a Sunday morning. When he got off the elevator, he found the remains of a Saturday night floor party bordering on carnage. Plastic beer cups, empty pizza boxes, broken furniture, and even a few sleeping bodies in the hallway said it must have been a wild one.

Like most of the doors along the hall, Collette's was open a couple inches. He knocked softly before peering inside.

He was two steps into the dimly lit room before he realized there were two people in Collette's bed. After the initial recoil, he could make out that Collette's roommate was on top of the covers clad only in panties, spooned in behind Collette, an arm and a leg draped over her blanket-covered form.

He smiled, then a snort from the other bed startled him. He turned to see Clay sleeping on his back, naked. Shaking his head, Bobby turned to leave.

"Bobby?" Collette said sleepily. He stopped in the doorway without turning back to face her. "Bobby, wait," she called. As she carefully climbed over her roommate, he saw she was wearing a pair of his boxer shorts and his old baseball jersey. She arranged the sheet to cover her roommate's breasts before coming to hug and turn him to her.

"Is your dad alright?" she asked urgently.

He struggled to focus on her question. "Uh, yeah, no change but he's getting stronger. And I'm making sure the garage keeps up and running."

"Boy, I'll bet that's going to be a big job for you."

She noticed his distracted glance to the side, and turned to see the naked man lying there. "Jesus Christ, Clay!" she yelled angrily. She stepped over to jerk the pillow from under his head and dropped it over his crotch. He groaned and rolled to his side facing away from them without waking.

She grabbed Bobby's arm and pulled him into the hallway. "It's a miracle I got any sleep at all last night," she said with exasperation, "with the partying in the hall, and then after I was finally asleep those two snuck in to fuck each other."

Bobby shook his head and grinned. "So ... this is what college is really like, eh?"

Her scowl faded and she laughed ruefully. She shrugged. "I guess it's all part of it."

Bobby sobered slightly but kept his smile. "Pretty different from high school," he said gently.

Collette did her best to maintain her smile as well, but couldn't prevent a sense of alarm. Or was it ... resignation? She somehow knew why he had come. 'Goddamn Patty, ' she thought.

They stood looking at each other, with affection and sadness; with love and regret.

She tried to think of something to say. "You want to go see your dad?" she asked finally.

"Sure."

"Give me a minute."

She went back into the room, emerging a few minutes later in USC sweat pants and shirt, a backpack over one shoulder.

"If you can stand me like this, I can do my makeup at the hospital."

"Are you kidding? You're gorgeous. Let's go."

When they were seated in the car, Bobby sat without turning the key.

Collette put her hand on his arm. "You didn't come to take me to see your dad, did you?" she said softly.

He stared straight ahead through the windshield. "No."

"Can't get over the thing with the girl, huh?"

He turned to face her. "I don't know. Patty came to see me; she told me it was her."

"Oh."

"She said it was all her idea, that I shouldn't blame you for it happening. And ... I love Patty, but I know she can be self-centered sometimes. I'm sure she didn't mean any harm, she just doesn't think things through sometimes."

Collette frowned.

"I didn't mean that you, you know, did anything wrong," he added hastily.