"Thanks…but can I get out again for a minute?" I asked, unsure how to control it.
The wall slid back down but an uneven, slightly raised line along the floor marked where it was hiding.
Taylor was standing just on the other side of the line, looking at me curiously.
“I couldn't get in to you," he said, looking confused. “What was that?”
“It's a safety measure, so no one murders us in the night." I shrugged, trying to make light of the fact that they obviously thought there was enough chance someone might try to kill us that we needed such elaborate protection.
“Oh good,” he said in the same mocking tone. We exchanged smiles loaded with tension and I wondered whether we’d find a way to act like our usual selves while we were here or if the weight of our situation would keep this atmosphere hanging over us for the duration.
"I'm gunna take a shower," I sighed.
“I'll join you," Taylor said, moving to follow me. I stopped to raise an eyebrow at him as I waited for him to re-think that suggestion. "I mean I'll have one too, in the men's showers. Not with you…obviously." I let him turn a good shade of beetroot before laughing and heading for the promise of hot water.
The shower unit was scarce but functional and I attempted to wash some of the tension from my limbs alongside the shampoo from my hair.
I stepped out and towelled off quickly, though there was no hairdryer so my hair had to remain dripping wet. I dressed in the soft tank top and sweatpants that had been left for me to wear at night then headed back to the dorm. It was the sort of thing I would have worn back home and it made me feel a little more settled in the strange surroundings. Evander's wall was up around his bed so the room was effectively empty. I could still hear the shower running in the men’s bathroom and I chewed on my lip as I waited for my best friend to reappear.
I sat back down on the edge of my bed, refused its offer of privacy and took a deep, calming breath.
What the hell have we gotten ourselves into?
Taylor walked back in a few minutes later wearing similar white sweatpants to mine but he’d gone without a shirt. Back home I'd noticed that his chest had grown a lot broader and his arms had filled out with muscles. But without a shirt to cover him, it was suddenly obvious that our slots in the Health and Wellbeing building's gym had changed him much more than they had me.
My eyes slid over his body and I swallowed down on a lump that caught in my throat. Sometimes it was so easy to see the goofy boy I’d always known when I looked at him, but a man
was slowly taking his place.
Taylor shook his wet hair suddenly, sending a spray of cold water in my direction and I squealed as I dove for the safety of my pillow. He laughed and leapt onto the bed next to me, giving me a playful shove which I responded to with a smack from my pillow.
He snatched it out of my hands, tossing it aside before launching a merciless tickling attack on me which had me screaming for him to stop.
“Please!” I begged through my laughter. “You win!”
He slowed his attack and I instantly lunged forward to tickle him instead.
Taylor gasped with laughter, snatching my wrists into his grasp and pinning them to the mattress above my head as the weight of his body crushed me beneath him.
“Give up,” he taunted as I panted looking up at him.
“Never,” I breathed and he cracked a smile.
His gaze hooked on mine for a long moment and I was suddenly really aware of the way his body was pressed to mine, my legs parted around his hips.
I cleared my throat uncomfortably and nudged him with my knee to make him get off.
He released me instantly, rolling aside and flopping down on his back beside me.
We sat in silence for a while, staring up at the cold ceiling as we stopped giggling and the gravity of our situation sank in on us again.
"I don't want to sleep in a tank on my own tonight," I said quietly, looking at him sideways.
“I could stay." His eyes flicked to mine and back away. "In here, with you. If you like?" He shrugged like he wasn't sure if he should offer.
I considered the single bed and it crossed my mind that curling up in it with him might be a bit strange. But I really didn't want to be alone.
“I would like that," I said finally.