Untamed

Saving grace

I frowned at the dripping sound of water. My eyes fluttered open and then I noticed that our floor was covered by a layer of water. "What the?" I mumbled pushing myself upright. A knock on the door startled me and lightly woken up my roommates.

I got up from my bed and made my way over to the door where I found a man standing in front of me. "I need you and your roommates to collect your stuff and head out. We have a burst pipe in the building." The man said without any introductions. 

I shut the door and found Ruby and Janelle awake. "What the heck?" Ruby exclaimed when her feet hit the wet floor.

"There is a burst pipe. They want us to evacuate." I informed them grabbing a bag and throwing in clothes. Everything was still fine last night. There was no sign of a burst pipe. 

"Where the hell do they want us to go?" Janelle asked getting up from her bed and starting throwing clothes into her bag. 

I shrugged. "No idea," I answered.

We got our things and headed out. We found most of the girls outside on the lawn. We looked like a bunch of zombies that got woken up from the dead with our bed hair and still dressed in our pj's. 

"How long is this going to take? I need to get ready for class." Janelle whined looking at the plumbers entering our building.

"We all need to get to class." Ruby corrected her.

"Nobody asked you." Janelle bit back.

"Would you two cut it out?" I scolded pushing them apart.

I looked at the road when a familiar red Ram pick-up truck with some kind of bike strapped to the back pulled up. The driver rolled down the window and I bit back a groan when my eyes landed on the driver.

“We meet again,” Travis said smirking.

Janelle gave me a questioning look. “Am I missing something or do you know each other?” She asked.

“We met at the beach when he knocked a volleyball into my head,” I told her.

“Wait,” Janelle muttered. “Travis is the i***t…OH!” She almost exclaimed quite loudly. She clamped her hand over her mouth but it was all out before she could cover it up.

I wanted to strangle her.

"Did I miss out on some kind of slumber party?" He asked taking in all the girls sitting next to the sidewalk.

At least he didn’t have some smug reply or maybe he just pretended that he didn't hear Janelle's outburst. 

"Burst pipeline," I answered.

"That sucks." He replied.

"You have no idea." Ruby snorted.

"I can offer you guys a shower and coffee at my place." He offered.

He didn’t have to ask me twice. The mention of coffee and I was more than willing to go wherever he takes us. I picked up my and Ruby’s bags and threw them on the back of his truck.

"You joining us or what?" I asked Janelle as I opened the passenger door while Ruby already climbed in at the back.

"Coffee does sound good to me." She picked up her bag threw it in the back and scooted in next to Ruby. I got into the passenger seat and shut the door.

"I know this is going to sound like an insult but I've never had so many girls in my truck." Travis joked putting the car in drive before driving us over to his place.

"Are you still competing?" Janelle asked him from the backseat.

"You still remember? That's a surprise." He replied looking at her in the review mirror. "But yeah, I still do." He answered her.

He then looked at me when he caught me looking at him. He was dressed in some kind of track pants and a tank top that showed off his muscular arms and his sleeve tattoo. "Mind want to strap in, sugar. Don't want to get a fine because you decided to break the rules." I ignored him but did as he asked. He is already helping us out might as well comply.

A few moments later we pulled up in front of a house. “You don’t live on campus?” I asked him.

He shook his head. “Fraternity?” I then asked but he shook his head once again.

“Come on.” He said opening his door.

We complied and followed in pursuit. He helped us with our bags and invited us into his place. It almost looked as if it was a bachelor’s pad. “You and your father still not sharing the same perspective?” Janelle asked him.

“He still believes that my passion is foolish.” He answered her.

"One of the bathrooms are down the hall. The other is unfortunately in my bedroom." He said turning to us.

"So, one of you girls are going to have to pull a short straw." He suggested.

Janelle and Ruby looked at me. "Guess that would be me," I said picking up my bag.

He nodded and then showed me to his room. It was no surprise when I found his bed unmade but other than that his room was spotless.

"Bathroom is through there." He said and then shut the door behind him.

I got dressed and made my way back down the stairs. I placed my bag down and found Travis in the kitchen.

"Hey." He greeted. "That was quick.” He said handing me a cup of steaming hot coffee.

"You saved me." I thanked and then brought the cup up to my lips taking a sip.

I hummed in pure bliss as the coffee slipped down my throat. "Good?" He asked quirking an eyebrow.

"You have no idea," I replied making him chuckle.

 "I'm just going to clean up, tell the girls that their coffees are in there." He said motioning to the microwave. 

"Thanks, I will." He left the kitchen and made his way back to his bedroom.

Janelle joined me after a short while in the kitchen. She got herself a cup of coffee and joined me at the counter when we heard a scream. We looked at each other before getting up from the counter to investigate.

"Jeez, sorry! I didn't know you were in there." We caught a guy yelping as Ruby chased him out of the bathroom. He looked up when he caught us looking at him.

"What the hell is going on? This I miss something?" He asked running his hand through his hair. Janelle and I couldn't hold in our laughter any longer as we realized what just happened.

"Sorry, Travis probably forgot to mention that he was helping us out," I told him with a sheepish smile.

"Yeah, that would have been a great heads-up." He replied.

"I'm Jaylin. This is Janelle. And that's Ruby in there." I introduced.

"Zack." He replied just as the door opened.

"Have you ever heard about knocking?" Ruby snapped at him.

"I live here." He informed her.

"Still, it won't hurt. You almost saw me naked." She scolded.

"I think I saw pretty much enough." Not the right words. 

Ruby tackled him with slaps and punches.

"Ruby, no!" Janelle exclaimed as we tried to pull her away from the guy.

"Hey, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the way you look." Zack continued ruffling her feathers.

"Dude, do you want to die?" I asked creating distance between him and Ruby.

He then looked at her and smiled. "Where have you been all my life?" He asked Ruby while Janelle held her away from him. Ruby actually looked surprised at him.

"Hey, what's going on?" Travis asked walking up to us. 

We all looked at him. "Your buddy here walked in while I was getting dressed," Ruby said to him.

Travis looked at Zack with a quirked eyebrow.

"Hey, don't look at me like that. You forgot to mention that you brought three girls over to our place." Zack replied.

"Yeah, that is my bad. I just thought everyone was already in class." He admitted.

Ruby slapped him on the arm when she walked past him. He just smiled at her. "Still aggressive as ever." He teased her. 

"Butt out, Travis." She replied.

 "You know Ruby?" I asked him.

"Yeah, we go way back." He answered smiling.