As the rain began to die down they both realized just how soaked they were.
"Is your dorm room around here?" he asked in a deep, warm voice that made Rory feel safe.
"No." she responded still laughing, now at the prospect of having to trudge back to her dorm on the other side of campus in the mud with wet, heavy clothing. It didn't matter. She just laughed. Everything was funny with Tade.
"I'm just around the corner. Do you want to come dry off with me before journeying back to your place?" he asked not only to be polite, but because he was afraid of this girl walking away from him and disappearing into thin air.
"Sure." She replied without any hesitancy although she would usually be reluctant about going back to a stranger's room. But Tade wasn't a stranger.
He grinned again, glad that he wouldn't lose her just yet. As they walked back to his room, he noticed that she kept sliding around in her flip-flops, constantly about to fall over. He let out a loud exclamation of laughter and stopped walking. He crouched down and turned to Rory who by now had acknowledged his odd behavior and stopped.
"You're going to hurt yourself. Climb on." He said indicating his back with a nod of his head.
"That's really ok. You don't need to carry me. I'll be fine." She said with a small blush.
"I insist. It's not that far but I only have three band-aids on me and don't like seeing people get hurt so please just accept my offer." He said crouching lower.
"Fine." She was still blushing as she climbed on his back trying desperately not to be heavy although she knew this was impossible.
Once she was on, he stood up with his hands clasped under her knees and hers around his shoulders. She wasn't too heavy at all and he started to walk them back to his room. Out of habit he started to whistle as he walked not even conscious that he was doing it. She heard him begin to whistle a very familiar tune that she couldn't seem to place. He was a great whistler. Most people were rather annoying when they whistled, but with Tade it was an art. Suddenly she realized what the tune was and began to laugh. It was the song, "The Bear Necessities" from Disney's "The Jungle Book." He turned to look at her when he heard her laughter.
"What?" he asked completely oblivious as to what could be causing this laughter. It wasn't the sort of laughter that came from just being happy, it was the kind of laughter that was obviously in reaction to something else and he wanted to know what it was so that he could join in the hilarity.
"Nothing, Baloo." She returned with a pointed smile.
When he realized what she had been laughing about he smiled and began to whistle again.
As they reached the building in which his room was, Rory was preparing for him to put her down so that he could open the doors, but instead he just stretched his right arm farther behind him and took a hold of her behind so that he could use his left arm to open the doors while still keeping her on his back. At first she was very uncomfortable with having his large hand holding onto her ass, but when she saw that he didn't find this awkward at all she just felt silly getting embarrassed.
Once in his room, he walked them over to the bed where he sat down and let Rory slide off of his back. She had a fleeting moment of discomfort when she realized that she was straddling his waist but was soon distracted by the contents of his room. First of all, he had a single room. It also appeared that he had not only brought his own mattress but his own king sized bed. On one wall he had a large tapestry of sorts with the image of a desert scene woven into it. On the wall across from the bed was a flat screen television with shelves and shelves of movies and books underneath. On the other wall there were two large windows with white, flowing curtains and Venetian blinds. The last wall had the door they came in through and another closed door. She didn't know Yale even had rooms like this.
Tade stood up slowly as he realized that he had some how trapped Rory into straddling him. He didn't mind this. In fact, he quite enjoyed it, but he had just met this girl and he wanted to be polite. He opened the other door in the room to reveal his own personal bathroom. He took off his shirt and began to towel himself off.
"How did you get your own bathroom?" Rory blurted before she suddenly noticed that Tade had taken off his shirt, exposing his beautifully sculpted dark chest. She felt a blush sweep across her cheeks, but he looked unfazed as he handed her a towel.
"Oh," he laughed, "my father pulled a few strings. I asked him not to but he wouldn't hear of me using a communal bathroom.
Rory wiped her arms and neck with the towel and then she noticed the golden monogram on the corner of the towel. "Rich?" Why could she not control her mouth when she was with this boy? Her blush grew stronger and looked away, but he merely laughed again.
"Yeah. He is quite a wealthy man." He didn't seem pompous when he said it. He made her stop feeling embarrassed about her questions. He didn't mind. He was used to it. After another moment of just smiling he noticed that she was shivering. "Oh, I'm sorry. You must be freezing." He took a new down quilt out of a box on the floor and handed it to her. She accepted it gratefully. "Would you like a change of clothing?
"UhÉ" Rory was a little unsure of how she was meant to respond. How was she supposed to get a change of clothing from a six-foot man?
"I don't really know how to help about the pants situation, but at least I can give you a t-shirt." He said noticing her apprehension. He dug through another box for a moment before bringing out a pack of white, Hanes t-shirts. "Sorry they're not nicer, but I just really like to go simple with my t-shirts." He handed her a single shirt and urged her to take it with a smile.
"Thanks," she returned with a shy smile as she stood to take the shirt and moved to change in the bathroom. As she moved past him, her arm grazed his still bare abs and a soft glowing feeling took over their bodies. He shut the door behind her to give her some privacy and he went to go stretch out on the bed.
"Wow," he mumbled to himself.
On the other side of the door, Rory had taken a moment to sit on the edge of the bathtub. "Wow," she breathed.