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“I’ll drop you off here,” he says. “I have to go park.”
He is a nice guy. “Thanks, Lucas. I really appreciate the ride.”
His eyes sparkle as he grins. “They’re having a kegger at my frat this weekend. We’re short on pretty girls.”
I push open the door, hoping I won’t have to say yes. “I’ll think about it. Thanks.”
I hurry through the gates toward my Fundamentals of Communication class in Levin Hall. I’m late, but it’s a lecture class. So, I can slip into the back without disrupting the professor. My steps are measured, as the hairs on the back of my neck start to rise. I shiver a little and pick up the pace. Lately, I get this weird feeling that I’m being watched. Is Lucas watching me walk to class? I’m being silly and suspicious for no good reason. Lucas is probably sitting in his SUV staring at my ass. Maybe I should just go out with him.
The main path splits off into three directions, and Levin Hall is to the left. As I turn, I glance back at the gate, and Lucas’ SUV is long gone. I know I look good in these jeans, but I’m being a conceited ass. He’s not sweating me enough to miss a class. I continue down the path, but I keep staring back at the road. There’s no one there, but that paranoid feeling won’t leave me alone. Not when I expect to seehimwatching me.
In class, the professor looks directly at me when I stretch my mouth and yawn. I recover quickly, while sinking down into my seat. Professor Glenkin averts his gaze and raises his voice, but he's still boring. My imagination wanders off into a daydream that I have when I still think abouthim.
***
"Do you live here?" I approach the little boy with black hair standing alone on the pier.
He shakes his head but doesn't raise his gaze. He keeps fidgeting with something in his hands. The dark leather on the cylinder looks worn with age.
"What is that thing?" I ask, leaning into his personal space.
He holds it out to me, and I take it in my hands. I peer through the lens at the end, and a shifting pattern of bright shards of glass in white, blues, and greens shift as I turn it. I gasp out loud, pleased with the patterns that resemble glitter when pointed up at the sky.
"It's a kaleidoscope." His voice is barely louder than a whisper. He seems really shy, not like me. My dad keeps telling me I'm louder than a roomful of grown-ups.
I hand it back to him and smile. "It's pretty," I tell him. "It sparkles just like your eyes."
Chapter Two
Olivia
“My classes are boring, but there are a couple of cute guys in most of them.”
I hold my tongue while my roommate Amanda Reyes lists the attributes of every guy she thinks has boyfriend potential in each one of her freaking classes. She swears they’re all smart, stable, and burning hot after knowing them for a week. Amanda always does this. I just hope she doesn’t sleep with all of them before settling on one.
Amanda drones on almost non-stop as we walk to the Wakehurst Student Center, located near the freshmen dorms. We walk past Hillier Dorm, where we roomed together our first year. Sophomore year, we’re living together but off-campus. With our combined incomes of less than nothing, we ended up in a downtown rental where walking through our neighborhood is a perpetual walk of shame. Unfortunately, neither one of us had the sense to pledge to a sorority for better housing. And rents in the nice parts of Middleworth are as much as tuition for the year.
“I have to figure out whether he’s gay or not,” she continues. “Maybe he’s bi.”
I sigh loudly on purpose. “Maybe you should figure out if he’s even worth knowing first. By the way, Lucas’ frat is having a party this weekend.”
Amanda’s face lights up. “We have to go there. You know, if you dated him, you wouldn’t have to worry about housing or transportation.”
I wince. “I’m not dating some guy so I can be taken care of. I’ll go into debt like everyone else.”
“And finish paying it off when you’re fifty?” Amanda grabs my wrist and leads the way to the food court. “It’s okay to give and receive. And you need to learn how to receive more.”
We find a small table with two chairs in the corner, and I insist upon sitting with my back to the wall. I can’t shake this creeped-out feeling of being watched. It’s not the same feeling as when a cute guy is checking out a girl. I don’t want to walk a little slower to exchange glances with whoever is watching me. No, this is a disgusting feeling that crawls over my skin and makes me want to hide behind a locked door.
“Oh boy.” Amanda’s big brown eyes are even bigger when she stares. Instantly, I look in the direction she’s gawking and hope it’s nothing. I pray quickly that nothing is wrong, and we don’t have to run for cover.
Lucas walked into the food court with a stack of textbooks under his arms. Every text is available in digital, but he claims to like the feel of a book in his hands. Yeah right. He wants to show off his biceps while he carries a load of them. An older woman follows closely behind and points to a table with a banner advertising the school clubs. Lucas places the stacks down, and she fawns over him as if she’s going to have an orgasm then faint dead on the floor.
Fuck. He looks right at me and smiles like he just caught me checking him out. I turn around and glare at Amanda, who is gazing with her lips parted.
“I don’t know why you don’t go out with him,” she says, taking in his eye candy. “I mean even once. He looks like the type of man that will do all the work. God, his dick must be huge.”
“Mandi.” I hiss as Lucas strolls over. He grabs a chair from a nearby table, turns it so the back is facing our table, and then straddles it. Great, a visual of him below the waist is lodged in my mind as my face heats up. I want to punch Amanda in the shoulder as she giggles like a lunatic.
