by C. E. Lashua
“Hey, you hungry?” Maybe I could fix the awkwardness with some food. It always seemed to work in the movies.
Turning around with a huge grin on her face, she beamed at me.
“Yes! I was hoping you’d ask.”
A huge weight lifted off my shoulders in that instant, realizing that she wasn’t mad at me, and I hadn’t ruined anything yet.
“How about pizza? Oh! Or tacos! Tacos sound amazing right now. Hmmm, or… we could do Chinese food. I don’t know, though, pizza sounds pretty good. What do you think?”
Her whole outward monologue had me laughing in relief. She seemed a little eccentric, but in a good way. I could see us being good friends.
A sinking feeling started in the pit of my stomach as the question ‘for how long?’ came into my mind. Refusing to give it the time of day, I pushed it aside.
“Pizza definitely sounds like the best choice,” I agreed. “My treat.”
“Oh, that’s so sweet of you.” Clasping her hands in front of her as if it was her birthday party and she received every present she had asked for. “Now, onto the loaded question-.”
“Pineapple is delicious, but it does not belong on pizza,” I interrupted before she had a chance to ask.
Faking a gasp and holding her hands over her heart as if to prevent her from a heart attack, her eyes went wide. “How could you? It’s the best and most delicious topping there is.”
We launched into a very serious debate about pizza toppings, because obviously mushrooms are the best, and called in our order. Thankfully a lot of businesses around town delivered to the college, we just had to meet them outside.
Our debate was cut short from a call coming through my outdated pre-paid phone, once again receiving strange glances from Jessie.
“I’ll be right back.” I left before she could say anything about that, too, or offer to come down with me.
Chapter Two
The fresh air was a welcoming balm against the stress that was already starting to take root. I could feel it working its way in between my shoulder blades, making a nice little home there against my consent.
Heaving a sigh, I looked around for the delivery guy but couldn’t find his car anywhere.
Maybe I could just tell Jessie the truth. She seemed chill and I’m sure she wouldn’t have had an issue with my background.
Hopefully.
That thought flew right out the window as soon as I remembered all of the teasing looks and jeers I’d get whenever I ventured into town. It was worse on the days when Harmony and Eric would venture with me, which thankfully wasn’t very often. I’d be in a pair of jeans and a normal shirt, whereas they’d have flower crowns on their heads, baggy pants and hemp sweaters. If most of the town didn’t regularly buy pot from them, I’m sure we would’ve been run out of town long before I even had the chance to go to college.
Jarred out of my thought by my cellphone ringing, I looked down to see the number for the pizza guy on display.
“Hello?”
“Hi, yeah. I’m standing outside,” the gruff voice called over the line.
“I’m standing outside the building. Right in the breezeway between the two sides.”
“Breezeway? Are you at the freshman dorms?”
“Yeah.”
“Shit, okay.” I heard the sound of a door opening and closing. “I’ll be right there,” an immediately hung up.
It was getting kind of chilly standing in the crossway, so I took a seat around the corner of the building on one of the benches to wait.
“Oh, fuck, yes.”
The moaning came completely out of nowhere and took me aback. Looking around, I saw the Romeo guy from earlier leaning against the same wall I was sitting against, only about ten feet away.
“Deeper. Take it deeper.”
Instead of a hoard of girls surrounding him, though, there was only one. A petit little blonde, and she was on her knees with her hands slid into the waistline his unbutton pants, clutching onto his ass cheeks. Her head bobbing as her mouth expertly took in the large length of him. And he was large. When she came up for a half of a second for some fresh air, I got a full view of what he was packing, making my insides churn in response. Not in a repulsive way, but more of a curious I-wonder-what-that-feels-like way.
Before I could stop it, a gasp escaped of its own will, as if it wanted me to be seen. The girl was too busy concentrating on her job to notice me there, and I wish I could say the same about the guy. His head whipped around to investigate to catch me full-on gaping at the two of them out in the open sunlight like that. Instead of stopping, he gave me that mischievous smirk and wrapped his hands around her head tighter, thrusting harder, never breaking eye contact. I should’ve left.
I shouldn’t have kept sitting there. It was awkward and a huge intrusion on their privacy but for some reason, I was mesmerized by what I saw.
Romeo, for the life of me, I couldn’t remember what his actual name was, was apparently getting more and more turned on the longer I sat there, too. His gasps became quicker and deeper, matching the rhythm of his thrusts. Until finally, he grabbed the girl’s head in a no-nonsense hold and shoved his full length into her, making her gag around him. Instead of pulling away, though, she held on tighter, squeezing his ass and I’m sure making multiple crescent shapes on his skin in the process.
When his breathing finally slowed down, I came back to my senses a bit and realized what I was doing. Before the crimson could fully touch my cheeks, I was up and back around the corner again, running straight in the pizza guy.
“What the fuck?”
I really wished I had been watching where I was going. Before either of us could react, the pizza was upside down and on its way to the ground.
“Oh, no.” Reaching out, I attempted to grab ahold of the box, but another pair of hands got to it before I did, holding on tight to it.
“Oh geez, thank you so-.” Eternally grateful, because I really didn’t have the extra money to spend on another pizza, I began profusely thanking the mysterious stranger, before I caught a glimpse of who it was.
The asshole from the registration line.
Looking down at me with that superior attitude he was so good at portraying.
The fucking douche canoe. All this vulgar language inside my head was really starting to surprise me. If my parents could’ve heard it, I’m sure they’d be rolling over. Or they’d suggest a smoking session and tell me I needed to calm down.
Maybe they’d be right. Maybe I did need to chill out and give the guy a chance. After all, I didn’t really know him. It was just one bad experience.
“Still can’t pay attention, huh, little dove?”
Scratch that last thought. I wanted nothing more than to poke his gorgeous chocolatey eyes with the corner of the pizza box. The level of instant violence once again surprising me.
“Dove?”
Without another word, he pulled his wallet out and handed the delivery guy a twenty, surprising both of us.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I demanded as the guy hesitated to take the bill.
Not bothering to answer, he gave the same steady stare to the guy until he finally broke and took the money.
“Th-thank you,” he stuttered, reaching into his pocket for the change.
“Keep it.” There was no question. Just a definitive order that was expected to be obeyed.
“Y-yeah-h. Okay. Thank y-you.” With that, the man bowed and left. He actually bowed at the asshole before scurrying back into his car and speeding away.
“What the f-.”
“Careful. You wouldn’t want to ruin that sweet and innocent act you have going on.”
“Act? What are you talking about?”
Now that the delivery guy was gone, Mr. High-and-Mighty turned those brown eyes into steel and bore them down on me. Looking me down from head to toe, I could see the distain clear as day on his perfect features. He leaned a little closer, bending over so his face was in
ches from mine.
“No one acts like you do.”
Uh, what? Trying and failing miserably for something to respond with, I stood there gaping at him for a moment before I felt someone lurking behind me. To be more precise, a set of fingers gently moved my hair back from my face, tucking the strands behind my ear.
Whipping around, I came face to face with none other than the guy who was just getting his rocks off to some poor girl that I’m sure he considered nothing more than a toy to use and abuse.
“Hello, little dove.” The smile he gave was nothing short of sensual and predatory. His black hair hanging in his eyes from his little excursion.
“Don’t call me that.”
“Why not?” The tone was more amused than anything, as if it was funny that I thought I had a choice.
What was with these guys? Did assholes always travel in packs?
“You make it sound so degrading. And I’m not your little anything.”
“Oh, no?” The challenge came from over my shoulder as the playboy smirked again, walking toward the edge of the quad where a patch of flowers was growing. Picking one, he sauntered back over, placing the flower behind my ear so it was holding back my hair.
“You’ll be whatever we want you to be.” His fingers slowly trailed their way from the Daisy, over the tip of my ear, around the lobe, and began playing with strands of my ebony hair.
“No,” I said much more firmly than I was actually feeling. “No, I won’t.”
“Oh, no?” The mystery guy behind me repeated, this time much more menacingly. At this point, my insides were beginning to shake as I contemplated what they wanted from me. I heard horror stories of things that can happen to a person in the city if they’re not careful. Even in my secluded life on the pot farm, it was common knowledge.
“Do you even know who we are?” The mystery guy continued. I shook my head, refusing to back down from his stare. The surprise in his eyes was my only clue that not many people do that.
“Or what we’re capable of?” Another head shake.
“What we’ve done in the past?”
“Or who?” Romeo chimed in.
“Who we’ve got connections with?”
“Or who runs this school?”
“Or who you want to be in good standing with?”
At that point the were rapid firing questions at me so fast, my head was shaking in response just looking back and forth between the two of them.
“You know, Hunter.” Romeo stepped even closer to me, effectively sandwiching me in between their rock-hard bodies, which wasn’t helping my concentration in the least. “I think she’s right.”
“Is she now?” The skepticism in Hunter’s voice was evident without me even needing to look at him. Which was growing increasingly difficult because he was just so damn pretty. Even if he was an ass.
“Yeah.” His fingers kept up their annoying, yet somehow soothing, twirling of my hair. “I think she’s more like a daisy than a dove.”
“How so?”
“Well, she’s definitely innocent and naïve like a dove. But daisies are just so…” He stopped mid-sentence, looking off into space, as if he was searching for the right word. Snapping his free hand, he glanced back down at me with half-lidded eyes. “Fragile.”
The way he said it sent shivers down the length of my spine all the way to the tips of my toes.
“Fragile, huh?” Hunter was contemplative for a moment before continuing. “I suppose fragile and naïve are both good words to describe her.”
“I’m not fragile,” I snapped. I was sick of it. So damn sick and tired of them pretending that I wasn’t there and that my opinion didn’t matter. “And I’m not naïve. I might not be versed in the way of being an upstanding ass-monkey like the two of you, but I do just fine on my own thanks.”
Silence. Frustrating silence met my ears. I was too nervous to look at either of them. I had never spoken out loud to anyone like that before. Usually, my insults were kept buried deep in my thoughts, never to even grace my lips.
“Ass-monkey, huh?” Hunter said. “Maybe this little dove does have some steel after all.” There was no more condemnation waiting for me behind those eyes. Instead, it was something far worse. Curiosity and humor mixed with something akin to a challenge but much more terrifying that I didn’t want to delve any further into. “But even steel can break.” Capturing my attention, refusing to let it go, he finished, “Or melt, if need be.”
My heart was hammering so loud within my chest I was sure one of them would be able to hear it. My ears could, that was for sure. It was making my eardrums thud with each passing second.
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