Chapter 3
Eric
I sit at my usual lunch table in the far back corner of the cafeteria. I’m surrounded by loud hockey players eating like they’ve been starved in captivity for a week. Normally, I would be putting away the sub sandwich in my backpack, but my stomach is too full of dread to add anything else.
Where is she?
Where is Marlow?
I don’t have to stand up to observe the entire cafeteria.
Even sitting down, I can see over the tops of everyone’s heads and I can’t find her among the crowds of students.
But I know she’s probably going to walk in here in two seconds with a fresh, new boyfriend.
Captain of the football team or some shit.
She’s so beautiful and clever and personable and interesting.
There’s no way that four periods passed after we met and some perfect, normal-sized teenage specimen didn’t ask her out.
Something snaps and I look down to find the edge of the lunch table in my hand.
“Damn, Colossal,” says one of my defensemen. “What did the table do to you?”
“Shut up,” I say, sounding ragged.
“Why aren’t you eating?”
“I’m not hungry.”
The entire table stops eating and stares at me.
“I know what’s wrong with him,” says Tony, with a twinkle in his eye. “I was with him in first period physics. Colossal has a crush on one of the new girls.”
My team belts out a bunch of obnoxious shit all at once.
The giant has a crush.
Nah, he’s going to crush her.
Colossal smash.
“Yo, I heard she’s fine as fuck,” pipes up the team captain.
Garrett. Out of everyone on the team, he’s the one who has had the most luck with the opposite sex.
He kissed his virginity goodbye sophomore year and made sure everyone in the locker room knew about it the following morning, down to the finer details. “What’s her name?”
“Marlow,” supplies Tony. “I had first period with them. Can confirm she’s hot as shit.”
“Shut up, Tony,” I growl, ready to rip another chunk out of the table.
“Really.” Garrett is already rubbing his hands together. “Should I shoot my shot with her, boys?”
Everyone throws food at the captain at the same time, though he’s able to block most of the flying crusts and empty pudding cups. “What?” Garrett says, defensively. “She’s not dating Colossal, is she?” He looks at me. “It’s not official, right?”
I should keep my mouth shut and just let fate take its course.
She’s going to date someone like Garrett.
The perfect height, a nice face, a better BMI.
For some reason, though, I feel compelled to alert my team to the stakes here.
Maybe the competitor in me is trying to be heard beneath the pile of self-doubt I’ve buried him under.
Or maybe I’m just so overwhelmed with nerves, my body thinks I’m about to play a hockey game and I just start communicating with my team out of habit.
“Uh.” I blow out a breath that sends empty chip bags flying off the table.
“She might have said she was…a little interested. In me. I told her if I’m still her choice by the end of the day, I’m in.
” Everyone starts shouting at once and slapping me on the back, so I have to talk louder to be heard.
“But it’s not going to happen,” I stress, my face turning burgundy.
“Like I told her, she’s going to find a better guy by the final bell. I know she will.”
“What do you mean, ‘a better guy’?” Tony says around a mouthful of food. Why does he look genuinely perplexed, along with most of my teammates? Why does no one seem to grasp that I’m three times her size? Three times everyone’s size?
“I—”
Whatever I’m going to say dies a swift death in my throat, because Marlow appears among the sea of students, holding a tray.
A tray that contains a carton of chocolate milk and a sleeve of cookies.
Why is that so cute? Holy shit, she’s gotten even prettier, in just a matter of hours.
The whole place is staring at her. Suspended in animation.
Watching the green-eyed brunette with the air of mischief breach the inner sanctum of the cafeteria.
“That’s her, isn’t it?” Garrett whistles. “Oh yeah, I’m definitely shooting my shot.”
Someone chucks a ball of foil at the captain’s head. “Bro, don’t even think about it. That’s Colossal’s girl.”
“No, she’s…” Not my girl? It’s too hard to deny it out loud, because she feels like mine, so I shake my head. “I really don’t think—”
“I’m still single, Eric!” Marlow calls across the busy cafeteria, her chin notched up, eyes twinkling. “Just wanted to let you know.”
My heart rate kicks into the two hundreds, my jaw hitting the floor.
Along with everyone else’s.
Marlow simply smiles and keeps moving to an empty table, as if she didn’t just single me out in front of the entire school. As if she didn’t just make it obvious to everyone that there’s something between us. Right? Did I imagine what she did?
Garrett is suddenly sitting beside me, but I can’t acknowledge him, because I’d have to take my eyes off Marlow, who sits down primly on the bench at one of the picnic style tables and crosses her incredible legs, the tops of her stockings just visible enough to get my balls throbbing. Right there in the cafeteria.
“Colossal,” Garrett starts, elbowing me in the side, though I barely feel it. “I’ve got a plan. Want to hear it?”
“No.”
“I’m going to tell you anyway.” He leans forward on his elbows. “You told Marlow if she doesn’t pick someone else by the end of the day, it’s on, right? Why not put her to the test and see if she rejects me, the ultimate catch? That way you’ll never have to wonder if she has a wandering eye.”
As Garrett is speaking, two girls have joined Marlow at her lunch table.
They look alike, but nothing like Marlow.
They’re redheads, for one. Second, there is none of her magic attached to them or written on their slightly pinched features, which really shouldn’t be surprising, because I’ve never met anyone in this world with her kind of magic.
But my curiosity is piqued when they seem to separate themselves from Marlow, even though they’re carrying on a conversation with her. There’s tension between them.
Are those her stepsisters?
“Colossal, are you listening?”
“Yes,” I lie. I mean, I’m mostly lying. I heard the gist—and I hate it, but maybe Garrett is right?
Maybe in some crazy twist, I’ll get a chance with Marlow.
Won’t I always be worried she would have chosen a guy like Garrett, if given the opportunity?
Maybe the viable candidates in her other classes haven’t gotten a chance to speak with her yet?
“You want to go ask her out?” I say, sounding like there’s a layer of sand in my throat.
“For your sake, buddy.”
“Right.” He’s waiting for my permission, and I don’t want to give it to him. In fact, I feel like I’m being sawed in half. “I don’t really have the right to stop you, do I?”
“Exactly.” Garrett slaps me on the back and stands up, cracking his knuckles. “Watch and learn, my friend.”
I feel physically sick watching Garrett swagger toward Marlow’s table.
When he stops at the edge of it and smiles at her, I gulp down a spiked ball of jealousy.
They look good together. Of course they do.
The hotshot forward with clothes that fit him properly and the sexy brunette fairy with a bow in her hair.
He says something to Marlow, but to my surprise, she ignores him.
As in, doesn’t respond or even make eye contact.
Instead, her brow is furrowed and she’s highly concentrated on opening the entire top of her chocolate milk carton, so she can dunk her cookies.
My heart is hammering so hard, I try to slow it down with a grinding fist to the center of my chest. Oh my God, she’s so cute, she’s going to give me a heart attack, isn’t she?
Garrett, however, not to be deterred, especially with the whole team watching, takes a seat next to Marlow, ducking a little to catch her eye.
Without looking at the captain, she points to the redheads and mouths something.
Then she gathers all of her things and walks out of the cafeteria.
But not before she stops briefly at the end of my table, popping part of a cookie into her mouth. “Nice try, Eric.” She dusts the crumbs off her fingers. “But I know what I want.”
She winks at me and keeps walking, sending my team into a full meltdown.
They’re diving across the table to shake my shoulders, yelling in my face.
Happy for me.
Of course they are, I have apparently done the impossible.
I’ve landed a girl so far out of my league, we’re not even in the same stratosphere.
I’ve never experienced this…this combination of dumbfounded and hopeful and…
excited. My God, I’m excited, also known as I’ve got a semi that is quickly turning into a full erection.
Again. Second time today. Jesus, who could blame me when she flounces out of the cafeteria in that little skirt, knowing her stockings end only a couple inches below her tight ass?
When she has the bravery to claim me in front of my whole team, not even remotely intimidated by these goons?
I get up and follow her, even though I can barely feel my legs or the backpack slung over my shoulder. I follow her out of the cafeteria, into the empty hallway, down to the end where it curves to the right…and I find Marlow waiting for me.
“How do you feel about not waiting for the final bell?” she asks.
I drop my backpack and reach for her.