Chapter Two #2
I spy the vending machine near where they’re standing and I’m suddenly all too thirsty – parched, really.
I get up while pulling out my wallet from my back pocket, try not to run over, and stand in front of the vending machine, looking at all of the soda and juice choices while simultaneously watching when Axel asks what she would like to eat.
She doesn’t say anything, but her honey eyes flick over to the spaghetti and back up at her brother. He asks for two servings.
Fuck yeah, my girl likes to eat.
My girl.
Raven Monroe. Raven Monroe-Anderson. Raven Anderson.
I like it. Sounds good. Perfect, even.
I punch in the number to get a bottle of water, so she doesn’t catch me staring and then the hypnotizing scent of berries, jasmine, violets and amber with a twist of cinnamon hits me.
Sweet and Spicy. I knew she would smell better than that trash vanilla all the girls here wear.
I stand straight and lock eyes with a caramel gaze so thick I want to drown in them.
I barely register that she’s about a foot shorter than me.
Fuck. I love that. I can pick her up and throw her around like a rag doll.
“Hi, I’m Jonas.” I flash her my flashiest smile.
She looks at the water bottle in my hands and then turns to face the vending machine without a word. She shoves in a black credit card and punches in the code to get a strawberry-apple Snapple. I can’t help but wonder if that’s how her pussy tastes. Strawberries and apple pussy? I’m game.
The drink tumbles down and she does the same for a Coke.
Once they’re both waiting for her, she bends a little, and pops right back up, drinks in hand.
No nail polish. Those twin honey embers flicker back up to me when Axel reaches us with a to-go bag.
Oh, she’s not eating in here. I can’t awkwardly gawk at her and watch her feed those lush curves.
This is depressing.
“Ready?”
She blinks and walks away from me, taking the scent of jasmine and berries and I fight myself so hard not to follow it.
Fuck I need more of it.
I get back to my seat with the twins.
“Fuck, she got fat. I guess that’s what happens when they don’t let you out to exercise at crazy prison.” Chase chirps with a stupid grin .
I kick him under the table. “She’s not fat. Did you see the muscles on her legs? Fuck. She’s practically a muscle mommy.”
“Other parts of her, dude. Other parts of her are fat.” He argues, pointing at his arm. “Bat wings.”
I have to fight the urge to kick him under the table. If he didn’t need his legs for football, I’d break them.
“What did she say to you?” Riordan, the twin I actually like asks, changing the subject.
“Fucking nothing.” I grumble.
“I guess the rumors are true.”
“Won’t know until Monday, will we?” I push my tray still loaded with food away. This is madness. How am I not going to eat just because she didn’t speak to me? Don’t I wish more girls wouldn’t speak to me? Why do I want her to? Because she’s not a girl. She’s a little goddess.
Careful, Jonas. Don’t obsess. Remember what happened last time.
She’s not her , brain.
______
It rains so hard on Sunday; it’s coming down in sheets and we can barely see.
Our practice scrimmage gets canceled during the middle of it.
We head inside from the practice fields and into the athletic building where the locker rooms are.
I take my time to shower and change and take so long that I’m the last one out.
The rain has ceased but not by much. I pull the hood from my raincoat up when I see a certain sexy little brunette headed into the woods where the trails to reach the library are.
The library that has her family’s surname. I tell myself I’m following her to make sure she gets there safely. With no Axel around, I’ll protect her. Except in the middle of her journey she takes a right off the trail.
Taking the path less traveled little ghost? I want to ask but stay quiet.
I stay a good twenty paces behind her, the path in the woods completely covered in trees is practically dry.
Moist in some areas where the branches overhead don’t connect but it’s mostly dry.
Bright green moss and mushrooms cover the bases of the tree trunks, vines also crawl along them and I’m fully aware of every twig on the ground.
I don’t step over them, so I don’t snap them.
I’m six-foot-four and weigh two hundred and forty-seven pounds.
I should probably make myself known, announce myself, but it’s too late now. Now I’ll just look like a fucking creep. Which I’m not. I’m just protecting her.
She moves like a phantom in her little black and white high-tops.
She’s wearing jeans this time, and I suddenly miss her skirt.
She reaches a gravel shore I didn’t know about and keeps moving forward.
I stay on the tree line and catch my breath when my specter, in this pouring late-August rain, removes her raincoat, her shoes, her shirt, and finally those skintight jeans and walks on to what looks to be a dock in nothing but lace black boy short panties and a matching bra.
I was right I was right I was right .
Her ass is perfection. She doesn’t have a super athletic build but the defined muscles in her thighs don’t give away from how strong they are.
She has a narrow waist that isn’t very narrow, and she definitely has meat on her bones.
There is strength in her arms probably from playing the cello.
Yes, I did go to my dorm and watch her old performances RMU had posted on their YouTube channel. She is incredible.
She dives in.
I was wrong. She’s not a specter or a ghost. She’s a swan. The most beautiful swan I ever did see. I decide I can be a swan.
Once in the water, she throws something on the dock, and I gulp. It’s her bra. Another plop and I can’t breathe. She’s fully naked in the pond .
After fifteen minutes or so, my legs push forward on their own and now, I’m just in my boxers, standing on the dock, watching her float on her back, pink nipples down to her navel rising out of the water, droplets of rain landing and bouncing off, little ripples of water with each drop, with the top of her head to me, completely unaware of me.
“Mind if I join you?” I ask.
Tensing, she slowly stops floating and lets her lower body sink, looking anywhere but at me.
I bend forward and pick up her undergarments, hold them up and put a cool smirk on my face.
I am anything but cool right now. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep mine on, I’ll stick to my end of the pond and we don’t have to talk. ” I reassure her.
She visibly relaxes and swims a little farther out.
The water is ice-cold when I jump in but warms up when I get used to it. I decide to float, and she does, too. And that’s how we spend Sunday morning together. Floating. In the rain. Not talking. It’s the best Sunday I’ve ever had.
______
“It’s too late to switch your classes, Mr. Anderson.”
Words I don’t want to hear.
“Miss Overly, I’m sure you know these are special circumstances and I wouldn’t bother you if it wasn’t important. Axel asked me to keep an eye out for her and if our schedules align, even just a little, it will mean a lot to both the Monroe's and the Andersons.”
Oh yeah, I pulled out the big guns. I’ve never used my last name to pull rank over something or someone. I don’t even care for my last name, either. But this afternoon, after floating until I was pruned and shivering with my ghost, I was never happier to have my last name.
Rita shoves her glasses up the bridge of her nose and lets out a soft exhale. “The most I can do is switch you over to Professor Harrington's for Criminal Psychology II, which you’ll need either way for your bachelor’s in political science, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday.”
I get to see her three days out of the week, then. “Thank you, Miss Overly. You’re the best.”
“Oh, and Mr. Anderson?” She says before I have a chance to escape the admin office.
“Yes?”
Dark eyes peer at me over her dark framed glasses but she’s lowered her voice. “You’re still required one hour of therapy once a week after classes starting next week.”
I tense. “I thought Dr. Brown retired? ”
“Yes, we have a new psychiatrist. Doctor Damon Archer.”
I nod, remembering the BMW I watched pull into the faculty parking lot. “Okay. I’ll make sure to make an appointment with Dr. Archer.”
She beams at me. “Perfect. I’ll let him know to be expecting you to pass by his office.”
Shit.
All good feelings gone.