I glared at Beth’s shoulder-length brown hair, pin-straight and not at all affected by the humidity. “I don’t know how you get your hair to stay so straight in this kind of weather,” I mumbled, grabbing my brush off the bathroom counter and wincing as it got caught in the tangles of my hair. I sighed and set the brush back down. It was only making my hair look worse. “This is ridiculous. I look like a fucking poodle.”
Beth laughed again. “Is it wrong that I’m kind of enjoying this?” Looking back and forth between her reflection and mine, she smirked. “So this is what it feels like to finally be the hot one. I gotta say, it feels pretty good.”
I rolled my eyes. “Are you done?”
“All right, all right, I’ll help you.” She patted the countertop. “Sit.” She reached into her toiletry bag and pulled out a small red bottle.
I hopped up onto the countertop, watching as she squeezed a small amount of clear liquid into her palm. She rubbed it between her hands and worked it into my hair. “You nervous?”
Yes.
I shrugged, aiming for indifference. “Not really. You?”
“Not so much nervous. More like dread.”
My brows pulled together as I watched her work. She didn’t meet my eyes. “Why are you dreading today? You were so excited last night, and all, ‘First day of college, woo-hoo!’ ” I did a fist-pump into the air, completing my impression of Beth from last night.
She fought the smile tugging on her lips and stepped back a little, her green eyes looking over her work. She made another couple adjustments, fluffing my hair as she said, “I was also mildly intoxicated last night, so excuse me if I got a little too happy. I would’ve been equally as excited about a bug or the moon.”
“Is this about Josh?”
Her eyes grew wide. “What? No.”
I rolled my eyes. “Look, I know we’ve only known each other for a couple days, but…it’s really obvious you’re into him.”
She winced. “It is?”
I nodded. “Sorry.”
“Ugh, this is exactly why I didn’t want to go to an in-state school!”
I frowned, thinking back to what she’d said last night. “I thought you liked having some friends here.”
“Yeah, some friends,” she mumbled as she left the bathroom. “Not Josh,” she called from the living room. “You’re so lucky you get to go to school halfway across the country. And I’m stuck here, an hour away from where I grew up, because my parents couldn’t afford out-of-state tuition.”
I felt for her, I really did. I couldn’t wait to get out of Dallas and live someplace new and exciting… Well, new at least. Coming from Dallas, I wouldn’t exactly call Potomac Ridge “exciting.” But it was only an hour and a half away from Washington, DC, so I didn’t think it was too far in the boonies. Plus, it snowed here in the winter. Real snow that stuck to the ground until it reached several feet high, not an occasional five-minute flurry that turned to slush as soon as it hit the ground. What was exciting about this place was its freedom. I was on my own here, for the first time in my life.
“Shit. Em, hurry up, we needed to leave five minutes ago!”
I hopped down from the counter, pausing to check Beth’s work in the mirror. My once unruly frizz had turned into defined waves. It actually looked pretty good.
Beth stuck her head inside the bathroom. “Move it, sweet cheeks, we gotta haul ass.”
The lecture hall’s door swung open as two pairs of feet padded in and halted. Hushed voices argued back and forth.
“Go on,” a girl said.
“What? Why me? You go,” a second girl retorted.
The corner of my mouth lifted as I tapped my pen on my desk. The girls were five minutes late for our sociology class, and as I stared down at the sea of descending students, I saw their dilemma. There were only two open seats. One was in the front row, right in front of Professor Rosso. The other seat was next to me–the end seat in the very last row of the gargantuan lecture hall.
I craned my neck to look past the doorframe on my left, seeing the backs of the girls. One was pixie-like in stature, with short brown hair and tan skin. From behind, she kinda looked like a twelve-year-old boy in drag. The other girl…well, damn. Atop a pair of toned milky white legs, she had an ass you bounce a quarter on, and long shiny hair that reached the middle of her back in dark waves.
Oh man, I bet it was soft. I bet it smelled good, too. All girls had this uncanny ability to smell just…awesome. Like sugar and spice and everything nice, only less lame.
My eyes slid closed as I inhaled, drawing in deep pulls of air. I imagined burying my face in her hair as I took her from behind, her exquisite ass meeting me thrust for thrust–