I’ve been going around and around in my head for days, and I can’t explain any of it. Some people are born with the uncanny ability to bend the universe to their will. What Huff has is a whole other ballgame, like he’s evolved to some new level and the rest of us humans haven’t caught up yet.
All I can say is that overnight, he changed. First, the fat melted off his body. Not that he was fat—maybe a little doughy around the middle, though I never said anything to him. Who am I to judge? I eat one cookie and my ass grows two sizes. But all that baby fat of his was gone.
I could tell he’d been trying to get in shape recently. The first day he got here on campus, I noticed his shoulders were broader, and his arms looked toner. Definitely some muscle tone happening.
But after that horrible night with Blake, I swear, it was like his body just popped. Instant puberty. How’s that possible? How? I don’t know.
But the biggest change of all happened inside him. All of a sudden, he saw what I saw all along: a really smart, kind, strong guy. The best.
Over the last week, though, he just kept getting bigger. More ripped. Whatever was in that water worries me.
Is it safe?
Will he get hurt?
I can’t stand thinking about it, because now I’m really falling for Huff despite not wanting to. He’s not going to be able to keep this thing a secret forever—lifting busses, hearing people a mile away, moving through space with his mind? This is some crazy shit. And he’s going to need someone to be there for him. That person is me. But how do I be his best friend and his girlfriend? I don’t know. But I want to figure it out.
“Huff!” I jump from my bed and rush toward him, throwing my arms around his neck. “I don’t know how you got here, but please don’t ever leave me again.”
He holds me tight. “I love you. I don’t even need to hear it back. Because it won’t change how I feel.”
“I love you, too. It feels so good to finally say it out loud.” I push my mouth to his. His warm lips feel like everything that’s been missing from my life. Lust. Need. Acceptance. Unconditional love.
Huff pulls back and stares down at me; his full lips are glossy and shimmery pink from my lipstick.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” I say. “It’s crazy.”
He flashes one of his newer smiles. It’s one part cocky, one part mischief. “It’s crazy not to do it.”
I know he’s right. I’m an idiot if I think I’m going to be able to keep my hands off him any longer. He’s been completely overrunning my dreams—kissing, showers, him stripping me naked and doing so many dirty hot things to me with his insanely huge cock. It was embarrassing to spend my nights with him, seeing us have such hard steamy sex, and then try to look him in the eyes the next day. Especially because I thought he wasn’t interested. “We’re just friends,” he reminded me every chance he got. So I put any thoughts of him and me out of my mind. I wasn’t about to ruin our friendship for something he didn’t want.
Then the evening before the football game, I closed my eyes for five minutes and nodded off. Huff had me pinned on the bed and was going down on me. I came so hard and felt so fulfilled by our intimacy that I wanted to cry when I woke up to an empty bed. I knew I needed him in my life as more than a friend. It wasn’t just about the dreams, but how we felt together in them. Like, we were meant to be together. Free to be ourselves. The love. I’ve never felt more loved by anyone.
I decided I would tell him everything that night. I had to. And then it all went sideways. Blake died. Huff pushed me away. It’s been chaos ever since, and I’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to tell him. The last thing I wanted was to spill my guts and have that memory marred by the ugliness of everything going on lately. Now I realize how stupid that was. I should have told him days ago.
I push myself up on my tiptoes and kiss his soft mouth again. He pulls me against his hard frame, and I feel myself melting into him. His touch sends spikes of tingles and heat right through my stomach, triggering a flurry of butterflies. The feeling is addictive, just like in my dreams.
I pull away and lick my lips, tasting him on my tongue. “I’m really glad you love me, because I’d be in serious trouble if you didn’t.”
He raises a brow.
“Never mind.” I don’t want to tell him that what I feel goes way beyond love. He’s part of me. My heart can’t work right without him in my life.
A loud knock on the door startles us both. “River! We’re being evacuated!”
It’s Meg. One of my sisters. I go to the door and open it.
Her eyes zero in on Huff. “Oh. I didn’t know you were here.”
“Yeah. He, uh, just got here,” I say.
She’s probably wondering how he got inside. The storm is really bad, and the streets are flooding.
“Um,” she shakes her head, “they’re telling everyone in this neighborhood to head for higher ground immediately in case the levy down the road busts. We’re all moving to the basketball stadium. We’re supposed to bring drinking water, a blanket, and some food.”
Ugh. This is a nightmare. One minute, there’s a severe storm heading west of us. The next minute, the thing takes a hard turn and comes straight for our area. It was only the difference of a hundred miles, but how did they mess up that forecast so badly?
Worst of all, they say it’s picking up speed from sixty- to eighty-mile winds. The high winds aren’t wonderful because trees are going down, but this rain is bananas. I’m really worried. My parents are texting me every two seconds, totally freaking out. Plus we have eighteen girls sick in the hospital, and God only knows where Keni is.
Psycho bitch. I knew something was off about her the moment she wanted Blake. He and I went out a few times about a year ago after he transferred in. But wow. Grade A jerk. He actually threatened a busboy at a burger place he took me to, because the poor kid left a glob of ketchup on the table. Blake got it on his sleeve. It was his damned mess, but he told the kid he was going to wait for him after closing and beat him so hard he’d piss blood.
Uh…so not boyfriend material, father material, anything-requiring-a-sliver-of-humanity material.
After that, I told him we wouldn’t be going out anymore. I made the mistake of confiding in Keni and told her he was really toxic—possessive, temper issues, and a general asshole to everyone around him. I almost felt sorry for him after Keni said she’d heard from one of the other girls that Blake was in pain all the time from a leg injury. Then I found out he’d slept with ten other girls in the house already. In a month! And they’d all come to the same conclusion, too: Loser.
It was why no one said anything to me when he asked me out. They were all too ashamed to admit they’d fallen for his little stud-muffin act. But Keni knew. Every damned dirty detail! Because that was when I called a house meeting and the rest of us girls vowed never to withhold such information again, no matter how humiliating.
Keni ignored everything we warned her about. In fact, it seemed to excite her when she learned Blake was such a nasty person.
But that wasn’t the biggest red flag. After ignoring all the warnings about Blake, Keni came in my room and told me that Blake had cried in front of her. She was disgusted by his “vile weakness.”