Colleen hands him the key to the upstairs apartment and points to the entrance from the shop. “There’s also a staircase outside, so you can come and go that way as well.”
“Thanks,” Callan says. “I won’t be any trouble.”
1992
Falls Village, Maine
Diana pulled up outside of Colleen’s home in Falls Village and honked her horn. Kim turned the CD off before Dorothy came to the door and told them to be careful. She wanted Colleen in the car when Alanis Morissette’s hidden track started. It’s one of their favorites to scream-sing to while driving around town.
“Hey, girls,” Dorothy yelled and waved from the door. “Colleen will be out in a minute. She’s on her third outfit change so she should be good after only one more.”
Colleen can never just put something on anymore and be happy with the way she looks. If it wasn’t one flaw, it was another. If she found a shirt that made her waist look narrow, it made her boobs look saggy. If a shirt made her boobs look fabulous, it inevitably made her look like she had a muffin top. And don’t get her started about how her jeans now buckled in the waist above her ample ass.
“Bye, Ma,” Colleen said as she jogged past her mother. “We’ll be back in a little while, then we’re going out later tonight.”
“Have fun shopping,” Dorothy said.
“I was wondering what you told her,” Diana said then Kim raised the volume as they pulled out of Colleen’s driveway and the girls sang along with the angst-ridden singer, changing the words like they often did to reflect their own real-life dramas.
Giggling at their horrible singing abilities and lack of creativity in making their own lyrics, they pulled out of Colleen’s road and headed onto Main Street, then up the hill to the abandoned castle on the edge of the cliff. Not the Ingram’s castle that they party at with Tommy, the other castle in Falls Village, the one that is no longer visible to the town inhabitants.
“This was the greatest idea you’ve ever had, Coll,” Kim said. “No one will ever find us up here.”
“Did you remember all the decorations we bought?” Colleen asked.
“Yeah, I put them in the truck while my mother was in the shower,” Diana said.
As the car pulled into the driveway, it filled with complete silence as the girls saw someone on the basketball court just to the right of them.
Kim finally swallowed and found her voice to ask, “Who the hell is that and where did he come from?”
“I don’t know,” Diana said. “I assumed only I was seeing him and had died and gone to heaven. He’s amazing!”
Colleen remained speechless as her eyes scanned the guy playing basketball.
He’s definitely not from Falls Village.
What he was, was at least six feet tall and a walking hard slab of muscle.
The most perfect male specimen Colleen had ever seen is shirtless, his ribbed abdomen exposed and his bottom half in, of all things, gray sweats that have been cut into shorts. They’re just loose enough that they don’t restrict him from jumping into the air or jetting side to side, but tight enough in the most important part.
“He’s wearing gray sweats.” Kim sighed. “And look at his…”
HONK!
Diana accidently leaned on the horn and caused the girls to screech while the guy on the court stopped, mid-dribble, to turn around and stare at them.
Palming the balls in his large hands, he approached the car and Colleen realized that he was much younger than his body had made her originally believe. She would guess he wasn’t much older than her, if at all.
“Holy shit! What the hell is wrong with you?” Colleen exclaimed. “He saw us gawking at him and now he’s heading over here.”
“I thought you said no one lived here,” Diana said. “We’re going to be in so much trouble.”
Colleen wanted to send her a glare, but she found that she could not take her eyes off the approaching guy; his smooth dark brown skin with the most perfect golden undertones lit up his smile. His eyes, dark like the color of espresso, were expressive and focused on her.
“Hey,” he said with a lift of his chin and a smirk that revealed dimples. “’Sup? Um, sorry about being here. This your place?”
The girls shook their heads in unison, all unable to form a simple two letter word.
He smiled and adjusted himself as Colleen’s eyes lost their battle and glanced to his crotch. “I’m Teyler. I’m on vacation and got bored with my parents. I went for a walk and…” He shrugged as if there was no other explanation needed once he pointed out the court behind him.
“You took your balls with you on a walk?” Kim asked then covered her face when she heard what she’d just said.
“Christ,” Colleen mumbled as the guy smirked at their giggling.
He leaned his muscular, corded forearms on the ledge of Colleen’s window. “I always take my balls with me,” Teyler deadpanned.
“I can’t say I blame him,” Diana said. Kim smacked her and Colleen groaned. “I wouldn’t let them out of my sight either.”
“One of you live here?” he asked again.
Finally, Colleen came to her senses and opened her car door to climb out. She stood in front of Teyler, coming up to his defined chest, feeling tiny for the first time in ages. “Um, ah,” she stuttered. “Nope. This place has been abandoned forever. We’re having a party here tonight.”
“You should come,” Diana said.
“Oh, I’ll make him…”
Colleen backhanded Kim before she finished her offer then she turned to Teyler and said, “You should. How old are you?”
“Just finished high school.” Not knowing her name, he paused to see if she’d tell him.
“Oh, I’m Colleen. This is Diana, and that one is Kim.”
“Hey,” Teyler said to the girls with a slight wave.
“Where are you staying?”
“We rented the house at the bottom of the hill.”
“Wow!” Kim whistled. “The one set back behind the gates? That house is huge.”
“Yup.” Teyler shrugged. “My dad wanted a place that was on the beach and private.”
Not wanting to be nosy, Colleen didn’t ask why that was.
“Great,” Kim stated. “We’re here to decorate. You can come in handy what with all those muscles and what are you, six feet?”
Teyler smiled shyly. “Um, sorry about that. I should get a shirt on anyway. The last thing I need is a sunburn,” he said and jogged to the hoop. He bent down to pick up his T-shirt and pulled it over his head.
“He can get a sunburn?” Kim whispered.
“Oh, my God, please,” Colleen begged her friend. “Do not ask him that.”
Teyler approached them again, this time wearing a shirt with a college logo. University of Connecticut. Colleen nodded at the emblem. “You going there?”
Teyler looked down at his chest. “Um, yeah. They’re not that good, but they’re trying to build the team. Jake, a friend of mine from school, is going too.”
“The basketball team?” Colleen asked. “You’re going there to play basketball?”