Page 77 of Corrupt Me

“Holy. Shit. He did. I bet his dick was huge too. God, how annoying. Why couldn’t he suck in bed? But I guess if he did he wouldn’t have a line of girls waiting to take his famous dick for a test drive.”

A loose spiderweb dangled in the ceiling corner that I couldn’t stop staring at. “I think I’m in trouble.”

“Trouble?” she echoed. “What kind of trouble? Do I need to get the mace?”

I turned my head to face her. “Keep your weapons at home. Besides, I’m tired of talking about my problems. Tell me something about your life. What have I missed?” It felt like forever since we caught up.

Sam chewed on her lower lip. She was concerned about me, but something else was in her eyes. “I met someone.”

Now it was my turn to be shocked. “What? Sam! When? How? Why didn’t you tell me? Oh, my God. I need to know everything.” Sam excelled at socializing. She met people all the time, but what made this different, what made this special, was the way she said it. I could count the number of times those words left her mouth on one hand. It meant she found someone she liked, someone with the potential to be more than a good time, and trust me, Sam was all about a good time. In a way, she was the female version of Tristan.

But I wasn’t going to think of him.

My friend was what was important right now. I had no room for a Malone. Any of them.

“In my graphic design class.” She had this buzzing energy I hadn’t felt from Sam in a while. “I wasn’t sure at first if she was only feeling me as a friend, but then I saw her this weekend at a party.”

“What’s she like?” I asked, genuinely interested. It helped to talk about someone else for a change.

A giddy grin spread over her lips. “Weirdly, she kind of reminds me of you.”

Her response threw me for a loop. “Should I take that as a compliment?”

A gem of joy sparked in Sam’s eyes. “You definitely should. She doesn’t look like you physically, but she has this aura about her that gives off Ever vibes.”

I put on a smile for my friend. I didn’t know anyone who deserved love more than Sam. “Well then, she has to be amazing. When do I get to meet her?” Just as Sam looked out for me, I would do the same for her.

Sam’s mischievous glimmer sparkled in her features. “Depends how soon I can get you out of this house.”

This was what I needed. This was how things went back to normal.

A gust of warm wind,carrying the scent of damp leaves, burning wood, and traces of cinnamon apple from the campus bakery, blew through campus as I stepped out of my last class for the day. The palms danced in the air swaying back and forth. I found it strange how my life returned to normal as if nothinghappened. The world kept moving and continued spinning, the sun rising and falling day after day. I hadn’t seen Tristan in ten days. Not that I was counting.

The breeze whipped through my hair, doing a number on my blonde strands. I didn’t mind seeing as I hadn’t been bothered to do anything to my hair this morning. Today had been a “roll out of bed, no makeup, throw on a pair of leggings, an oversized hoodie, and my Uggs” kind of day.

Removing the scrunchie from my wrist, I threw my tousled hair into a messy bun, saving it from being thrashed by the wind to the point where a brush would be useless.

God, what I wouldn’t kill for a coffee right now.

As if the coffee gods read my mind, someone to my right called out, “Hey, matcha latte.”

I turned my head to see Brody walking beside me. An easy smile touched my lips at seeing his boyish familiar face. It felt like weeks since I’d last seen him, but enough time hadn’t passed for me not to feel a bit embarrassed. Still, I tried to play it down. “Hey, coffee shop.”

His shoulder-length sandy hair was pulled back into a low, short ponytail, wisps escaping and blowing across his face. “Speaking of which. You haven’t stopped by in a while.”

For good reason. “I’m avoiding you,” I bluntly admitted, scrunching my nose in a cute, joking way, hoping he wouldn’t take me seriously because it was only partially true.

He didn’t seem offended, and if he was, he hid it well behind a charming, soft smile and a playful chuckle. “I thought as much.”

I continued down the path at a more relaxed pace. “And yet you’re still talking to me.”

Brody shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a nice guy.”

In my experience, guys who said they were nice guys usually weren’t. I was betting on Brody being the exception to the rule.“You are.” Too nice for me, and perhaps that was my problem. I always went for the not nice guys. I’d thought Preston had been one of the nice guys. Look how wrong I was about him.

He gave a nervous smile. “It’s not my business, and you can tell me to butt out, but I was curious if you’d worked things out with your ex?”

It wasn’t the sun that turned my cheeks pink. “If you’re wondering whether he will make any unforeseen future appearances, I seriously doubt it.”

---