Page 1 of Colossal
Chapter 1
Eric
I hate walking down the school hallways.
Sure, there’s a smile on my face and my boys slap me on the back as I pass. I’m the goalie for the school hockey team and in Minnesota, that’s means something. I’m well liked. Fine. But from my point of view, everyone else is an ant. I’m the 6’6” ogre sent to stomp them all to death.Here he comes. Run for your lives.
My fellow students can’t simply step out of my path; they practically have to move to another continent to get out of my way. Everyone stares—and I meaneveryone.Even though I’ve known most of these fools since kindergarten.
No one ever gets used to the freak, apparently.
I breathe an inward sigh of relief when I reach my pre-college physics class, ducking my head to get inside the classroom without smacking my forehead off the frame.
“Eric ‘Colossal’ Von Hagen has entered the building,” woofs one of my teammates from the far end of the class, pounding hisfist against his desk three quick times. “Who’s going to slaughter Spellman High tonight?”
“We are, motherfucker,” I growl back, sending the class full of students into a cheering frenzy. “They’re going to wish they were never born.”
“All right, guys,” sighs Ms. Geary, our physics teacher. “Everyone calm down and focus on class.”
“Come on, Ms. Geary,” I say, inwardly wincing over the monstrous depth of my voice. I sound like I’m on my way to gobble up an entire village in one bite. “You know you’re going to be sitting in the first row tonight.”
The class releases a simultaneousooohwhile Ms. Geary blushes. “You know I never miss a game, Colossal!” She adjusts her glasses. “But physics is just as important.”
“Sure,” I drawl, winking at her. “Keep telling yourself that.”
Everyone laughs.
Is that enough? Can I go hide behind my lab table now?
Standing in the front of the class like this, I feel ridiculous. My shirt is too tight, because I can’t seem to stop growing. When will it end? I’m eighteen, for chrissakes. My jeans are the right length, but only because I special ordered them online. The crotch, however, is snug as hell, because my dick is determined to keep up with the rest of me. Not that I’ve formally measured the thing, but I’m lucky I can zip my pants at all these days.
All too aware that every eyeball in the class is on me, I turn sideways and sidle down the row, my neck heating when three students have to move their desks, just so I can bypass them. My stomach begins to gnaw on itself and all I can think about is sitting down. Hiding. Not having to move or make a spectacle out of myself for the next hour.
Finally, I reach my table in the rear of the classroom.
I’m usually the only one who sits there. No one else fits.
But this time, it’s not empty when I get there.
There’s a girl.
Holy shit, though, that’s not just any girl.
I’ve never seen her before in my life, and wow.Wow. She’s so beautiful that my knees buckle a little and I have to grab the edge of the table to steady myself. She has this, like…incredible head of hair. Now, I don’t usually notice a girl’s hair, but this one looks like she had it done in some Hollywood salon. Deep, rich brown waves run down to the center of her very straight back, some of it gathered together in the middle and tied with a white bow. Though I can only see the edge of the bow, because she’s looking up at me with these impossibly wide green eyes.
A pattern shifts in the line of her throat.
A swallow.
I’ve never seen her before. Which means she’s probably never seen me, either.
Oh my God. Poor thing. She must be terrified.
I open my mouth to promise I’m not going to use her bones as toothpicks, but something happens first. Something I could never have expected.
Her face brightens with a smile that could summon a host of angels.
“Are you my seat mate?” she whispers, sliding out my chair.
