Page 5 of Colossal
“I don’t even know what year it is right now, Fairy Tale.”
I lean close until our noses are only an inch apart, smiling over the nickname he’s given me. “Do you always have this hard of a time concentrating?”
“Nope.”
“Hmmm.” I face forward and handily fill in all the answers, because this is a lesson I was taught during my sophomore year in homeschool.Rest in peace, Marcella. “I’ve got you covered, but you’re going to have to learn this for the test, Eric.”
He huffs an incredulous breath. “Jesus. You’re smart, too?”
There’s a loud thump on the other side of the room and I jump, automatically assuming my stepmother was right, and public school is where people go to die. A pipe bomb has just gone off or the teacher has spontaneously combusted.
She was right all along.
I teeter and start to knock the table forward, but Eric catches me around the waist and pulls me safely into his lap. Anticipating a structure fire, my gaze shoots to the other side of the room, but it’s just Eric’s friend, sending him a salute—and I quickly realize the sound I hear was a textbook being slammed closed.
“Did he…do that on purpose?” I wheeze.
“Yeah, I think he might have. I’m sorry.” Eric looks as stunned as I am to have me in his lap, but now that I’m here, all I can do is acknowledge how amazing it feels. He’s incredibly strong. Overlapping with muscle and power and…extra weight. I love that part most of all. The cushiony part of his stomach and sides. Goodness, he’s so warm and welcoming thanks to that delicious layer of insultation. All I want to do is snuggle intohim. “I think…he might have had the misguided idea that I have a shot with you,” Eric says, his chest lifting and falling faster than before.
“What makes you think you don’t?” I whisper.
A muscle lobs up and down in his throat…and I feel it. I feel his sex stiffening against my butt until it’s nearly vertical. Holy moly. Is it supposed to be that massive? He shifts me around onto his thigh, visibly embarrassed about his body’s reaction to me, but I couldn’t be more fascinated. Does this man-boy want to have sex with me?
I flush head to toe at the very possibility.
Would I let him?
“Nah, you’re going to have a boyfriend by lunchtime, Fairy Tale. One that matches you better than I do.” He coughs, the sound somewhat strangled. “I’ll try not to kill him with my bare hands, okay?”
My chest pressurizes with disappointment. Hurt. “You wouldn’t want me to be your girlfriend?”
He stares. “OfcourseI would want you to be my girlfriend.”
“Why are you trying to pawn me off on someone else, then?”
“I’m just being realistic.” He looks around the room, then toward the windows. “You just got here. There’s a whole population of guys. You will have your pick. And you’re not going to pick me, once you have a chance to browse.”
“I’m starting to think you don’t own a mirror,” I breathe, more confused than ever.
“I’m starting to thinkyou’vebeen cooped up too long.”
That gives me an idea. A terrible one. “If I sneak out and come to your game tonight, can I be your girlfriend?”
“This has to be a prank,” he intones, visibly dumbfounded.
I have no idea what to say to that, so I wait.
“Listen, Fairy Tale.” He points at the door of the classroom. “If you make it through this whole day without finding a betterguy, if you still want to be my girlfriend after seeing everyone who’s out there wanting a shot with you, I will…still wonder if I’m fucking dreaming. But I will proudly and confusedly be your boyfriend.”
I throw myself against Eric, hugging his neck tight, loving the way he holds my hip to steady me, his heart rapping wildly against mine. That has to mean something, doesn’t it? “See you at the game, future boyfriend,” I whisper in his ear, sniffing him one final time.
The bell rings.
Before he can take back our agreement, I jump off his thigh, grab my things and sail out of the classroom, giddy with possibility that he’s watching me go.
Chapter 3
Eric
