Page 7 of Give In To Love
“Need a hand?” I looked up to see my brother approaching and shot him a smile.
“Ma text you I was on my way down here?”
“Yup.”
I shook my head, but the smile remained. Tyler had moved into the frat house a week ahead of me because it was rush week, and I had no doubt he’d headed over here as soon as he’d gotten the text from Ma, no questions asked. It was just how we were raised.
We made quick work of unloading the car and Tyler waited on the curb with the cart while I moved my car to the parking lot. The elevators were extra busy on a day like today so we chatted as we waited in line for our turn to go up. Tyler’d had a busy week with all the rush activities and was relieved he didn’t have anything going on tomorrow since classes started the day after that. We made plans to meet up for lunch and watch some preseason football at the Student Union.
When it was finally our turn, we squeezed onto the small elevator with our cart and rode up to the fourth floor, this time chatting about Gram’s eightieth birthday party next month. Aunt Lydia and Ma had been planning this thing for weeks and were driving us all a little mad, asking for our opinions about things, which were inevitably the wrong opinions, on subjects none of us really cared about. But we all loved Gram more than just about anyone else, so we endured the endless questions and party talk, knowing the end result would be worth it.
“Did Ma show you the plates she ordered?” Tyler shook his head as we pushed the cart down the hall toward room 402. “She was going on and on about how expensive these clear disposable plates were, so I asked her why we didn’t just use paper, and the look she gave me… You would have thought I suggested we sacrifice a puppy.”
Tyler chuckled. “Sounds about right. I just nod and go along with whatever she wants, but then last week, she got upset with me for not having an opinion.”
I punched in the code for the door and swung it open. “It’s impossible to win, man.”
I turned to begin unloading the cart since it was too wide to fit through the door but pulled up short when I realized someone was already in the room.
My breath caught and my mouth fell open.
Not just someone.
Him.
The lost boy with blond locks framing his face like a halo. There hadn’t been a day in the last five years that I hadn’t thought of him and wondered if he was alright. If he’d figured out he was stronger than he thought.
“Sunshine?”
3
JIMMY
“Sunshine?”He took a couple of steps into the room and time defied all laws by moving too slowly and too fast all at once. My pulse sped up—I could feel the flutter of it in my throat—and my breath stuttered. Oh god, I hadn’t had a panic attack in months. Now was not the time.
“Do you know each other?” the other guy asked, buthe—the stranger from the woods five years ago—didn’t respond. Those deep-blue eyes locked on mine. I studied him, cataloging all the little changes in his appearance from then to now, mostly noting all the ways he’d evolved from boy to man. He was still lean with the physique of a dancer, but the muscle tone was more defined. He’d lost some of the roundness in his face, his jaw becoming more angular, and his hair was a little longer on top, though still buzzed close on the sides. But his eyes, those blue eyes the color of an exotic orchid, were the same as the ones that had haunted me in my dreams. How many times had I woken up hard and aching with the memory of those eyes boring into my soul?
He took another step forward, but when I instinctively backed away from him, scooting to the far corner of my bed, he stopped, brows shooting up in concern. I wasn’t sure why I’d done it, what it was about him that terrified me, but I had a need to keep space between us. Maybe I’d built him up in my mind, made him out to bemorethan he actually was, but his presence here in my room was just…too much.
He stepped back, his hands out in front of him in a gesture of peace, never taking his eyes off me. “What do you need? Do you need us to leave? This is the room I was assigned, but I can see if I can get it switched. I’m obviously making you uncomfortable.”
My eyes darted between him and the other guy as I struggled to get my breathing under control while simultaneously trying to find my words. At my lack of response, he visibly deflated, saying, “I’ll go see if I can find the RA,” before turning to leave.
“Stay,” I forced out. Having this man in my space was terrifying, but the thought I might not see him again was even more so. What if I never learned his name?
He turned back toward me slowly. “Are you sure?”
I managed a nod and he glanced at the guy with him, still standing in the doorway. “This is my brother Tyler. Can he come in?”
I lifted one shoulder noncommittally. I honestly wasn’t sure I cared one way or another. It washim, the boy-turned-man I’d almost convinced myself I’d made up, causing my palms to sweat and my heart to beat erratically.
They shared a quiet conversation and then quickly unloaded the cart. After agreeing to meet up the next day, Tyler gave me one more curious glance, then left, taking the empty cart with him.
We eyed each other, my new roommate moving farther into the room and cautiously sitting on the bed across from mine. He’d left the door open, and I could hear the faint sound of laughter floating down the hall, though it did nothing to drown out the rush of blood roaring in my ears.
“What can I do to help you feel more comfortable?”
His question startled me. No one ever asked me that. People had this weird way of making panic attacks about them. Like my inability to regulate my emotions was somehow their fault. It usually made people uncomfortable, and they either told me to get over it or avoided me altogether. Rarely had anyone offered to help, and never had they asked me whatIneeded.
