Second Chance (48 page)

She unleashes one of her killer smiles at me and it makes me freeze
.
She’s the sexiest angel on earth
.
I lean against the door until it
clicks
shut
,
and
wal
k over to the stereo to put in my
CD
.

“It’s Ryan Adams’ new album,” I tell her
.
“I thought we could turn off the lights and listen to it
.
Naked.”  I stand up a
nd start to un-do the buttons of
my uniform.

“Wait,” she says
.
“I really want to do that.”

She walks
over
to me and I wrap my arms low around her waist and when I
discover
she’s wearing a thong, my fingers dig into her skin
.
I pull our hips together
.
All the blood in my body rushes to one place with so much force it makes me shudder
.
I unbutton her bra with the first try and slip it off,
but
she hasn’t even managed to undo one button yet.

“I hate these things,” she mumbles and I graze my lips across hers
.
“Can’t they snap off?” she says
.

“Or be Velcro,” I offer as I undo a couple
buttons
for her
.
She leans her head away from me.

“That’s brilliant,” she says
.
“That’s what we need to invent
.
Dresses and shirts and pants that can be ripped off in one swift motion.”

She looks at me expectantly, like I’m going to
stop everything and
agree to patent her new fashion line idea
.
Instead, I
lean into her neck
.

“We can call the brand ‘easy access,’” she says
.
“We’ll make millions.”

“Dylan,” I say,
and look into
her eyes, two inches away from mine
.
“Shut up.”  I lift her up and carry her over to the bed, keeping my lips suctioned to hers because even though I love hearing her
strange ideas
, I’m not in the mood to talk
.

For the first time in six months, my head is clear
.
The world is set right again
.
Happiness is flooding through me
.
I feel like I’m back
.
It’s me again
.
I’m whole
.
All the drama deflates because, finally, I’m smart enough to let go

DYLAN

I meet Gray on campus
the next
afternoon
at the bottom
of the U
nion steps
and he
throws
an arm around me
.
It feels normal, li
ke this has always been our routine, l
ike I meet him on campus every afternoon
and we grab lunch and reminisce about
our completely amazing
sex life
.

“
I have a few hours
before practice
,” he says
.
“
What do you
want to do?
”
He
kisses my neck and
I wrap my fingers in his
.
We start walking down the sidewalk and his fingers play around
inside
mine, feeling and squeezing
.
I’m not a fan of public displays of affection, but I can’t keep my hands off
of
Gray
.
Especially when he wears his baseball cap backwards
so
his eyes are in full view and his arm is tight around me
.
 

“
Let’s
do something nice for somebody
,
”
I say
.

“Why?” he asks
.
People pass
by and
I can tell by their
double takes
that
they recognize him, but he’s oblivious
.

“
What do you mean why
?
Because
you should
always
do things for other
people
,
”
I say and lean against him
.

“
Why don’t you do something nice for
me
?
Like take me back to your place and get me naked?
”
  

I grin a
s
he runs his hand up my waist
.
“
Get yo
ur brain out of your pants
.
”

He
nods
to
a few g
uys
that say hi to him and
I
watch a group of girls pass and
narrow
their eyes
in my direction
.
I smile back at them
.

“
What is it with you and helping people?
” h
e asks
a
s
we
weave around
a few students on
skateboards
.

“
I try to do one nice thing
a day
for
somebody
else
.
”
 

“
Give me a break,
”
he says.

We pass
an open
courtyard
, surrounded by campus buildings
.
In the center is a carpet of grass, c
rowded with students laying out and
eating
lunch
.
We sit down on a
bench and watch a man wearing
cut-off jean
shorts juggle three sticks in the middle of the courtyard
.

“
Okay, f
ine,”
Gray
says
.
“
Let’s do something nice for somebody
.
How about we buy that juggler some shorts that actually fit
?
No man
should
reveal that much thigh to the world.”

I
look at the man’s skinny legs and point out he has nice thighs
.
Gray responds by running his hand up my own leg until it’s resting on the inside of my thigh
.
He slowly glides his hand up until I pull it away
.
I
s
tare at his grin with fascination
.
I wonder if I’ll ever get used to his smile
.
       
 

“
So, what’s your idea
?” he asks me
.
I
tell Gray
it depends on the person
.

“
Sometimes I’ll close my eyes and point to someone’s name
in
the phonebook and write them a
‘thinking of you’
card
.
We could do that.
”

“
T
hat gesture
’s a little
more creepy than
nice
,” he
points out
.

“Come on,
isn’t there someone
you know
that could use
a
favor
?” I ask him
.
He looks at me and his eyes turn thoughtful because he can tell I’m serious
.
He turns to study the buildings in front of us and
I think he’s going to throw me a
nother sarcastic comment
,
but
he
stands and pulls me up next to him
.
 
 

“I
know who we can help,
”
he tells me
.
We cross the courtyard and
h
e
ad towards an
office
building
with a sign that says
“Admissions.”