This girl has no idea how great she is. She is truly a broken little girl on the inside. Grabbing her hand, I drag her to the wall of mirrors, “Look,” I demand taking her chin and making her eyes meet her own in the mirror, “What do you see?”
Pushing her glasses up on her nose, she says, “I see fat. I see ugly. Behind me I see perfection but it’s hidden by my massive body.”
“I’m not perfection, far from it. Like I told you before, you are sexy as hell. When I look at you I see beauty. I see intelligence dripping out of your pores. You have amazing eyes, shiny sexy hair, a cute dimpled smile in a wonderful round face. But that’s just the surface. I see a warmth inside you, a huge heart. A heart that has been trampled on when it should have been cherished. You are a sublime person, Tensanne Craig. In our short time together, I know you are one of the strongest people I have ever met and I know whatever you set your mind to you will accomplish,” I say pouring my heart into my words, hoping she feels each one. “Plus, you really have a great rack, like the best tits I’ve ever seen,” I joke, deterring some of the seriousness and attempting to hang on to my man card.
With a small sad smile, she turns to me, “Why are you not perfection, Kohl? You’re sweet, popular, smart, amazing at basketball and you seem like an all-around good guy. That’s pretty perfect to me.”
Squirming under her scrutiny, I give her my truth, “I’m a dick most of the time. I struggle in most my classes because I’m too lazy to put the effort in. Yes, I’m a great player but I work twice as hard as everyone else on the team to prove I’m great. Not only do I have to be amazing on the court but I must keep my grades up or I lose my scholarship. I’ve been known to use women, I spent my freshman year fucking my way through the female students, drinking too much and just being a shitty human being. I would have been one of them sharing the photo of you.”
“Why are you different now?” she asks, unfazed by my confession.
“To be honest, I don’t think I am. Or, I wasn’t until I started talking to you. I noticed you in class, you intrigued me. Then I noticed Chase circling, I heard some of his plans. You should hate me; I didn’t stop him. I felt so horrible for you when the picture went viral. I felt guilty for not doing anything to stop it. I never feel guilty for anything that I’ve done but I felt it for you, for something that wasn’t my fault. I wanted to make it right. I wanted to make you right.”
Fury rises in her eyes, “So, I’m a charity case? Something to make you feel better about yourself?”
“No, never. I can see the goodness in you. I’m hoping some of your goodness will rub off on me. Something clicked when your photo went viral, a switch flipped in my brain. I knew I wanted to be a better person, I wanted to get to know you. I need you to accept I like being around you.”
Her fury fades, a small smile tilts her lips, “Let’s start over. I was stupid, you were stupid, let’s be smart together. I’ll help you with keeping your grades up, you help me with working out and becoming more social and secure in my own skin,” Checking the clock on the wall, she says, “It’s late but, starting tomorrow, we will begin operation make Kohl and Ten better people.”
Nodding my agreement, I’ll call it whatever she wants to call it if I get to keep being around her. I should be worried by the depths that I’m willing to go through to make this girl mine but when I look at her she is surrounded by a white glow and I feel this magnetic pull to be near her. I have a warmth that fills my heart and I somehow know where she is, is where I need to be.
I wish I would have approached her before Chase. She was open and trusting then, she hadn’t built her walls up yet. I was a dumbass for waiting and Chase Masters left a trail destruction in his wake.
Collecting our belongings, slipping my coat over my bare skin we trudge into the ass deep snow. Campus maintenance has plowed the sidewalks clearing us a path. Hunkering together we walk back to her dorm.
Grabbing her phone to text myself her number I see she has a ton of messages from Ronnie, “You have a few messages about your safety. Judging from the use of all capital letters I’m guessing she’s not happy.”
“Damn, I forgot to let Ron know I made it safely,” fretting she worries her bottom lip with her top teeth. She needs to stop doing that, all think about kissing her and sucking that lip into my mouth. “I gotta get upstairs before she sends out a search party.”
Sending a text from her phone to mine, I lean in and kiss her cold cheek, “I’ll text you tomorrow and we’ll figure out what we want to do.” Fighting the urge to dive in again and take her mouth I watch her until she is safely inside the door.
Excitement fills me from my head to my toes. I loosened a few bricks in her wall tonight. With a pep in my step and a goofy grin plastered to my face, I plot my next moves all the way back to my dorm.
Chapter Ten
“I’m not fat, I’m fluffy.”
—worst t-shirt
