Free Finding West by June Gray

a troubled sleep. I dreamt I was in a college auditorium, sitting with a group of guys I knew to be my friends. A very pretty girl came to sit near us, shooting flirty glances our way and we, of course, tried to impress her by acting like dicks. We talked louder, told cruder jokes, acted like we owned the world. I kept watching her during class, turned on by the way she kept biting on the end of her pen.
    “ Are you busy right now?” I asked, falling into step beside her after class.
    She looked around. “No. Right now I’m just walking.”
    “Let’s go get some coffee then.” No asking, no preamble, just a directive.
    The dream sh ifted to the dorm room that she shared with another female, a homely girl with acne and an underbite.
    “Hey, can we please get some privacy?” my date told her roommate.
    “I’m studying,” she said. “Go perform fellatio somewhere else.”
    “This is my room too.” The pretty one turned to me and slid down to her knees, unbuttoning my jeans right there in the middle of the room. Her roommate looked at us in disbelief, but I just shrugged with a cocky little smile on my face. “You’re welcome to join in,” I said, motioning to the carpet in front of me.
    The roommate threw her hands up in disgust and left the room.
     
    I woke up horny and agitated. I rubbed my face, disturbed by the dream and the guy in it, knowing deep down in my gut that it hadn’t been a creation of my imagination. I had a sick feeling that I was like one of those guys Kat had described who thought they ruled the school, who thought they could have everyone and everything they wanted simply because they were good looking or rich.
    I suspected the more I found out about myself, the less I’d find to like.
     
    I finally got up around seven in the morning and peered out the window, f inding that the snow had melted overnight. The ground was still covered in snow, but it had melted enough to drive or walk in.
    With a heavy heart, I put on my original clothes that Kat had washed yesterday and went out to make her a final batch of coffee and prepare breakfast. God knew the woman needed someone to take care of her at least once in her adult life.
    When the table had been set, I knocked on her door and was rewarded with a scratching and sniffing on the hollow wood. “Josie, is that you?” I whispered and heard a soft whining. “Go wake up Kat. Go get her.”
    A few seconds elapsed before the door opened and Kat stood before me in a t-shirt that wasn’t the size of a tent and a pair of cotton shorts. My eyes flicked down to her bare legs, surprised by her incredible muscle tone. Before I had a chance to compose myself and look back up, the door slammed in my face.
    When next it opened, Kat was back in sweatpants and sweatshirt. “Can I help you?” she asked in a sleep-roughened voice, running her fingers through her disheveled blond hair. She took a deep, appreciative breath with her eyes closed. “Did you make breakfast?”
    “Yes.” I led her to the kitchen table, wondering all the while what else she was hiding underneath those clothes.
    She sat down , folding one leg under her butt, and immediately took a bite out of a piece of bacon. “Is it just me or does it feel like we’re always eating?” she asked.
    I salted my eggs. “Not much else to do when you’re stuck inside on a snowy day, I guess.”
    “I really need to work out,” she mumbled into her steaming mug of coffee.
    I was about to say I wanted to join her—my body was starting to feel sluggish without exercise—when I remembered that today was the day I would leave. There was to be no exercising with Kat in my near future. “Yeah, you look really out of shape,” I joked instead.
    She grinned at me, her eyes flicking down to my torso. “Yeah, you too.”
     
    We lingered over mugs of coffee long after our food had all been eaten. I had a feeling that Kat was also trying to put off the moment I’d have to walk out the door; at