Free Forgiven by Rebecca Brooke

butterflies either? Would that change your mind?”
    I sat up straight, watching Josh. How could her life not have been wonderful growing up? Mine had been. When I really thought about it, my life was pretty perfect until that night. She was way too perfect to have had some fucked up childhood. “What the hell are you talking about?”
    Josh moved back over to the chair he had gotten up from. “Never mind, dude, forget I said anything.”
    “No way asshole, you can’t make statements like that and not explain,” I demanded. There was no way he wasn’t going to tell me. He didn’t get to demand that I admit my feelings for Angie and then not explain what he was talking about.
    “Look, I don’t know the details. All I know is Em was fucking pissed today. She called me twice to rip me a new one. Once this morning, and again today right before you got back,” he answered, and then stopped.
    I looked at him expectantly.
    He sighed, “From what I understand Angie didn’t have the best childhood. Emily wouldn’t tell me what happened, but she was clear about one thing—if you don’t stop screwing with Angie’s head she is totally gonna kick your ass. I wouldn’t doubt her, that girl is fierce when she is pissed.” He warned.
    I dropped my head into my hands. What could have happened to her? She said earlier that she had wanted to get away from home. Why, I wondered. Did that have anything to do with what Josh mentioned before? What could she be running from? She deserved to be protected and loved—things I would’ve loved to do for her. I wanted to be her knight in shining armor. The only problem was I wasn’t a knight—I was more like a demon trying to steal her soul.
    I looked up at him, “I had no idea.”
    “I know, that’s why I told you. Now you see why you just need to admit your feelings for her, or stay the fuck away. From what Emily suggests, she’s had enough shit to deal with in her life, so she doesn’t need you piling it on too,” he replied.
    How was I going to handle tomorrow? I looked away from him. “I’m supposed to meet her at her place tomorrow after workout to finish working on the project,” I admitted.
    He gave me a disgusted look, “Do you really think that is a good idea? I saw you on Saturday—that’s some serious attraction you have to that girl. Speaking of that, you owe me for switching places with you,” he reminded me.
    “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”
    “Well I’m calling in payment—you better keep you goddamn hands to yourself tomorrow ‘cause I don’t want to listen to Em scream at me again. Even the girls I kick out of my bed in the morning have less venom in their veins,” he said with a scared look in his eye.
    I chuckled, “Scared of a girl?”
    “If we’re talking about Emily, then hell yeah!” he said seriously.
    “We’re just going to work on the project, nothing else will happen,” I assured him.
    “It better not,” he warned as he got up and walked into the kitchen. “Want a beer?”
    “Sure,” I was going to need a drink while I tried to figure out how to keep my hands off Angie. The only thing I could hope for was that at least one of her roommates was there. Shit, this was not going be good.
    Josh brought the beers out to the living room and sat back in the recliner. “Do you think Coach is still gonna be up my ass tomorrow?”
    “I think that depends on whether or not you’ve caught up on your classes,” I said as I took a swig of my beer.
    “Shit, then I better go get some of this fucking homework done, ‘cause there is no way I’m spending the weekend doing school work,” he grumbled.
    “Big plans this weekend?”
    “Don’t know yet, I just know they don’t include homework,” he replied.
    “You got a point,” I agreed. “Guess I should get my shit done as well.” I finished my beer and took the bottle into the kitchen.
    I grabbed my bag and headed to my room. I had a shitload of work to do before tomorrow. Opening my