Free Mine: A Love Story by Scott Prussing Page A

somewhere—comparing love to poison berries or something. It’s too bad I don’t write music. Not really, though. I’m much too happy to write a broken heart song.
    The air feels at least five degrees cooler in the shade of the trees. A gentle breeze rustles the leaves, and birds are whistling cheerfully to one another from the higher branches. I wish I knew what they were saying.
    Something rustles through the bushes off to my left. Probably just a squirrel or a rabbit. But it could be a deer, so I stop for a moment, my eyes trying to pierce the undergrowth to see what it is. The leaves are too thick, though, and whatever it was makes its escape unseen.
    I resume my walk, climbing steadily for almost a mile. The trail is steeper now. I catch a few glimpses of the lake below me to the right, but for the most part my view is blocked by the trees. Finally, I reach the top of the ridge. There’s a break in the trees here, and I have an unobstructed view down to the lake. It’s breathtaking. The bright blue sky reflects off the water, giving it a beautiful blue hue, and gentle ripples stirred by the breeze sparkle gold in the sunlight. There are already more boats on the water than when I began my walk.
    I’ve worked up a good sweat and I’m breathing heavily from the climb, so I stop to take a long swallow of water and to admire the view. It doesn’t get much better than this. I spend about ten minutes enjoying the beauty and the peaceful quiet before continuing my hike. The trail follows the top of the ridge for nearly a mile, so I get lots more views of the lake before the path finally turns back down the hill. All downhill from here, I tell myself.
    As I guessed, the picnic area is much more crowded than when I passed by less than an hour ago. The smells of cooking food are stronger and more varied now, and my stomach begins to rumble with hunger. I guess a bowl of cereal isn’t quite enough to fuel such a good workout, despite what the commercials tell us. Maybe if I make myself look hungry enough, someone will invite me to join them for lunch!
    Alas, I make it past all the tables and grills without a single invite. When I get back to the dorm I’m definitely heading straight to the cafeteria. As I exit the park, I realize I haven’t thought about Chris for almost an hour—since the shirtless thing. Hooray for me!

Chapter 11
    I step out of the elevator and see my door is part way open. Marissa must have gotten back earlier than she expected. I can’t wait to tell her about my date.
    “Hey, Marissa,” I call as I hurry into the room. Before I can say anything else, I realize Marissa is not alone. Two girls I don’t know are also here. “Oops. Sorry. I didn’t know you had company.”
    Marissa is sitting on her bed, legs stretched out in front of her, her back against the wall, an open can of Red Bull in her hand. She’s wearing a black T-shirt and teal yoga pants. The shirt has a game of Tic-tac-toe painted in gold on the front. Instead of X’s and O’s, it has X’s and hearts. The hearts have won the game, filling a diagonal row from bottom left to top right. When I pull my eyes away from the game on her chest, I see that her fingernails and toenails are painted to match her yoga pants. No way could I ever see myself with teal nails.
    “No problem,” Marissa says. “This is Beth and Katie, from down the hall. We were just hangin’ out.”
    I try to mask my disappointment at not finding Marissa alone as I exchange hellos with the two girls. Katie is very pretty, with long black hair almost to her waist and a dark tan. A royal blue cami paired with white capri pants shows off her tan. She’s sitting in the lotus position on the rug in the center of the floor, looking completely comfortable.
    Beth is sitting on Marissa’s desk chair. She’s tall, though not as tall as me, and much thicker, with shoulder-length hair brown hair. She’s wearing jeans and a tight gray T-shirt stretched across full