Free Here Comes Trouble by Andra Lake Page B

was
actually standing there. My only thought was holy shit. I’d
never seen such a good looking person in the flesh before. He
looked like he belonged in a magazine ad or on television rather
than working as an RC. His features were chiseled and perfect, his
dark hair falling in waves across his forehead and his chin
smattered with stubble. I longed to rub my hand or face along
it.
    Apparently Melissa thought the same thing.
She was practically drooling a she asked, “Who is that?”
    Carly smiled knowingly. “That’s Ian. I heard
all about him last night. He’s in second year and supposedly he was
nominated for president last year but decided not to run.”
    “Why?”
    Carly shrugged. “I guess he’s not really
into that kind of thing. He only acts as RC for the perks of living
for free and doesn’t want all the responsibility of being a
president.”
    “He’s so hot.”
    That was an understatement. He was gorgeous , in this completely natural
I-just-rolled-out-of-bed sort of way. I continued to stare, the
girls’ voices wafting over me until I’d tuned them out. I couldn’t
take my eyes off him. If he looked this good in a sweatshirt, what
did he look like in a tight shirt? Or better yet, naked?
    As if sensing my eyes on him, he looked up,
and our eyes locked. My first instinct was the glance away, to
pretend I hadn’t been staring, but his eyes held me in their grasp.
And I knew in my gut what was coming, that he was going to avert
his gaze, act like he hadn’t noticed me…only he didn’t. Instead,
the side of his lip lifted in a small smile.
    “Stop staring at him.” Melissa nudged me,
hard. “He can see you!”
    I glared at her, effectively breaking eye
contact with him.
    “He looks like a god,” Carly said. “Like a
Greek god. Don’t you think?”
    “Alexis Watson.”
    My name rang out over the crowd. Ian was
holding a blue piece of fabric over his head, looking left and
right. In the midst of my daydreaming, I’d totally forgotten we
were waiting to be called.
    He called my name again, and I hurried down
the steps to him.
    “Alexis?” He raised a dark eyebrow as I
approached. I hadn’t been able to see from my old vantage point,
but his eyes were strikingly green against his hair.
    “I go by Lex,” I said, hoping it would make
up for the fact that I’d appeared not to know my own name, or at
least make me sound cool.
    “I like Lex.” He held out a piece orange
fabric, not the blue one he’d been waving around. When I grabbed
it, he held tight, leaned forward so that his mouth was beside my
ear. Our fingers touched, sending sparks of electricity down my arm
and into my core. I’d never experienced anything like it before. He
still had a firm grip on the paper, and when I pulled harder, a
smile twitched at his lips.
    “It rhymes with sex,” he whispered, finally
releasing the fabric.
    Well shit . Pivoting quickly, I ducked
my head, hoping to hide my flaming cheeks as I took the stairs back
up two-by-two. At the top, Melissa was waiting with her arms
crossed and Carly’s eyes were as wide as saucers.
    “What was that about?” Carly asked. “You
said you go by Lex and he said he likes Lex, and then we saw him
whisper something to you.”
    “It was nothing.” I shrugged and tied the
orange fabric around my wrist. “He was just...flirting or
something. He probably does it all the time.”
    “Well what did he say?”
    “He said ‘Lex rhymes with sex’.”
    Carly let out an excited shriek and Melissa
snorted, crossing her arms tighter if it were possible. “Definitely
a flirt. Lex sounds like a boy’s name.”
    The group began leaving the Quad and we
followed. I walking slightly behind Melissa and Carly so that they
couldn’t see my face. My mind was on the feel of Ian’s fingers when
they’d lightly grazed mine. Never before had I felt something like
that—like static electricity that had started in his body and
traveled into mine. And the way that he’d whispered in my