Following You (The By You Series) (2 page)

“Huck,
stop
,” she said.

She gave him a sharp shove, twisting away from him and crashing back onto the bed. They stared at one another for a long, tense moment. Huck’s chest rose and fell with each deep breath he took. His muscles twitched as he steadied himself. His eyes bounced back and forth along the bed before settling on her. There was confusion in his eyes, an uncertainty that mixed with frustration.

“Did I do something wrong?” he said.

Sarah shook her head.

"No. It's just that..."

What could she tell him? For some reason, the truth seemed too scary to mention. They'd been dating for over a year, and she still wasn't completely comfortable with the idea of being naked with him, of being too vulnerable with him. She wasn't supposed to feel that way after a whole year, was she?

"My parents are supposed to come by sometime this afternoon," she said. "I don't want Mom to get the wrong impression if she sees that I haven't unpacked anything."

It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the real truth, either.

“Just tell them you've been helping me. I'm sure they won't mind."

Sarah squirmed, despite herself.

"I'll feel better once everything's put away I'm all settled in," she said, and that part
wasn't
a lie. Everything in her life was changing so quickly, she just needed to get her arms around something and make take back some kind of control.

Huck’s lips pinched together and there was a flash of
something
in his face. It’s not like she was trying to annoy him, it's just that things had been moving so fast ever since they'd left Green Falls.

“We have all year to be together, there's no reason to rush anything,” she said.
 

"Promise?" he asked.

A smile spread across her face, and she nodded.

"Promise."

Sarah smiled at him, and leaned forward to give him a kiss on the cheek. He nestled his chin against her as she did. She was so happy that she'd been able to go off to college with him--so happy that he hadn't ended up going to Brown like he'd planned.
Things happen for a reason
, is what her dad always said. Maybe that meant that she was supposed to be with Huck forever.

Forever was a long time, though, and she really wasn't in a rush to get there. Looking into his soft eyes, she was just happy she could be with him whenever she wanted, happy that he was all hers.

What more could a girl want in her life?

Jeremy jumped sideways, narrowly dodging the mountain of boxes that appeared from around the corner in front of him. They were piled so high that he couldn't see anyone carrying them. They looked like they were moving on their own. Then a head appeared from the side of them--a bald head attached to a thick neck with thick eyebrows and a twisted expression.

"Hey, watch where you're going, buddy," the guy said.

Jeremy rolled his eyes, and brushed past him. He wasn't in the mood to deal with the crowds of people swarming the campus, right then.

It was official--he had chosen the worst possible day to move into the dorms. He should have known how crazy the place was going to be. It would have been smarter to just move in later on in the week. He could have stayed at home for a couple more days and no one would have thought anything the matter.

But, he was anxious to get on with things, to get on with his life. He wanted to get settled into his new place before classes started. He knew, once he was all moved in, there would be no going back.

Classes.

He was really doing it.

After the last few years, he hadn't been sure he would ever make it to college. But, there he was, carrying the last box of his stuff up to his dorm room. His folks had been the most surprised when he'd told them he was going to do it. His mom had probably thought he would never get out of the house.

The thought weighed on him. He was surrounded by people, and yet he felt alone. He had gotten used to that feeling a long time ago. He'd been dealt a shitty hand, and had to make the best of it. No one at Franklin University needed to know what he'd come from--what he'd been through. He finally had the chance to reinvent himself, to start something new.

A clean slate. It was exactly what he needed.

Lost in thought, Jeremy rounded the corner of the last building before his dorm, and was nearly run over.

The box in his hands went tumbling to the ground, spilling its contents--mostly odds and ends--all over the sidewalk. When he looked up to see who the careless offender was, he was ready to give them a piece of his mind. He'd had it with all the craziness on campus. He just wanted to be in his quiet room, in a place where he wouldn't feel the need to drink just to stay sane.

All of the anger in him washed away as quickly as it had appeared. When he saw the girl who had bumped into him, it was as though time decided to stand still.

"Oh my God, I'm
so
sorry," the girl said, her blue eyes wider and more beautiful than he'd ever thought possible. She scrambled to start picking things up before he could stop her.

"No, it was my fault," he stammered, quickly. "I wasn't watching where I was going..."

His voice trailed off as every thought in his head melted away. He watched, slack jawed, as she leaned and stretched to pick up his stuff. She was wearing a tight shirt that outlined her curves perfectly, and tiny, denim shorts that left only a little to the imagination.

Look at those legs.

They might have been the most gorgeous things he'd ever seen. When squatted down to pick up the box, his heart skipped a full beat. Visions of what those legs might be capable of flashed in his head--visions of her squatted down, like that, someplace more intimate.

"Figures I'd go and do something like this," she said, mostly to herself. "Can't even walk across campus without embarrassing myself."

She dropped the last thing into the box, a tiny blue alarm clock that Jeremy had got in middle school, and held it out to him.

"There you go--good as new. Again, I'm
really
sorry. I can be a klutz, sometimes."

He gave her an awkward smile and took the box from her. Hopefully she didn't notice the burning in his cheeks, he didn't want her to ask why he was blushing.

"It's nothing. There's people everywhere, I should have been paying more attention," he said. He smiled at her again, and she smiled back.

"Tell me about it. I think there's more people on campus right now than in my entire hometown."

Oh, she's not from around here.

"I didn't know they let the small town girls escape off to the big city," he said, joking. At least, he had been
trying
to make a joke. He realized afterward that it didn't really make any sense.

Keep it together. Don't be a weirdo.

Damn, but she's hot
.

"Well, I mean, I'm not from
that
far away," she said. "I'm just not used to it, yet."

He was relieved when she even giggled a little. At least, he thought that's what she did. It had been a long time since he'd flirted with anyone--and he was pretty sure he wanted to flirt with her.

"Houston can be intimidating, but it's got character. What town are you from?"

"It's small. Trust me, you've probably never heard of it."

A challenge. She wants to see what you're made of.

"Try me," he said, leaning in a little closer.

"Mr. Know It All, huh?" she said.

Cool and confident, it gets them every time. Not that he was a player--far from it. But he'd had his days when he was younger, and no one ever called him shy.

Her gorgeous, heavenly, beautifully wondrous eyes narrowed as she sized him up. For a moment, Jeremy wasn't sure if she was just playing along, or if she really didn't want to tell him. Then, her little nose wiggled, just a touch, and she smiled again. Jeremy wasn't sure how he even noticed it, but it drove him wild.

"Green Falls," she said, finally. Her chin tilted up, the challenge issued, and Jeremy knew he was screwed.

Yep, now you've gone and done it. You tried to act like a badass know-it-all and she just called your bluff
.

But, he wasn't going to give up that easy.

"Oh yeah, Green Falls. That's that one town over near...uh..." He twirled a finger in a little circle, as though he were trying to recall everything he knew about the place.

The girl let out a huge laugh. Then, she nodded her head, and played along.

"Yeah... That
one
town, over by that
one
place, near that
one
city," she said. "I bet you even know Scottie down at the Saloon?"

Jeremy felt a new rush of heat to his cheeks, but he couldn't stop himself from smiling at her.

"You got me," he confessed. "I've never heard of Green Falls."

"Don't beat yourself up,
no one
has heard of it," she said. "It's a tiny town out in the hill country, near San Antonio."

"I've never really been out that way," he said. "Maybe I'll have to check it out, sometime.

"You should--it's beautiful."

You're beautiful.

A long silence passed between them while they smiled at each other. His heart pounded in his chest--harder than it had in a long time. Despite all his confidence, he didn't trust himself to talk right then. She had him all kinds of nervous, and he was sure anything he said would make him sound like an idiot.

The girl shifted her weight from one foot to the other and gave him another huge smile.

"Well, maybe I'll see you around," she said, taking a slow step away from him.

"Yeah, maybe."

She took another step away, and started to turn.

Don't let her get away like that. Say something charming
.

Jeremy cleared his throat and called out, "Maybe next time
I'll
run into
you
."

He cringed even as the words came out of his mouth.

Smooth. Threaten to assault the girl--
that
will win her over. Maybe you should leave the flirting to someone who knows what they're doing?

But, to his surprise, her nose wiggled again, and she cupped a hand over another giggle. It was the cutest, sexiest, thing she'd done, yet. The girl brushed some of her blonde hair behind an ear and took another step away.

"I guess you do owe me one," she said.

She let out another laugh as she crinkled her fingers in a tiny wave. Jeremy held the box in his hands a bit higher--an awkward attempt to wave back at her that surely looked ridiculous to anyone watching them. But, the girl flashed one more smile before she turned and skipped off in the direction she had been heading earlier.
 

Jeremy stood there, fixed in that one spot, watching her, until she disappeared into the crowds of other students. When he couldn't see her anymore, he let out a long breath he hadn't even been aware he was holding.

Well, that could have gone a whole lot worse. Maybe you're not as rusty as you thought you were.

With a renewed bounce in his step, Jeremy set off for his dorm. The day was starting to look a little less bleak. Maybe this whole college thing really was going to work out for him.

It wasn't until he reached the steps outside the dorm that he realized he had never even gotten the girl's name.

Nope. You're as hopeless as ever
.

Sarah walked across campus without a care in the world. She still felt more than a little embarrassed for what had happened with that guy. She really needed to pay more attention to her surroundings--life at college was going to be very different than it had been back at Green Falls. There were a lot more people, and a lot more things going on.

He probably thought you were some sort of freak. He didn't even want to talk to you
.

Sarah hoped she wouldn't have to suffer the embarrassment of seeing him again. He was a few years older than her, and probably a TA or something, so she felt pretty safe. But still...he was cute. No, more than cute. Maybe it wouldn't be completely awful to bump into him again, but that probably wouldn't happen. Franklin was so huge, she didn't see how it was possible.

Before long, Sarah had pushed thoughts of the cute boy and the embarrassing encounter completely out of her head. Nothing could overcome the excitement she felt in her chest. It was officially Move In Day, and there were students and parents everywhere with boxes and crates of stuff to be unpacked in their dorms. Banners hung from the tops of buildings announcing the beginning of the new school year, and there were student government representatives scattered around campus handing out maps and other informational packets.

Sarah had arranged to be a part of the early move in, and had already been on campus for a couple of days. She'd already walked around and found where all of her classes were located, and she felt ready to take on her first semester at college. Being off at college left her feeling free and able to conquer the world. Sometimes, she almost forgot that she had been very close to not going to college at all.

She tried not to think about it very often--about the time when she and Huck had just started dating and he had found out he'd been accepted to Brown University, in Rhode Island. Sarah hadn't even known he was applying for schools already, especially not schools a million miles from their small town of Green Falls. Their relationship had nearly come to an end as fast as it had begun. That was when Sarah first realized how much she loved Huck, and how much she was willing to do for him.

She'd raced to get everything she needed to apply for college, but she had known it was a long shot. When she'd done her research, she discovered that Brown had one of the lowest acceptance rates in the
world
. So, it came as no surprise when she received a form rejection letter in the mail. She had thought that would be the end of it--Huck moving away, and her stuck in Green Falls. But her luck changed when Huck's parents finally put their foot down and said they wouldn't pay for him to go to school on the other side of the country. He'd been upset at first, and Sarah had felt bad for him, but secretly she was grateful. Huck started looking at state schools, and when he'd settled on Franklin University in Houston, Sarah knew she'd be able to follow him.