Following You (The By You Series) (9 page)

"You appreciate the
crap
out of me?" he asked, actually breaking into a smile.

She shrugged a shoulder. "In a manner of speaking. Do you forgive me?"

"For appreciating my crap?"

"No, you jerk," she slapped him on the arm, "for being your crazy girlfriend."

"I think I might be able to forgive you," he said.

"Might?" she asked.

He shrugged a shoulder. "It depends."

His voice was lower than normal, and she couldn't help but notice the way his eyes were focused on her lips. She felt vulnerable when he looked at her like that.

"Oh yeah?" she said, her voice dropped to a whisper. "Depends on what?"

"On how you make it up to me," he said.

She leaned in even closer. Their lips were nearly touching, and she could feel the warmth of his every breath.

"And how can I make it up to you?" she said.

"I have a few ideas," she said.

He didn't wait for her to respond before he leaned forward and kissed her. It was just a soft tease on the end of her lips, at first. Then it was deeper.

Before she knew it, Huck was pulling her on top of him. She kissed him, deeply, and didn't stop as his strong hands slid up her back. He pressed his fingers deep into her back, and she whimpered into his mouth. It hurt a little, but it also felt so good. She liked his hands on her body. She liked him touching her.

Her dress was thin and it rode up when she straddled his waist. She shifted her hips and could already feel how excited he was. He groaned as she pressed into him, and she liked the way it felt, too, so she did it again. His hips tensed and moved along with hers, rubbing himself against her just where she liked it--it drove her wild when he did that.

His hand slid up along her back again, and she felt his fingers gliding through her hair. His head dipped to the side and he kissed along her neck. His tongue did little swirls on her flesh that made everything tingle. But, as he started kissing even lower on her neck, his fingers clamped onto her hair, and he pulled her head back--hard.

"Ow, careful," she said, but he didn't seem to hear.

Huck kept kissing along her neck, and kept pulling. With his other arm he pressed into the small of her back, bending her backwards and exposing her to his lips.

"Huck...softer, that hurts."

When he didn't let go, Sarah shifted in his lap so she could get her arms over his. When she pushed him back against the wall, he let go. He had a cocky little grin, and he kissed her while she held him there. The back of her head was already sore, but she tried to ignore it.

Huck kissed her shoulder, then ran his tongue down along the strap of her dress. He went lower and lower, softly kissing along the way, until his lips were on her breast. The dress was so thin, and Sarah could feel every time his tongue glided over her. She was so sensitive there that it drove her wild every time he touched them.

She let out a moan and pressed her palms into the wall to steady herself on him. He moved to her other breast, and his tongue started driving her wild there, too. She pushed into the wall, grinding her hips into him. He was touching her in all the right spots, and it felt amazing. He was so turned on, too, and she just wanted to feel him.

She pressed into him harder, still, and Huck let out a moan of his own. His head sank back against the wall when she did it another time.

"You know just what I like," he said.

"Do you like it when I do that?" Sarah said, thrusting her hips as she did.

"Just like that," he moaned.

"What else do you like?" she asked. He let out another groan of pleasure, and she leaned forward to kiss his ear. "Tell me what you want," she whispered.

"I want to fuck you," he said, his voice husky. Sarah's brow pinched together, and he said, "I want to fuck you like a dirty little whore."

Sarah's head snapped up and she looked at him. He leered at her and slid his hands under the sides of her dress.

"Is that what you want me to do?" he asked, sliding his hands even her. "Do you want me to fuck you like the little whore you are?"

Her eyes went wide in shock at what he was saying.

"Huck!" she said, disgusted.

He gave her a confused look when she rolled off of his lap and sat against the wall.

"What?" he said, oblivious.

"You want to
fuck
me like a
whore
?" she said. "God, way to be romantic."

"What? I thought you wanted me to...you know...talk dirty."

"And in our dirty talk you think I'm a
whore
?" she said.

He let out a frustrated groan. "You can't be serious," he said. "Forget I said anything, you're kind of losing me here." He pointed at his crotch and gave her a pathetic look.

Sarah's lips curled in disgust.
 

"Gross," she said. "I'm your girlfriend, not some piece of meat."

He let out a loud groan. "I don't get it--what's wrong with wanting to get physical with my girlfriend?" he said.

"Nothing, but I'd like to at least know you have
some
respect for me."

He let out a frustrated growl and jumped down off the bed. He walked to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water.

"Now you think I don't respect you?" he said. He opened the bottle and took a long drink from it.

"Well I'd never worried about it before, but then you started pulling my hair and calling me a whore." She watched as he shook his head and took another drink. "What's gotten into you lately?" she said. "You're acting all strange."

He sighed, and mumbled, "Not this again." When he looked back at her, he said, "I told you nothing's wrong--so can we just drop it?"

"I don't understand why you won't open up to me," Sarah said.

He gave her a long, blank look, and then took one last drink from the bottle before putting it back in the fridge. When he stood back up, he looked at the clock on his desk.

"Look, maybe it would be better if we do this some other night," he said.

"Do what some other night?" she asked.

"This!" he said, frustrated. "Us, hanging out."

Sarah stared at him, confused. "Are you saying you want me to leave?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "It's getting late, and I'm sure we both have to be up early."

"You said the same thing last night," she said. And then added, "And it's not even that late."

"I had a long day and I'm getting tired."

Sarah couldn't believe him. One second he's pulling her hair and treating her like some girl he picked up at the bar, and the next he's saying he's tired and she needs to leave.

Well, if he wanted her to leave...

Sarah hopped off the bed and adjusted her dress. She grabbed her purse and passed Huck on the way to the door.

"Call me tomorrow, if you're not too tired."

She didn't wait for him to respond before she walked out and slammed the door behind her. Sarah kept her face down and walked as fast as she could through the building. Students were still lingering in the hallways, talking and socializing. Huck had humiliated her enough for one night--she didn't need to make it worse by letting everyone see her cry.

He had some nerve, throwing her out of his own room for no reason. She'd never imagined he could do something like that, especially after all of the sacrifices she had made to be with him. She had tried to be as understanding as possible, but there was only so much she could take.

Sarah marched across campus as fast as she could. In the darkness of the night, she wasn't worried about anyone seeing the tears running down her face. How could Huck do something like that to her? She wasn't just his girlfriend--they'd been best friends since they were kids. Wasn't that supposed to count for something?

She rubbed the back of her head, still sore from where he'd pulled her hair. He'd never done that before. What could be going on?

Sarah snuck through the lobby of her dorm and bee-lined for the elevators. Her first blessing of the night was that no one was on the elevator with her--that would have been awkward. But when the doors opened on the fourth floor, she could already see that there were a lot of people still walking around the halls.

You can do this
, she reminded herself.

Sarah didn't look at anyone as she zipped past the open doors to all the rooms. She made the final turn down the long hallway leading to her room when someone called her name.

"
Sarah!
"
 

She tried to duck around a group of guys and keep going, but she heard her name again.

"Hey, Sarah! Hold up!"

When she glanced back, Reagan was at the opposite end of the hall with some people. She smiled and waved for Sarah to come over.

Sarah wasn't in the mood to be social, but she didn't want to be rude. She wiped at her eyes and hoped she didn't look like too much of a mess, and decided to get it over with.

"You're just in time to come hang out," Reagan said as Sarah approached. Sarah let out a groan. She'd forgotten about the little get together. "Hey, are you alright? Did something happen?"

"I'm fine, it's been a long night."

Reagan frowned at her. "Aren't you supposed to be on a date with your boyfriend?"

Sarah tilted her head to the side. "It got cut short," she said, softly.

Reagan cringed. "I know what that means," she said. "Come on, I'll walk with you."

"No, you've got people over. I'll be fine."

Reagan waved a hand toward her open door. "Tate's in there--he'll keep them in line."

Sarah wasn't in the mood to put up a struggle and she let Reagan pull her away. They were nearly all the way to her room before either said anything.

"Okay, spill. What happened? Tell me everything," Reagan said.

"It's nothing, I don't want to get into it."

"You don't have a choice," Reagan said. "I'll go get Tate, if I have to."

Sarah cracked a smile, despite herself. "You wouldn't dare!"

"Honestly, I've never had to. The threat alone is usually scary enough to get what I want." Reagan squeezed her shoulder. "Come on, let's go talk. You'll feel better."

Sarah sighed and gave in. She let them into her room, and was thankful that Billie wasn't there.

"Sorry it's a disaster in here," she said. "I don't think my roommate has been here for more than an hour since she moved in."

"Trust me, I have five brothers, this is nothing."

"Wow, that must be interesting," Sarah said.

"They're all older than me, too. It's no wonder that I'm single."

The girls laughed together, and Sarah started to feel better right away. She'd wanted nothing more than to curl up by herself, but she was kind of happy that Reagan was with her. It was nice to have someone to talk to.

"Wow, is that a signed
Believers
poster?" Reagan asked. She walked across the tiny room to get a closer look. "I love these guys, I'm so jealous."

"I can probably get you one, if you want," Sarah said.

"Oh yeah? You just going to snap your fingers and make one appear?"

"Something like that," Sarah grinned.

She grabbed a small photo frame from her desk and handed it to Reagan. It was a picture of her and Maggie with the band at the Saloon in Green Falls.

"Wow. You lucky bitch, you got to hang out with them?" Reagan said. She looked at it even closer. "Hey, I saw this girl in
Seventeen
magazine. Isn't she dating the guitarist?"

"That's my cousin Maggie, and yes, she is."

Reagan's gave her an impressed look. "So you really could get me a signed poster, huh? Do you think you could get Kyle Landers to sign something for me?"

"Ew, you like Kyle?" Sarah said.

Reagan thought about it. "Well, I wouldn't say I
like
him, but I wouldn't mind getting him drunk and making some bad decisions."

Sarah barked out a laugh. She wasn't used to a girl talking like that--she could see why Reagan and Tate got along so well.

"You know, he's actually kind of an asshole," Sarah said.

"That's too bad. Guys that pretty shouldn't be allowed to talk." Reagan gave the photo one last look and put it back on the desk. "Anyway, enough about rock stars and my sexual fantasies, we came here to talk about you."

Sarah cringed. Reagan had distracted her so much she'd almost forgotten about everything with Huck.

Almost.

"I need a drink. You want one?" she asked.

"If you've got some 80 proof water, Tate's going to have to find himself a new best friend."

Sarah pulled out the box her aunt sent her, and lifted up the bottles of Jack Daniels and Captain Morgan.

"They're not water, but they get the job done."

Reagan's eyes went wide. "You're my hero."

Sarah poured two drinks and they both sat on her bed. It took her a few minutes to get rolling, but once she started getting everything off her chest, she couldn't stop. She must have talked for an hour just catching Reagan up on everything that had happened with Huck. She told her how they had ended up at Franklin together, and about how weird Huck had been acting ever since they got there. Then she told her everything that had happened on their date--from Lilly to the hair pulling and name-calling. They were already on their second drinks by the time she finished.

"Sounds like he's kind of being a bastard," Reagan said.

"He
is
being a bastard," Sarah agreed.

"I don't want to be a downer or anything, but I do have five older brothers. It sounds like he's trying to play the field a little. Know what I mean?"

"You think he wants to see other people?" Sarah asked. The very thought of it terrified her.

"Maybe," Reagan said, with a shrug. "My brothers pull shit like that all the time. They date cool chicks, and then when they're done with them, they don't have the balls to end it. They just let it drag out until the girls finally wise up and dump them."

"That's awful," Sarah said.

"I keep telling them they need to sack up and be men, but they still treat me like I'm a nine year old."

"So what should I do? I don't want him to break up with me."