Boyfriend Read Online Free

sitting back down and leaning my head back against the seat.  I closed my eyes again turning my music up louder, hoping to quiet my thoughts enough to catch a nap in the time remaining before we reached D.C. 
    “So, do you go to Griffin?” she asked, after a few minutes. 
    “Yup.” Realizing that I wasn’t going to get any sleep, I opened my eyes and looked at her for the first time.  She stared back with wide dark brown eyes and a small smile. She was wearing an oversized gray Griffin sweatshirt and jeans.  A small diamond pendant hung from her neck and matching diamonds adorned her earlobes.  Her dark hair was braided in long, individual braids and pulled back into a bun.  
    She reminded me of one of the Lusko girls. 
    The Luskos were a family that lived in our apartment complex for less than a year before buying a house in a better neighborhood.  There was a father, who wore loafers and fedoras, a mother with unreasonably white teeth, and two daughters.  One was Natalie’s age and the other was a year or so older than me.  They walked around with their chins tilted up and wide smiles painted on their faces, like they didn’t see the stained hallways or smell the scent of piss that swam up your nostrils the moment you set foot in the stairwell.  Natalie and I would watch them as they came and went from our dusty fifth floor window sure that the spaceship they landed in would be back to get them at any moment.  Remembering, I felt myself soften a bit and I turned to face the brown-eyed “Lusko,” taking my headphones out of my ears. 
    “What year are you? I’m a freshman.” Her face was beaming with excitement and her obvious lack of motive made me smile. 
    “Junior.”
    She nodded and smiled.  “What dorm do you live in?”
    “I live off campus.  I would ask you but I don’t want you to move again.”
    She look puzzled for a moment then laughed.  “You don’t smell like vinegar.”
    “I see… you have to be creepy and smell.”
    She laughed again.
    “You have an adorable laugh,” I said. 
    She looked down stifling the beginnings of another smile.
    I smiled to myself.  She hadn’t anticipated me flirting with her.  Her innocence was appealing and a distraction from the hell I’d dealt with that weekend.  I began to wonder just how innocent she was and how much energy I would have to put in to find out. 
    “Letts,” she said after a moment.  “I live in Letts Hall.”
    “Was that an invitation?”
    “Are you serious?”
    “What do I have to do to get one?” 
    She smiled, her eyes lighting up as she gazed out the window as if searching for a way to respond.  “Are you looking to buy a futon?” she said looking back at me.
    “What?”
    “Well, I’m looking to sell a futon.  So, if you want to purchase one… you have an invitation.”
    We laughed.
    “That’s cold,” I said.  She looked relieved.
    “I’m Kerry.”
    “Nate.”
    “Is everything okay, Nate?” she asked after a moment.
    Not a question I get often.  Especially from strangers.  “What do you mean?”
    “Tell me to shut up if I’m being nosy,” she began. “It’s just that when I was deciding where to sit, it was between you and that old lady two seats up on the right,” she continued, lowering her voice and gesturing towards the front of the bus.
    “Glad you chose me.”
    “Would you stop?”
    “Stop what?”
    “The one-liners… just because I’m a girl and you’re a guy doesn’t mean we can’t have a normal conversation.”
    I laughed.
    “Seriously.  I may turn out to be your best friend if you stopped trying to sleep with me.”
    “Whoa! How am I trying to sleep with you?” I chuckled
    “‘Adorable laugh,’ ‘Can I come over?’” She lowered her voice in a horrible imitation of me. “I mean, I’ve known you what?” She looked at her watch. “Ten minutes, dude?”
    “Okay, okay.” I put my hands up in defense.  “I’m just trying to get to know you.