Breathless #2 (The Breathless Romance Series - Book #2) Read Free Page A

someone being smacked; not in any way that would really hurt
them, but enough to make them stop while still being playful. “As soon as I get
back I’m going to find you right away. I’m not cut out for not seeing a
beautiful woman for so long.” I felt myself smiling and remembered—suddenly—the
question that had weighed on me earlier in the day.
    “Hey, speaking of that—when are you going to be back?”
the sound of boys shouting and joking was getting louder.
    “Sorry, Becky; I’ve got to go. I couldn’t go another
moment without hearing your voice, but we’re heading out somewhere now and I
can’t be on my phone.” I sighed. He hadn’t been able to hear me over the noise
on his end, that much was certain. I managed to get him to hear my goodbye, and
then the call ended, the boop-boop-boop tone leaving
me disappointed.
    Earlier in the day, I had thought that if I could just
hear Johnny’s voice, or even get a text from him, some kind of contact, I would
feel better. Of course, like with so many things, I had discovered that what I
wanted wasn’t enough once I had it. I wished that he could have stayed on the
phone with me a little longer. I wished that Johnny could have given me
something more to cling to so I could be more confident that I had any idea at
all about what there was between us. I wished that he’d called me while he was
alone, so he wouldn’t have been distracted by his teammates.
    I decided that I needed to get some food in me. I
still didn’t feel hungry, and the prospect of walking all the way to the dining
hall and maybe running into the girl once more was more than enough to keep me
in the room. I rummaged through the junk food scattered around the room and
mined what I wanted: snack crackers, a packet of ramen, a few squares of
chocolate for dessert. It wasn’t exactly a great or even nutritionally-sound
dinner, but it filled my stomach and gave me something to think about for a few
moments other than Johnny. I wished that I had been able to just enjoy the call
Johnny had made and rejoice in the fact that he had been thinking of me enough
to want to call me, in spite of hanging out with his teammates. It should have
been a relief, but I couldn’t make myself relax, in spite of the call.

 
    Chapter
Three
    The next morning, even though I barely slept the night
before, I forced myself to get out of bed and to make my way to class. As I got
up, got dressed, and made myself pack my books into my bag, I tried to think of
something that I could hold onto to be grateful for. The fact that Johnny had
called me at all, I decided to summon up at least a bit of happiness for. The
fact that my class—while early—wasn’t painfully early, I could be relieved to
know. I hadn’t had to wake up at 6am, the way I had done for high school. 7:30
in the morning was still early, but I knew there were classes that were already
in progress as I was dragging myself around my dorm room, rubbing at my face
and wishing that it wasn’t so gray and gloomy outside.
    I stopped at the dining hall on my way towards the
class buildings and swiped my card; the menu board proclaimed that the special
attraction for the morning was a “smoothie bar,” which manifested itself as a
table with about a dozen blenders, a few extra carafes, and piles and piles of
various fruit, juices, and mix-ins like protein powder and spirulina .
I wondered to myself how much of my own personal food dollars had gone into the
scheme. But it was as good an idea as any, considering that I had to get to
class and didn’t have time for anything more substantial. I loaded up a carafe
with broken up pieces of banana, a handful of strawberries, some blueberries, a
scoop of whey protein, some peaches, a dollop of yogurt, coconut shreds, and
apple juice and let it blitz while I snagged another cup for some coffee.
    When I sampled my finished smoothie, I decided that it
tasted a little weird, but not bad; certainly I’d probably made