Wrecked Read Free

desperately with a wet finger. “Can’t you see it?”
    He
squinted. “I don’t see anything. There’s nothing there.”
    God.
This guy might have a stunning face and a great body but his eyesight is
terrible.
    Groaning
in frustration, I shook my finger at the cat. “Look again. It’s right next to
that bush.” As soon as I finished my sentence, the cat hopped into the bush and
disappeared along with any evidence proving that I wasn’t a crazy person who saw
imaginary cats. That little bastard .
    “You’re
crazy. You know that?” he yelled. “Crazy.” Those accusatory gray eyes pierced
deep into mine, sending an unwelcome flutter through my belly.
    “I’m not
crazy,” I cried. “I know what I saw. I swear it was right there. And don’t call
me crazy.”
    He shook
his head. “You almost got us both killed, flailing around like some kind of
idiot. That was probably the least helpful thing you could’ve done. Did you want us to die?”
    A wave of
embarrassment and annoyance washed over me as I threw my hands up. “I was
drowning, dude. What did you expect?”
    Tattoos
and Muscles sucked in a deep breath, his chest rising. The intensity in his
eyes seemed to dissipate. “Do you know how dangerous it is to be out here
alone? Do you know how cold the water is?” he asked, as if I was a
two-year-old.
    Yeah,
we were both in it, remember? God, this guy’s an idiot. All brawn, no brain.
    It took
too much effort to be a smartass though and my sides hurt too much. “Yes I know
how cold the water is,” I said, controlling the urge to be snarky toward the
man who just saved my life. “I didn’t mean to go in. I fell.”
    “No one’s
around at this time, students haven’t arrived yet, the ground is slippery.
You’ve gotta be some kind of special to be fooling around here by yourself. Ya
know if I hadn’t been jogging past at that moment . . .” Mid-sentence, he
narrowed his eyes at me, a startling look of realization crossing his face.
“Wait. Was that . . . was that . . . Were you trying to commit suicide? Are you
depressed or something?”
    “No! I
just—” I thought about mentioning the cat again, but decided that was a lost
cause. “I just lost my balance, that’s all . . .”
    He studied
me a bit longer, as if considering if I was lying to him or not. I didn’t have
the energy to pretend I was okay, so he would just have to take my word for it.
“What were you doing on the bridge?”
    Oh, you
know. Just hanging out, playing with the fish, reading my dad’s suicide note.
The usual.
    “I was
enjoying the view.” As I got to my feet, my wet clothes dripped onto the icy
gravel. Tattoos and Muscles—T&M—eyed me up and down carefully. He was
watching me like I was going to jump back into the lake at any second. “I’m not
going to jump in again. Chill out.”
    He
straightened from the rock he was sitting on and approached me. I took a step
back afraid he took offense to the unintentional pun I made about “chilling
out”. He violently rubbed his hands together then grabbed a handful of my
jacket.
    “What are
you doing?”
    I tried to
take another step back but he held firm. He was right in front of me and I
looked up at him, heart pounding. My eyes flickered to his lips. I was suddenly
aware of the acute fluttering effect he had on my nerves when in such close
proximity.
    He twisted
the front of my jacket, wringing out a splash of water.
    “We need
to get ourselves somewhere warm, before we freeze to death,” he said, his tone
softening. He continued to wring out my jacket, first the front, then the back
and sleeves. Then he went to work on himself, squeezing the icy lake water from
his sweatshirt and sweatpants.
    I nodded
in agreement then took a few steps towards the direction of campus. I couldn’t
wait to get back to my room—to forget this day ever happened.
    “Hey,
where are you going?” he snapped.
    A gust of
wind blew across my face as I answered. “D-D-Dorm.”
    “Fuck