Twenty One

Things between Marleyand me have been going good. We're not quite where we were this past summer, but I think it's safe to say we've passed the friend zone.

Every day, I pick her up at her dorm and walk her to class. I hurry to leave each of my classes so that I can meet her and walk her to the next. And in the one class we share, any time there's been partners, we've teamed up. So we've been able to spend time studying together. Also, it's been nice that our individual friend groups all have slowly started becoming friends with each other.

So, for the most part, we're all hanging out together. Life is good, but it's not where it should be. Where I know it could be.

We've been a lot more intimate with each other, even if it's just been stolen kisses in public and having make-out sessions that have me ready to embarrass myself in my pants, I have no complaints. But, I want more. I love this woman, but I understand we've had a rocky start.

Even though we talked things out, I can tell she's still holding back. I tell her I love her all the time, but she hasn't responded with those words back. The only time I've ever heard her say them was in a moment of anger on a voicemail. I want to hear them from her sweet lips and then tell her I love her too before kissing her until we're both breathless.

I haven't pushed her though, and I won't. If she's not ready, then I'll wait until she is. Because I know we can be so much more than we are right now. She just needs time.

One thing we haven't had a chance to do yet is go on a proper date. Yes, we've hung out at my uncle"s house and watched movies over the summer, or went to get drinks at the bar she worked at, but I want to do something with her where we can have fun, get away from the stress of the past few months and just enjoy each other.

"You busy tomorrow?" I ask Marley as she steps out of her dorm room.

She gives me a funny look but takes the coffee I hold out to her. "Umm, not that I know of."

"Good, because I'm going to kidnap you for the day." I grin.

"Oh, we've gone from stalking to kidnapping now?" She laughs and god, I could play that sound on repeat.

"I mean, it's been effective so far, why not take things a step further," I tease, wiggling my eyebrows.

"You"re crazy." She smiles in amusement and we start down the hall.

"Only for you." I take her hand in mine, hers small and soft. Who knew something so simple as holding hands could make me feel so many things?

"So, if you"re stealing me away for the day tomorrow, where are you taking me?" she asks.

"Somewhere fun," I promise her. Honestly, I don't have a clue if it will be fun. I saw this trend online and the couples in the videos seemed to enjoy it. I've never really dated before. But dinner and a movie seem too basic for our first date. I want it to be something memorable.

"Okay." She smiles. "I can't wait."

The rest of the day goes by like normal. I go to class, engaging actively in lectures and discussions. Between classes, I find time to study, review notes, and work on assignments. At lunch, Marley and I spend some time together, sharing a meal, walking around campus, and chatting about our day.

It's evening now and we're just heading back to her dorm after hanging out with our friends, playing games, and watching a movie.

When we get to her dorm. I wrap my arms around her and press my forehead against hers.

"So I'll see you tomorrow? A surprise date for the most beautiful woman I know."

"You have to say that." She giggles. "I'm your mate."

"I don't have to. I could reject you," I tease."

She smacks my chest. "You wouldn't dare."

"You're right I'd be a stupid son of bitch to do that. You're mine."

The way she bites her lip has me swallowing a groan. Stepping forward, I pin her against the wall. She gasps, tipping her head back to look at me. Cupping her cheek, I bring my lips down to hers.

"Have a good night, Marley," I murmur before kissing her deeply. She whimpers and god, it gets my blood pumping. I want to drag her into her room, throw her on the bed, and feast on her until she shatters. I want to slide my cock into her and make her back arch off the bed as she's overcome by pleasure.

But I don"t, not wanting to push.

"Night," she whispers, sounding out of breath from my kiss.

Leaving her there, it's like leaving a piece of my heart. One day, we will get to the point where we will never have to spend the night apart.

* * *

As we walk hand in hand down the street, my nerves are wreaking havoc on my stomach. Marley is looking around curiously like she's trying to figure out where we might be going.

So when we stop in front of the thrift store, I"m not surprised to see she looks confused. "Are we going thrifting?" she asks, a little smile twitching on my lip. Fuck, I forgot she mentioned she loved doing that.

"Ah yeah. Kind of." I scratch the back of my head. "After."

"After what?"

Doubt starts to creep in. "You know what, maybe we should just go see a movie."

"What?" Her brows furrow. "Luci. What"s wrong?"

"This was a stupid idea anyway."

"What was? I still don't know what"s going on. Please, tell me. No games." She narrows her eyes at me.

Letting out a heaving sigh, I nod. "Well, I've seen this thing online. Where couples go to thrift stores and pick out random outfits then wear them on their date, no matter how silly they might look."

Her eyes light up. "Oh my god! I know what you"re talking about. I've always wanted to do that."

"Really?" I ask hopefully.

"Yes." She grabs my hand and pulls me toward the front door. "Come on."

Seeing her happy about this date idea has my worries washing away and my nerves dissipating.

"Okay," she says, looking out at the sea of racks of clothes. "Do you want to go first or me?"

"Rock, paper, scissors?" I suggest and she laughs.

"You"re on."

Grinning, I put my hand out. "Rock, paper, scissors." We both put our hands out and Marley has rock while I have scissors.

"Yes!" she says. "I win. Oh, this is gonna be good," she rubs her hands together. "Okay, bottoms first."

I'm amused as she gets to the end of the aisle. "Ready?" I call out.

"Yup!" She closes her eyes and nods.

"Alright, go."

She starts walking, running her hands along the clothes. I wait until she's about halfway. "Stop."

"Left or right?" she asks me.

My smile grows when I see her left hand on something bright green. "Left."

She opens her eyes and looks, pulling it off the rack. "Oh my god." She gapes at it, eyes bugging out of her head.

I lose it in a fit of laughter as she holds up this long layered lime green tulle skirt. "It's so pretty," I say, choking on my words as I continue to laugh.

"It's god awful and you know it," she says, but she's laughing too.

"I'm sure you"re going to rock that so hard baby." I grin. "Now, your top."

We do it again in the shirt aisle and she ends up picking a shirt that is nothing but cats. But not just any cats, no, they all look shocked or traumatized.

"This is amazing." I laugh so hard my stomach cramps.

"Haha. Just wait until it's your turn." She glares at me playfully.

By the time she's done, she ends up with the green skirt, cat shirt, a straw hat, a pair of clown shoes–yes, literal clown shoes— and a plush purse that"s meant to look like a turtle shell.

"People are going to think I escaped from the crazy house." She giggles. "Now it's your turn."

I instantly regret this decision as I get to the end of the men"s pants section because something I didn't remember until now is that I have my pants custom-made because of my legs, but mostly because of my tail.

Swallowing hard, I pray that whatever I pick I can make work.

"Ready?" Marly asks, giving me a beaming smile.

"Yup," I tell her, hoping the shaking in my voice doesn't show.

"Go!" Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes and start to walk forward. With each passing second, my heart pounds in my chest. "Stop!"

I stop, hands grasping two different things. "Left or right?"

"Right."

Opening my eyes, I look at the item in my hand and blink. "What the hell is this?" I ask her, holding it up.

She walks toward me and gets a closer look before her eyes widen and she starts laughing.

"Oh my god. It's assless chaps."

"What are those?"

"Well, pretty much leather pants with no ass." She giggles. "Oh my god, this is amazing."

"I am not going to be walking around with my ass hanging out," I growl.

She puts her hands to her mouth and shakes her head, amusement dancing in her pretty blue eyes. "Of course not, I'd kick anyone"s ass who sees it. That"s my ass only." She grins. "You can keep your shorts on."

Looking down at the chaps, I realize that I don't have to worry about my tail and the pants seem long and wide enough to fit my legs. Did she know about these when she told me to stop, or was it a very good coincidence?

"Okay, shirt next."

By the time I'm done, I have the chaps, a shirt with a photo of an alien trying to rip out of my chest, a plaid jacket, and a propeller hat. We skipped the shoes because I don't wear them anymore.

"I don't want to come out," I grumble as I look at myself in the mirror.

"Oh, come on. I wanna see," she begs. "Please. I'm dressed."

"Fine." I throw the door open and Marley takes one look at me before she's pretty much on the ground dying of laughter.

"Haha." I mock what she said before. "Like you look any better."

She stands up and wipes her eyes. "It really is so bad."

"You"re one to talk." I move to stand next to her. We both stare at our reflection for a moment before we both start laughing.

"Now that we're all dressed and ready to go, wanna shop?" she asks me.

"Yeah." I grin down at her. Even though she looks ridiculous, I still think she looks like the most beautiful woman alive.

An hour later, Marley leaves with a bag of random things. I think they're a waste of money but she loves everything she got. If she's happy that"s all that matters.

"So, what do you want to do now?" she asks me as we walk down the street. The sun is setting and the streets are a little more packed than before.

"Are you hungry?"

"Not really. But I could go for an ice cream."

"Then to the pier, we go," I tell her.

We walk along the pier, hand in hand as we lick our cones, playing a game of I Spy.

Who knew something so simple could be one of the best days of my life? As long as I'm spending time with Marley, we could be just sitting in silence and I'd be happy.

"I spy with my little eye something that is blue," Marley says on her turn.

"Blue." I start to look around. "Ahh. The water?"

"Nope."

"The sky?"

"Nope." She looks up at me with a smile.

"That"s a hard one," I muse, looking around some more. As my eyes sweep over the crowd of people, I start to notice eyes on me. A lot of them.

My heart rate starts to pick up as my palms grow clammy. So many eyes, so many judgmental stares. I'm used to this, it's not something new but since coming to Coral Springs University, a good part of the student body has been open and accepting of monsters.

"Luci?" Marley's voice snaps me out of my head. She gently grabs my arm and pulls me to a stop. "Are you okay?"

"No," I tell her honestly, looking to find more people watching. "Everyone is staring at me."

Her brows furrow as she starts to look around. "I mean, yeah. Why wouldn't they?"

"What?" I stare at her in shock.

"I mean, we're both dressed in absolutely ridiculous outfits. Of course, people are going to stare."

I blink and look down at my clothes. "Shit. I kind of forgot we were wearing this," I say, feeling embarrassed that my mind jumped to the worst.

"Did you think they were looking at you because you"re a centaur?"

"I feel silly about it now, but yeah."

"Ohhhh," she says, giving me a look of understanding. And then it turns to pity. "Sorry, babe, but it's not because you"re a sexy half-horse man. It's because you look like you dressed yourself in the dark, locked in a costume shop." She bites her lips together, trying to hold back her laugh.

"You"re a brat." I can't help but laugh.

"In all honesty, I don't think we will ever know if they are staring at us because of our clothes or because of who you are. But fuck them. Because I know you"re amazing and so does anyone whose opinion matters. Fuck everyone else."

"You're amazing, you know that." I smile down at her, pulling her into my arms.

"I know." She beams up at me.

I bend down and give her a lingering kiss. "Let's head home."

She nods, hugging me tightly and everything feels right in the world.

* * *

The walk home is amazing. We spent the whole time laughing and talking about all the stupid things people do in horror movies.

The whole night was perfect. I'd say that date was beyond a success. I don't think I've laughed and smiled so much in a long time.

Marley made sure I was comfortable, and I love her for it. She did have a point. These outfits are god awful, I guess I'll never really know if they were staring at me because I'm a monster or because of what I was wearing. Doesn't matter because, after a little while, all I could pay attention to was Marley, her smile, her laugh. Everyone else around disappeared until it was only the two of us. Even at the pier surrounded by people, I couldn't take my eyes off her.

Things have changed between us and I believe it's for the better. I could feel that shift, our bond getting closer. She just seemed so relaxed with me, so comfortable. Like she wanted to be with me, at that moment.

"I wanna ask you something." I pull her to a stop, just outside her dorm.

"If you"re about to get down on one knee and ask me to marry you, I'm going to have to stop you right there." She laughs. "I'm too young to get married."

"Haha," I smirk. "No, not that." Although, I do plan on making that a reality someday, but I'm not going to tell her that right now. Don't want to freak her out. "I want to ask you if you would be willing to come home with me next weekend, for fall break."

She blinks at me a few times, her lips parting. "You want me to go home with you?"

"Yes." I laugh.

"To like, meet your parents?"

My eyes search hers, wondering if I pushed too far. "Would that be too much?"

"No." She shakes her head slowly. "I just… I didn't think you would want that."

"Why not?" I ask, my eyes widening at her words. "Of course, I want to. I've already talked nonstop to my parents about you. They can't wait to meet you."

"Really?" Her face brightens a bit and I let out a little breath of relief.

"Yes, really." Marley hasn't really talked about her parents that much. I don't think they have any major issues between them, but I know she's not as close with hers as I am with mine.

"Okay."

"Really?" I ask and she laughs.

"Yes, really," she teases.

"Well, okay then." I nod, a goofy grin taking over my face.

"Luci."

"Yes?"

"Kiss me." She smiles.

"You never have to ask."

The way she melts into me is everything. The kiss is slow and sensual, sending my heart racing.

"If you two are going to fuck, get a room!"

We break apart with a gasp and look up to find Stacy in the window of their dorm room.

"We would, bitch!" Marley calls up. "But you"re always in it!"

"Sorry about that," Brooks says and my eyes widen.

"What the hell, man! So you two can get it on but we can't?" I can't bring Marley back to my room because well, we're guys and my girl deserves better than the state of that room.

"Yup!" Stacy shouts. "But it's okay, he's just leaving."

"I was?" Poor Brooks sounds disappointed.

"I can't wait until we get a place of our own." She sighs. "Because this is just getting ridiculous."

Did she just say what I think she just said?

I hold back the grin that threatens to take over, trying not to draw attention to the fact she's thinking about a future with me.

"Yeah. I agree."

"I should go up there." She grimaces. "I hope the room doesn't smell like sex. They should really start renting a motel room or something."

"Night, baby." I give her another lingering kiss.

"Night." She smiles before turning around and heading toward her dorm. I stay there until she goes in, followed by Brooks coming out.

He doesn't look at me and I grin. "Look at you, you little sex god."

"Fuck off." He laughs, hitting me with one of his tentacles.

"Nah, seems like you"re getting enough of that on your own."