Chapter 11

11

Benji

As promised, I take Grace to her dorm mid-morning on Saturday. Our housemates left at the crack ass of dawn for the drive to Alabama to Kade's family.

I pull up in front of Grace's dorm in my pickup.

"Just give me twenty minutes or so and I'll bring everything down here on a cart."

I shake my head as I cut the engine. "No, I'll help you pack and load everything."

Grace's eyes go wide. "You don't have to do that."

"The sooner we get out of here, the sooner you're away from Dillon."

"Devyn," she corrects with a grin.

"Dillon. Devyn. Whatever." I open my door. "Come on. Let's do this."

I follow Grace to the front desk of the dorm where they loan her a four-wheel cart and we ride the elevator to her floor. She rolls her eyes as I move her hands aside and take control of the cart.

When we enter her dorm room, her roommate sits on the bed with some dude.

"What're you doing here again," she says to Grace and then her eyes catch me in the doorway. "Hi Benji," she says in her saccharine sweet voice.

Grace gets right to work and puts items from the desk into a box.

I nod. "Hey."

She turns to her guest and rises from the bed. "We can finish this later, Luke." She shoves his backpack into this chest. "I'll call you later."

"I just got here," he protests.

"I said I'll call you."

Luke looks to Devyn and then to me and makes his way out the door.

Devyn's guest passes through the doorway and I step into the small room.

Devyn plops down on the bed and pats the empty spot beside her. "Have a seat."

"No, I'm here to help Grace."

"How much did she have to pay you anyway?" Devyn laughs.

I stand straighter and cross my arms across my chest. "Nothing. I'm a friend."

"A friend? No way."

"A good friend and I'm here to rescue her from you ." I take a step closer to Devyn. "Matter of fact, she's moving in with me."

Devyn's mouth drops open. "With you? In the football house? No way."

"Told you. She's a friend. You better never mess with her," I threaten.

"I haven't."

"Pfft...Yeah, you have. Better not happen again and you best stop running your mouth about her."

Devyn clears her throat and tries to recover. "Maybe I'll see you around, Benji. Like at the football house for a party or something."

"No. I don't think so."

Devyn swallows the lump in her throat, rises from the bed, and lets the door shut behind her.

Grace jumps up and wraps her arms around my neck. "That was awesome." She giggles. "Did you see her face?"

I nod and wrap my arms around Grace's waist. "She shouldn't bother you again."

Grace's face is inches from mine and I can feel her sweet breath on my chin. She stands on her tiptoes and gives me a soft chaste kiss on the mouth.

"Thank you," she whispers. "I'll never forget that."

"You're welcome." We pull away from each other. "Let's finish up and get out of here."

Grace

The rest of Saturday goes by with a flurry of activity. We get everything from my dorm room loaded into Benji's pickup and he helps me carry all the boxes to my new room. The boys had taken out the old sofa sleeper, TV and game consoles. Except for a bookshelf, the room is an empty shell to set up however I'd like. Miles told me to make myself at home.

I spend most of Saturday doing a deep cleaning in the room— dusting the blinds, steam cleaning the carpet and hanging up my clothes. Benji moves a library table from the living room into my bedroom to use as a desk. He helps me set up my computer, unpacks my box of books, and organizes them neatly on the bookshelf.

When he finally unloads the last box of books and gets them onto the shelves, he plops down onto the carpet. "You have like a dozen pairs of shoes and ten million books. Usually, it's the other way around."

I grin. "Just goes to show you're spending your time around the wrong people."

He laughs. "Apparently."

"Be serious though. Does any girl you date even have a dozen books?"

From his sitting position, Benji playfully falls onto his side onto the carpet. "I'm wounded."

"Come on," I coax. "Be straight with me. I've seen who you hang out with." I slide down the wall and sit next to him on the carpet.

"How do you know so much about it?"

"I've seen you at parties."

"Oh, have you now?"

"I have."

"And you think I hang out with women who lack intelligence?"

I shrug.

"You're kind of sassy, you know that?"

I lean forward and lick my lips. "Who says?"

"Exactly." He points to me. "There's that sass again."

He sits right in front of me. "You know what?"

"What?"

He puts his finger under my chin. "That's why I like you so much." He kisses me lightly on the mouth. "Your sassy little mouth."

I stick my tongue out at him and then laugh.

His face turns serious. "Do that again," he whispers.

My tongue pops out of my mouth and he envelopes it with his mouth. He sucks on my tongue and pushes his tongue into my mouth.

We fall onto the carpet into a heap of tangled limbs.

We make out in my new room as our tongues spar and breaths become heavy.

He pulls away. "I better get going on my homework before this gets out of hand." He rises from the floor, and I can see his shorts are tented with his erection.

He adjusts himself and rolls his eyes. "Oh, the things you do to me."

I finish a reading assignment and it's after midnight before I finally get into bed. I'm so exhausted, I fall asleep in minutes.

Someone is chasing me and I'm trying to get away. My legs are suddenly made of lead.

How am I going to get away?

I can't run fast enough.

I can't escape what's coming.

I sit up in bed and gasp.

My hands shake and I let out a deep breath.

A nightmare.

I get my breathing under control and my head drops to the pillow.

I hear something.

Is that music?

It's the strumming of a guitar and the music is easy and nice. I let out a sigh.

A sour chord plays, and I wince. The music stops, starts up again, and now there's singing.

Oh my gosh. Is that Benji?

I hop out of bed, open the bedroom door and strain to listen.

I tiptoe down the hallway and the guitar and Benji's voice are easier to hear as I approach his bedroom. I pause outside his door, which is closed, and I shiver in my sleeping shorts and tank top as I try to work up the courage to tap on the door.

His voice is awesome.

I take a deep breath and lightly tap three times.

"Yeah?"

I bite my bottom lip. The butterflies flutter in my stomach and adrenaline courses through my veins.

"Come in."

I open the door slowly and peek inside. Benji is in a side chair with bare legs and a bare chest, a guitar on his lap.

Holy gnomes. Is he naked?

I step into the room. My heart pounds wildly in my chest and the heat in Benji's room quickly swallows up the cool air I felt just moments ago in the hallway. Our eyes freeze on each other. His broad chest, defined pecs and biceps leave me in a puddle of drool.

"I'm sorry, Grace. Did I wake you?"

"No, it's the?—"

"It's late… I'll stop for tonight."

I swallow hard and shake my head. "No, you didn't wake me. I had a bad dream," I whisper. I wrap my arms around myself. "A nightmare."

Benji takes the guitar off his lap and leans it up against the dresser next to him. My eyeballs —acting on their own accord— travel directly to his crotch. Only black boxer briefs cover his manhood.

Holy gnomes! He's huge.

My eyeballs bug out of my head and my body vibrates with anticipation.

I point to him. "You always play the guitar like that?"

He grins and sits up straighter. "Like what?"

I move to his shelf and look at his framed photos. "Like." I clear my throat. "In your underwear?"

He shrugs. "Don't normally have an audience."

I pick up a picture frame and hold it up to him. "Who's this?"

He laughs. "That's my cousin Craig. He's a riot. That's from a fishing trip when we were around thirteen at a lake in Iowa."

I hold up a baseball from the shelf. "Special baseball?"

"I was an assistant coach on a little league team when I was in high school. The boys gave me that game ball after we won our series."

"Nice." I set the ball on the shelf and wander to his desk.

There are four framed photos. "Who are these people?"

"Just my family."

I hold up a photo of an elderly couple. "Grandparents?"

He nods. "Yeah… Grandpa and Grandma Benjamin… Hattie and Nolan."

"They look so sweet."

"Grandma Hattie is still alive, but Grandpa passed away a few years ago."

I look at a picture of a baby in Benji's arms and pick up the frame to get a closer look. "More family?" I ask as I hold the picture toward him.

His eyebrows furrow. "Yep."

I should probably stop nosing around his room.

I yawn. "Your music is nice. Do you care if I stay in here?" I give my tank top a tug, so I don't spill out since I'm not wearing a bra. "I promise you won't even know I'm here if you want to keep playing."

"Yeah?"

I grab a neatly folded quilt from the foot of his bed and hold it close to my chest. "What're you playing?"

Benji sits in the chair and picks up the guitar. "In my spare time, I like to fiddle around. I arrange my own music —do a little song writing— nothing special. Just a hobby."

I squeeze the quilt closer to my chest. "You write your own music?"

He holds up a piece of paper from the sheet music stand next to him. "I have a few words jotted down— just trying to figure out a tune."

"That's so cool."

He taps a pencil to his lips then writes on the paper on the music stand.

I crawl on his bed until I can rest my head on his pillow. I take a deep breath and my muscles go slack. I hold the quilt close to my chest and breathe in the pleasant aroma of laundry soap. And Benji.

I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be.

I drift off to the softness of the quilt and the easy strums of Benji's guitar.