{18+ COMPLETED • COLLEGE ROMANCE}
When a college freshman with a learning disability and a reputation collides with a straight-A, straight-laced girl in the dorm kitchen one night, he sees the darkest parts of himself reflected in her. But the two o...
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B R E N
What kind of man could smother the fire out of a girl like that?
I grimaced at the question, staring at the two people in front of me.
Madie Lenertz, the strawberry-blonde who'd been smiling brightly just a minute ago, shifted on her feet. Her head dropped as she stared down at her white, spotless sneakers. A curtain of hair fell over her face, hiding her expression as her hulk of a boyfriend wrapped an arm around her waist. He tugged her roughly into his side.
A surprised gasp fell from Madie's lips, but she didn't look up.
Maybe she wasn't actually surprised.
"Hey, man," the guy said to me. His voice was friendly, but I knew better than to believe it. Any hope of getting to know the nice girl I'd just met was going down the drain as this blonde-hair, blue-eyed, muscly man stared at me, trying to pummel my ass down into the ground with his gaze. "I'm Quinton," he added. "Reid."
The addition of his last name made it seem like I was supposed to recognize him.
I didn't.
He stuck his hand out, and I tried to ignore the fact that his arms were like the size of my goddamn thighs.
"Bren," I said, shaking his extended hand and pretending as though he wasn't crushing every one of those tiny bones in mine. I refused to let his hard stare and grip intimidate me.
"Bren?" he repeated.
With a nod, I placed the leftover pizza in my spare hand down on the counter. I'd come into the dorm commons kitchen for a bite to eat, but my hunger seemed to have slipped away.
After a few seconds of thinking about that, Quinton turned his attention to Madie.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, glancing down at her. Madie wasn't a particularly small girl. She was only an inch or two shorter than me and had some curves to her, but she appeared petite next to her boyfriend.
Boyfriend.
I wasn't surprised she had one. Even if she didn't, she was so far out of my league that I was shocked she even started talking to me. Madie was nice, though, seeming genuinely kind, and purely based on the five-minute conversation we'd had before Quinton interrupted, I thought that maybe we could be friends.
I realized now that was unlikely.
"I was waiting for you to be ready to go out," she said with her smile. Her tone was timid.
Timid wasn't a word I would have used to describe her a minute ago. Not before this guy walked into the kitchen. No, a few minutes ago, I'd had my head buried in the refrigerator and nearly slammed it against the top when a bright voice called out.
"Hey!"
I hadn't even realized anyone else was around, too focused on the pizza calling my name. But that voice, that simple hey, had pulled at me more than even carbs. I'd spun, coming face-to-face with...her.
