The Kiss

take this.”
    She opened her mouth to ask what this was, and a tiny pill landed on her tongue.
    “It’s that ‘morning after’ thing,” he said. “Wouldn’t want you to get knocked up now, would we?”
    She gagged a bit, but managed to swallow it without water.
    “Did I do something wrong?” Her throat was dry and her eyes moist.
    “No.” He chuckled and got out of bed. “I mean, you didn’t do much, did you?” He turned on the light and she saw he had his pants on already. “Come on. Your mother will be worried if you’re late.”
    He dropped her off at her house with a kiss on the forehead. “I’ll call you.”
    ***
    He’d never called her.
    On the phone, that is.
    On the contrary, he’d called her lots of things whenever he and his friends had happened to see her over the course of the next few weeks. The main theme of the inspired insults aimed at her alternated between her being easy and being bad in bed.
    She’d managed to brave it all, but when she was alone at home, she’d cry and wrack her brain trying to figure out what she’d done to deserve that kind of treatment. For a long time she’d been convinced that she was somehow to blame for her Prince Charming turning into a frog, and that ate at her.
    Until Nate of all people had made a jibe at her expense that opened her eyes to the truth.
    ***
    Krista had tried so hard to convince her to go out and have fun, and Eliza could only resist her friend’s pleas for so long before giving in and following her to The Zoo .
    She was actually having a good time dancing and semi-flirting with a cute guy she met, when Greg approached her out of nowhere. The guy disappeared under Greg’s glare, and Eliza backed away from her ex-boyfriend. She frantically looked around for Krista, but she was nowhere to be seen.
    Greg cornered her, and she was sure whatever he said this time would be the one thing that would break her. She would collapse into a crying heap in front of him, and that was a humiliation she wouldn’t survive.
    Her back found the wall, and Greg planted his palms on either side of her head, trapping her between them. “You know, if you beg, I could let you have one more taste.” She assumed he thought his smile was seductive. It reminded her of the bad wolf in every fairytale—the one that couldn’t be swayed from getting its prey.
    She shook her head, wishing she could come up with some brilliant retort, that she could make that smug smile disappear with a few well chosen words. Nothing came to her.
    Nothing but Nate.
    Sure, he wasn’t there to help her. If anything, he meant to cheer his friend on. “Why bother?” he asked Greg in a bored tone, putting a hand on the taller man’s shoulder. “She’s not innocent enough for you anymore. Shouldn’t you be moving on to your next victim?”
    She thought he winked at her but couldn’t say for sure. His words were like a slap to her face that snapped her out of the fantasy that Greg would somehow magically revert to the man she loved. Her head swam with the realization she wasn’t the one in the wrong. Greg was a bastard and would remain one forever. She was just another notch in his belt.
    She kneed her one-time-lover in the groin.
    When he folded over, cupping his sore privates, she pushed him away and returned to the dance-floor.
    ***
    It amazed her how the memories no longer hurt. Instead, she tried to place her date for the evening into the events. He had always been in the background, giving her shy smiles or sympathetic looks. Bill had never been in on the mocking , and that made him one of the good guys in her books.
    Then again, he’d never exactly tried to save her from them, either, until Greg had stopped acting like an asshole. Only then had Bill started talking back at Nate when the latter had tried to humiliate her.
    She guessed it was easier for him to stand up to one of his friends than to two.
    She shrugged and reapplied her lip-gloss. A glance at her watch told her it was time to get going.
    Soon she’d know if she’d found her mystery man.

Chapter Five

    Bill was right outside the dorm’s main entrance, fidgeting with the lapels of his shirt. He turned to face Eliza the moment she walked out the glass doors. His eyes widened when he took in the low cut spaghetti-strap top and the short flower-patterned skirt.
    She hoped his expression was in appreciation, which definitely wasn’t the reason her own eyes widened. She hadn’t had high expectations