Crush by Caitlin Daire Read Free Book Online Page B

gaze fell on a black and gold dress on a mannequin a moment later, and she raised her eyebrows. “Oh my God! That dress would look amazing on you! You have to try it on.”
    I inspected it, wrinkling my nose. It was rather short; more of a club-hopping sort of dress. “Where would I wear this?” I asked.
    “The Halloween party at my cousin’s frat house,” she replied, rummaging through the racks and finding the dress in my size. “Here. Try it!”
    “Wait, what party?”
    “I told you about it on Facebook, didn’t I? You know my cousin at USM? His frat is having a huge party for Halloween, and he invited us. It’s gonna be awesome.”
    “Oh, right, I remember now. But that’s ages away.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but you know how fast the weeks go by during the semester. It’ll be here before you know it, and this might be the last chance we have for a proper shopping day.”
    “True. Shouldn’t we wear costumes?”
    She laughed. “No one wears costumes on Halloween anymore. That’s so nineties.” She stuck her tongue out at me again and thrust the dress at me. “Come on. Get in that fitting room!”
    I took the dress from her and shimmied out of my current outfit, assessing my body in the harsh, unflattering light of the fitting room. Why was it that you could look in a mirror at home and think you looked pretty good, and then you’d see yourself in a store fitting room the same day and suddenly think you looked terrible? It didn’t make much sense to me – you’d think they’d use flattering lighting to make people more likely to love the way clothes looked on them in order to increase sales. Then again, I was a political major, not a clothing store owner. What did I know?
    I slid into the dress and appraised my reflection in the mirror. I had to admit, Tamara had been right…again. It looked nice on me and played up my curves to perfection, and despite the horrible lighting in here, I was happy with it. It would definitely suit a raging party at a frat house.
    I couldn’t help but wonder if Brad was going to be at the party in question. It was at a USM frat house, and that was his college, so the chances were quite high. Who cares? I chided myself. Stop thinking about him.
    “Mia, do you remember Jeremy?” Tamara called out from the fitting room next to me.
    “Um…I don’t think so. Jeremy who?” I asked.
    “Ben’s friend from class. Jeremy Dunham. You met him last semester at that little gathering we had at Ben’s place. Remember?”
    Jeremy Dunham…hmm, that name did sound vaguely familiar. I racked my brains, searching for a face to put to the name.
    “Wait, was he the economics major?”
    “Yeah, that’s him,” she replied.
    I remembered him now. We’d had a very brief conversation at Ben’s dorm. From what I recalled, he was tall with fair hair, light eyes and relatively tanned skin. His loose, rumpled T-shirt and faded jeans had almost hidden the fact that he had a decently-muscled body under them, but not quite.
    “What about him?”
    “Did you think he was cute?” she asked.
    I hesitated. Sure, he’d been kinda cute, but a little part of my mind couldn’t help but think that he was a lesser version of Brad. Muscular, but not as muscular as Brad. Nice eyes, but nowhere near as piercing as Brad’s. Jeez, there I go again, thinking about Brad.
    Dammit.
    I pushed the thoughts of him aside. Again.
    “Yeah, he was okay, why?” I asked.
    She giggled. “Well, Ben told me Jeremy’s been harassing him about you for a while now. Apparently you made quite an impression on him.”
    “Oh.”
    “Yeah, so anyway, I know we’ll all be really busy with studying this semester, so I don’t want to push anything on you too soon, but maybe you could take him as a date to the Halloween bash when it comes around?”
    “Oh…um, maybe,” I replied, still hesitant. I didn’t really know Jeremy very well.
    Then again, the only way to get to know someone was to hang out with