Hammerhead Resurrection by Jason Andrew Bond Read Free Book Online

made his way home, head down, hands in pockets.
    Entering his room, he found Ian standing with crossed arms. “What the hell did you do to Sarah?”
    All Leif could think to do was ask, “Why?”
    “Why? She called me furious, said you were an asshole. When I asked why, she hung up the phone.”
    Leif felt sick. “I don’t know; I’m sorry. I must have said something, but I didn’t—.”
    “What did you do?”
    “Nothing,” Leif lied.
    Ian stepped up to him, jabbed him in the chest. “Stay away from my sister.”
    Leif, taller and stronger than Ian, looked back at the door. He wanted to leave in embarrassment. “Okay, no problem, I never meant to do anything wrong. I’ll give her all the space in the world. I won’t say another word to her.”
    Ian shouldered past Leif and left the room, slamming the door behind him. Leif, feeling like a damn fool, sat down on his bed and put his face in his hands.
    Falling back onto the mattress, he stared at the ceiling. It had been a stupid thing, and yet he considered that it was good to have taken the risk. He regretted making her feel uncomfortable, but now he knew. He didn’t have to live his life wondering what could have been if he’d had the nerve. What could have been was what was. Sarah hated him.
    He tried to accept that, but for the next several nights he drifted off to sleep thinking about the brush of her tongue on his. When her fingers ran through his hair, there had been a half-second in which she had drawn him to her. But a half-second wasn’t enough.
    Later in the week, while walking under the bare oaks of the south-quad, his attention on a wet leaf stuck to the toe of his boot, he heard a distant man’s voice say, “There’s your brother’s roommate. Holt, right?”
    He looked up to find Sarah, eyes livid, pulling her boyfriend down another path.
    As she walked him away from Leif, her boyfriend gave an apologetic wave.
    She hadn’t told her boyfriend what had happened… but had talked about meeting him. That understanding tortured him as he couldn’t understand what it might mean.
    A week later Leif sat studying in his room. The sky framed in the window hung in an even slate of gray, darkening as night came on. A knock sounded on the door. Feeling irritated by the interruption, he tossed his tablet onto the bed and opened the door. Sarah stood in the hallway, arms crossed.
    His heart raced.
    “Is Ian here?” Her eyes leveled flat hate at him.
    “No.” Leif said trying to keep his eyes off of her, feeling as though he had done her a great wrong, but he couldn’t keep himself from stealing glances at her storm-green eyes, and her hair, flustered by the wind.
    “Where is he?”
    In a quiet, defeated voice, he said, “He went to see a movie.”
    Her jaw tightened, and her face reddened. With her fury somehow renewed, he felt sure she would strike out at him again. Stepping back, ready to close the door, he said, “I’m really sorry Sarah. I never meant to—”
    “To what?” she asked through her teeth as she stepped into the doorway, up close to him, “ruin my fucking life?”
    “It was just a kiss.”
    “Everything was going great for Stephan and me.”
    Anger awoke in Leif. “I respect that Sarah. I—.”
    She balled her hands into fists and, looking up to the ceiling, said, “You don’t get it, do you?”
    “Hey look, this is—”
    She shoved him backward, and he fell onto his bed. Kicking the door closed, she locked it and came at him. He held up his hands to protect himself. She caught his wrists, shoved his arms out of her way, and her mouth collided with his, hungry and searching. Her hands tugged at his clothes.
    When his Industrial Physics professor asked him how an A student had failed to turn in three weeks worth of work and fallen to an F, he shrugged and said, “I fell in love.”
    The professor looked over the tops of her glasses. “A broken heart?”
    “No, Ma’am, a full one.”
    She gave him an unsolicited