Olivia Christakos and Her Second First Time by Dani Irons Read Free Book Online Page A

night owl, I guess.”
    “You slept here?” My heart warms even more, but my mind says not to discount that resentment from earlier. It could mean something.
    He smiles—the first one I’d seen on him. It’s nice. “I got used to it. I craved their stale biscuits and gravy this morning.”
    I pause, looking him over. His lanky frame to his slight brown stubble to his blue Converse sneakers. Nothing strikes a chord. “Why do you do it?”
    “What?”
    “The Cub Scout thing. You said ‘...because I kind of had to.’ Do you not like doing it?”
    “Oh, no. It’s not that. I meant I didn’t want to leave you. But I had to go to the final meeting. I had badges and stuff to give out to the kids.”
    “But...” I pull the blankets over me, suddenly realizing I’m in a hospital gown with no bra underneath. “Why do you do it?”
    He shrugs. “Because it’s fun. To do my part, I don’t know.”
    “To do your part?” The question comes out unbelievably bitchy and it makes me wonder if I’ve never done a single nice thing in my life. Is it so hard to believe someone would donate their time? But the bitchiness presses on. “So you’re just doing it for the kids? Really? There’s no secret selfish reason you do it? Like you’re trying to impress someone or you were sentenced to community service?” I don’t know why I have such an aversion to the Cub Scouts. Maybe it had annoyed me to see a cute guy wearing the uniform. It isn’t exactly flattering. The khaki shirt, the olive green shorts, the blue neckerchief. He’d even worn those long wool socks that go up to his knees.
    But Wyatt doesn’t look fazed. Maybe I
am
usually this bitchy.
    “Can I get you anything?” he asks, challenging my attitude with his coolness. A little ice water to my fire. “I could get you some magazines or some veggie chips or something?”
    “Veggie chips?” What I could use is a double cheeseburger and large fries, but I’m not allowed anything solid right now. I sigh. “No thanks,” I answer with a sour expression. I might have liked veggie chips before, but something about the words
veggie
and
chips
being in the same phrase repulses me.
    A silence settles over us. I have nothing to say to him. I don’t know this guy, don’t have any feelings for this man who’s supposedly my boyfriend.
    I have a million questions, but I don’t feel like answering them yet. Like,
how long have we been together?
How many times have we kissed?
Had sex?
This thought makes me shiver. I hope we never did it while he was wearing those God-awful socks.
    He’s the visitor and should be the one to start up the conversation, so he should say something. But the silence stretches on, each of us awkwardly breathing and fidgeting. My eyelids droop. I fight it, wanting Wyatt to be out of the room while I sleep, but the medication wins.
    My mind softens and my body grows heavy.
    I’m kissing someone. He has these thin little lips and he keeps pecking me like a chicken. He’s cute, even though I can’t make all of him out. He has a head full of unruly blond hair and tanned muscles over every inch of him. We’re making out in a beige room—beige walls, curtains, carpet—but I can’t get over his kissing. His thin lips. The boy pushes me away, suddenly, and I get a look at his face, but it’s all blurred.
    My dream shifts, to me standing in a street.
Headlights charge towards me
,
flooding my vision
,
and I jump out of the way just in time.
The movement wakes me with a jerk and I sit up in bed. Pain flies everywhere. My entire body feels sticky and wet with sweat. I couldn’t have been out more than a minute.
    Wyatt’s eyes grow wide and concerned. “Are you okay?” He tries to grab my hand, but I pull away, shaking my head.
    “Don’t.” My chest heaves up and down. The dream plays over and over in my mind. The boy. The headlights. Does one of them have to do with the other? I try to make a connection. I close my eyes, willing the images