Chapter 2

“We better get in there.” He pointed to the classroom where I was headed.

He’d put his arm around my waist, so I turned, and we took a step toward the door.

“You fucking fairy,” the girl muttered, sliding away after she punched him in the arm.

“Thanks,” he said as we quickly unhooked and found seats across the aisle from each other. We both squeezed into desks not made for men over six feet tall.

“Joel,” he whispered, pointing to himself.

“Uh, Eric.” I was trying to figure out what had just happened.

The instructor walked in and class started. I winced every time I had to turn around to pass back papers to the tiny Asian girl sitting behind me. As I glanced up at Joel, his eyes laughed at me. I had to grin myself. Nobody’d ever called me small.

Unpeeling from the desk as the class ended, I found myself face to face with him.

“Look, I’d like to thank you for saving me back there,” he said as I lifted my backpack and started for the door. “You want to get some coffee?”