All i need you to be, p.1
All I Need You to Be, page 1
All I Need You yo Be
Amanda D. Mars
Copyright © 2021 Amanda D. Mars
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
DEDICATION
To J.C. and Ana, all my achievements are for you.
CONTENTS
DEDICATION
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT
TWENTY-NINE
THIRTY
THIRTY-ONE
THIRTY-TWO
THIRTY-THREE
THIRTY-FOUR
THIRTY-FIVE
THIRTY-SIX
EPILOGUE
AUTHOR'S NOTE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Above all, thanks to my dear aunt for teaching me how to read and, without realizing it, for teaching me the hobby I enjoy the most. Thanks to my mom for always indulging my every whim, giving me as many books as she could afford, and always getting excited about the stories I read. I am eternally grateful to the love of my life for supporting me in everything I do and for being my greatest fan and my harshest critic. This life will never be enough to thank you for everything you have done for me; thank you, my dearest, for giving me the courage I needed to publish this. Finally, but definitely not less important, thanks to God for giving me this life full of adventures I have experienced through books.
ONE
Anna
A hand on my hip woke me up. I didn't need to open my eyes to know where I was, but I still blinked a couple of times, waiting for my eyes to get used to the light coming through the curtain's openings.
I got up and looked around. Joe was still sleeping. His blond eyelashes looked almost translucent in the sunlight.
Jesus Christ! Joe, this is a mess.
The room resembled a post-apocalyptic scenario, at least half of it. The other half was in perfect order, except for the bed, whose sheets were untidy and had a thin male foot emerging from one end.
Shit!
I felt my face get hot and cold at the same time. I quickly went back to bed, as if that would make the person at the other end of the room disappear.
Oh, no! Why on earth is Patrick Cole sleeping on the other side of the room?
Well, that wasn't a challenging question.
Patrick, or Rick, as everyone calls him, had been Joe's roommate for almost a year since the first decided to join a fraternity.
Anyway, Joe told me that Rick never spent weekends here. That's why I was here in bed with Joe and wearing only an old shirt from his high school football team.
Joe and I had been together for five years now. We'd known each other since eighth grade. Looking at him now, I couldn't believe he was mine.
His scrawny features changed during his teenage years when he started playing on the football team, and gradually all of his childhood features faded away.
His beard, as blond as his hair, scratched my shoulder a bit when he tried to pull me towards him.
It was tempting to stay there a little longer feeling his breath on my neck, but I had to go to work, and I couldn't just ignore the other guy in the room.
"Joe," I whispered, hoping he woke up, but I knew him, and something like that wouldn't be enough. "Joe, wake up," I tried again, shaking his shoulder. No answer. "Joe, I have to go."
"Hmm, babe," he mumbled, turning around to keep sleeping.
Well, I guess that's the best I'll get.
I carefully got out of bed, and my feet landed on the cold floor. I quickly reached for my underwear, and a flare of shame engulfed my whole body when I realized that my pink bra was right on Rick's bedpost.
I wish the ground would swallow me up right now. I'm sure he must have seen it when he came back to the room... he may have seen even more.
This new thought fueled my efforts to get out of there faster.
When I finally got dressed, none of them had woken up. I looked for my keys and the mint-colored bike helmet hanging on a rack by the room door. Unfortunately, the helmet was at the top of the rack, and thanks to my 5′3″, my fingers barely reached it.
I tiptoed and tried to move the helmet to make it fall down, but all I got was the rack falling down and almost hitting a nearby mirror.
In an attempt to save the mirror from disaster, I pulled one of the coats hanging there, and the rack changed its course and landed clumsily on the ground, smashing my left foot with one of its extensions.
I took a deep breath to avoid making any noise while jumping and caressing my hurt foot.
After the accident, Joe just mumbled something and turned around to continue sleeping.
Phew, okay. It wasn't that bad.
"Are you okay?"
A deep voice startled me as I realized I hadn't been that lucky with Rick.
His long brown hair was tangled. He had thick, furrowed eyebrows over sky-blue eyes. His sheet fell and exposed the upper part of his torso.
A cough interrupted my thoughts, and I returned my attention to his face.
Oh my God!
I realized I was staring too much at him… as if showing him my underwear wasn't enough.
"Yes, I'm okay. I'm sorry I woke you up, but my helmet was there so... I'm sorry I woke you up. Bye!"
As if my life depended on it, I took the helmet that was now lying on the floor and waved goodbye to the guy who was still looking at me with an annoyed expression.
The rest of the fraternity was silent. No one would expect 21-year-olds to wake up at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, and so it was.
Before leaving, I saw one of Joe's friends spooning on the living room sofa with what seemed to be his latest conquest.
The good thing about doing the walk of shame on a Saturday morning was that no one can see you because everyone was snoring.
Well, that's true until you accidentally wake up the person who could have potentially seen you naked last night.
I ran away from that place, taking my bike from the front yard and trying not to think about what was undoubtedly one of the most embarrassing situations of my life so far.
TWO
The sweat was running down my forehead. Even with air conditioning, the stress of waiting on tables on a Saturday night made me sweat like crazy.
Benny's was full and had been that way for over four hours. Luckily my shift ended in half an hour. After that, I would have to go to my room and try not to procrastinate watching Friends to be able to write an art history essay.
"Anna, table three is waiting." Lola's voice caught my attention, and I took the order with a smile.
I loved working at Benny's. Some people might find it stressful, and I'm not going to lie, most of the time it is, but Lola and Benny made me feel at home.
Benny opened this small restaurant 18 years ago and always worked here, but since his wife died, his daughter Lola was in charge most of the time.
I went to table three, and to my surprise, a man with long hair and a celestial nose was sitting there. As if this morning's embarrassment wasn't enough, Rick Cole decided he felt like eating some nachos with cheese and bacon today... at Benny's.
In the whole year I'd been working here, I had only seen him a couple of times when his frat buddies came over. Actually, the only thing I knew about Rick is that he studied at K-State and shared a room with Joe; apart from that, we'd just said hello to each other a couple of times.
"Hi, here's your order. If you need anything else, don't hesitate to let me know."
When you work at a restaurant for a long time, these typical phrases come out of your mouth pretty much as if you were a robot. You get so used to repeating them that you don't even think about what you say, but considering this morning situation, my words came out faster than expected, and it certainly wasn't hard to guess I was trying to hide my blushing with the food tray.
"Hi, thanks. I will."
With a final nod, I turned and walked as fast as I could out of there.
The last few minutes of my shift weren't so busy, a couple of milkshakes here, a few sandwiches there, and fortunately, Rick didn't need anything else.
When it was finally 9:00 p.m., I took off my apron, grabbed my stuff, said goodbye, and left the restaurant.
The cold autumn breeze made me shiver.
"Hey, Anna!"
When I turned around, Rick's distinctive frown greeted me. Well, he may indeed be upset because we invaded his room yesterday, but in my defense, we had no idea he'd be there, so I'd just apologize and pretend that ever happened.
"Hi, mmm, Patrick. Is everything okay?"
Is he trying to make this situation even more awkward?
"Hey, yeah, I... I was surprised to see you at the frat house this morning."
I knew it! He did get angry about it.
"Oh, yes. I'm sorry, we didn't know you'd be there. It won't happen again."
Remembering what happened this morning brought the blood back to my face making me blush.
When I looked into his eyes, I immediately knew that he remembered everything, and when he took a quick look at one of the strips of my pink bra that were in sight, I knew he also had noticed my underwear on the floor last night.
"Yes... don't worry. I just thought you and Joe had broken up."
"What? No! Why would you think that?”
Okay, this just gets weirder and weirder.
It was true that in the last couple of months we hadn't seen each other as much as we used to, but I didn't think we looked as if we had broken up. I did go to his fraternity whenever work and college let me to, and we even spent summer vacation in Colorado with his parents.
"Well... forget it, I just... haven't seen you around recently."
"Oh, I see. Well, we did not break up."
The confusion on his face grew for a brief moment before responding.
"Okay. Do you need a ride?" he asked, pointing to an SUV behind him.
"No, thanks. My place is only five minutes away," I replied with a smile.
"Okay, see you." His eyes remained on me for a few seconds as if he wanted to say something else, but he didn't.
As he walked to his SUV, I let out a sigh I didn't know I was holding.
Before saying goodbye, his face was back to its usual expression. Despite being such a handsome man, I had rarely seen Rick Cole smiling.
Don't judge me. Yes, I did have a boyfriend, and I wouldn't change him for Ryan Reynolds dancing like Magic Mike, but no one could deny that Rick Cole was very, very handsome.
Well, on second thought, Ryan Reynolds does seem tempting.
I had told Rick that it took me five minutes to get to my dorm, but it was actually fifteen. It was just a little white lie to spare us the discomfort of thinking about this morning's incident.
When I finally got to my room, I didn't spend more than ten minutes reading a book for the art history essay before falling asleep.
THREE
One week later.
Thanks to some teenagers who thought it was a good idea to start a food fight ten minutes before closing the restaurant, I got to my room a little later than usual.
To my surprise, the first thing I found when I got there was a pink headband on the doorknob.
This day couldn't get any worse.
That meant that my roommate, Eve, was in there with her pretty muscular boyfriend, who was also my best friend, Jack, making the beast with two backs.
We made a rule of placing a headband on the doorknob after I walked in one day and found her and Jack in a rather disturbing and compromising position.
Let's just say it was like paying for a Penthouse subscription. Gross. I definitely won't go through that again.
A sigh came out of my mouth as I knocked on the door, hoping that no sex organs were exposed yet. I hoped I could at least leave my stuff and change out of my work clothes before going to spend the night with Joe.
Call me annoying, but I didn't feel like riding my bike late into the night.
"Eve? May I come in and leave my stuff?" I shouted after I finished knocking on the door.
I waited for about 15 seconds, but there was no answer. "Eve, Jack, are you guys awake?" I asked again.
Still no answer.
I put my ear close to the door to check if Jack was snoring.
Since he broke his nose in sixth grade, his snoring was pretty loud.
Jack and I were best friends. He was only one year older than me, and he was also my stepbrother. My mom and his dad got married three years ago, but we knew each other long before that. We lived next door to each other ever since we moved to Clinton, Missouri, when I was nine.
By the time we moved in, Jack and his father, George, were already living next door. His mother, like my father, had died, so Jack and I connected right away. He knew how I felt about losing my dad, and I understood how he felt, so we became friends quickly.
Since our parents got married, we were basically family, which explains why I didn't ever want to see my stepbrother's private parts again.
I listened more closely to the sounds coming from the room and managed to hear a slight bed squeak and a rather guttural male moan.
Okay, that was enough. As I just thought, gross.
I was starting to regret introducing my roommate to Jack. That was clearly not a smart move.
I took my backpack and my helmet from the floor and went to my bike. Hopefully, I would have left some shirts in Joe's room so I could wear them tomorrow.
Wearing my sweaty uniform again was not among the things I enjoyed most.
It was the end of September, so it was already quite cold. My sweatshirt with the KSU initials was warm enough, but I still felt the cold air freezing my cheeks.
I got on my bike and rode across the campus to Joe's fraternity.
Damn it!
I forgot it was guys' night, and they were going to watch an NFL game on TV.
I remember when Fridays used to be date night. We used to keep this day to have a couple's day. However, since we got into KSU and Joe joined the fraternity, we had been skipping that rule more and more often.
Come to think of it, I was no longer surprised that Rick thought we had broken up.
According to Eve, Joe might be overwhelmed because we'd been in a relationship for five years. She also said he was a jerk, but that's just because she hated football players.
I felt something else was going on, though. Since he joined that fraternity, we spent less time together. This week, I'd only seen him for half an hour on Tuesday before I went to my economics class.
I hoped Eve was right. I meant about Joe being overwhelmed, not about him being a jerk.
When Joe said Friday would be guys' night, I considered having my own girls' night with Eve, but Jack's university is about four hours away from our campus, and he could only come two weekends a month, so I knew they wanted to be together this weekend. I just didn't expect them to be in our room tonight.
I parked my bike by the entrance stairs with a sigh of resignation and put my mint colored helmet under my arm.
I didn't think Joe would mind if I stayed the night.
I'm not even going to bother them; I'll just go in the kitchen, make myself some tea and go upstairs and watch the Walking Dead on Netflix until I fall asleep. They won't have to worry about their football sleepover.
I rang the bell and waited for someone to open the door. The fraternity door used to be unlocked, but as you all know, fraternities are kind of wild. I didn't feel like getting any surprises. Even if it was guys' night. Hell no.
"Hey, Rick! It must be the pizzas," someone shouted, and immediately I heard footsteps approaching the door. I also saw the figure of Patrick Cole through the door glass.
Rick opened the door, and for a moment, he stared at me in confusion before recognizing me. He was wearing a T-shirt with a rock band logo on it and ripped jeans.
"Are you a delivery girl now?" His voice was pretty deep.
I smiled at him. "Hi. No, I'm still a waitress. I'm just here to spend the night."
Patrick looked at me strangely. I couldn't tell if he was confused or upset. He just stood in front of the door with one hand on the door frame.
Patrick Cole apparently had two personalities, each one with its own style. Some days he dressed a bit dressy, but other days he looked like this... as if he were part of a garage band.
A few seconds that felt like minutes passed, but he didn't move.
This is a bit awkward.
I raised my eyebrows in hopes that he would understand my gesture and let me in, but he just frowned even more.
Trying not to look rude, I made my way through without making it look like I was pushing him and left my helmet and backpack in a rack by the door.
