2 Whispering Read Online Free Page B

with. I was winding my way through the assembled groups when the unthinkable happened: I met someone new.
    “Sonofabitch!”
    Unfortunately, the new face was accompanied by a lukewarm cup of beer being spilled down the front of my brand new Star Wars shirt.
    “I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you there.”
    The face of my new “friend” was visible now – and even though it was cute – I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the way it was suddenly introduced into my life.
    “Great,” I grumbled. “I’m going to smell like stale Rolling Rock for the rest of the night.”
    “I’m so sorry,” the boy repeated.
    I met his warm brown eyes with my own icy blue. “I guess I’m supposed to say it’s fine. Since I can feel beer soaking my favorite bra, though, I’m not really feeling that,” I said honestly.
    “You could take it off,” he suggested helpfully.
    “That’s an interesting thought,” I said blithely.
    “Just trying to be helpful,” he smiled, flashing a simple dimple in his left cheek in my direction. “I’m Zach,” he said, extending his hand towards me. It was an oddly formal gesture.
    “Zoe,” I said, shaking his hand quickly and then returning to my task of trying to pull my soaking top away from my chest.
    “So, you go to school here?” Zach asked nervously.
    “Really? That’s what you’re leading with?”
    Zach smiled sheepishly. “It can’t go much worse, can it? I mean, as far as introductions go, this hasn’t exactly been one for the record books.”
    “It could be worse,” I interjected. “It could have been a colored drink.”
    “There is that.”
    “So,” I said after a second. “Is this your house?”
    “Huh? Oh, no, I live in the dorms. I live in Wharton Hall, actually,” Zach said. I noticed his eyes were glued on my suddenly prominent breasts.
    “That’s where I live, too,” I said.
    “Really?” Zach finally moved his eyes up to my face. I noticed, for the first time, that his shoulder-length dirty blond hair was actually shorter on one side by about an inch and a half. Huh.
    “Yeah.” Now I was fixated on his hair in the same way he had been fixated on my breasts only seconds before.
    “On the third floor,” Zach said. “What about you?”
    “What about me what?” Really, did his hairdresser screw up or something? Did he not notice? Did he think his hair was even?
    “What floor do you live on?”
    “Oh, five.”
    “What are you looking at?”
    I tore my gaze away from Zach’s uneven hair and met his gaze again. “Um . . . nothing.”
    “Do I have something on my shoulder or something?”
    “No.”
    “Is there someone more interesting behind me?”
    “No.” Well, not that I had noticed, at least.
    “Is it my hair?”
    “No, well, yeah. Do you know it’s uneven?”
    “I do,” Zach laughed.
    “Do you want it uneven?”
    “I do.”
    “Cool.” I said the word, but I was really thinking just the opposite.
    “Do you want to know why?”
    “I have no idea. Is it a gross story?” Hey, it’s college, you never know.
    “Why would it be gross?”
    “Go ahead, tell me the story,” I sighed. “Unless it’s some ritual thing. You’re not a witch are you?”
    “A witch?”
    “A vampire? A werewolf?”
    “You watch a lot of television, don’t you?” Zach looked amused. He had no idea that I was being truthful.
    “So why is your hair uneven?”
    “Because I tilt my head a lot.”
    Huh. “I don’t get it.”
    “What don’t you get?”
    “Is your head heavy or something? Do you lack the strength to lift it up sometimes?”
    “No. I just tilt my head a lot and when I tilt my head, my hair evens out.” Zach demonstrated the phenomenon to me.
    “Ah, I see.” I so didn’t see.
    “You think I’m weird, right?”
    “Compared to some of the other guys I’ve met here, you’re actually remarkably normal.”
    “I don’t know how to take that,” Zach laughed. “I thought I was such a rebel.”
    Thankfully, the conversation didn’t