AGAIN Chapters One & Two

Again Excerpt Chapters One and Two 

By Lisa Burstein 

Chapter One 

Kate 

College-take-two started with me hiding in the dorm lobby men's bathroom. Unfortunately, I didn't notice the urinals until after I ran inside. 

I stood with my back tight against the door gulping air like it was Riesling and I was at an all you can drink happy hour. 

How the hell did I think I'd ever pull this off? Pretend to be a nineteen-year-old freshman at twenty-nine years old? 

Going back to college might not have been one of my best ideas-but it was the only one that might finally change my life. I wanted to change my life. I needed to. It was just hard to convince myself of that once I was actually on campus with tons of real freshman all around me. 

I guess it's a lot easier to fantasize about living your life over again than to actually go through with it.  

"Are you lost?"  

I turned and found a built, blond-haired hottie washing his hands. He dried them quickly, crossed his arms over his broad chest, and leaned against the sink. 

That was the moment I realized I was in the men's bathroom. The moment my breathing went from gulping Riesling at an all you can drink happy hour to puking it up into the disgusting toilet at the back of the bar when drinks went back to full price. 

My knees went wobbly. My mouth was dry; my head seemingly floating on top of my neck. I couldn't tell if I was suddenly unbalanced because of how handsome he was, or the realization that I clearly was lost. 

Minus a penis lost. 

"Shit," I reached for the door handle with sweaty palms. At least I was making the kind of stupid mistake a real freshman would. 

My wide, wild eyes probably made me look as confused by my surroundings as any other student arriving, but honestly, I was terrified and not because I'd almost caught this guy with his pants down, but because this whole idea was insane.  

"It's okay," he said, walking toward me, waving his large hands to calm me. "This is definitely not the worst thing I've seen someone do the first day back." He smiled, showing teeth that reminded me of toothpaste commercials. It brought out the sweetest dimple the size of an M&M on his chin.  

Fuck me. I smiled back. 

He paused, eyeing me up and down, perhaps noticing the tight body I was showing off in a desperate attempt to appear nineteen. 

"What makes you an expert?" I asked, hoping to change his focus. Maybe he wasn't regarding me for the reason I thought; tight body or not, I wasn't nineteen. I was twenty-nine. Why the hell would anyone believe any different?  

He pointed to his red polo shirt.  

Turns out he was doing his job. 

The area above his right pectoral muscle read Resident Advisor, Hudson University. There was something I couldn't identify in his sea-glass blue eyes-almost like he was holding back, putting up a good front. 

I knew his look well. It was one I'd mastered. When it got too hard to wear my own everything-is-fine mask I doused it in alcohol and sex and bad choices, but that wasn't a solution anymore. 

And clearly, everything wasn't fine. 

"I need to get out of here." I grasped for the door latch again, trying to put out the fire blazing in my neck and face.