Dark Attraction

Chapter one - meet Brand

Light filtered through the gap in the curtains and hit my eyes, I could hear myself grumbling as I woke up. Tangled in a bedsheet, one of my arms and one of my legs dangled off the bed and it felt like all my hair was in my face. It wasn't the most elegant way to start the day. Someone moved beside me and I pushed my hair out of my eyes to look over at the occupant of the bed. A girl. A girl with thick red hair and a little smile on her face. Cute.

I peered at her, willing her name to come to me. Meryl? Megan? Michaela? I cleared my throat as quietly as I could and sat up, swinging my legs off the bed. Time to escape. The room was dim, a little messy. I couldn't see my clothes. I leaned down to look for my underwear under the bed, but my stomach lurched. Don't be sick don't be sick don't be sick. I sat up again.

I had a somewhat blurry flashback to me and the girl crashing through the door of her dorm room. We'd tried to undress each other while still kissing, and that was before we got into her bedroom. Had they lost all their clothes? If I could just find boxers...

"Where you going?" The girl shifted, sat up, looking at me blearily, clutching the covers over her chest like she was in a movie. Just then I spotted my underwear near the window and went to pick them up.

"Um, breakfast," I said, sounding brighter than I felt. "I have an early class..."

"I should've known," she crashed back onto the bed with a sigh.

"Known what?"

"You wouldn't stay for cuddling."

"We cuddled last night."

I had a flash of kissing her up against a wall the night before. The taste of her lip gloss in my mouth, mixing with the tang of the bourbon I'd been drinking.

"Look, uh..." I blanked for a moment and then her name came to me Mackenzie, I smiled with relief. "Mackenzie. Kenz. I'm sorry, it was real good and all but I gotta go."

"Yeah, but." She frowned, then her expression softened. "Get out of here. It's fine, a hook up, I get it. I knew going in."

"You're cool." I smiled and leaned in to kiss her cheek before I bolted for the lounge and pulled the rest of my clothes on.

It was just past dawn, none of her roommates were up yet. I got dressed in peace. Once I had my t shirt on, (white, stained with something alcoholic from the night before), jeans and shoes I was out of there. I pulled my jacket on as I exited the building. I shrugged off the lingering feeling of guilt that was settling in my stomach in regards to Kenz. It wasn't anything serious, she knew that. Let it go.

It was still early enough that just a few early birds and morning joggers were there to witness me walking out of the girls' dorm. Taking a deep breath, I relaxed in the crisp morning air.

Slowly I became aware of a dull ache in my knuckles. Glancing down at the back of one of my hands I saw a familiar bruising. Had to have been a fight. No memory of what that'd been about, or who with. Maybe that was for the best.

I made my way through the campus grounds and a few blocks away to the apartment I shared with my best friend. We'd decided to live off campus so we didn't have to deal with dorm life, it felt a little like being more grown up.

I let himself in and found Max in the kitchen making something that smelled delicious. Max wasn't as tall as me, but at six foot four and with broad shoulders, most people are littler than me. Max was under six foot tall, Latino and had the sparkliest eyes I'd ever seen. We'd been roommates in their first year and got on like a house on fire. We'd fast bonded over our shared love of surfing, action movies and driving for takeout in the middle of the night.

"You're up?" I asked, running a hand through my shaggy brown hair. I should get it cut sometime soon. But the effort.

"You're home?" Max countered, looking around at me and grinning. "C'mon, Brandon. Who was it last night?"

"Uh, Mackenzie... you know, Mackenzie Porter?" I crashed onto the sofa, resisting an urge to hide my face in a cushion. Barely. I picked it up and squeezed it in my hands instead. I knew Max was going to have a lot to say about this whole thing, and I just wanted it over with.

"Oh? Yeah, she's cute. Back on girls then?"

Max brought me a coffee, which is the only reason I didn't tell him to shut up. I took the coffee and wrapped my hands around it. "I guess. I don't know."

"Must be a nice change from the frat boys." I glared at him over the edge of my mug of coffee.

"Shut up." I grimaced, thinking of the couple of weeks when I kept on kissing boys who'd swear they weren't gay and then kiss me back so hard our teeth would slam together. It wasn't as much fun as I'd hoped. Although it had been very energetic, and the roughness was satisfying some of the time. When they had a vague idea of what they were doing.

"I'm saying, it wasn't a proud moment for any of us when you went through Phi Kappa Epsilon and turned half of them gay. They're gross, and they all had sexuality crises and it was disruptive." Max pulled a face, stirring the pan of sizzling whatever it was he was cooking up. "Can you choose someone to sleep with all the time and stop moving so fast?"

"Please be quiet," I groaned, closing my eyes. The question of what exactly my sexuality was shouldn't be brought up before midday. Or ever. "Look, can we just, like... blow of classes and go surfing or something today? I feel like shit."

Max grinned, "Now you're speaking my language. Go get changed, I'll make this into breakfast burritos. I'll even drive us up so you can sleep a little."

"I don't deserve you." I stood up to change, smiling for the first time that day.

"You so don't! You're gonna buy the gas and drive us home, and get the burgers and snacks, and do laundry when we're back."

"Fine. Fine!" I went into my room, stomach rumbling at the thought of Max's breakfast burritos - stuffed full of beans, dirty rice, scrambled eggs and hot sauce. I wondered if there'd be bacon as well. Nothing like a breakfast burrito to get rid of a hangover.

My room was in need of airing so I opened the window. I looked out onto the street, glad we were on the third floor so I could safely assume no one would climb in. I turned back to look at the state of the dorm room. Bed, shelves, desk all overrun with dirty clothes, school books and other rubbish. Chores were needed, but I'd get to it later.

I stripped off, changed into board shorts and a fresh T-shirt, hauled my wetsuit out and retrieved my board from the corner where it leaned against the wall.

"Ready!"