Kelsie McCollum tried to control her breathing as she padded up the walkway toward the dormitory.
She was finally here. Perion University.
Kelsie had scrolled through as many tiktoks as she could watch, consumed as many IG posts as she could manage: How to put on her makeup just so, how to dress “sexy” but not “slutty”, how to manicure the wavy blond locks that cascaded down her back without looking like she’d tried so hard to do it. Kelsie had once spent an entire summer day trying to figure out how to use bronzer to take her skin from “snow white” to “lightly-tanned”--but had only succeeded in turning her face into an orange mess before she gave up for good.
All of this trial and error, success and failure: Kelsie hoped it would be enough in the end. Her small midwestern hometown–with a high school numbering just a few hundred students–was nothing like this sprawling university. Kelsie just wanted to fit in.
Early that morning, she’d boarded a Greyhound bus, accompanied only by her small collection of belongings stuffed into a suitcase, “K. McCollum” barely visible on the luggage’s worn label. The pockets of by far the best pair of jeans she owned contained only her phone, license, a single credit card, and a meager gift card for her to use at the Target near campus. Now, as she gingerly made her way toward the entrance of Howard Hall, she mentally noted every clothing choice that every girl around her had made. What was the “right” way to look? How could she pretend she wasn’t just a simple nobody from six hours–and a world–away?
It was at this moment, Kelsie would remember long afterward, as she awkwardly wheeled her things toward the front door of Howard, that Kelsie saw Cooper Deering for the first time.
Cooper didn’t notice Kelsie. Not then. It was immediately obvious to Kelsie that this wasn’t a girl who, generally, “noticed” other girls. This was a girl to be noticed. An Alpha Brunette for the Beta Blondes to follow–which appeared, judging from the three attentive girls tucked just behind her, to be a literal truth
Then there was the way Cooper dressed: Her tight university-branded tee-shirt hugged her slender, supple body, accentuating the perfect breasts that Kelsie wished she herself possessed. Below the shirt was the white pleated skirt that somehow descended just far enough, no doubt making every guy on campus desperate for just one more inch of view of the incredible butt hiding underneath. The Perion Predators–the University football team–would be playing that evening in front of 80,000 fans, and this vixen clearly had the perfect gameday outfit already assembled. This was a girl with gravity. Other girls orbited around her, and it was obvious.
“Wow,” Kelsie couldn’t resist whispering. “Every boy in the stadium is going to be watching her tonight.”
“Oh, she won’t be wearing THAT!” a smokey voice next to her matter-of-factly replied.
Surprised by the comment–and embarrassed to have been heard thinking out loud–Kelsie wheeled to her right, her milk-white cheeks already flushing red. She immediately recognized someone who she had, up until now, only seen on Facetime. The light-tan skin; the chocolate curls that poured across her shoulders and down her back; the short, voluptuous figure: This was Alexia Ramos, Kelsie’s new roommate!
The two had been texting and facetiming for weeks; finally meeting Alexia at Perion had been the single thing about college that Kelsie had been most looking forward to! In many ways, Alexia was everything Kelsie was not. Kelsie was from the heartland; Alexia was from the Bronx. Kelsie was skinny; Alexia’s full figure looked positively shrink-wrapped into any shirt or pair of jeans she owned–without looking the least bit overweight. Kelsie was shy; Alexia couldn’t wait to talk, in her thick New York accent that Kelsie adored.
If opposites truly did attract, there wasn't a better proof-of-concept than the powerful bond that the two girls had formed so quickly. Now, they squealed and hugged each other, overjoyed to finally be meeting in person. Alexia explained excitedly that she’d already moved in earlier that afternoon and couldn’t wait to help Kelsie set up. They’d go to the store in a few hours and pool what little money they had to accessorize their room.
“Wait, about that girl?” Kelsie remembered, turning to watch the gorgeous raven and her entourage proceed down the sidewalk. “What did you mean, ‘she won’t be wearing that?’”
“Oh,” Alexia replied with an eye-roll. “THAT is Cooper Deering. She’s captain of the University Dance Team. If you think THAT outfit is sexy, wait until you see her down on the sideline in her dance gear. But you’re not wrong. Every guy in the stadium IS going to be eye-fucking her tonight.”
Kelsie blushed again. “Alexia, stop!” She had long since realized from their online exchanges that her new bestie’s mouth was going to put her in awkward situations. “But how did you know who that girl was to begin with?”
“Because,” Alexia explained, “Cooper Deering is the President of Pi Shop.”
Kelsie blinked. “Pie Shop? What is that? A charity or something?”
Alexia laughed. “Um, no. Not Pie with an E. P-I. The Greek letter. As in, ‘Pi Pi Pi’.”
That, Kelsie knew immediately. Pi Pi Pi. The most elite sorority on campus. The gleaming brick house from which model-beautiful girls descended in their best “year-round-Halloween-slutty” outfits to be frantically ushered into whatever Frat party they chose to attend. Kelsie had consumed every bit of Pi Pi Pi content that social media had allowed her to see. To join this house was to climb the Social Mount Everest. The impossible dream…but that didn’t mean that Kelsie (and every other freshman girl) wasn’t going to try.
Alexia was clearly thinking the same thing–although, perhaps, for different reasons. “Pi Shop is THE path to dick,” she grinned, with a side-eye that was clearly intended to make Kelsie blush again. “Whatever dick you want. Just point, and it’s yours.” Alexia punctuated her statement with a shake of her butt and a brief serenade: “You get into the Piiiii Shop! You get to lick the lollipop!”
“Ew! Get away from me!” Kelsie laughed, praying that no one else was watching this display.
Soon Kelsie was following Alexia into the cavernous common-space beyond the imposing wooden doors of Howard Hall. The place was a frenzy of activity as students scrambled to situate themselves in a new world.
Kelsie felt unmoored–even more so when her roomie suddenly darted away: Alexia had just spotted a throng of girls who, Kelsie immediately understood, were Alexia’s new teammates on the Perion Flag Football team.
Alexia, Kelsie knew, was part of an exciting new movement in college sports: Women’s Flag Football, which was now an Olympic sport as well. The same thighs that Alexia no doubt turned boys’ heads with were also powerful tools that she’d used to earn herself a partial athletic scholarship. But all of that athleticism was now quickly carrying Alexia away and down the hall. Kelsie was left here, alone, twisting in the wind, in a busy, strange place.
She wandered meekly through the sea of humanity to the large dormitory map on the wall near the stairwell that led upwards into the four-story building. She knew her room was on the fourth floor and quickly located it on the map. Yet she didn’t move.
It was as if this map was a tiny cabin in the spooky forest that was Howard Hall and Perion University: A place to hide, to not have to push on alone, to appear as if she was simply occupying herself for a moment until her oh-so-many friends showed up.
After several minutes, as Kelsie stood frozen, practically trying to disappear into the map, she gradually became aware of something.
She wasn’t alone.
At first, people had been coming and going alongside Kelsie, quickly finding the directions they needed and pushing on. But now, Kelsie found herself in the shadow of a figure, who, she could almost swear, was doing the exact same thing that she was doing. Kelsie dared to cast a glance to her right…and upward.
Next to her, his eyes, blue as her own, locked on the lettering in front of him, was an absolute tree of a boy. He was at least 6’4”, maybe taller. He was a foot taller than Kelsie, and, she instinctively understood, the tallest guy she had ever seen. But this towering figure wasn’t just tall: He was as imposing as anyone Kelsie had ever laid eyes on. The full sweatsuit he was wearing was in no way tight-fitting, and yet muscles seemed to ripple out of it from every spot. Even his neck looked strong. It led upwards to a fair face–well-tanned from the sun–resting atop a sharp, chiseled jaw…and yet, soft eyes that looked, somehow, “kind.”
And lost. Just as lost as Kelsie herself felt. This redwood of a human being seemed, incredibly, to be trying to do the exact same thing that she was doing.
With a start, the giant realized she was staring up at him and whipped down toward her.
“I’m sorry!” Kelsie exclaimed, stupidly, flushing immediately and staring at the floor.
“No no no, I’M sorry!” the young man exclaimed, looking away just as quickly and seeming to try to shrink into the thick mop of brown hair that cascaded down around his eyes. “I, uh, don’t really know this place well at all. I kind of just got here.”
“Me too!” Kelsie dared to offer in return.
“Like, I KNOW the school,” the huge boy quickly added. “I’m in the right BUILDING. But I went to another college before this, and it wasn’t like this at all. It was smaller.” His voice trailed to a whisper. “A LOT smaller…Anyway, I’ve been living off-campus for a few weeks, but now they have me moving in here and…this isn’t, uh, really my thing…all of these people…”
“Oh my gosh, same!” Kelsie heard herself say. “My whole TOWN has 4,000 people. I feel like there are 4,000 people IN THIS ROOM. It’s honestly WAY TOO MUCH!”
Kelsie, what are you doing? OVERSHARE MUCH? Stop talking. Stop stop stop.
Kelsie’s mind was turning over on itself so rapidly that she was amazed she had gotten words out at all. She felt as if she could actually hear herself saying every single syllable. This was, simply, the most beautiful boy she had ever set eyes on. She felt as if her entire body was turning red and prayed that it wasn’t. She had never before stood next to someone who she felt so guided by an unseen force to want to touch.
“Oh my gosh, THANK YOU!” the boy returned, “FINALLY, someone who gets it! It’s INSANE here, right? All I ever hear is: ‘Wait until you see these frat parties. Wait until you see the size of the sorority houses. Wait until you see the stadium totally full.’ You know what? I’m good, thanks! I don’t need any of that, actually. Hell, MY town only has THREE thousand people. Heck if I ever saw more than a handful of them on any given day.”
The blue-eyed monument sighed.
“I just want…THAT. Truthfully, if I could just put all of this noise aside for just ONE MOMENT, and just…be back there. But, whatever, this is how it works, I guess.” Forlorn resignation colored his voice.
“Honestly,” Kelsie blurted, “I should have already been in my room by now! I’m only standing here because I’m afraid to keep moving!”
Oh my God, WHAT did you just say? STOP TALKING, KELSIE!
The boy laughed with surprise. “Ha! I totally get that.”
His indigo eyes clouded again.
“I WISH that was my excuse,” he mumbled. “The truth is, I can’t remember my room number. And I know, if I just go off searching for my room, I’m just gonna run into a bunch of people, and then I’ll have to talk to everyone, and…the whole point was to just come here, and then just CHILL for a few hours before…I don’t know why I thought that was a good idea…I’m a dumbass… This is all just…A LOT...”
The giant boy’s voice trailed off.
For a brief second, as Kelsie gazed up at him, she forgot about how scared she was to be at Perion and how blind she felt about where to go and what to do. She melted into the dejected eyes above her; she just wanted to help. Kelsie wanted to give this perfect boy what she wished someone could give her: Reassurance, and the right path to follow.
Without thinking, Kelsie reached her small, pale hand out and clasped the enormous, tanned fingers next to her.
“It’s going to be OK,” she offered softly, looking up into his eyes. “It’s all going to be OK.”
The masculine monument looked down at her hand, then up to her face. Two sets of shy, azure eyes locked together. For a single, all-too-brief moment, Kelsie’s entire body disappeared inside of this treasure of a boy.
“I KNOW WHERE YOUR ROOM IS!”
Just like that, Alexia was at Kelsie’s side again, staring up excitedly at the boy who towered over Alexia even more than he did over Kelsie. Kelsie whipped her hand back in shock and stuffed it into her pocket as if she wanted to hide it forever.
“They put YOUR transfers right next to OUR transfers!” Alexia quickly added. Kelsie didn’t know what that meant. Alexia proceeded to stick out her hand to do the obvious thing that Kelsie had somehow never thought to do. “I’m Alexia!”
“I’m Chris,” the towering figure returned sheepishly, shaking Alexia’s hand. There was an awkward pause that Alexia quickly diagnosed. “THIS is Kelsie!” she added.
Kelsie fidgeted, embarrassed that she’d never offered an introduction herself. The moment only lasted a second, thankfully, because soon Alexia was tugging Chris by the hand up the stairwell to the second floor, with Kelsie trailing behind. The girls had barely deposited their grateful new acquaintance at his single-bedroom dorm when Kelsie’s powerfully-pretty roommate was yanking her onward and upward to the fourth floor. Alexia unlocked the door to their dorm room, pushed Kelsie inside, slammed the door shut, and grabbed her roommate by the shoulders.
“OH. MY. GOD. KELSIE. Do you know who that WAS?”
Kelsie returned only a blank expression. Alexia was clearly dumbfounded at her roommate’s lack of response.
“Are you ser—that’s CHRIS WEATHERS, Kelsie!”
Kelsie had no reply. Alexia cocked a manicured eyebrow.
“The quarterback? The huge NIL transfer? He was literally THE story of Division II football last year! He came from out of nowhere to this small college and passed for, like, ALL OF THE YARDS. And then Perion paid big bucks to bring him HERE! He’s like the biggest thing on campus, Kelsie! And he wants to fuck YOU!”
“WHAT?” Kelsie turned away in shock. “Shut up! No!”
“Girl, whatever, I SAW how he was looking at you!” Alexia insisted. “He wants to put that massive quarterback dick EVERYWHERE inside of you. You’re gonna show that boy worlds he didn’t know EXISTED.”
“PLEASE stop talking!” Kelsie implored.
“Well,” Alexia added, “you’d better make a move fast, because he might only be two floors down, but he’s right next to Kaykay, one of our new Flag Football transfers, and that girl is a FREAK. Not to mention…” Alexia couldn’t resist adding, “I mean, I certainly wouldn’t mind showing him what MY mouth is capable of–” she saw Kelsie’s expression and quickly backed off. “Not that I would EVER! That’s YOUR man!”
“Can we PLEASE stop talking about this?” Kelsie begged. Alexia relented, and the girls set about moving Kelsie in. Soon, they ventured several blocks away to the nearby big-box store and lugged back just enough decorative touches to make the place feel like “home.” They had barely finished decorating when Alexia was already trying to rush them out the door again.
“Don’t you remember?” she exclaimed. “The football game! How could you forget! Your MAN is going to be the star attraction!”
“Alexia, please stop with that!”
“Well, in any case, we’re going,” Alexia continued, “And you need some spirit gear.”
Alexia quickly stripped off her jeans and top, revealing a body that seemed almost impossibly curvy. Alexia removed her bra to unleash full, magnificent D-cup breasts with dark, imposing nipples that looked almost proud of their implied power. This was a girl who, Kelsie knew with envy, had not worn a push-up once in her life. These were breasts that boys would do anything to feel…if they could get their hands away from a staggering, flowing butt that seemed hell-bent on testing the blue-and-gold bikini-cut panties that Alexia was now pulling on.
Alexia matched her underwear with a gold, lace-fringed bra, over which she pulled a blue “Predators” t-shirt with a wide neck that hung over one shoulder. She accessorized it all with a gold version of the exact type of skirt that Kelsie had seen Cooper Deering wearing earlier. Just like that, Alexia Ramos had morphed into a Predators-Clad Man-eater. Now, she looked at Kelsie.
“Strip. Come on, let’s go!”
Well, better now than never. Kelsie found herself shyly pulling her t-shirt over her head and lowering her jeans to her ankles, revealing a white bra-and-panty combination that practically matched her pale skin. She felt fortunate that there was no reason to decloth further and bare the delicate pink nipples and A-cup breasts that would look so insignificant compared to Alexia’s. She was embarrassed enough already to have to expose her skinny frame next to this ravishing latina goddess. Alexia detected the emotion and stamped on it immediately.
“Girl, you’re so fucking hot. Every curve is exactly in the right place. You don’t even know. Your body is what boys WANT. You look, like, INNOCENT.”
Alexia caught Kelsie’s horrified reaction and clarified.
“NO NO NO: I mean, that’s EXACTLY what guys want, girl! They HUNGER for that. They want to, like, rob you of all of your innocence! They want to DEFILE you, girl!”
She stared at Kelsie straight-faced for a second…and then they both broke out in laughter.
Soon Alexia was outfitting Kelsie with a skirt of her own, this one blue–“sexy besties, girl!”--and a more straightforward gold v-neck t-shirt with “PREDATORS” emblazoned across the front. Kelsie prayed that the bold block letters looked ever a fraction as good as they must have looked while straining atop Alexia’s resplendent chest. The “sexy besties” were now good-to-go, and just like that, they were out the door.
It wasn’t hard to figure out in which direction to head: Seemingly all of the students at the university were marching, en masse, toward the massive stadium in the center of campus. Alexia led Kelsie through the throng, and soon they were cramming themselves amongst the more than 10,000 students behind one of the end zones in the stadium. They were way down in the third row, which meant that, when the game kicked off, they could barely follow the action unfolding on the field. Not that Kelsie cared much, as she neither understood football nor particularly wanted to. Alexia, however, clearly understood everything, and couldn’t wait to explain it to her clueless friend.
As Kelsie pretended to listen, she focused on two things, and two things only.
The first was Chris Weathers: Somehow, even from this great distance and low angle, he looked as sexy as he had when she had met him a few hours earlier. When she had touched him…
Kelsie scolded herself for treasuring that moment so much, and for focusing on Chris at all: No doubt every other girl in the stadium was thinking the exact same things about Chris that she was thinking. But Kelsie’s brain still couldn’t resist filling in all of the details about the body that was lurking beneath that royal-blue uniform. She realized, with a shock that she tried to bury deep within, just how badly she wanted him.
The second thing that Kelsie couldn’t avoid was Cooper Deering. She, Kelsie knew, was who all of the boys were staring at, when they weren’t watching the game. Leading a triangular formation of dancers, each one seemingly plucked from a Victoria’s Secret catalog, Deering wore a glittering gold bralette and bright blue leggings that seemed designed to make her even more of an object of fantasy. She looked to be 5’7”, and every single inch of that frame was ready to spark desire. Her confident green eyes radiated power. She knew exactly what kind of control she had on the world around her–and Kelsie could see, from the way that Deering ordered the other girls around between dances, that she used that power at every opportunity. Deering had the imperious aura of someone who had been the Prettiest Girl her entire life and had never stopped using it to her advantage.
What played out over the next three hours was, Kelsie had to admit, incredibly exciting. The Predators were winning, then losing, then winning, and then, very late in the game, losing…until a perfectly placed Chris Weathers pass traveled seemingly half the length of the field into the endzone for what ended up being the winning touchdown. The stadium erupted in cheers, and soon the Predators players were triumphantly celebrating on the field.
The whole team quickly made its way over to the student section to lead a rendition of the school fight song…with the shy, towering star transfer quarterback pushed reluctantly to the front and center of the show.
What happened immediately after the singing of this song was a moment that would set the course of Kelsie’s life for the weeks and months to come.
Cooper Deering (whom Kelsie had never lost sight of) had obviously marked her prey. He was 6’5” with a potential future in the NFL, he was beautiful, he was the hottest thing on campus, and he would now be hers. As the team dispersed, Kelsie, who Alexia had dragged down to the front row, watched Deering make a sultry entrance from stage left toward Chris, who seemed to be walking toward Cooper…
…No, he was walking past Cooper.
Chris was heading toward the stands…
…right toward…wait…
OH MY GOD WHAT IS HAPPENING.
“Um,” Chris Weathers mumbled with a shy, happy smile, looking up at Kelsie from the wall next to the student section, “Would you, maybe, wanna go out for some food next week sometime? We don’t have to travel this week, and I thought, with us both getting settled in, we could maybe, like…”
Kelsie’s mouth hung open, her lips quivering in shock. Alexia stepped in.
“YES! OF COURSE SHE WILL! Kelsie, get your phone out!”
Still numb, Kelsie leaned forward, and Chris, no doubt wary of the new Hottest Phone Number On Campus being overheard, whispered it into her ear as she entered it into her contacts. As his lips came so close to brushing against her skin, Kelsie felt her entire body shiver. And then, just like that, he was gone.
The last thing that a delirious Kelsie saw, before Alexia pulled her away, was Cooper Deering.
The Dance Captain/Sorority President wasn’t smiling, or frowning, or making ANY expression. She was simply STARING, directly at Kelsie. For a moment, the two locked eyes…and then Kelsie was tugged into the frenzied throng in the stadium tunnel.
