Read Crushing Crystal for Free Online

thing in the world. Then he chased her and tackled her to the sand.
    â€œI can’t wait another second. You are so hot,” said Drunk Guy as the couple laughed and rolled in the sand.
    Matt looked at me and smiled as we were both simultaneously embarrassed and titillated by the uninhibited, unbridled sexuality.
    â€œUm, X in the number six spot,” he smirked.
    The couple got up and continued chasing each other on the sand until we could not see them anymore. Surely, they each woke up the next morning on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, shook sand from their underpants and muttered, “Who the hell are you?”
    â€œI already put my O in number six,” I said.
    â€œNo you didn’t.”
    â€œYes, I did. You’re drunk. You just forgot.”
    He sat up quickly. “You are a cheater!”
    â€œAm not!”
    â€œAre too!” he laughed. “You are cheating at tic-tac-toe. Do you know what that makes you?”
    Absolutely, totally in love with you?
    â€œWhat?” I said with a smile that connected in the back of my head.
    â€œPathetic.”
    How could a man calling me pathetic sound sweeter than any sonnet or poem or song I’ve ever heard in my life?
    â€œLucky for you, pathetic is exactly what I’m looking for in a girl.”
    We both gave each other that pre-kiss smile, then stopped. The tic-tac-toe, the banter of pathetic cheating was all completely irrelevant and we both knew it. It was all leading to this. He leaned down slowly as if to ask if it was okay to kiss me. I smiled and did not stop him. Then for the first time our lips touched each other, and arms enveloped the other’s bodies. I had to remind myself not to caress every part of his clothed body, desperate to take in every detail of him. It would seem too needy, I thought. But he was just what I needed.
    Now, more so than ever, though I hadn’t realized it until that moment at the Michigan homecoming. I looked through the binoculars again. It looked so much like Matt. I wondered if Fate had sacked Common Sense.

Chapter 4
    T he Michigan football team huddled during a time out, while I also decided what my game plan would be. I could have easily moved forty yards across the stadium bleachers without being tackled like a running back carrying the ball. But when I got to his section, I might have encountered unnecessary roughness. This guy very well could’ve been someone who just looks like Matt. Or worse, it would be him, and his beautiful wife and their two strapping sons.
    I reminded myself that if I stopped right then, I could always preserve my version of our history. Frankly, the real version wasn’t so great, but this installment could be downright humiliating. He could politely introduce me to his wife as an “old friend,” then entertain her with the story of his abrupt departure from my life.
    â€œI don’t blame you for a moment, darling,” she would say to Matt, pitying the poor soul for ever having to spend time with me.
    â€œSeeing that raggedy old Prudence reminds me of how lucky I am to have a beautiful wife like you,” Matt would say to her at dinner that night as they toasted their blissfully perfect life together. She would return with something delightfully witty, never once referring to their love as “real.”
    Still, I decided to go over and see what would happen. Jennifer calls this the “seduction of potential.” Lemon fresh Pledge. It could change your life. The game clock ran out on the first half, and streams of maize-and-blue people headed out for snacks and drinks. I slinked over to his section before I noticed Mr. Could-Be-Matt walking away from the group of guys he was sitting with, and toward the exit. I followed his trail, which ultimately led to the concession stand. As I stood on line, just five places behind him, I realized it was absolutely, without a doubt, him.
    I wondered what I would say to him when he