Read Your Gravity: Part One for Free Online Page A

eyes watching Penny as Rainbow carried her back outside. “I’ll be watching you.”
    “You do realize you were threatening a chicken with a butter knife, don’t you?”
    Reaching over the table, he grabbed a faux-hot dog and slapped it into a bun. “And I’ll do it again if I have too. You didn’t see her, Nicole. I was minding my own business and this brown bullet darted right at me. It was like she smelled the chicken teriyaki I had for lunch. And that beak hurts. Now, I have little red dots all over my ankles. I was planning to lay out by the river tomorrow after class.”
    “You big baby. And don’t you know too much tanning is bad for you?”
    “For you maybe, Ms. Red Lobster.” He tapped my cheek and grinned. It wasn’t fair that he had that nice golden tan that made him look even more handsome. All I had to look forward to was peeling. Eww.
    “Hey, this actually looks good.” He heaped a scoop of sweet relish onto his hot dog. “So I need to tell you about what happened with Travis. I was getting some intel, for you of course, because it’s been a while since you’ve been on a real date and—”
    He stopped abruptly, his face turning almost as green as my salad. He spat out the hot dog onto his plate.
    “Gross! Greg!”
    “What the hell did I just eat?”
    “Oh, you’ve tried the Tofurky,” Rainbow said, walking back into the kitchen. “It takes a little getting used to—”
    “A little?” He made a face as he searched the table, his tongue hanging out. Spotting a napkin, he swiped it repeatedly over his tongue, gagging.
    “It tastes much better with tofu chili. Want me to whip you both up some?”
    “No!” we cried.
    Rainbow took out a pitcher and poured yellow liquid into his glass. “Drink this, you’ll like it.”
    He looked down at the glass skeptically. “What is it?”
    “Lemonade.”
    “Oh.” He took a swig. “Ah, much better.”
    She ruffled his hair. “I’ll make a vegetarian out of you yet. Oh that reminds me.”
    She reached into the pocket of her dress and handed me a slip of paper.
    “My friend, Lou, owns the coffee shop across from campus, Jitters. He said he could use some help. He’s in Tucson taking care of family business, but will be back in a couple of weeks. You can talk to him then.”
    I looked down at paper. “Thank you. I really appreciate this.”
    “Not a problem. Now Lou can be a little off, and he tends to forget things sometimes. But he’s a sweet man. You’ll like him.”
    Like him or not, I was desperate for a job. I stabbed my fork into the salad, feeling much better now that the job situation was settled. Now all I had to do was survive Cooper’s class.

Chapter Seven
    “ M s. Ashford !”
    I blinked, shocked that Professor Cooper was calling on me. It’d been weeks and not once had he even looked at me.
    “Wake up, Nicole,” Greg hissed.
    “Uh, aluminum fluoride.”
    Several students chuckled.
    “Sweet,” Travis muttered under his breath, laughing. Even when he was laughing, he looked like the perfect golden boy and was annoyingly handsome. Even more annoying was the way Greg looked up to him. His face all enamored with Travis. He laughed even harder, elbowing Travis, joining him.
    I scowled, and he choked back a laugh.
    Yeah, he knew better than to get on my bad side.
    “I’m sorry, you were saying?” I turned back to face Cooper and took a really good look at him for the first time since the beginning of the semester.
    Big mistake.
    He stood in front of the lectern, thick arms folded across his massive chest. My eyes slowly crawled up, taking in every inch of his muscular body, the square jawline thick with scruff until they reached fiery gemstone blue eyes.
    Good God. Why couldn’t he look like a normal guy? And why did he have to be so annoyingly sexy? I twisted in my seat uncomfortably.
    “I, uh, you asked a question?”
    Yeah, there was a reason why I’d kept my head down during class. One look and already my brain was