Hazed (Palm South University)

True to his word, Kade’s thrusts are punishing, his thighs slapping against my ass as he pummels me against the window. And in less than sixty seconds, he pulls out, ripping me around just in time for me to drop to my knees and take his release in my mouth.

It feels like a part of me slipping back into place, watching Kade unleash himself at my mercy. His hands are planted on the window as he grunts his release, his face twisting, and then he’s pulsing and convulsing and doing his best to stay standing, just like I was.

It’s everything I’ve been missing, that connection with Kade.

And now that it’s back, I feel like I am, too.

I’m still wiping the corners of my mouth when Kade picks me up, carrying me through the condo and down the hall with his jeans around his ankles and a promise on his lips to make me come at least three times before dinner.

And he delivers.

We order takeout and stay in the room all night, catching up and watching half a movie before Kade passes out and I get close to doing the same. It’ll be nice, I think to myself, to finally get a good night’s rest.

But when I turn off the TV and curl up next to Kade, sighing at the way it feels to be wrapped up with him, I’m jolted awake just when I’m about to doze off. It’s my phone, buzzing hard and filling my room with light from where it’s plugged in on the nightstand.

I know I shouldn’t check it. Whatever it is, it can wait. But I roll over to put it on do not disturb and freeze at the name on the screen.

Jarrett.

And when I slide my thumb across the screen, it’s a four-word text that delivers me yet another sleepless night.

Can I see you?

“AND OBVIOUSLY, HARVARD — ohhh, yes right there — would be amazing. Especially if I wanted to go into — oh, God — research. But really, I feel like my heart is calling me to Johns Hopkins. Ughhh, this is amazing.”

I finally give up, letting my hands drop to my sides from where they were hovering over the keys of my laptop. I close my eyes and sink into the pillows, letting out another moan when Adam presses his thumbs deep into the arch of my left foot.

He chuckles. “That good, huh?”

“You have no idea. I mean, I know I need to get used to this, being on my feet all the time. But after just one week at the hospital…” I groan again as Adam rolls my ankle and massages my heel. “Well, let’s just say I’ve got a whole new appreciation for nurses.”

Adam smiles, rubbing my foot with admiration in his eyes. I don’t know why it even interests him, sitting on my bed in the Kappa Kappa Beta house while I filter through all the medical school pamphlets I collected over break and compare them with my online research. You would think I was doing a boudoir shoot rather than talking about where I wanted to go for med school.

“No matter where you go, you’re going to be amazing,” Adam says, switching to my right foot. “But let’s just say someone walked in right now and said your life depended on you naming your top three schools. Don’t think too hard, just say what your gut tells you.”

I grimace. “I don’t want to—”

“Cassie, just say it, dammit, or I’ll suck on your big toe.”

“Ew!”

Adam opens his mouth big as a trout and pretends like he’s going to shove my whole foot in his mouth, to which I respond with jerking back so hard I nearly pull him into my lap. He laughs, grabbing my foot and rubbing again with a go on look on his face.

I sigh. “Harvard. Johns Hopkins. Duke.”

“And if that same person said you can only choose one, your top choice, and it’s yours. You’d say…”

I chew my lip for a long while until Adam starts tickling my foot while I writhe and try to break free.

“Johns Hopkins!” I scream, partially begging for mercy. “Johns Hopkins, okay?”

Adam smirks in victory, going back to the massage. “Well, there you have it. You can toss the rest of these pamphlets.”

I laugh. “I wish,” I say, picking up one for a smaller, lesser-known school in Florida. “But the truth is, the chances of me getting into those places are… well…”

“You’ll get in.”

“I need to apply to at least ten schools, just to be safe.”

“Fine, do what you want,” Adam says, and then he starts reeling me in like a fish, using my leg as the pole. “But you’re going to get in. You and I both know they’d be crazy not to let you in. With your GPA and the research projects you’ve already done, plus the fact that you’re graduating a whole year early?” He shakes his head. “You’re going to be the best damn doctor anyone has ever known.”