College is not proving to be exactly all it's cracked up to be for Seth. His only relief from classes, loneliness, and asshole peers is his online friend, Atropos. But even that is a problem because Atropos is also one of the assholes he hates most, leaving Seth confused as to who is more authentic: the asshole from class or the friend online. Then Seth slips up, and he fears he may have ruined the only good thing he had …
Kiss Me Quick is a collection of short and sweet stories from authors familiar and new, celebrating the season of love. Come and enjoy these tales of misunderstandings, lonely singles, pining lovers, and so much more! Because if there is one thing that is never in doubt, it’s that LT3 knows the way to your heart, and these stories are a straight shot.
Digital to Analog
By Evie Kiels
Published by Less Than Three Press LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the publisher, except for the purpose of reviews.
Edited by Samantha M. Derr
Cover designed by Megan Derr
This book is a work of fiction and as such all characters and situations are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is coincidental.
First Edition February 2012
Copyright © 2012 by Evie Kiels
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 9781620041116
To Melanie, my writerly valentine.
~♥~
Digital to Analog
Kiss Me Quick
Evie Kiels
Seth shut his apartment door quietly behind him and stomped on the doormat to shake the last of the snow off his boots. It had been a long day. The electronics lab experiment had failed in spectacular fashion, and his group had stayed 'til eight beating it to submission. While he walked home it had started snowing. And that was just the cherry on top. He'd known it would be a crappy day when Devon Pannell walked into their 8am Physics lecture and promptly laughed, turned to his friends, and said, "Hey check out Seth's hicky." To which they promptly turned to Seth, and Mark, asshole number one, said, "Dude, where'd you find a girl desperate enough?" There was nothing like mortification to start the day.
It hadn't been a girl. Seth woke up that morning and it was there. He scratched it, and it burnt like a motherfucker. All signs pointed to spider. God damn fucking spider. His left shoulder and neck hurt to the touch. And it itched so god damn much, and whenever he touched it it burnt so God damn much, and then Devon Pannell, of all people, had to come in and ridicule him for his sex life—or lack thereof.
And then he made fun of Seth's inability to eat at lunch. "Dude, you're supposed to get the food in your mouth. Not your shirt." Nothing like embarrassing yourself to keep a day going strong. At least it was over.
Seth shook his head and turned on lights as he made his way through the small apartment. In the kitchen he grabbed a couple slices of cold pepperoni and mushroom pizza and ran a dishrag under cold water to wrap around his neck.
He took his dinner to the corner of the couch, opened his laptop, and hoped something would go right today. His email came up and there was a letter from Atropos. Seth smiled around the bite of pizza. Atropos had written it around five in the evening, telling Seth all about his day. That was usually what the emails were about. Seth featured prominently in the email again, in several ways. Atropos liked to casually mention how much he thought of ThirdSun, aka Seth … and then when he wrote about his day, Seth was there too, of course. Because Atropos was also known as one Devon Pannell. How his real-life nemesis and online crush could be the same person, Seth did not know. It had to be some postulate of Murphy's Law.
Seth had found out quite accidentally the Atropos he flirted with online was Devon. Atropos asked Seth for help coming up with a paper topic for his EE course. Seth jokingly suggested "Edison—Electrical Engineering's Biggest Fake." Which happened to be the title of the paper their Electronics professor had waxed poetic on more than two weeks later. By that time, Seth considered Devon a very annoying thorn in his side. Everything that came out of his mouth sounded vaguely insulting. And he was arrogant. And hung out with the dumbest people. And worst of all, he was sexy as hell. But Atropos? Seth kind of already loved Atropos. How could the guy online who flirted with him shamelessly be the guy who made his days a never-ending trial in patience?
Speak of the devil: A chat window popped up.
Atropos: Hey TS
Seth stared at the window. He was still quite miffed over the morning thing. And the lunch thing. And his neck hurt, which made him even more miffed. He stared at the screen. Putting Devon into his two boxes—online and offline—was an exercise in itself.
Atropos: You there?
Atropos: Oh TS … come out and play … I'll make it worth your while. ;)
Seth sucked in a breath. When the winking emoticon came out …
ThirdSun: I'm here. Eating cold pizza.