Chapter Five
O bviously, the outfit I picked out the day before didn’t live up to my expectations the next morning. This had nothing to do with the fact that Zack still hadn’t called or texted, but I did decide a belted mini-dress was better than the jeans I’d originally chosen.
When Liv pulled up, I grabbed my bag and a granola bar on my way out the door.
“Hot mama!” Livy called when I made my way down the sidewalk. “I take it Mr. Handsome called?”
I tried not to let my annoyance show as I climbed into the car.
“No,” I ground out. “But he will after he sees me in this dress.” I plastered a confident smile on my face.
“Decent plan.”
We arrived somewhat early for class, which was helpful because I didn’t want to get stuck sitting in the front row or anything.
This might be my first college class, but I was pretty sure seating rules still applied.
There were a few other people already scattered around, and I made my way toward a middle row, figuring that was pretty safe. I checked my phone while I waited.
KIM: Don’t shoot the messenger, but I heard from some girls in my dorm that Zack’s ex showed up at Vader’s after we left and was all over him. I don’t know if anything happened, but I thought you might wanna know. I’m sorry :(
My blood pressure spiked. I knew the girl she was talking about because she had been a cheerleader for Central. And she was stupidly gorgeous—long black hair, perfect makeup always, even after a football game. Jenny, or Jenna…something.
I exited out of my messages aggressively.
She needs to get some business of her own and be less concerned with mine .
With difficulty, I straightened my posture and clenched my teeth, determined to be unbothered.
It was one fucking kiss; what does it even matter?
But it did. Matter.
Damn it .
My whole first-day-of-school vibe was trashed after that, no matter how much I tried to fight it.
I did half-heartedly participate in the icebreakers the professor had us do, but I wasn’t in a space to be making new friends at the moment.
It did at least seem like Psych 101 would be interesting.
More interesting than any of my high school courses, anyway.
After class, I had a break before my next two, and I set out to find coffee. While digging in my bag for my wallet, I felt a hand on my back, nearly sending me sky high. The owner of the hand didn’t seem to notice.
“I am sincerely hoping you wore this for me. Because I’m going to have a hard time if you were thinking of someone else when you got dressed this morning,” Zack murmured, his thumb running lightly across my back. My skin broke out into goose bumps, and I hated my body for betraying me.
“Hmmmm, that’s so interesting. I would have thought you’d be more preoccupied with what your ex-girlfriend was wearing today.
” I smiled sweetly as I turned to fully face him.
He wore an amused expression, his eyes sparkling annoyingly, rather than a guilty one as I’d expected. “Why are you smiling?”
“Why are you smiling?” he asked, calling me out on my passive-aggressive statement. It did not go unnoticed that he hadn’t responded to my thinly veiled accusation.
“Just having a lovely day, I suppose,” I answered evenly, determined not to look at his mouth.
“Let me buy your coffee. Do you have class now?”
I shook my head. “Not for an hour.”
“Well, you can walk with me to mine then.” He took my bag and waited patiently for me to order, paid, and nudged me along the path to another building .
Maybe Kim heard wrong? Why would he be walking me to class if he were back with Jenny/Jenna?
“So, that’s a yes on the dress then,” he confirmed to himself while I contemplated denying it. My silence earned a satisfied smirk. “If you’re around and in the commons this afternoon, we can talk about dinner. And dessert,” he added, making my stomach flip.
“I’m around. You could call or text me.”
“I’m aware of how phones work,” he replied, still grinning. “I’ll see you later.” He handed my bag back to me and continued on into his lecture, leaving me far more confused than I had been this morning, but also in a slightly better mood.
I wandered around to find a good spot to lounge and people watch since I would have this break three times a week. I sank into a cushy chair near a window and pulled out my iPod to listen to a new playlist I’d made just for this purpose.
* * *
People watching turned out to be a decent way to pass the time, and the coffee wasn’t half bad.
I threw away my cup and made my way toward my next class.
This was not one I was looking forward to.
I chose a Bio 101, hoping it would be easy enough to get one of my science requirements out of the way, but science had never been my forte.
I’d gotten distracted during my break, and I didn’t realize how far I was going to have to walk to get to the science building.
Luckily, I still made it there on time, but unluckily, there were very few seats left.
One seat was next to a guy who was giving off aggressive “leave me alone” vibes—headphones on his ears, scowl on his face.
But the other seat…I groaned inwardly. Because that seat was currently taken up by Luke Miller’s feet.
He was leaning back in his own chair, legs stretched across the other like he was already bored on the first day of class.
I glared at him as he looked up at me and grinned.
It was unfortunate that he knew exactly how hot he was.
He should just never open his mouth.
“Do you mind?” I asked.
“Not at all. I’m quite comfy.”
“ Luke .”
“Va- nessa”
I sighed. I did not have the time for this because class was going to start in like, 60 seconds.
“Can you please move your feet?” I asked, mustering up a smile. I was on the verge of just yanking the chair out from under him.
That would be much more satisfying .
He moved his feet…back and forth in the chair, slowly, then quickly, like he was tap dancing in the air.
“It appears that I can, indeed, move them. Thank you for checking,” he offered, smiling far too widely for the quality of that joke, his green eyes dancing with amusement.
Now fully done with this interaction, I reached down to commence with the yanking of the chair, but Luke quickly sat up straight and affixed his gaze to the front of the room.
Ah, professor , I thought before finally sitting down and confirming my prediction, noting the man in a blazer at the front of the room.
“Sorry I’m late,” he began. “I’m Professor Lessing, and this is Bio 101. If you aren’t in Bio 101, you should take this opportunity to leave. I’ll distract everyone so they don’t notice.” His voice was monotone, but I had the suspicion that he was making a joke.
No one moved, so it appeared we were all in the right place. “Okay, then. Look at the person next to you. Shake hands. Introduce yourself. Because that’s your lab partner for the semester.”
“What?!” I whispered in outrage, my eyes widening to an abnormal degree.
“I know, right? How lucky can you be?” Luke said, holding out his hand to shake mine.
“I am not shaking your hand. I’ve known you since middle school.”
“Aw, V. You remember our anniversary. You’re so sentimental.”
I just let out a sigh, wondering if this professor would be affected by my very convincing fake tears and switch me partners. Maybe the guy with the scowl wasn’t so bad.
“Send one partner up to get a syllabus for each of you, and then we’ll spend the rest of our time reading over it in what I’m certain will be an exhilarating time for everyone.”
“Allow me,” Luke stated in mock chivalry.
This is less than great.
He returned and slid my syllabus over to me. I found my teeth digging into my bottom lip as I previewed the course outline.
“I sort of need a decent grade in this class,” I muttered. I had barely scraped by in my last science class, and I could not fail a college course without my mother absolutely losing her shit.
“Yeah, me too,” he replied, suddenly serious.
I realized he would have to keep his GPA up to play basketball, so at least I knew he had that to motivate him, and he wouldn’t fuck around.
“Okay. We can do it, then.”
Luke raised an eyebrow at me suggestively.
“Ugh, shut up. We can do this . Be partners. Whatever.” I shoved his shoulder, but he didn’t so much as flinch.
Annoying .
We sat and listened to Professor Lessing talk about labs and papers and late work, and it was all very organized and boring. It was hard to sit and listen for that long in a hard chair, and I found myself shifting in my seat, trying to get comfortable.
“Would you quit moving ,” Luke murmured, putting his hand on my knee to stop me. I froze. I didn’t realize I was being distracting to anyone else .
“Sorry,” he said even more quietly, removing his hand from where it gripped my leg. He shifted in his own seat, angling slightly away from me, and I tried to force myself to sit still. Thankfully, the class period was over minutes later.
At least we didn’t kill each other .
“See ya Wednesday, partner,” Luke stated before sauntering out of class. My eyes rolled back out of habit even though I knew he couldn’t see me.
* * *
I met Liv in the commons for lunch, but I was only half listening to the tale of her first day adventure. The rest of my brain was keeping an eye out for Zack.
He did say he’d be in the commons, right?
The teriyaki chicken wasn’t terrible, but my mood was by the end of our meal.
“You’ve said like, half a word to me this whole time. And usually, I wouldn’t care because I have enough personality for a whole room full of people, but what’s up?” Liv said, shaking her head at me slightly.
“Nothing. Just, processing everything, I guess. And recovering from being assigned Luke Miller as a lab partner for the whole semester.”
“ Recovering ? From your immense good luck? I swear to god, I don’t get you.”
We cleaned up our table, and I gave one last glance around the food court, but there was no sign of Zack.
I hope he didn’t get sick or something.
I knew the logical explanation was that he blew me off, and I hated that I was automatically coming up with excuses for him. At least I’d had the forethought not to tell Livy about running into him that morning, so at least I didn’t have to eat my humble pie in front of anyone else.
He’s clearly not that interested. Move on.
I began making a mental list of any guys from my morning classes that seemed date-able. I still had a month, but homecoming was approaching, and I would be damned if I didn’t get to go because I was pining after a guy who couldn’t be bothered to nail down a date.
The last class of the day was maybe my favorite—an art history course.
I wasn’t expecting it to be interesting right off the bat, but this professor seemed like much more of a free spirit than the bio teacher.
She jumped right in to explaining why she loved teaching art and all the things she couldn’t wait to share with us.
Her whole vibe just made me excited to learn something for the first time in a long time that didn’t come from a design show.
My mood was significantly better when I left class and made my way back toward the courtyard to meet Liv before cheer.
“You seem to be concentrating awfully hard for someone headed to cheer practice.” Zack’s voice simultaneously made the butterflies in my chest wake up and my jaw clench. Because I was pissed.
I was also fairly certain there was an insult in there somewhere about cheerleaders being stupid, and I was fully prepared to school him in the precision and difficulty of stunting and tumbling when he was suddenly sharing my personal space.
“I’m glad I caught up with you, though,” he said, his voice much lower now.
Taking a step back, I attempted to regain my bubble, but he only followed without hesitation.
I shook my head, struggling to get my bearings.
I moved slightly to slip past him, but there was the stupid buzz across my skin that really liked him being that close.
He stopped me with a hand on my waist, and I halted, looking up at him.
“What the hell, Zack?”
“What the hell what?” he asked innocently, licking his bottom lip .
Don’t look at his lips. Get it together.
“You said we should chat in the commons. You were not in the commons. I don’t enjoy wasting my time. That’s what the hell.”
He grinned. That was becoming irritating. “I’m sorry, babe. I didn’t know that was like a set-in-stone plan. Vader and I went with some friends to grab DQ for lunch. I didn’t know it was going to be a big deal.”
“Did you not think that I might also enjoy DQ?”
“I didn’t know if you’d want to go grab fast food with half a dozen guys, no. But consider me corrected. What else do I need to know about you?” he asked, still smiling
“That I don’t deal well with people blowing me off.”
“I swear I didn’t blow you off,” he promised, losing that grin a little. “I honestly thought about inviting you, but Jenna was there with whoever her new boy-toy is, and I thought you might not be down with that based on our conversation this morning.”
The way my stomach dropped when he mentioned Jenna— not Jenny— was annoying.
“So, let me make sure I’ve got everything straight. You had lunch with six of your friends, but also somehow your ex, and now you’re stalking me outside the gym?” I had all but lost the desire to get him to like me, despite the fact that my hands were still shaking at his proximity.
“I think I like you,” Zack stated unapologetically, running his fingers through his hair. “Let me take you out. Tonight. I’ll pick you up at six-thirty, yeah?”
“Um, no?”
“Um, yes,” he replied, mocking me a little, amusement still settled over his features. “I didn’t have lunch with my ex. She happened to be there. I didn’t think you’d be comfortable, so I didn’t ask. I’m going to take you to dinner to make up for it, so just let me.”
When he put it that way, it took a lot of the wind out of my angry sails .
It’s not like you’re actually dating , I told myself.
As my hostility faded, the fluttery feelings came back, and I sighed.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he said smugly.
He leaned down and pressed his mouth to mine, kissing me more seriously than was probably appropriate for the setting, before heading towards the parking lot.
“Text me your address, and I’ll see you at six-thirty,” he called over his shoulder with a much-too-casual tone.
Jesus .
I breathed out and tried to wrap my head around the emotional roller coaster that just was, but when I checked my watch, I realized that Liv had apparently forgotten we were meeting because practice started in eight minutes. My introspection was going to have to wait.