Study Buddies (College Roommates #2)

1. Tori

1

TORI

Pssssst.

That was it. That was the entire message. I frowned at my phone, but even the short, cryptic message was a welcome break from the paper I was working on for my Teaching with Technology class.

I raised an eyebrow at Jayden, who was sitting across from me at the massive table. Clearly, he was getting tired of schoolwork, too.

What up? I texted back. After nearly two hours of studying, my back ached from hunching over my books, and I didn’t mind the distraction.

When his phone screen lit up, he palmed it and moved it under the table to read it. On my left side, Lucas still had his eyes glued to his laptop. That guy took his coursework seriously. Last year, an ancient encyclopedia had tumbled down from the towering, dust-covered stacks, clipped his shoulder—and he barely even noticed.

Though Jayden had his head bowed, no new messages reached me, and somewhat reluctantly, I resumed typing on my laptop. Then my phone screen lit up. It was on silent, but I grabbed it anyway, afraid the vibration would disturb the others. And even though we were in the basement, this was still a library.

When I swiped the message open, a familiar face popped up. The picture showed a young woman with long black hair draped over her shoulder—just like mine. She was wearing a pale blue t-shirt. Also like me. And she was sitting at a heavy wooden table, her laptop open in front of her. Three for three.

My phone buzzed again.

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

Homework is boring,

So I’m stalking you.

Combined with the picture of me, that would be a pretty creepy message to receive from a strange number—except from the angle of the photo, it had been taken by Jayden, who was clearly bored. No one else in the study group looked particularly happy, either. We’d been hitting the books hard. And this was only the second week of the semester—imagine how much work there’d be by midterms.

I tried to catch his eye, but Jayden was pretending to ignore me. It almost felt like we were still in high school, not college, but Jayden a good guy. He could always make me laugh.

Since he wasn’t looking my way, I studied him. Objectively speaking, he was handsome, but he could just be so goofy at times that I didn’t usually think of him that way. But he’d clearly gotten some sun over the summer. His dark brown hair, perpetually tousled, had picked up some lighter streaks from the summer sun, and they suited him.

He tapped at his phone, still not looking at me, but I smiled to myself in anticipation. I wanted to be a teacher more than anything, but I was more than willing to abandon my essay on Educational Technology: Tools and Strategies for 21st-Century Classrooms for a while.

Tell me a secret , Jayden texted.

This time I message back. You’re supposed to be studying.

His response was quick. That’s not a secret.

Which was true. The rest of us were still going strong—ish. Lucas, on my left, looked as if an earthquake couldn’t shake him from the journal article open on his laptop. But if there were an earthquake, we’d all be buried by the dusty books with titles so faded they were nearly invisible around us.

To my right, Amanda was typing on her laptop, earbuds in. And Roger appeared to be doing complex math equations on the calculator app on his phone. Even though I could only see the tops of most of their heads as they bent over their work, I couldn’t help smiling. I’d missed this group. During our freshman year last year, we’d been officially assigned as a cohort to meet twice a week to form good study habits. It was only a requirement for the fall semester, but we’d kept going. I usually got a lot done on Tuesday and Thursday nights.

Our last session had been in April, so we could gear up for final exams and end-of-semester projects, so I hadn’t seen any of these guys since then, except in passing between classes. To my surprise, last week Lucas had sent a group text, asking if we wanted to start up the study group for the new school year. Six of us had come to the first session last week, and five of us were here tonight.

I’m bored , Jayden messaged. You have to save me.

I caught his eye as I rolled mine. Jayden was smart, from what I could tell, but not the kind of guy who could sit still for hours at a time. Not like Lucas. If you gave him a copy of War and Peace and told him to sit down and read it, he’d get to his feet twenty-four hours later, the task accomplished.

Suddenly, I knew what Jayden—and probably the rest of us—needed. So call for a study break.

His eyebrows rose, and I watched as his fingers tapped rapidly on his phone. I forgot all about that. How does it work again?

You can call one any time after 90 minutes. I couldn’t even remember who’d started it last year, but the rule was that if we’d been at it for over an hour and a half, any one of us could call for a study break, and we’d all have to take one. We could grab a drink, stretch, or take a quick walk around the library’s lower level—anything except push through.

“Time for a study break,” Jayden announced, with a wink toward me.

Lucas and Roger both groaned. Amanda, still wearing her earbuds, didn’t appear to hear, and I tapped her arm.

“What?” she asked, surprised to see us all looking up.

“Jayden called a study break.”

“We’re still doing that?” Roger grumbled.

Jayden shrugged. “Rules are rules.” He paused and looked my way. “What were the rules again?”

Lucas answered as he stretched his arms behind his head, leaning back in his chair. The guy worked so hard that he should probably hire a full-time massage therapist to work the tension out of his muscles. “It has to be after ninety minutes, and the one who calls it decides what we do during the break.”

“Let me guess, squirt guns again?” Roger asked.

“That was one time,” Jayden said with a grin. “And I offered to pay for your calculus book.”

That had been one of our more interesting study breaks. Since Jayden hadn’t even remembered they existed, this wasn’t likely to be a repeat, but Amanda slipped her earbuds into the pocket of her hoodie out of an abundance of caution.

“So what’s it going to be this time?” I couldn’t help grinning at Jayden. He was an easy-going guy, much as I remembered from last year. But now he had a closely cropped beard and mustache, making him look older. I guessed none of us looked like freshmen anymore, thank god.

“Everyone up.”

This time we all groaned, but it seemed like more because our stiff muscles were protesting the movement. I scooted the ancient wooden chair back and got to my feet. Lucas did too, sliding his chair back to let me pass. I smiled up at him, and his green eyes softened. He looked different, too. There was a five o’clock shadow that I’d never noticed before, and he looked taller, somehow. Were twenty-year-old guys still growing? He looked stronger, like maybe he no longer studied 24/7—just the vast majority of the time.

We were as stiff as a bunch of senior citizens as we stretched behind our chairs, making me chuckle under my breath. Amanda caught my eye and grinned. She had her arms folded over her head and was slowly leaning from one side to the other. It looked like a good stretch, so I copied her.

“Okay, while we’re stretching, we all have to share one thing we did over the summer,” Jayden said.

Lucas let out a quick bark of laughter. “You don’t look like Mrs. Henry, my third-grade teacher, but you sure sound like her.”

We all chuckled, even Jayden, who didn’t seem offended. “I’m serious. Except for Lucas, I haven’t seen you all in half a year. And forgive me if I haven’t kept up with you on social media.”

He had a point. "That wasn't really his thing. Social media didn't really seem to capture the attention of anyone in this group, actually, except maybe Amanda."

“I’ll go first,” Jayden said. “I went to Tallahassee to visit my brother and his wife. And, in a couple of months, I’m going to be an uncle.”

“Congrats,” I said, and the others echoed it. Jayden definitely seemed like he would be good with little kids, and though we were in northern Georgia, Tallahassee wasn’t that far of a drive or flight.

Jayden turned to Roger. “Your turn.”

Roger put his hands behind his back, lacing his fingers together to stretch. “I did some research for one of my professors, and my name will be in the article he’s publishing.” He grinned when we congratulated him, too. “I’ll be a footnote in history.”

Wow. My study buddies were overachievers. Roger jerked his chin at Lucas, who still seemed a bit grouchy at the forced break. “Not much happened over the summer. I took five classes.”

Amanda frowned. “I thought the limit was three for the summer session?”

Lucas grinned, and the lines on his forehead disappeared. “It was. How’d you spend your summer?”

“Wait,” Jayden interrupted before Amanda could speak. “You forgot to mention the best thing that happened to you over the summer.”

Lucas raised an eyebrow. “Which is?”

“You got a charming, handsome, and talented new roommate.”

“No, I didn’t,” Lucas said with a smirk. “But Jayden moved in.”

I bit back a laugh, but I was also surprised. Lucas had a small house a couple of towns over, and I’d gotten the impression that he already had a roommate last year. I wondered what had happened.

“Now you can go,” Jayden said to Amanda.

“Funny you say that, because I actually do have to go. I’m meeting a friend for pizza.”

Something about the way her cheeks flushed lightly clued me in. “A guy?”

“Yeah. We’ve been on a couple of dates now.” She looked both pleased and a little embarrassed.

“Maybe we can meet for coffee sometime this week and you can tell me all the details.”

“I’d like that,” she said as she gathered up her things.

“And we’d like that,” Jayden said. “Not having to hear the details during study group,” he elaborated, and I laughed. Lucas’s head would probably explode if his studying was delayed by Amanda and I talking about a guy.

“I’ll see you all on Thursday,” Amanda said, before looking at me. “You okay?”

“Yes.”

Jayden looked at me a bit curiously as Amanda left, but I knew exactly what she’d been asking. She wanted to make sure I was okay being the only woman left. I was, but it was nice that she checked.

“Your turn, Tori,” Roger said. “Then we can get back to work.” Not the nicest thing to say, but we were all a bit on edge. The fall semester had barely started, and our professors were already piling on the work.

“I, um, moved too.” I glanced at Jayden. “Twice, actually.”

“Twice?” Lucas echoed.

“Yeah. The first place didn’t work out.” I didn’t mention the second place hadn’t, either.

“Well, I hope your new roommates aren’t as grumpy as mine.” Jayden gave me a wink and Lucas scowled.

We worked for another hour after that, and when Roger closed his laptop and said he had to go, we were all ready to wrap things up.

Lucas blinked and rubbed his eyes. “We have to set goals.”

Oh yeah, I’d forgotten that part of it. We hadn’t done it last week, but last year, at the end of every session we’d shared what we hoped to get done before next session.

I rooted through my backpack while the others stated their goals. I expected to feel the soft leather cover of my combination planner and journal, but as my fingertips brushed the seam of the bag, I remembered. It wasn’t here.

“Tori?” Jayden and the others were looking at me expectantly. “It’s your turn.”

It took me a moment to gather my thoughts. Without my journal, I felt disorganized and a little scattered. “Um, just to finish the rough draft of that paper for my English class. Oh, and I have to contact my partner for my statistics class.” There was a post-it I’d used as a bookmark in my textbook. I pulled it out and jotted down my goals.

When I finished, Lucas was staring at me. “What happened to that pink journal?”

“Oh yeah,” Jayden said. “You always kept your goals and notes in there. What happened to it? Did it get full?”

My heart sank, but I kept my tone light. “I haven’t seen it in a while. I think it got left behind when I moved.”

“It seems strange to see you without it,” Roger said.

“Yeah. It kind of feels like my right arm is missing.” I shrugged as if it didn’t matter, but it did.

“So why don’t you just get it from your old place? I can give you a ride,” Jayden asked, which was kind of him. But transportation wasn’t the issue—I had my own car.

“Thanks, but it’s fine.” I looked around. It was clear that none of them believed me. We’d spent a lot of hours together around this table, and they knew me pretty well. “The thing is, things didn’t end really great with my roommate, and I just—it’s just better to get another planner.” I sighed. What I’d just said was an understatement.

“Did you have a fight with her?” Lucas asked.

“Him,” I corrected, ignoring the way Lucas’s eyebrows shot up. “And yes, kind of. I just don’t feel comfortable going there alone.”

“So don’t,” Jayden said.

I nodded, a little glumly. The campus bookstore likely had dozens of different kinds of journals. “Yeah, that’s probably for the best.”

“He meant don’t go there alone,” Lucas clarified. “We’ll go with you.”

“Really?” The word had come out quicker than the assurance that it didn’t matter.

“Really,” Lucas said, and his eyes met those of Jayden and Roger. They both nodded. “Let’s go.”