Chapter Five
By some lucky stroke I only had Tuesday/Thursday classes this semester, which meant I was able to sleep in a bit before heading to the bookstore to get my books for the term. While I was there, I grabbed extra notebooks. I have always been a firm believer that you can never have too many notebooks. I liked to color code each of my classes, so I spent a lot of time trying to pick out the perfect colors. School supply shopping was always my favorite part of a new semester.
However, even the pull of fresh notebooks and mechanical pencils wasn’t enough to distract me from the tell-tale whispering that seemed to follow me around ever since my dad’s relationship with Blair went public.
“That’s Dr. Seger’s daughter,” said some girl from behind me, but I refused to look around.
“The one who was screwing the student?” another girl asked. I clenched my teeth together to keep from responding.
“So gross. Isn’t he, like, fifty?”
No longer able to control myself, I spun around on my heels to tell the girls to shut up when Alex appeared out of nowhere and took care of it for me.
“Don’t you bitches have something better to talk about?” she demanded.
The three girls looked stunned that they had been caught, though how they could be surprised when they weren’t exactly being discreet with their ‘whispering’ was beyond me.
They quickly scattered like the cockroaches they were, and I felt a sense of relief wash over me that I didn’t have to confront them myself. As angry as it made me to be the topic of gossip, I was honestly too timid to really do anything about it. At least, not without stuttering some lame insult—all my brilliant comebacks only occurred to me hours after the fact—or throwing up.
“You okay?” Alex turned to me, her bright green eyes wide in concern.
“Yeah. Thanks for making them shut up,” I said, finalizing my decision between the notebooks I had in my hands. “You’d think people would be over it already.”
“You’d think,” she said, linking her arm through mine. “C’mon, let’s get out of here. I could seriously use some caffeine.”
I paid for the notebooks, pencils, and my new textbook, and we headed next door to the campus coffee shop, College Station Cafe. We chose a table by the front windows after ordering our drinks. I would have preferred something toward the back out of the way, but Alex liked to be in the center of everything.
“Intro to Russian Lit?” Alex laughed. “Your mom is going to kill you!” I had just filled her in on my morning, and her reaction was exactly what I expected.
“I know,” I said, scrunching up my nose. “She’ll probably call my adviser herself and demand to be put in charge of my schedule until I graduate.”
The sad thing is that that wasn’t completely unbelievable. When it came to my mom, she was a first-class control freak. I knew it was only because she wanted what was best for me, but sometimes I just wanted the freedom to be able to decide that for myself.
Alex pulled her long, wavy blonde hair up into a messy bun. It always amazed me that she could make that look sexy and put-together. I tried, and I just looked like a sloppy mess who’d just rolled out of bed. Of course, my mess of auburn curls wasn’t nearly as cooperative as her loose waves.
“Did I tell you I have your dad twice this semester?” Alex was pre-med, so she was bound to have him at some point.
“Which classes?” I asked, picking at my blueberry cheesecake muffin.
“Organic chemistry and biochemistry.”
“You’re taking both of those this semester?” I scoffed. “Are you on crack?”
She laughed. “Probably.”
In all seriousness though, if anyone could handle the difficult course load, it was Alex. She may look like the stereotypical dumb blonde, but the girl was borderline genius. She was the whole reason I passed college algebra freshman year.
Not for the first time, I found myself envious that she seemed to know exactly what she wanted out of life. The only thing I was really good at was reading, and according to my mother, that wasn’t an employable talent. Reading is a hobby you can afford to do after you have secured a financially lucrative career, she’d tell me. My mind shifted to what Tobias had said in the bookstore, and I realized maybe she had a point. As much as I enjoyed coffee, I knew I didn’t want to work in a coffee shop for the rest of my life. Mostly because people annoy me and I would be terrible in a customer service occupation. Also, despite my non-confrontational tendencies, I found it difficult to control my face. If you’re an idiot, it’s clear as day that I think so. Which would probably get me fired on my first day.
“What are you frowning about?” Alex asked in between sips.
“Nothing,” I said, trying to brush the memory out of my mind.
“No, it’s definitely something. You aren’t still thinking about those bitches from the bookstore, are you?”
“No, not them. I—” I sighed. “I was just thinking about something someone said.”
“That’s descriptive.” Alex rolled her eyes. “I’m going to need a few more details, sis.”
With another sigh, I began to rehash everything about my day with Tobias.
“Bookstore Boy sounds cute. Did you get his number?”
“Nope,” I said, not wanting to admit I lost it not even two minutes after he handed it to me. “We didn’t even exchange last names, so no stalking on social media either,” I said pointedly. I knew how her mind worked.
“With a name like Tobias, I bet I could still find him.” And she was probably right, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to find him. “Give me a few more details.”
“I think it’s better to just leave it as one perfect day. If it was anything more than that, he’d probably turn into a toad.”
“Tamsin, you’re so jaded.” Alex shook her head.
A part of me knew she wasn’t wrong, but the way I looked at it was why would I want to put myself into that position where getting hurt was a possibility anyway? After all, I saw firsthand what a broken heart could do to someone, how it could fundamentally change a person.
“C’mon,” she said, pulling me up with her. “I have to unpack.”