I purposely found an empty spot with a free seat next to it. Gavin slipped into the seat about 15 minutes later. He was late, but so was the professor.
He handed back my phone. “He has a very high tech, expensive tracker in your phone, I can remove it, if you like.” He whispered.
I shook my head. “Not yet,” I insisted. At his look of disbelief, I whispered. “You’ll understand once I tell you everything.”
He nodded but sighed at me as the professor took her place in front of the class room.
I could groan in frustration. Not only did I have no clue about the first thing about sociology, but now I had to make up for any major projects, papers, quizzes, and tests that I had missed. I was going to be up to my ears in school work. This school was unique, because if there was room available in any given classroom, any student could start after the semester began. Thus, the reason why I was starting in the middle of the fall semester…again. I was somewhat suspicious that Mr. Young, Collin, and anyone else involved in this deception had purposely put me in this position.
I was known to be an over achiever and intelligent. They knew failure was not an option for me. Catching up would keep me busy, too busy to meet people. Little did they know, I thrived on challenges and I would surprise them. I had every intention on keeping up in my classes and continue getting good grades. I had until winter break to get full credit for the classes if I was to complete and pass everything required of me.
“I can help you catch up, in fact, I have all the notes on this class since the beginning of this semester,” Gavin said as if he could read my mind.
I gave him a halfhearted smile. “Thanks, that would be helpful. If only you had History of Performance Arts.” I rubbed a weary hand over my eyes.
“Well,” he said tentatively. “I kind of dropped my Fundamentals of Speech Communication class,” he explained, “and picked up History of Performance Arts.” At my surprised expression, he hurriedly explained. “I figured it was about time I learned more about our gifts and what history has to say about it. So maybe we can work together in getting all those assignments knocked out. Although I was reassured that it’s a fairly easy class, and most people take it for an easy grade.”
I sighed. “Well that’s a relief.”
“Want to catch lunch?” He looked down at his watch. “Or should I say, brunch?”
“I wish,” I said somewhat bitterly. “My babysitter wants me to have lunch with him.”
As if on cue, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. It was Gavin.
Hey, sorry to drop this on you, but will it be okay if I skip out on lunch? Something came up…
I breathed a sigh of relief and typed back. No problem. I understand. Everything okay?
His response was immediate. All is well, just have to finish up on a project that’s due for my next class.
I didn’t care that his response was highly suspect. If he was a real boyfriend, I would point out the obvious: he should have known he had to complete a project. Yet he had taken me out for dinner last night and made plans to meet me for lunch today. It was a no brainer that he was lying. Now what could he be lying about?
I typed back instead. Aww, hope you get it done on time!
His response. Thanks, babe! :-*
I looked over at Gavin and smiled with relief. “Let’s do brunch!”
“The babysitter’s not on duty.” He chuckled as we made our way to the quad.
We had to pass the parking lot on the way to the quad and I stopped abruptly. Collin’s lean frame was unmistakable; he walked like he was still the king of high school. I slid behind a tree where I could observe covertly and pulled Gavin with me.
“What?!” he asked, startled.
I pointed at the parking lot. “That’s Collin,” I whispered as if he could hear me. He was too far away, plus there were a lot of students milling around. The late morning was warming up to be unseasonably warm.
“And that’s the little blond…Rose?” Gavin whispered back conspiratorially.
I stiffened. It was clear that they were both sneaking around by the way they both kept looking around nervously. How stupid could they be? The campus was large, but someone was bound to see them. How long had they been hooking up? I knew two weeks from now they still were, and it was obvious from Rose’s reaction yesterday that this had been going on for some time.
He looked at me with suspicion and surprise at my reaction. “I thought he wasn’t your boyfriend.”
“He’s not, but she’s dating my real boyfriend, well one of them…,” I stated soberly, just as they both slid into Collins car and shared a steamy embrace and kiss.
As we entered the quad I realized how different things were. It hadn’t taken that long for me to reach popularity the first time I was here. Before, I couldn’t walk 10 feet without people calling out to me saying hi or trying to talk to me. Knowing the guys and becoming part of a well-known band on campus made me popular. When I lived with Heidi and went to high school there, I was bullied and flew under the radar. I didn’t have friends. I didn’t want people to get close because of the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse I went through. I didn’t want anyone to pity me, or worse yet, turn my step mother in.
Gavin offered to pay for my meal since I didn’t have any money. I promised I would pay him back. He waved it off and informed me that his parents were ‘loaded’ and that the shelter he worked at was a tax write off for them. He got a huge breakfast pizza and an order of home fries. I chose to get an egg white wrap with spinach, fried onions, mushroom, and green peppers. I made sure to get a handful of Texas Pete hot sauce. Jaxson had a thing with putting hot sauce on his eggs, and I had to eat my eggs with hot sauce ever since he insisted I try it.
“Is that all you want? Want a coffee too?” Gavin asked.
“Mmm yes, coffee,” I smiled.
We waited in the next line, and I ordered a coffee with a shot of hazelnut, cream, and sugar.
“Would you like any coffee with all that sweetness?” Gavin joked as he got his tall coffee, black.
I stuck my tongue out at him playfully. “You sound like the guys.” Which instantly made me sad. Troy and Remy took their coffee black. Jace took his with a splash of cream, mainly to cool it down for immediate consumption. Noah liked his with one sugar, one cream. Drake, Jaxson, Jemmy, and I liked our coffee flavored, sweet, and light. You never realized how much you picked up on another person’s habits until they were gone…or you were. The simplest, most mundane things, like getting coffee, made you miss them.
Gavin seemed to notice my moroseness and led me to a secluded tree outside of the quad. We both took a seat on the ground and promptly dug into our food.
“Story time,” Gavin gently prodded with a smile.