Heart-Bound ✅

Chapter Five

Tomie's last class of the day on Fridays was her chemical kinetics lab. It was a small lab of a dozen students, which wasn't surprising as it was one of the most difficult courses she had ever taken. Dr. Strobes was at the front of the lab talking, but she couldn't help but zone out. His monotone voice and his blank and uninspired expression didn't help matters, and no matter how hard she tried to pay attention Dr. Strobes put forth no effort to make chemical kinetics interesting.

Neither Stacey, nor the rest of my sorority sisters, are currently speaking to me. Augh, this makes me so mad! What was Tyler thinking?!

"Your friend is about to get married! And you just stood back and fully supported her sleeping with a stripper! What is wrong with you, Tomie?! I thought you had standards! I thought you were a good person!"

Tomie shuddered and shook her head. No. Tyler's wrong. It was just a bachelorette party! Everyone does that stuff at a bachelorette party! It was just good fun!

She hadn't spoken to Tyler since Sunday. She had never gone this long without speaking to her big brother before and it was hurtful to her. In a way...she knew that Tyler was right. She tried to help Stacey cheat on Donald, her boyfriend of three years. Tomie had tried to justify to herself that it was okay, because Donald's bachelor party probably had strippers as well. But then she found out that Donald's bachelor's party hadn't involved strippers. He had literally spent the night drinking with his groomsmen and playing video games.

Somehow, trying to help Stacey cheat had been easy when she thought that Donald was also going to cheat. But Donald hadn't. And if they knew that they had hired a stripper for Stacey to sleep with...

But Stacey didn't sleep with him. Tyler did.

Tomie locked his jaw and folded her arms over her chest. Maybe Tyler had a point that what they had tried to do was wrong. But Tyler could have handled things better than screwing the stripper and ruining their night!

"Now for the groups."

Tomie stiffened and looked up when Dr. Strobes made this announcement. "You will be paired in groups of two for this project," he continued. "And with your partner you will come up with a formula for the rate of your reaction, and then execute the formula in lab." He held up a sheet. "I have selected the groups for you."

Tomie bristled and the students protested, but Dr. Strobes waved a dismissive hand. "When you get out into the field and have your own experiments, you are going to be working with new people regardless. It's best to start now. When I call your names, move to sit with your lab partner."

More protests rose up, but Dr. Strobes ignored the students and looked at the sheet of paper. "Lange and Michery."

Tomie stood up when she heard her name, and northwest of her position a blonde-haired man stood up. He turned to face her and she exhaled sharply as her heart began immediately racing. It was the most handsome man she had ever seen in her entire life. Is this real? He's been in this class this whole time?! How did I not notice?!

But she noticed that he made no move towards her. Tomie quickly recovered herself and gathered her things and hurried towards his lab table. She took the seat next to him and offered him her hand. "I'm Tomie," she said softly. Dr. Strobes announced the next group but she wasn't paying attention. She was mesmerized by her new partner's intense blue eyes. He accepted her handshake, and his hand felt warm. Soft.

"Nice to meet you, Tomie," her new partner greeted her. "I'm Georg."

*

"I'm heading out," Tyler announced to his boss.