Check, Please (Book #2)

Nine.

The rest of my weekend went almost exactly how I'd predicted it would. 

To no one's surprise except his, Parker spent all of Saturday crawling back and forth between his bedroom and the third stall in the upstairs bathroom. Meanwhile, in between asking him if he was alright, Sophie patiently brought him toast and water from the kitchen. I shook my head each time I passed her on the stairs, unable to believe that one of the most famous actresses in the world had been relegated to puke patrol. Even more surprising was the fact that I hadn't heard her complain about it once, as if she didn't have anything better to do than help Parker nurse his hangover. Yet, although I certainly didn't envy Sophie's babysitting role, that wasn't the real reason why I felt sorry for her. 

Everyone in the house was used to people bringing their girlfriends around but no one really knew what to do with Sophie. Not only was she new to the group, she was different. She wasn't some sorority girl, or the university's homecoming queen; no, she was a celebrity. She was someone that most of the frat's members had ogled over at some point in their lives and I knew that--no matter what they might have said to the contrary--nearly all of them were still starstruck in her presence. 

Even so, I could tell it bothered Sophie that conversations stopped when she walked into a room, and that the typical response to her efforts at making conversation was a wide-eyed stammer. On the one hand, I didn't blame her for feeling uncomfortable, but at the same time, I couldn't blame the guys for their awkwardness either. I don't think any of us had ever expected Parker to come back to school with a girl on his arm, let alone a girl who'd spent her entire life on the A-List. It was weird--beyond weird. Hell, it almost felt like I'd stepped into the Twilight Zone. Nevertheless, I did my best to help Sophie feel included when I could, even if all that meant was inviting her to watch whatever game was on in the rec room. She seemed to appreciate it, though sometimes I wondered if she really liked me or if she was just being nice because she felt like she had to. 

After going nearly a week without seeing her, I spent most of Sunday following Gemma around the Santa Monica Farmer's Market while she searched for the perfect avocado. It was a miserable experience, as usual, though I did my best to keep a smile on my face. To beat the mid-morning crowds that always swarmed the temporary stalls, Gemma had asked me to pick her up at eight. Dressed in shorts and a pretty blouse, she assured me that the entire excursion wouldn't take more than a few hours but, of course, that promise was abandoned in favor of shopping on the Third Street Promenade. The shopping bags Gemma handed me to carry grew heavier and heavier with each store that she dragged me into until I finally couldn't take it anymore. We drove back to campus that evening in two very different moods; while Gemma was happy to sing along with the radio, all I could do was sulk over the fact that I'd wasted an entire day slaving away as her pack mule.

Now, as I stared down at the score on my first kinesiology quiz, a very small part of me wished that it was acceptable for grown men to publicly burst into tears. Not that I particularly wanted to cry in front of my classmates or anything, but realizing that I might not get credit for a Pass/Fail course was definitely enough to ruin anyone's Monday morning. To add insult to injury, the freshman who sat next to me--and who smelled like he showered in dollar store cologne--had gotten an A. 

An A, after he'd staggered into class halfway through the quiz period on Friday still drunk from the night before.

Unbelievable.

"The class average on this exam was a seventy-eight," Professor Hines said as he drew the grade distribution table on the chalkboard. "For those of you who received an A or a B, great job. If you got a C, that's still pretty good." He paused and looked directly at me. "If your score was in the D to F range, please come by my office hours later today so we can review your answers one-on-one, okay?"