Chapter Four: Let Me Help You Integrate Your Natural Log
I couldn't stop thinking about Alex.
Not in a "oh he's so hot" kind of way and not even in a "he gives me butterflies" kind of way either. I couldn't top thinking about the "bad blood" between him and Adrian. I knew them both mostly by reputation, but something told me that they knew each other because of something much deeper, and darker.
He must have thought I was some shallow, stuck up, conceited person after the way Emily dragged me off to Adrian. And I let her. Why? She believes in cliques and status rules but I don't. So why did I let her?
Emily revealed her true colors, but I think I knew they were always there, I just didn't want to acknowledge them. She was nasty, the way she talked about Alex, like he was some infectious plague. The way she instinctively defended Adrian when talking about their "bad blood."
What could she possibly know? Whatever Adrian must have told her, I guaranteed it would have been different that what Alex would have said. Even now, after a year of being best friends with him, he still hasn't clearly told me what the deal is between them.
Just thinking about the dramatics made me nauseous. I didn't look forward to school on Monday, but at least I knew how to keep a low profile.
I vowed to never go to another damn basketball game again, although you'll see how long that lasted.
My mom frequently nagged me about being at home all the time. Well, more specifically about the fact that I didn't do what most college students do: party, hang out with friends, stay out late, socialize, etc. I was always too nervous in social encounters; exhibit A: the basketball game.
How could I go to school when everything felt so different, off? I got myself trapped in a web fashioned by Miss Adrian Windsor and I didn't even realize it.
I slipped on another plain sweater in hopes that it would help me stay low key. I went into the kitchen, where my parents were usually (typically) drinking their morning coffee before work.
"Morning," I muttered.
"Good morning, Charlotte," my mother cooed while lowering her phone just a bit to drink out of her mug. My father grunted in reply, still engrossed in the day-late paper. 'It's cheaper the day after and it's the same thing!' he would always say.
"See you later," I sighed, not necessarily to my parents.
***
I sat at the very back of the lecture hall in Calculus, so as to avoid seeing Mary or Emily. I didn't have the energy to deal with her today, or to be reprimanded. I was here to get an education, build my future, and this was just a distraction. I looked down at my notebook until everyone settled into their seats, and the professor began to write down the next homework assignment on the board.
I peered over to see them sitting and chatting with each other, with a saved seat next to Emily. I sulked back into my seat, and allowed myself to doodle in the margins of my notebook.
Someone scurried into the last empty seat next to me, stepping on several people's foots. They bumped into my arm and dropped a pencil in the process. It rolled down the stairs of the hall, tapping at each step until someone picked it up, about halfway towards the front. I pursed my lips to suppress a smile at the embarrassing situation, but it was quickly wiped away when I saw who it was.
He smoothed over his caramel hair in one graceful movement, unlike his entrance into the class.
"Sorry–oh, hi Lola." Jake smiled at me as he also saw that I was in fact, Lola.
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Geek to On Fleek
Romance"It's like he's at the top of a cliff, and I'm tied to a rope that he's holding from the top. I'm trying to climb my way to where he is, but he's distracted or irritated or something, and he lowers the rope ever so slightly. He keeps lowering and lo...
