Chapter 7 - Who's Doctor Banner again? (3)

A U T U M N

I couldn't concentrate during the lecture. All I could think about was Jess and her telling someone about my past relationship with Joe and Ashton. No one would be able to understand the struggle of wanting someone to love me, needing someone to love me, when everyone else could care less. When I grew up, my family wasn't as loving and caring as they were now.

My dad, my older brother Steven, and I caught my mom having sex with our neighbor Josh. Since then our parents decided to remain married but continue to have sex with other people. It was sick and wrong. Steven and I grew up without the love of our parents.

When my high school boyfriend of two years, Ashton Martin, cheated on me with the captain of the cheerleader, I couldn't risk losing the only person who gave me love. So I agreed on having an open relationship, although unlike him, who screwed different girls every week, my other boyfriend was none other than the school's hot English teacher, Mr. Joe Rodriguez.

Both relationships ended in the end. Joe 'cheated' on me with a college girl who happened to be Rosie's big sister, while Ashton accidentally made Ellie, one of his flings, pregnant.

Tyler was the only one for me. He loved me despite everything else. He knew me inside out and accepted me for who I was. And God knows how many times he had risked his life to save mine, especially those days when Villain X was trying to make my life like a living hell. Above all else, he taught me what love really was.

He once told me while I was still with Joe and Ashton, "Autumn, he wasn't yours, to begin with, if he cheated on you. I mean, if he has you, why would he be needing other girls?" Those words stayed with me and changed my whole perception of love and relationship.

I've moved on since then. I've moved on from the girl I once were and that was all thanks to Tyler. I wished everyone would keep all those things behind too, just like I already did. Yet apparently some people loved to linger on the past, determined to make me face those mistakes again. I just never thought that Jess would be one of those people.

"Hey, Autumn!" I heard someone called my name as I walked out of the classroom. I stopped and turned to watch the cute girl from last night ran towards me.

"Hi. Ishita, right?" I prayed that I got her name right. Odin knows how drunk I was last night.

She beamed and nodded. She looked very happy that I remembered her name. "Yeah. How was the class? I personally dislike Prof. Norton. I wanted to enroll in Prof. Banner's class but it was already full."

"Who's Professor Banner again?" I didn't recall having any of my lecturers with that name. I was one of those lazy students who didn't do research about their professors before choosing classes. I chose the class based on their timings and not their lecturers. I remembered my morning class and how dispassionate Professor Longhorn was, and regretted being lazy.

"He's amazing! He teaches Calculus, same modules as Professor Nottingham, but I heard he's good at explaining things. Some students said he made Calculus seem easy," explained Ishita as we walked out of the building. "Let's sit there!" She pointed at the wooden bench on the lawn.

I didn't see Tyler anywhere and decided if I had to wait for him, I might as well do that while sitting and having a chat with Ishita. She seemed like a really nice girl. "Sure."

We fled down the set of stairs and walked towards the bench. I saw the brown-haired guy I've met yesterday afternoon when Jess and I were here. If I recalled correctly, his name was Irwin. He and two more guys were sitting on the grass by the bench.

I was trying to decide whether to greet him when he saw me coming and stood. He walked towards us with a joyous grin on his face. "Hey, girls." He gave Ishita a nod before returning his gaze to me. "Hi, Autumn."

"Hey, Irwin." I returned his smile. It was nice having someone who didn't know about the rumor and treated me like I was a person, not an object. I turned to Ishita and introduced them. "This is Ishita." They shook hands. I pointed at the spot on the grass where he was sitting and asked, "Don't you have class?" I remembered seeing him sitting on the grass the other day like he didn't have anything else to do.

"I had morning class but I'm free for the rest of the day. I reckon playing rugby with some of the guys would be fun, you girls wanna come?" There was a hint of an Australian accent in the way he spoke.

Ishita and I exchanged look. "I can't," I answered first. "I have to meet my boyfriend."

"Oh." His smile faltered a little. He slid his gaze to Ishita. "How about you?"

She giggled but shook her head shyly. "I don't play rugby. I don't know how."

"I could teach you." His smile turned wider. "Promise I'll go easy on you."

"Dude!" One of the guys called Irwin and he turned to face him. I recognized the guy as one of Phraser's wingman, Mateus. "Why are you talking to the slut? She's not worth your time."

"Matt, where's your manner?!" Irwin shouted back and shook his head as he returned to face us. "I'm sorry about that." He gave me an apologetic look. "For the record, I don't believe the rumor."

"Thanks." I gave him a tight smile. It seemed that he knew about it too. Great. So news really did travel fast around here.

Irwin turned his gaze to Ishita. "So, you'll come?"

Ishita looked at me then back at Irwin. "No. Maybe some other time."

Irwin gave her a nod and walked back to his friends.

"Why didn't you say yes? I know you want to," I asked her once we sat on the bench. I put my heavy bag on the empty spot beside me and leaned my back against the wooden bench.

Ishita smiled. "I don't know." She shrugged. "I'm more interested in talking to you than learning some new sport." She shifted in her seat and positioned herself to face me. "So, who's this boyfriend of yours? Does he go to Columbia too?"

I laughed once I figured she was interested in girl talk. "He goes here too. He's studying biochemistry." I didn't know if this was just me or some other girlfriends in the world felt this too, but I always felt a little proud every time I mentioned about Tyler. Him being a genius wasn't the reason I loved him but talking about it gave me joy.

"Wow." Her eyes widened in surprise. "He must be a genius! My mom always wants me to take one of the Science majors but I'm not that good at those. Plus, I love Economics." She looked down with a sad expression on her face.

I gave her an encouraging smile. "We should learn what we are passionate about. If you don't passionate about what you learn, then what's the point."

She looked up and smiled. "You're right." Her gaze moved past my shoulder and her eyes widened. "That guy's hot."

I turned around and followed her gaze to find Tyler walking towards me. His eyes caught mine and he smiled. "Yeah," I turned to Ishita and smiled. "That's my boyfriend."

It seemed like she didn't listen to a word I said as her eyes fixated on Tyler. She blinked a few times then turned her gaze back to me. "He's your boyfriend? He's so hot."

I nodded. I never know what to say to people who said that Tyler was hot. Like should I thank them on his behalf or should I say that I agreed with them?

Ishita immediately shook her head before I could say anything. "I'm not gonna steal your boyfriend or anything. The compliment is purely just a compliment."

I laughed. "It's okay. I just don't know how to reply when someone said that."

Tyler stood beside us and looked down at me. "Hey." He leaned down and dropped a small kiss on my forehead. Seemed to realize that there was someone watching his every move, he turned and smiled at Ishita.

"Ty, this is my friend, Ishita." I introduced them.

He held his hand out. "Tyler Vincent. A pleasure to meet you."

I spared a look at Ishita. I would have thought she turned into a tomato by the way her cheeks reddened under his gaze. She regained her composure and shook his hand. "Ishita Asmi Malhotra. It's good to finally meet Autumn's boyfriend."

"Why?" Tyler smirked. "Did she talk about me?" He teased.

I rolled my eyes at him. "You wish."

I knew he was joking but she seemed to take his question seriously. "No. But I think she needs you around now that everyone knows about the rumor."

Tyler frowned. "What rumor?"

Ishita looked at me then returned her gaze to Tyler. She seemed to notice that she accidentally outed something that I haven't shared with Tyler as she cleared her throat and picked up her bag. "I think I saw my friend Aarti, I need to borrow her notes. I gotta go. See you tomorrow, Autumn."

I watched her walk away. She shot me an apologetic look behind Tyler's back as Tyler turned to face me. "Autumn." His voice warned me to tell him the truth. "What rumor was she talking about?" He moved to take Ishita's seat. He held my hand and gave it a little squeeze.

I let out a deep sigh before relaying to him about what had happened last night. As I told him the story, my mind was trying to decide if now was a good time to add what happened with Phraser in the janitor closet earlier to the story.