Chapter 4

"Well...", Drake said and then breathed out a small laugh. "I won't go ahead and say that I don't actually like it but yeah, I sure as hell don't intend to do that"

I gave him a furtive glance from the side of my eye, he was leaning with his elbow on the desk, half-turned toward me. At this angle, I had a very good view of his broad shoulders stretching the black shirt he wore with sleeves folded to the elbow. It was sticking like a second skin on him, doing nothing to hide the contours of his perfectly built muscles.

As I had no idea what to do or what to say to him, I engrossed myself again in the screen of my laptop, even though this time words were all blurred, mixing into one another. I am a little-----okay, a lot-----skittish when it comes to talking to people I don't know. It took Brian almost six months for me to finally start talking to him like a normal human.

"You are in Calculus three. How come?", he asked with a little awe in his voice.

I stiffened and then looked in his direction with wide eyes and eyebrows hitting my hairline. A sudden bee started buzzing in the pit of my stomach, causing jitters to rise and thrive inside of me.

How the hell does he know?

He saw the expression on my face and a mocking grin spread on his lips, giving his chiseled face a strange boyish charm that strictly contradicted his muscular self. He nodded his head in the direction of my laptop, as a way of explanation.

Shit. I closed my eyes in mortification. I forgot I was revising for my quiz today.

I debated my answer, thinking how much I should reveal, and then answered. "Yeah. Actually, I was taking some college courses in high school", I said and closed the folder feeling a little bit self-conscious. But he didn't show any reaction to my disclosure, much to my pleasure. Buzzing in my stomach has decreased to mild tremors, inciting completely different kind of sensations to flow through me.

"What I meant to ask was, how come I never saw you there?"

My head turned in his direction so fast, that I might have just snapped my neck, "What?!"

Gone was the boyish smile and an arrogant smirk replaced it. "I mean, I'm not a scholar like you, but I have advanced classes in some", he said and shrugged nonchalantly.

Blood drained from my face and the buzzing from earlier came back with a vengeance. I stilled. Completely stilled. I don't think that I even breathed. "What did you say?", I asked in a low grave voice. How in the ever fucking hell does he know that I am a scholar when I haven't told even Cassie yet. Unless....unless he dig up about me. God, my throat clogged at the mere thought of it.

How much does he really know?

A brief look of panic crossed his face before he masked it. It was so fast that I swear I wouldn't have even noticed it if I wasn't observing him so closely. "That isn't common knowledge around here?", he asked in a calm voice that contradicted his expression moments ago.

I gave him a droll stare, without even bothering to reply. His shoulders drooped as he let out a breath, "Okay, I am in close connections with the registrar of college. At the beginning of the year, he was talking my ear off about some girl named Grace, being a scholar and getting a full-ride scholarship, blah, blah, and blah. I swear I didn't know it was you at first. But when last week the results of your report came, I just put two-and-two together"

He knows nothing. He knows nothing.

I relaxed a little at his confession, and the jitters in my stomach calmed a little, but not much because now he is privy to my little secret and I don't know what to do about it. And I have no idea that he has already told someone or not.

As if he read my mind, he started speaking, "You don't need to worry about me airing your stuff. Your secret is safe with me". He brought a fist to his chest to emphasize his words. "So, how come I've never seen you?", he asked again.

I willed myself to relax and leaned back in the seat, in an attempt of it. "Well, I sit at the back corner and leave from the second door always. So, I don't think anybody has seen me in that class ever". I let out a humorless laugh, "To be honest, I would be surprised if Prof. Kenson knew that I am in his class"

He squinted at me like I have grown two heads for a while. "That seems kinda....interesting, I guess", he said precisely choosing his words. And I tried not to laugh at his attempt to not make a big deal of my not-so-normal revelation.

Drake got lost in his thoughts for a while and I used that time to study him closely. Drake is not exactly the part of the popular crowd, but he is so close to it. He has the looks of a model, and I'm not even exaggerating it, like those depicted in hot-steamy novels. And I have witnessed girls hitting on him several times that he, for some unknown bizarre reason, always brushes off. And that raises my suspicion. Cause no man in his right frame of mind would do this unless he is committed to some girl. But then again I have never seen his girlfriend.

But what is instigating a nagging sound at the back of my head, constantly probing at my skull, is why is he really here? I want it to stop, willed to not look into things more than I really should. but I just can't swallow that why would he ever want to talk to me? That too, in front of everyone. Where everyone is? Where his friends are? Good thing I don't pay attention to the people around me or I am sure I would have received quite a substantial amount of glares carrying honest-to-god death threats. And I don't blame them, cause I am just as lost by all of these changes.

Drake turned around and opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get a word out Dom came strolling into the class. He gave me a smile and a nod as if to say 'later' and then shifted to the edge of the seat. I thought he was going to leave, and I was more than okay with that, relaxed even, but he just planted both his elbows on the desk and stayed put.

Is he going to sit here for the whole class? Would it be rude to ask him that?

I'm screwed. There's no other way around it.

Professor Dom started his lecture but my mind was in a fog created by Drake's breathing in my vicinity, closer than I am comfortable with. And I started cursing Cassie seven ways to hell in my head, for not coming today with me. Not like it was really her fault but she should have been here, so then maybe I would not have been in this predicament.

I don't know how long I stayed that way, but one word cleared all the fog in my head and I came back to my proper senses. No, actually two words, 'Team' and 'Project'. Okay, backtrack. What? I focused on his words.

"It will spellbind you how contradicting our thoughts can be", Dom said. "Or how something so valuable for someone can be just a piece of scrap for others. And I want you all to make a team with the person sitting next to you, and take note of how different you both think. I want you to closely observe each other and the thinking process, and most importantly how they arrived at the conclusion they are in about the said topic. I'm sure the results are going to blow your mind away. I expect you all to give me your reports next Friday. Till then, I want you to wander around with your team member and observe things you never cared to before."

Oh, hell.

Drake turned in my direction, his lips curved in what can be called an almost smile, as he winked at me and then turned to the front again. Jesus H. Christ. Now, I am planning seven ways to murder Cassie while she is in her sleep. Dramatic? Maybe. Unreasonable? Hell, no.

What are the odds Dom decided on the same day, when for the first time in my college life Cassie is not sitting next to me that he wants to drop this bomb? A fucking thin line. But it happened.

Dom kept blabbering about the topic for the rest of the class but I, obviously, barely listened to a word. I was busy plotting ways to get out of this whole observe-the-world-with-your-teammate project.

Would he believe it if I tell him that my kitty is sick and I just can't leave her? I don't even have one but not like he is going to know that. I sure as hell can't say that I am sick, he will see me in the classes so that's not going to work. What if I say that I am having an after-the-classes-diarrhea straight up for a week?

The last thought made me cringe at myself. Seriously? It sounded gross even to my ears. Not sure how my brain comes up with such ridiculous ideas.

Class ended and everybody started chattering with their teammates, fixing times, and making plans. My heart plummeted to the ground, in the anticipation of what Drake will say. I hope he bails.

He stuffed his laptop in his bag, nodded to his best friend Cross standing at the door, waiting for him, and then turned toward me. "See you around, teamie", he winked, and then he was off to the door in a second.

Teamie?