Chapter Eight
Iris
Nothing comforted me better than the smell of books and freshly brewed coffee early in the morning. I cradled a small paper cup full of hot coffee as I waited for Bailey to pour herself a cup.
“Remind me again why we are here this early,” she grumbled, sipping at her coffee.
Neither one of us had bothered showering yet since it was Saturday morning, and we both needed to study for our monetary economics class. The dark circles under her eyes showed her enthusiasm at being up early with me. I looked no better than Bailey with my hair pulled up in a bun, yesterday’s make up still on my face, and dressed in my sweat pants, a ripped shirt, and boots.
“Because we have to pass this class to graduate,” I reminded her. “Remember? We had this conversation last night before I went to bed that we needed to get a head start on studying. This exam counts as half our grade.”
Bailey sighed in irritation as I led her up the stairs to the study area of the library. We could at least talk in this section of the library without other students hushing us. The tables were empty, thankfully, and we picked one facing the arched windows overlooking the campus. Warm sunlight streamed down from the windows, and I gladly took a chair to absorb up the sunlight as much as possible.
“I hate this class,” Bailey grumbled, tossing her textbook on the table. “It doesn’t even relate to my major or yours. Why did we decide this would be a good elective? Anything would have been better! Basket-weaving would have at least been fun. I couldn’t have failed that.”
“You sure?” I smiled and chuckled under my breath. “We signed up for it. Suck it up. We gotta pass if we want to walk across that stage in May.”
“Speaking of passing…”
My eyes slipped closed when I caught sight of Bailey’s mischievous grin. I knew it was only a matter of time before she’d ask how Noah Webber’s class went.
“I’ve heard rumors that Professor Webber is indeed hot and apparently really smart, too.”
“I don’t want to talk about this, Bailey. We have tons of work to do.”
“Just tell me if he is,” she said, leaning across the table to look at me eagerly. “Is he hot? Tell me the truth because every girl here has said that he looks like he stepped out of GQ Magazine.”
That unfamiliar warmth spread throughout my body again just picturing Noah in my head. I looked away to hide the blush in my cheeks and dug through my bag absently for a pen.
“He is,” I conceded. “I’ll give you that. That’s a very accurate description of him, but he was a complete dick to me in front all of the freshman.”
She waited in her response until I straightened up to look at her.
“You knew that he would make an example out of you,” she said. “All the professors here would do that to a senior who openly ditched syllabus day and then was late.”
“Yeah, well, the class is a waste of time,” I said defensively. I took a hold of a highlighter and popped the cap off a little too harshly. “I’m three years ahead of all those freshman. I know what the fuck I am doing when it comes to writing.”
“You failed the class before dropping it.”
I sighed in aggravation. “You know why I had to. There was no point in going after that.”
“My point is that he’s going to give you a hard time,” Bailey said. “He just sees a senior sitting in a freshman class. He’s probably wondering what the hell happened to you.”
And he was still wondering. I didn’t have the time nor the energy to explain the situation to him. It wasn’t any of his business, either.
“Are you going to talk the entire time or study with me?” I snapped out, grabbing my textbook to pull it close.
“Touché,” Bailey said, arching an eyebrow at me. “Fine, I’ll study and be quiet.”
“Thank you.”
The silence only lasted ten minutes before Bailey closed her textbook with a bored sigh. I kept my attention focused on the pages below me, even though I had been staring at the same paragraph for the past five minutes. I hated economics just as much as she did.
“There’s a big party tonight in the apartments that we should go to,” she said. “Plenty of booze and boys if you want to come with me. Seniors only, too.”
I grimaced at the thought of going. I couldn’t stand the taste of alcohol thanks to my mother’s drinking habit, and the rules of my scholarship forbid alcohol while in school. I was only months away from graduating, and while it was sorely tempting to blow of some contained steam, I shook my head at Bailey.
“No thanks,” I said. “You can go, though, if you want. I’m going to stay in and get ahead on homework.”
Her face fell at those words. She stuck out a pouty lip and stared at me in exaggerated way that reminded me of a dog begging for a piece of food.
“Oh, come on, Iris,” she said, pleadingly. “You know that you want to go with me. You need to get laid.”
“I do not,” I hissed back. “I don’t need a guy to be happy.”
“You need to get laid,” she repeated, a bit too loudly for my liking. “Don’t you think it’d be perfect to lose it to some guy you barely know, rather than someone you love and breaks your heart?”
“It’s not a good idea either way,” I replied, not willing to go down this path again with her.
For the past four years, all I ever heard about was Bailey’s conquests in the bedroom and how I needed to attempt things like her. My idea of experiencing love for the first time didn’t involve hooking up with some random guy I met at a college party and then ending up devastated with a container of chocolate cake frosting as a way to deal with the heartache. Plus, the idea of sex terrified me – not that I was going to admit that out loud to Bailey.
“We need to study,” I said, pointing to her textbook. “Go on. Pick it up and enlighten yourself a little bit.”
“Enlighten yourself,” she shot back, scowling at me in visible disappointment. “I don’t know I ended up with a roommate whose spirit animal is a hermit.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “A hermit as a spirit animal? That’s the best you can do?”
“It suits you,” she said, fighting off laughter, as well. “Don’t make fun of me. I’m serious, Iris. Please come with me. It’ll be fun. Just put off homework for one night to have some fun with me.”
“I don’t want to go. I don’t want to hook up with some random guy, even though sleeping with someone, I’ll admit, sounds like a great stress reliever. Why are you looking at me like that?” I caught sight of Bailey’s eyes visibly widening from across the table. “What? What is it?”
“I would suggest skipping out on parties for a while, Ms. Paige.”
My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach and thumped there painfully in the sea of coffee that I had just consumed.
Against my better judgment, I turned in my chair to look up at Noah standing behind me, dressed impeccably as usual in a nice outfit of jeans and a black sweater that brought his eyes in a rather intense manner. Or maybe it was my imagination. Either way, I knew he had heard that last comment, and my cheeks burned hotly in embarrassment.
“What are you doing here?” I asked thickly. “Don’t teachers have the weekends off and want to get away from us students?”
The edges of his lips curled up slightly as they seemed to do whenever he was amused by something.
“It’s a library,” Noah stated, and I bristled at his tone of voice. “I’m allowed to use the facilities here. One of the perks of being a teacher.”
“Right.”
He stared at me a moment longer. The center of my cheeks flared hotly when I remembered Bailey and I hadn’t even bothered getting dressed or showered. I fidgeted underneath his gaze until he looked away to where Bailey sat surprisingly quiet.
“I suggest you study, Ms. Paige,” he said curtly. “You’ll need the extra study time to pass your English exam in two weeks.”
My jaw dropped open at the thinly-covered insult. “Excuse me? I’m an honors student here, and I’ve been speaking English for twenty-two years. I’ve read all the books on your list. I don’t need to study for your exam.”
A deep chuckle resonated in Noah’s chest. Strong fingers gripped the back of my chair, and for a brief moment, he leaned in slightly. That ridiculously wonderful cologne filled my lungs again. I leaned away, slightly dizzy by his proximity.
“We shall see, Ms. Paige,” he said, softly. “We shall see about that.”
“It’s Iris,” I garbled out, alarm bells ringing in my head. His close proximity disturbed me in all the right ways – and that disturbed me even more in return.
I was in deep shit. That much I could sense when Noah nodded briefly to a visibly stunned Bailey before walking back down the stairs to the first floor. The second he was out of earshot, I let out a ragged breath.
“Holy shit,” Bailey exclaimed, shaking her head at me. “He is a fine piece of ass. Everyone was right about that.”
I sank back into my chair breathlessly. Smoothing a few sweaty strands hair back from my forehead, I tried hard to keep my composure.
“You should’ve invited him to the party,” she continued. “I think he has the hots for you.”
I didn’t bother pointing out that professors sleeping with students was strictly forbidden. Bailey knew that rule as well as I did, but she could afford to break the rules. I couldn’t afford to break them – even it was tempting to wonder what it was like being beneath Noah’s muscular body.
“He’s not hot for me,” I said. “He’s just being a dick to me over my grade in his class is all. Let’s get this studying over with.”
We bailed out of the library after several unsuccessful attempts to study. The rest of the day passed by in a cold and snowy blur. I managed to hide in my room while Bailey readied for a night of partying and enjoyed the silence for the next few hours by surfing the internet for more information on Noah Webber.
What made him qualified to teach? He was a professional rugby player. I had no doubt why the dean of PHU hired him since our rugby team was championship material. Still, where was Noah’s experience in English?
“Don’t worry about it Iris,” I told myself, closing my computer with a resigned sigh. “Just forget about it. Just get through the next few months, and you’ll be long gone.”
My phone vibrated on the counter. I rose from the couch with a sigh. I didn’t recognize the number, besides that it was a Utah number. I debated on letting it go to voicemail before answering it at the last second.
“Hello?”
“Hi. Is this Iris Paige?”
The familiar sounds of a hospital filled my ear. I sank against the counter in dread because there was no doubt who was calling me.
“Yes,” I replied, shakily. “Who is this?”
“My name is Carly. I am a nurse here at the Utah Valley Hospital. I’m calling in regards to your mother, Cynthia, who is here in the ICU unit.”
My heart dropped at the mention of ICU. Coldness filled me, and I gripped the counter to keep myself steady.
“Is my mother okay?” I asked, dreading the answer. The nurse’s voice was far too kind and informative to be delivering that type of news, but it still shot terror in me.
“She is now.” I let out a relieved breath. “However, she is in detox and is experiencing severe delirium treatments. We’ve put her on some heavy medications to keep her stable and down. She wanted us to let you know where she was, but insisted you wouldn’t come down.”
“Right,” I said. “What happened? How did she end up there?”
“A neighbor called 911 after he found her unconscious in the front yard.” Guilt flashed through me. She was looking for her car keys because I had tossed them into the snow. “She was quite agitated when she first arrived, so we administered some heavy medications to keep her calm. Has anyone talked to you about possibly getting her some help?”
“Tons of times,” I said and rubbed at the back of my neck with cold fingers. “She doesn’t want the help. She’s made that perfectly clear to me.”
“I suggest that you have another talk with her. Alcoholism is a very progressive disease, and it does silent damage. It’s only a matter of time before-”
“She dies,” I cut in, harshly. “I know. I’ve been down this road several times with her. I appreciate everything you are doing, but I’m afraid that I’m not much of a help here. I’m in school, and I take care of her when I can.”
“Of course,” the nurse said, kindly. “You have to take care of yourself, as well. I will let you know when she is out of detox and being discharged.”
“Thank you.”
She hung up after bidding me goodbye. I stared down at the countertop for a long moment before I found the strength to move. Guilt clawed at me to go down there, but it was pointless. My mother would get out and go get a drink while she was sober enough to drive. That’s what had happened the previous time.
It was close to midnight by the time I heard Bailey’s laughter outside our apartment door, followed by the sound of a male voice. I rolled my eyes when the apartment door opened. The smell of beer and a mixture of perfume and cologne filled the living room. I took one look at the guy attached to Bailey’s hips and grimaced in disgust. He was dressed in jeans, a white polo shirt, spiked blond hair, and screamed frat boy who only wanted only one thing out of someone like Bailey.
“This is Rex,” she slurred out slightly, placing a hand on his broad chest to steady herself on teetering heels. “He graduated last year, but his younger brother goes to school still.”
I grabbed a hold of my laptop, slipping my feet back into my slippers. “Cool,” I said, going to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water before the noise started. The last time I walked out of my room in the middle of the night, I got an eyeful of Bailey in a position I never wanted to see again. “I’m going to bed, goodnight.”
“Whatever, goodnight. Make yourself comfortable, Rex,” Bailey said. “I’m going to the bathroom. My room is right there.”
She pointed to the door next to mine. I grabbed a bottle of water as the bathroom door closed behind her. I listened to her stumble about the bathroom in heels, cursing loudly every few seconds.
“So,” Rex said. I turned to look at him warily. “Why wasn’t your fine ass at the party tonight?”
I laughed shortly.
“Because my fine ass doesn’t like alcohol or idiots like you,” I replied, stepping around him to head in the direction of my room.
Strong fingers coiled around my elbow. I tensed under the feeling of Rex grabbing my elbow and pulling me close until I could count the blackheads on his nose.
“Your ass is fine,” he breathed on me. “Why don’t you join me and Bailey tonight? Don’t girls like you and her like that sort of thing?”
“Fuck no,” I said. “Get off me.”
A stab of panic shot through me when he refused to let go. Out of all the drunk jerks Bailey had brought home, this one was the worst.
“Rex?”
We both turned to find Bailey standing unsteadily in the door frame of the bathroom. Tears were streaming down both her cheeks, leaving black trail marks from the mascara.
“What?” he asked shortly.
“What are you doing?” she asked, chin quivering slightly. “That’s my roommate. Why are you asking her if she wants to have sex with us?”
“I was just asking,” he replied, shrugging his shoulders. “Just heard that you girls might be into that sort of thing is all.”
I tugged my elbow free from his grasp. “Well, asshole, we aren’t. Maybe you should leave if that’s what you’re looking for.”
Rex flicked his gaze between the two of us before fumbling with his front pocket.
“Whatever,” he said. “I’m going back to the party to find another girl.”
The apartment door slammed shut. I rubbed at my sore elbow before I turned to look at Bailey as she wordlessly stepped into her room, shutting the door without sparing me a glance.
I shook my head with a weary sigh. When would she learn that bringing guys like that back spelled disaster? They only wanted one thing, and they wanted it from whomever they could get it from.
Checking the locks on the front door, I crawled into bed myself and listened to Bailey cry in the room next to me before finally sleep took hold.