Chapter Twenty-Four
Channing
Hamburg closed her laptop and turned off the projector. Our graded tests were sitting on the edge of her desk. She caught the eyes of every student she could as she scanned the room for dramatic effect. Mike shifted in his desk to my right.
“Is there something in the water, or did your mothers drop you on your heads? Not one of you passed your quiz except for the quarterback—of all people. You can’t even outsmart a meathead,” she tapped her skull. “What is wrong with you?” She walked around to the front of the desk and picked up the stack of papers behind her. “Half of you didn’t even fill out the whole thing.”
She let the stack fall to the floor. “Class dismissed.”
Everyone scrambled up at once to grab their tests off the floor. Mike and I waited in the back of the room and watched as one student snatched the stack up and started passing them out. Hamburg sat down at her desk and leaned back with her phone in hand.
“Did you hear that? I’m the only one who passed the test, and I’m a meathead.”
“At least you passed,” Mike said. “I barely understood a word of it.”
“Mike, you can’t be doing that crap. You’re gonna fail.”
“I know,” he dipped down to grab his bag and followed me downstairs. The students were starting to disperse, and what was left of the stack of papers was sitting in a loose pile on Hamburg’s desk. Her eyes shot up when I grabbed mine.
“I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“No, I mean it. It’s amazing the way you’ve progressed. Keep it up.” She turned back down to her phone. When I turned around, Mike was standing behind me with his mouth hanging open.
“Let’s go,” I pulled him into the hall. We stopped outside the door.
“Dude, she complimented you.”
“It doesn’t feel natural.” We began walking towards the end of the hall, out onto the courtyard, where we took a seat at our table. “Did you get any studying done?” I asked Mike when he sat down.
“No, I was busy with something.”
“A girl?”
“Two,” he grinned from ear to ear.
“Two?”
“Both at the same time, all week. They wouldn’t let up.”
“Who were they?”
“Two of my ex-girlfriends from high school—Aimee and Jennifer. I saw them at the park behind my house my first day back. They were in my bed within an hour.”
“That sounds great, but what about your classes? How are you going to pass if you didn’t study?”
“I’ll cram some in tonight.” He didn’t sound scared, which unsettled me. He wasn’t going to last the year. His academic career was over.
He changed the subject. “How did your weekend go?”
I couldn’t help but smile. “It went alright.”
“I’ll bet you didn’t get much studying done.”
“I got some.”
“But, something else was distracting you. I can see it. You were with a girl. Who was it?”
“Carla.”
“Uh-huh. I thought you were cutting her loose.”
“I will, but we’re having fun for now.”
He scoffed. “You’re one to lecture.”
“I passed my test, which is more than I can say for you. You better get on it. It might be too late for you to catch up.”
“I’ve got it.”
“No, you don’t. You need to stop screwing around and start working.”
“Whatever.” He stormed off and walked back to class while I looked through my calculus textbook until it was time for me to meet Ava at the tutoring center. I was her first student for the day. She was waiting in the study room when I got there. I could smell her perfume when I walked in.
She stood up, and I darted forward and let the door close behind me so I could taste her lips. I had to pull back for a moment and sit down to allow her to catch her breath. “Sorry.” My heart was pounding.
“No, that was exhilarating.”
“How are you?” I asked. “Are you still tired from the drive back?”
“No, I’m rested. Thank you,” she said.
“Oh,” I sighed and stretched my arms above my head. “I’ve got a lot of work to do.”
We pulled out my book and went back and forth over math problems until I got the flow. The numbers were still flowing through my head when I looked up from the book to take a breath. She was still leaning forward with her hair falling at her side. I brushed it behind her ear. She looked up and kissed me.
Soon, her arms were wrapped around my neck, and we were too distracted to do anything but explore each other with our lips and tongues. She pulled back and looked down at the book.
“What are you doing tonight?” I asked.
“I have to study.” She sat back. “I wish I could spend every minute of it with you.”
“I don’t want to distract you, but we’ll get together soon.”
“Thank you. I know it’s a lot now that we’re back in the grind.”
“The time will go by fast if we spend it wisely and get some work done. Besides, we have our sessions, so we’ll get to see each other.” We went back to my math book, and she pushed me through another set of problems before we moved on to chemistry.
The chemical equations were starting to get complex. They were hard to handle unless I could maintain perfect focus. It was hard with Ava sitting in front of me. I listened more to the sound of her voice and watched the way her lips moved when I should’ve been listening to what she said. Every once in a while, a smile would curve over her lips, and I had to kiss her.
I was halfway to jumping over the table, exploring her mouth with my tongue when she pulled away and reached into her pocket to pull out her phone. “It’s time.” She was disappointed.
“Can we just lock the door and turn out the lights?”
“I wish,” she laughed. “I’ll see you soon.” One last kiss and we were getting up to leave. When I turned back to the window, Jason was standing outside looking in. He noticed the way we were looking at each other. I could tell by the way his mouth hung open.
When Ava opened the door, I gave her a drawn out kiss and met his eye with a smirk. When I walked away, he followed me out. When I whipped around to confront him, Ava was in the study room, so I grabbed him by the collar and threw him against the wall around the corner so she couldn’t see. His face was completely white, and he was trembling.
“You wouldn’t want anyone to know you lost the bet.” My voice was low and dangerous. I kneed him in the groin, and he hunched forward. “Don’t you say one fucking word, you got that?”
“Uh-huh,” he strained.
“Good,” I let him fall and walked back into the elevator. He’d better not tell anyone.