CHAPTER THREE

Other than eating and buying the books I needed for my classes, I stayed in my dorm room after the party that first night. Luckily, I didn’t have to worry about Cindy trying to convince me that I should go out again. I hardly saw her other than when she came by to change clothes; she was always with that Jeff guy it seemed. The first time I really left the dorm was on the first day of classes.

When I got ready for class, I through on a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved shirt and braided my hair into two pigtails. After the failure at the party I figured that I should just be myself and dress comfortably. Clearly, trying to fit in hadn’t one me any good, so if I was going to be on my own I was going to be comfortable. My first class was U.S. History 101, and when I got into class I headed straight to the back. Not long after everyone seemed to have taken their seats the professor introduced himself and began to call roll. Everyone he called was present and raised their hand to indicate who they were except for someone named Liam Elliot.

In high school, it hadn’t been unusual for kids to miss the first day, or be late at the very least, but I was surprised that anyone would miss a class here where they had to pay for classes. A few minutes into the professor’s lecture the classroom door opened and someone came in.

“Well, thank you for deciding to join us Mr. Elliot,” the professor said when the boy walked right by him without a word.

“Yeah, sorry I’m late.” He didn’t look at the professor, and his tone suggested his apology was anything but sincere.

When Liam looked up to glance around the room for a seat my breath caught. The boy standing in the front of the classroom had piercing blue eyes; eyes that I had seen before. Liam was the boy I had nearly ran over in my attempt to flee the party my first night at Westwick. As if it wasn’t bad enough that he was in my class at all, I watched him make his way to the back and take the last available seat which just had to be right next to me. I refused to look at him and kept my eyes trained down at my desk. I focused all of my energy on making sure I didn’t look in his direction and I completely failed to take any notes throughout the rest of the class. Before I knew it, the professor was dismissing the class and I had not heard a single thing he’d said since Liam entered the room.

“We can get together later if you want to copy my notes,” a male voice came from my right. Even though he wasn’t yelling this time, I definitely knew that voice. I looked up to see that Liam was leaning across the aisle and while I stared at him he placed a piece of paper on my desk. “Just call me if you want to get my notes. Since we have a quiz next class I would highly suggest you take me up on my offer.” When he stood up and walked away I looked down to see that the paper he had placed on my desk had his phone number written on it. I picked it up and stared at it for a moment before it hit me that I needed to be heading to my next class, or I would be the one walking in late and interrupting the professor. I stuffed the paper in my bag and took off for my next class praying I wouldn’t be late.

When I make it back to my dorm I work up the courage to call Liam and ask if he is available to let me copy his notes like he offered. Despite my attempts to meet him wherever is most convenient for him, he insists that he will just drop by my dorm and bring them to me. Before he gets there, I run around my dorm room to make sure it is clean. This could be a chance for me to get to know Liam. He cannot be as bad as I thought when I ran into him at the party. I just couldn’t imagine him offering up his notes to help me out for no reason unless he was actually a decent guy. Liam could be my chance at a friend here in New Hampshire.

It isn’t long before someone knocks at my door and I quickly check myself in the mirror to make sure I look alright before opening the door. However, when I opened the door it only took about half a second for my smile to completely fall. Just on the other side of my door stood Liam and Anna. As soon as Anna saw me she rolled her eyes and turned towards Liam so she was no longer looking at me.

“Here,” Liam held out a few sheets of paper towards me. “I made copies for you to keep at the library. Figured that would be the fastest way to share this information with you.”

“Oh,” I too the papers from him. I couldn’t stop staring at Anna and the way she had started hanging on Liam. “Umm, thank you for that.”

“No big deal. Just remember to pay attention and take some notes next class.”

“Oh, right. Yes, I will.”

Liam waived and turned around to leave with Anna right on his heals After I shut the door I walked over to the window overlooking the grounds in front of the dorms. I watched as Liam and Anna walked out and Anna had her arm threaded through his as they stayed close to each other. I turned away and yanked all of my books back out so that I could study. I never had a chance with a good-looking guy like Liam so I might as well get back to what I am good at and study for tomorrow’s pop quizzes. Cindy came in while I sat on my bed aimlessly staring at Liam’s notes. Since she didn’t know me well, I must have been ridiculously obvious because she could see right away that something was wrong and wouldn’t leave me alone until I gave her something.

“Liam came by to bring me some notes, but he couldn’t even be bothered to come in for a second. Too busy with that Anna girl to say more than a few words at the door. When he offered me his notes and insisted on bringing them here I honestly thought he was reaching out. That maybe he wanted to be friends or something. Guess I was wrong.”

“Girl, you should be grateful,” Cindy told me. She plopped down on the end of my bed and I looked at her questioningly. “Sounds to me like you just dodged a bullet.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked her.

“Well, I heard that Liam has some mental health problems or something. Apparently, he has some serious anger issues.”

I studied Cindy trying to decide if she was telling me the truth or not. From what I could tell she seemed to be serious. She didn’t hang around for long though, and soon I was alone again; just me and my books to study. This was probably what the next four years of my life was going to look like at college so I needed to get used to it.