I could tell he was, though all I could do was stare at the collection of crumbs on his face.
“On that note…” Josh got to his feet.
“We know, we know.” I smiled. “You have to get to class.”
While Kellan wasright about me needing to stay away from Grey for my own sake, he was wrong in thinking I wouldeverget a gym membership. Instead, I spent the next couple of weeks focusing on school. It was refreshing, even if it had been the complete opposite of my plans going into the semester. I managed to get ahead on a lot of my classwork and even had time for the occasional coffee date with Piper. Things were going pretty well.
August slipped into September then October. And before I realized it, midterms were upon me. Those, too, came and went with me holding the highest grades of my academic career. Apparently, trying to distract yourself from a guy was a great motivator.Who knew?
The week after midterms, my eight-week course started, and of course, it was at eight in the morning. My alarm woke me at six thirty. I stared at it long and hard before shutting it off and sitting up.
“This seemed like such a good idea on paper,” I mumbled into my hands.
The idea had been to have an easygoing first half of the semester and focus for the second half. But thanks to Grey, I hadn’t enjoyed myself for much of the first half of the semester. Sighing, I got up, got ready, and headed to class.
Campus was startlingly empty at this time of day. Most people avoided early classes like the plague.
“Smart people avoid them,” I muttered, kicking myself for my past decisions.
I was already thinking about dropping the class when I walked through the door and found my seat. No, I shouldn’t drop it. Having to be up early every morning would be a great way to continue distracting myself from the Grey situation. I couldn’t overthink if I was always exhausted.
I got settled and watched the other students file into the room. I’d been one of the first since I’d developed my annoying habit of punctuality over the past six weeks, and I hadn’t considered that campus would be empty. Everyone coming in looked as bleary-eyed as I felt, if not more so, which was a small comfort. At least I knew I wasn’t being weak.
Class was about to start when the teacher walked in, clutching the biggest cup of coffee I’d ever seen and introduced himself as Professor Young. He called the class to attention and began doing roll call. That was when the students began to chatter among themselves. Professor Young looked up, clearly confused. I imagined he wasn’t used to hearinganythingfrom the students in such an early class. I looked around, following my classmates’ gazes, then my eyes went wide when I saw what they were looking at.
Greyson Hyun had just entered the room and was walking down the steps of the lecture hall.
Of course he’d be here. I was just getting over him.The universe couldn’t let me have one single win.
His eyes found me, as they always did, and the faintest hint of a smirk tugged up the right corner of his mouth. Grey made his way toward me and sat in the chair next to mine.
“Er, right,” Professor Young said, still unsure as to what all the commotion had been about. “As I was saying…” He then picked up right where he left off.
Most of the class seemed to grow bored of the situation now that Grey had found a seat.Isat rigid, like a wooden plank was taped to my back. I could feel Grey looking at me, trying to catch my gaze, but I did my best to ignore it.
“Hello, Ethan,” he said in a low voice to ensure it didn’t carry to Professor Young.
“What are you doing here?” I hissed out of the corner of my mouth.
“I’m taking this class?” Grey said.
Smart-ass. “You aren’t supposed to be here,” I continued. I was so frustrated, I could feel tears prickling the corners of my eyes.
“Sorry to disappoint you,” Grey said stiffly. He finally looked forward, paying attention to the teacher. “But I’ll be here with you every day for the next eight weeks.”
Chapter 5
Something to Prove
After class, I sat in a little cafe on campus that I’d come to frequent since my recent devotion to the studious way of life. I was still rattled from Grey’s appearance at my lecture. I’d managed to go half a semester without seeing the guy, all for him to plop down next to me inmyclass. It was rude. And it had made it hard to focus on the teacher talking about the great literary works we would be studying that semester.
I sipped my comfort oat milk latte and tried to rein in my thoughts so I could focus on the current problem: a short story for my creative writing course. The cursor blinked on an empty page, taunting me.
How am I supposed to concentrate when Grey seems determined to uproot my life?I’d stopped trying to find him at events. I’d unfollowed him on all social media. I’d done everything in my power to make things right.
“Is this seat taken?” someone asked in an all-too-familiar voice.
With a budding sense of dread, I looked up into Grey Hyun’s deep brown eyes. He held a coffee cup in one hand and pointed to the chair across from me with the other.
