Chapter 7
Keanna
I can’t believe I thought my college history class would be easy. This is all the internet’s fault. My instructor, Mr. Garrett, has high ratings on ratemyprofessor.com, and everyone says he’s a super easy teacher and it’s not hard at all to get an A. That’s the exact reason I chose his class when I signed up.
Now that I’m a few weeks into the semester, I should leave a bad review on all of those former students because they are totally wrong. Mr. Garrett is nice enough, but his entire curriculum involves listening to him lecture on various unrelated history stories and then taking a test over a million vocabulary words. I spent the first couple of weeks of class wasting my time taking notes on his lectures. They literally don’t matter at all. I think he just likes to lecture to hear himself talk.
At the end of the week, he gives us a ten page (or longer) print out of just history vocabulary words, and that’s what the test is based on. And then the text is the very next day. I wish he would give us the vocab words at the start of the week, so I could spend my hours in class studying instead of listening to him go on and on about history.
I adjust positions on my bed. My legs and back ache from sitting up so long hunched over my study sheet. I straighten my legs and stretch my arms over my head.
There’s a soft knock on my door.
“Come in,” I call out.
The door opens, and I look over.
And scream.
Jett bursts into laugher and pulls up the hideous Halloween monster mask, revealing his normal face underneath. “Oh my God, I got you,” he says, leaving the mask on top of his hair while he crutches himself into my room.
My heart is still racing from the split second of total fear, and I put a hand to my chest, taking a deep breath. “I will get you back,” I say.
He winks. “I’d love to see you try.”
The bed sinks when he sits down next to me. He pulls off the mask and tosses it to the floor, then leans his crutches against my dresser.
“Still studying?”
“Yeah,” I say with a groan. “I’m sick of it, but I only know about half of these terms so far.”
Jett takes my vocabulary list and looks it over. “When’s your test?”
“Tomorrow.”
“What? What kind of asshole gives a test on Halloween?”
I chuckle. “College classes don’t care what day it is.”
“That’s crap,” he says, frowning. He slides over to the foot of my bed and holds the list in front of him. “Do you want me to ask you the word or the definition?”
“You don’t have to study with me, babe.” I reach for the papers back, but he holds them out of my reach. “I’m serious. It’s super boring.”
He shrugs. “I’d rather be bored with you than bored without you.”
It’s a simple sentence, but it makes me blush a little. I love that he can still do this to me, make me feel special and wanted even after all these months of dating.
I lean back against my headboard and let him ask me the questions. We study until I’ve got them all memorized, at least enough that I’ll be able to choose the definition off Mr. Garrett’s multiple choice test.
After our study session, I make some popcorn and bring it back up to my room, and Jett turns on Netflix. He leans his back against my headboard, his broken foot out in front of him like a large rock at the foot of my bed. I lean against his chest, my feet curled up underneath me. I love the way his arm holds onto my shoulders, and how every time I lean against him, it’s like his arm is magnetized to hold onto me. He never forgets that I’m right here next to him.
“So my mom told me we’re on candy duty tomorrow,” Jett says.
“Try not to eat it all like you did last time,” I say, elbowing him in the stomach. He laughs.
“Do you think I can wear this mask?” He pulls it back over his head. It’s some kind of hairy monster with a snarling mouth. “Or will it be too scary for the little kids?” His voice is muffled from the mask.
I tilt my head. “You’ll be fine. I mean, it’s not much difference from how your normal face looks.”
