“Who’s that?” Elijah mouths as he takes a seat across from me.
I cover the receiver before saying, “Juliet.”
He holds out his hand to say hi. I remember them spending some time together before she dropped out of college, so it’s not too weird that he wants to say hi after so long. But after Juliet’s last reaction to Eli asking about her, I hesitate to hand the phone over. He rolls his eyes and plucks it from my hand. I can just barely hear Juliet’s voice over the chatter of the patrons around us, but I can’t make out what she says.
“Hi, Juliet,” Eli says with a smirk and a mischievous spark in his bright blue eyes. He pulls the phone away from his ear to look at the screen before passing it back to me. “She hung up.”
“Why?” I question, narrowing my eyes at him.
He shrugs. “No clue. Maybe she’s not my biggest fan.”
“Is there a reason for that?”I swear to God, if he did something to upset her…
“I’ve always been a bit of an asshole, haven’t I?” he drawls.
That’s true, but I make a mental note to ask Juliet about Eli later.
Jared finally joins us, setting down three drinks. He nudges me over, and I begrudgingly make room for him. “Looked like you could use another beer,” he says, nodding toward my nearly empty drink. He takes a healthy sip of his before looking between Eli and me. “What’d I miss?”
“Nothing,” we answer in unison.
“Nothing at all,” Elijah smiles before gulping down half of his own beer. His eyes dart to mine, something dark flashing across the blue of his irises.
I’ll definitely be questioning both Elijah and Juliet about what happened today. Until I find out why they’re being so weird, this is something I won’t be letting go of anytime soon.
I’ve deep cleanedmy entire apartment to keep myself busy. It’s Saturday, Summer turned her paper in yesterday, and I’ve decided that it’s okay if grading this round of essays takes me a bit longer than usual. Who’s going to care if they don’t get their grades for an additional week?
We both finally have a spare moment to breathe, and Summer texted me this afternoon asking if she could come over for dinner. I’d said yes immediately, but now it feels like I answered her hours ago.
I try to think of anything else that I can do that doesn’t involve pathetically waiting for her to arrive, but after staring at the same page in a book for ten minutes, I give up entirely.
The door to my apartment swings open, and Summer waltzes in with a burst of excitement. A small sense of joy settles deep in my chest at the familiarity she’s showing. “Okay,” she starts, kicking the door shut behind her and dropping her bag on the floor. A small smile tugs at my lips as I continue to take in how comfortable she now feels here. She used to be so hesitant, like she thought things could change at any moment, and she didn’t want to get used to anything. But now she’s starting to think that this could be permanent.Wecould be permanent. Or at least I hope that’s what she’s starting to think, since I’ve been thinking about it myself. “I know we’re not supposed to talk about it, but I did absolutely kill my paper on Adlerian theory!” she boasts.
She approaches me, light in her eyes and a huge grin plastered across her lips, before giving me a gentle kiss.
Her excitement for my class warms my heart. It’s nice when you can see that a student genuinely cares about the class and its assignments, not just trying to scrape by with a passing grade. I’d always known Summer was the type of student who loved learning and valued her education, but it’s nice to be able to talk about it and see her passion shine through.
“You think so?” I mused.
“Oh, I know so.” She smirked.
“Think I should read it first?” I ask.
Her smile doesn’t disappear, but she does take on a slightly more serious tone. “I’d never ask you to do something like that.”
“I know,” I say, squeezing her hand for reassurance, before letting a mischievous grin take over. “But I already read it in between classes yesterday.”
“You did?” she asks, nearly hopping up and down with excitement all over again.
I laugh. “Do you want to see it?”
She pauses mid-celebration. “Is that… okay?”
I shrug. “Honestly? Probably not, but you didn’t ask to see it, I’m offering. What’s one more broken rule?”
She chews on her bottom lip, mulling it over. “I do really want to see it,” she states with a guilty smile. I’m already walking over to my bag to sort through the papers before she’s finished talking.
“Here,” I say, handing it over to her with a smile.
