Page 54 of Campus Heat

She rested her forehead against mine, and all I could think about was pinning her to my bed and taking my time to undress her.

20

Elizabeth

We tried, we really did. That was what made the whole situation so funny. We actually tried to go back to studying. I was sitting cross-legged on the floor with my stack of flashcards, and the highlighters were scattered on the floor between us. Ethan was leaning against the side of his bed, pretending to review his notes.

He would argue, but I knew he was pretending because he got the last round of questions wrong twice.

“Okay,” I said, tapping the page. “Let’s start from the beginning. What goes into the system during the process of glycolysis?”

He didn’t even look down. “Glucose.”

“Good, and what comes out?”

“ATP.”

Even though it was the most covered topic of our entire lesson, I was really proud of him. He didn’t overthink it or question himself. He answered quickly and confidently.

“How much?” I asked.

He hesitated, and I looked up, hoping we didn’t go all the way back to step one again.

“Ethan,” I said cautiously.

“Two,” he answered.

“Would that be the net or the total?”

He blinked rapidly. “Is there a difference?”

I looked up at Ethan, not sure if he was being serious or not.

“I mean, it makes four, right?” he eventually asked.

“Yes,” I said slowly. “But it only uses two, so the net is?”

“Two,” he said on an exhale. Then he grinned. “See, I know things.”

“Barely,” I teased, trying to keep my focus on the subject at hand. “Okay, moving on. After glycolysis, where does the pyruvate go?”

Ethan looked down at his cards for a moment, but he didn’t seem to focus on them. His mind was no longer on the studies, and no matter how hard he tried to come back, it just wasn’t working.

“The mitochondria?”

“Good, and after that?”

He tilted his head slightly and pretended that it was the hardest question he had had all night. “The really complicated circle-like thingy?”

“The Krebs cycle?”

“Yeah, that one,” he said, clicking his fingers.

I giggled. There had not been a day when I had seen him so relaxed about something important. And the best part was that he had actually been learning.

“What’s the purpose of the Krebs cycle?” I asked, hoping to keep the momentum going.

“To make more ATP!”