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When he rolls his eyes, I know I’ve won. “Fine.” He agrees. “But please go check on her and make sure she’s alright. I’ll use both of your absences as the reason for the pairing.”
I smile victoriously. “Email me your venmo and I’ll send you your money.”
Tapping his desk twice, I head out the door and toward the bathrooms. She couldn’t have gone far, or else she wouldn’t have left her stuff. When I reach the entrance to the ladies’ room, I can faintly hear music playing inside. I don’t recognize it but it sounds calming. I lean against the wall and wait for her to come out.
The door opens a few minutes later. As soon as she sees me, her eyes widen.
“What are you doing here?”
All I can do is shrug. “I wanted to make sure you’re okay.”
“I’m fine.” She dismisses me entirely and starts walking back to class. I follow behind her.
“Just checking, jeez.” I was only seeing if she was alright. She doesn’t need to be so rude about it.
All of a sudden, she halts and turns around swiftly. I need to stop short in order to not run directly into her. “You don’t have to do that, you know, check if I’m alright. It’s not like we’re friends or anything. You don’t need to pretend you care.”
Her attitude strikes a nerve. Christ, you would think I asked to bang her in the bathroom. A complete stranger could probably do the exact same thing I just did, and she would answer sweetly and thank them for caring. The response to my kind gesture only angers me.
“Whatever, Kayleigh.” I sneer. “I just know Bree would kill me if I didn’t see if you were okay. Don’t get too carried away with yourself.”
It’s a complete lie but my defense mechanisms cause me to shut down. It’s been like that since before I can remember. I push past her with my shoulder and continue walking back to class, partially regretting the fact that I just paid $200 to make her my partner on this stupid project. A hooker costs less, and you get laid.
“Ah. Holden and Kayleigh. Nice of you to join us again.” The professor plays the part nicely. “I went ahead and picked partners, and being as you two were not here, you’re partnered together.”
“Fantastic.” I scoff, trying to act just as mad about it as Kayleigh looks.
We walk back to our seats and when I see she has no plan on moving, I collect my things and go to sit next to her. As I put everything down, she looks up at me and for once isn’t shooting daggers with her eyes.
“Can you go get the project summary or do you want me to?” She asks.
I shake my head, too shocked by her quick mood change to say anything. I go down to the professor’s desk and grab two copies of the paper. Once I get back to Kayleigh, I hand her one of them and sit in my new seat.
Objective: Observe people in two abnormal situations.
Details: Create two abnormal social situations. One of the situations needs to be positive while the other needs to be negative. For example, as a positive situation, you can pay for something for others. However, you must be able to fully observe the subject in the situation. One person may observe if he/she takes detailed notes. An example of a negative situation would be accusing someone of something they didn’t do.
NOTE: DAMAGE OF PROPERTY AND ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES ARE NOT PERMITTED AND WILL RESULT IN A FAILING GRADE!
I snicker at the last part, knowing that if I was partnered with Jordan, that’s exactly what he would want to do. When I notice that Kayleigh’s done reading too, I finally get words to come out of my mouth.
“Seems easy enough.” I murmur. “So, do you want to come up with the positive situation and I’ll come up with the negative?” I can’t imagine her being able to think of anything negative, judging by her reaction to having the pledges swim in a fountain.
She nods in response and the two of us get to work.
The next 45 minutes are rough. I’m trying to think of possible negative social situations, but the only thing I can focus on is the smell of her perfume. At one point, my arm brushes up against hers and sends shockwaves through my whole body. By the time that it reaches the end of class, I’ve gotten ten things written down, though most of them suck.
We look over each other’s lists and decide on what we’re going to do. Of course, she chose a situation where I don’t have to interact with her at all, while I chose one that requires us to spend at least a few hours together. Though, in my defense, she wrote the idea down in the first place. I just picked it out of a list.
I GET BACK TO my place after my classes for the day are finished and I can’t dial the number fast enough. Brandon picks up by the second ring, panting into the phone like I just interrupted the best sex of his life. If I didn’t know my best friend so well, I may even believe that.
“I’d ask if you were fucking someone, but I seriously hope you wouldn’t stop to answer my call.”
“Very funny, dick.” He responds playfully. “I was just going for a run. What’s up?”
“Well.” I begin, dragging it out. “I did a thing.”
“A good thing or a bad thing?”
