Page 20 of True Blue

“Okay,” Janette says, writing it down at the top of her page. “Do we want to make a loose schedule for researching, writing, and making the PowerPoint? I don’t mind presenting at the end if either of you are crowd shy?”

She looks up at each of us, and I lift an eyebrow at her. “Do you really think I get stage fright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine presenting as well, so we can all take turns talking when we get to that stage.” Bentley pulls up the calendar app on his phone. “We have twelve weeks till presentation time, not including the half week for Thanksgiving. So, we could do research for the first six, then start developing our paper after midterms.”

Janette nods, jotting down the timeframe he’s describing. “Making the PowerPoint and talking points should be easy after that so we could leave the last two weeks for that, giving us four weeks to finish the paper.” Bentley nods and they both look over at me again.

“Works for me,” I say, shrugging and continuing to enjoy watching the two of them nerd off in front of me.

We spend the rest of the class time talking about different thesis ideas, the two of them mostly going back and forth while I listen.

“So, we’ll meet up at the library on Friday?” Janette says, packing her stuff up and standing with us. We both tower over her, forcing her to have to tip her head back a bit to look up at us.

“Yup,” I say, placing my hands on the straps of my backpack to stop myself from reaching out to touch her. “We’ll see you there, Blue.”

Janette rolls her eyes. “That nickname doesn’t make sense anymore, Axel.”

“You're still Bluejay, Janette.” I lean forward when she freezes, eyes starting to mist. “So, you’ll always be Blue to me.”She shakes her head, mouth twisting into a frown before she moves around us to start heading out.

“I’ll see you guys on Friday,” she says, looking over at Bentley before rushing away.

“Told you you’d like her,” I say as we both watch her climb the steps of the center aisle and walk out the open doors at the top.

“She’s not that bad,” Bentley says. “Don’t tell Mira I said that.”

I cross my finger over my heart. “I’ll take your secret to the grave.”

Bentley rolls his eyes, heading toward the stairs. I follow behind him, suddenly wondering if Bentley checked out my ass when we came into the room the way I’m checking out his as we leave.

9

Ilean forward and press my forehead against the laminated wooden table as the sounds of coffee being made, and orders being placed surrounds me.

“Class was that bad? It’s only week two,” Layla says across from me, taking a sip of her smoothie through a giant straw.

“I’m attracted to your brother,” I say into the tabletop, unable to look up as the words leave my mouth.

“Yeah, no shit.” Layla snorts. “You two were basically eye fucking all night last weekend.”

I groan. “And I think I’m attracted to his roommate.” I wait for the ground to open up beneath us and swallow me whole. Instead, the world just keeps bustling along, barista’s rushing between machines to make the coffee orders of every sleep deprived student on campus.

Layla starts laughing. I pick my head up and glare at her. “Stellar taste, babes. Bentley Marshall is hot as hell.” I pull my iced peach tea toward me, chewing on the indigo straw for a minute as I stare out the window next to me and watch people walk through the center of campus.

“They’re both in my Medieval History class and as of this morning, we’re all partnered up for the semester long research project so I can’t even avoid them in class for the rest of the year.”

“Why avoid them? Axel’s definitely interested and I’m sure Bentley isn’t blind.” Layla shrugs, flipping her fading cherry red hair over her shoulder. “Just get rid of Chris and you’re home free to take your pick. Or try them both out.”

I turn back toward her. “Your advice is to break up with my boyfriend and start dating your brother and his roommate at the same time?”

“Yes,” Layla says with another sip of her smoothie.

I shake my head. “I can’t break up with Christopher.” I suck down some more tea.

“You don’t even like him.” I try to swallow the gulp I just took to argue the point, but she continues before I can. “You complained about him countless times in your emails over the last year, not to mention you would flinch when he touched you the other night, and there’s the fact that your boyfriend came up to see you for the first time when your roommate was gone for the weekend and you invited people over rather than spend time alone with him on a Saturday night. You don’t like him, babes.”

“My mom likes him.” I stir my tea with the straw, watching the ice swirl and clink in the cup. “She’s ecstatic we’re dating since it basically solidifies her business relationship with his dad. She’d be pissed if I broke up with him.”

“Then she should date him.” Layla grips her smoothie tighter, the plastic cup crinkling a bit in her hand. “She’s basically pimping you out for campaign funds.”

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