Page 8 of More Than Chemical
Three
Boy Has Brains
“Excuse me.” I crawled over legs in the four-hundred-seat lecture auditorium. “Sorry.” I plopped down in a red-cushioned chair next to Jay and pulled out the folding table.
“You’re late.” He raised an eyebrow. Being of Afro–Puerto Rican descent, his skin was golden brown, his hair black and cut short to coil against his scalp.
We’d known of each other since ninth grade, and last fall when I moved into the dorm, I discovered that not only did we live in the same building, but we were both in the College of Science and Engineering and had classes together. After I’d made him promise not to tell anyone who my family was, we’d become instant buddies.
“I know.” With my hands shaky and my head like mush, I dug in my backpack, retrieved my notebook, and placed it on the tiny table. Maybe the three ibuprofen I’d popped to get rid of a pounding headache and the two Red Bulls I’d drunk to fight exhaustion had been excessive.
“Why weren’t you at breakfast this morning?” Jay asked.
I shrugged and opened to the last page I’d made notes on. “Have I missed anything?”
He peered over my shoulder. “The professor’s reviewing titration.”
The skin on my arms prickled. That was the subject of our last lab, and it hadn’t gone well. Not yet having finished my write-up, I needed to pay attention.
Like some students in this class, I was on the chemical engineering degree path. Since touring a test kitchen and full-scale plant facility when I was a kid, I’d only ever wanted to be one thing—a chemical engineer in the food industry. But lately I’d been having serious doubts about whether I’d make it. Especially after my fall semester grades.
Besides everything else, insomnia was killing my GPA.
“Didn’t you get my texts?” He tapped a finger on his thigh, which stretched so far that his knobby knee bumped against the seat back in front of him.
“I’ve had my phone on silent.”
“So how was Saturday?” Jay had gone home over the weekend for his mom’s birthday. He’d been lucky enough to miss not only the party, but also the plunge.
“Shh,” I said. “Not now. I need to listen.”
He stayed quiet for exactly three minutes, until the professor turned to write on the whiteboard. Then Jay whispered, “Emma said I should ask you for details. Something about a boy.”
I jabbed him with my elbow. “Seriously. I mean it. Stop talking.”
“Come on,” he said. “Tell me what happened.”
I sighed. He wasn’t going to give up. I knew him too well. “I kissed a guy. That’s it. No big deal.”
“What guy?”
“A guy from our dorm.”
“I didn’t see you at dinner last night or at breakfast this morning. You’re avoiding the dining hall, aren’t you?”
For the past thirty-six hours, I’d kept away from the lobby and gone to the dining hall just as it was about to close. I didn’t want to see Texas or anyone else who would remind me of what had happened.
To think I’d fallen for his act in front of everyone. How embarrassing. But another part of the problem was sleep. I hadn’t gotten more than a couple of hours the entire weekend. Since I’d taken Saturday off work for the plunge, I picked up a substitute shift at the bookstore on Sunday, and it had almost broken me. Hence the headache.
I stared him down. “Are you done interrogating me now?”
A glint of evil passed through his eyes. “What’s his name?”
“Omigod,” I muttered under my breath. I could just not answer, but Emma and Priya would eventually tell him anyway. “His name is Dallas. It was a mistake. I’m not talking about it anymore.”
I focused back on the instructor.
“Well.” Jay cleared his throat. “You won’t be able to avoid him for long.”
