He Will Be Mine

Chapter 17: Project Partners

*** Alyssa's POV ***

After a few weeks of classes, I have fallen into a sort of comfortable rhythm. Mondays and Wednesdays are two long classes, one in the morning with Matt and one in the afternoon. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I work out with Tyler in the morning and then I have my bio class with Matt in the afternoon, and Fridays are long days for me, with no Matt or Tyler.

Every Friday night, Ronnie and I make a point of hanging with our "dormies," which is what Sarah and Jenny have started calling all us girls who live in 3-East. And the weekends are for hanging out with Tyler and sometimes the other guys and Meredith. Jessica is there usually, but since we ignore each other now, it's not even worth mentioning her.

On the first Monday morning of October, Matt stops to talk to me after our psych class is dismissed. Though we're friendly in class, he seems to try to limit how much we interact outside of class, so this strikes me as odd.

He leads me to a spot near the door and waits until the clusters of students around us have dispersed before turning to me, a serious expression on his face.

"That biology project we have to do, I was thinking we should go collect those samples this week," he finally says. "It's going to be getting colder soon and the ground might freeze over, making it a lot harder to dig up dirt and sample the water, and so on. We could maybe even go tomorrow morning if you're not busy."

"Oh geez, Matt. The way you were acting, I thought you had something awful to tell me," I tease him, laughing. "Yeah, sure. Only thing I have going on in the morning is a workout with Tyler, but I can skip it."

"You've been hanging out with him a lot," he comments. It seems more like an accusation.

"You've been hanging out with Jessica a lot," I shoot back at him. "At least Tyler is nice."

"Yeah, well, Jessica is my fiancée. Of course I'm going to hang out with her."

"And Tyler is my boyfriend," I say defiantly.

"Is he? Are you guys official now?" he challenges, seeming to get a little red in the face.

"Sort of. Why are we even arguing about this?"

"We're not. It's just ... I don't even know. I think I started out wanting to tell you that maybe us working on this project together is something to keep on the down low."

"My boyfriend won't care that we have work to do together," I tell him, aiming to hit him where it hurts. Take that for having crappy taste in women.

"You're sort-of boyfriend, you mean." Touché, Matt.

"Sure, but he won't care. So, I'm guessing it's Jessica you're worried about. Trouble in Paradise?" I tease him, not wanting him to think he has the upper hand.

"Stop. You know what I mean."

I'm taking some sick pleasure in how defensive he seems to be getting.

"Maybe I don't, though. Maybe I don't understand how two people who are supposedly happily in love can't seem to handle me hanging around, even just for a school project."

"You know why."

"No, I don't. You see, your fiancée has never liked me, and I never did anything to deserve that. And you're a grown man. You should be able to decide who you want to be friends with."

This started out playful, but I'm noticing that I'm legitimately getting angry and starting to let out some of the pent-up frustration that has been building in me this whole time. It feels good to finally direct it at who has earned it.