Love The One You're With

Chapter 2-Shameless

Wednesday morning, I woke up at 7:45am, which meant I had 15 minutes to get to class across campus. I pulled my hair back into a tiny ponytail and straightened my bangs with my fingers before brushing my teeth and hurrying out the door still in a pair of sweats and an old Led Zeppelin t-shirt. I practically ran across campus, silently thanking my dad for convincing me to play soccer in high school.

When I finally got to the science building, the door to my class was closed. I checked my phone to see that it was only 8:03am. I groaned and began to mentally prepare to walk in.

"You're late, too?" A gravelly voice asked from behind me. I turned to see Jake walking up with his backpack hung loosely on one shoulder. He was wearing Jeans and a burgundy t-shirt that was slightly cropped and the sleeves were cuffed.

"Only a little," I replied as I turned to face him. He blushed and looked down at his feet when my eyes met his. "We should probably go in..." I said softly causing him to glance back up at me and nodding.

I cracked the door and we both walked in. I kept my eyes forward trying to ignore all the eyes I felt on me. The professor paused the lecture while we took our seats. The only ones left were the same two we sat in on Monday. I pulled out my laptop and began taking notes when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to see Jake looking at me and his cheeks flushed a bright pink.

"Do you know the wifi password? I got a new laptop because I broke my last one," he whispered before running his fingers through his hair. I smiled at him and wrote it down on a piece of notebook paper along with my name and phone number. "Thank you, Quinn," he said quietly before smiling weakly and turning back to his computer. I smirked at the sound of him saying my name.

After class was over, Jake hurried out again. He already had a habit of being the last one there and the first to leave. I gathered my things and made my way to my art class. My incense burner was sitting on my desk completely dried. I put on my apron and sat down as the professor passed out small containers of different colors of glaze. I painted the main body of the piece with a beige color, before taking my time to carefully paint the decorations accordingly. The little seashells were shades of blues and pinks, the crab was red, the starfish was purple, and the beach towel had a rainbow mandala design on it. After carefully placing it on the shelf to dry again and be fired, I washed my hands and hung up my apron.

I managed to finish a few minutes early, and I was excited to go home and eat lunch before my online class. I caught the bus back home, and walked in to an empty living room, thankfully. I turned towards the kitchen to see Sam standing at the stove grinning.

"Hey, Quinnie," he said in a flirty but condescending tone. I took a deep breath and sighed.

"Are you always here?" I asked in an annoyed tone as I sat my bag down by the table and walked towards the fridge.

"I do live here.." he said with a laugh. "I made some vegan pizza, if you want some," he offered a piece of what looked like buffalo chicken pizza. I hesitated, but took a piece before taking a bite. It was really tasty, and took a second piece to my seat at the table.

"You're full of surprises, huh?" I asked quietly, mostly to myself as I ate. He smirked and sat down beside me watching me eat.

"You like it," he muttered through his shit eating grin. I blushed a bright pink and looked away trying to avoid his eye contact to no avail.

"What? No! I mean—what?" I stammered. Smoooooooth.

"The pizza, dummy. It's really good, right?" He said louder as he laughed and stood up to clean up the mess he'd made cooking.

"Oh..yeah, it's delicious," I replied, ignoring that he called me a dummy for now.

"Awesome! I wanted to try this new recipe, so I'm glad this worked out," he explained as he hand washed the dirty dishes. I stood up and walked over to help him, offering to dry the ones he washed. "Hey, Alexa, turn on some music," he called out, and the small speaker in his room began to play Dirty Work by Steely Dan. He started humming along as we worked, but when the chorus came, he couldn't help but sing along.