Love The One You're With

Chapter 3-Adventure

Thursday morning, I woke up on the couch with Sammy behind me snuggled into the back of my neck. I started to wiggle free, but he tightened his grip and groaned. "Just stay with me," he whined still half asleep. I laughed and pried his arm off of me before escaping.

"I've gotta go to biology lab..don't you have class today?" I asked out of genuine curiosity because his schedule confused me.

"Nah, I take most of my classes online, and I'm at least a week ahead in all of them..." he replied as he sat up, stretching his arms above his head.

"Oh wow," I replied kind of surprised that he's such an overachiever. That's not what I would have expected from him, honestly. He nodded and got up to head towards his bedroom. "Have a good day, Quinnie," he said softly before closing the door behind him.

After quickly running through a shower and brushing my teeth, I slipped into a pair of red plaid flared leggings, a tight black crop top, and a pair of plain black flats. There wasn't enough time to do my hair, so I pulled on a black beanie before applying some mascara. I grabbed my backpack and walked out the door.

The sky looked like rain, and I was kicking myself for not packing an umbrella in my bag as I walked across campus to the building my lab was in. I made my way into the basement, hoping for a fun lab today. Surprisingly, Jake was already sitting at the table we shared last time, and he smiled when he saw me. He was wearing jeans and a light colored floral button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

Good morning," I said softly as I sat beside him. I turned slightly in my chair, letting my knees press into his thigh momentarily.

Good morning, Quinn," he replied as he looked up at me through his lashes while he continued  scribbling in a notebook. I glanced down quickly to see that he was drawing, but he quickly closed the notebook when the TA started talking about our lab assignment.

After the first hour, we were pretty much done viewing our slides and identifying them, so we were stuck waiting for dismissal. I took out a piece of notebook paper and folded it into one of those "cootie catchers" from elementary school. Giggling to myself, I turned to look at Jake, who was still working on his sketch.

"Pick a color," I said with a smile as I held it out. He blushed and shook his head before pointing at the red corner. "R-e-d...now pick a number," I instructed. He stopped drawing, and twisted in his seat to face me.

"Five," he said softly with a smile. His cheeks flushed the lightest shade of pink, and it was adorable.

"One, two, three, four, five...one more number," I  held out the paper again after folding and unfolding it to show a different set of numbers inside.

"Oooh tough call...I think I'll go with two this time," he replied after stroking his chin and pretending to put a lot of thought into his choice.

I flipped the flap under the number two, and smiled. "Well, it looks like you have to text me now...I don't make the rules," I said with a shrug as I showed him the paper that just said "you will text Quinn." He laughed so loud that the TA looked over at us and frowned.

After Jake recovered, he took the paper toy from my hand and began to flip the other sections. "Wait! No, you don't need to do that..." I pleaded as I struggled to reach his hands to take it back. He held it just out of my reach as he giggled either at my efforts or at the words he was reading.

"These all say the same thing," he said once I gave up, crossing my arms at my chest. "I'm sorry," he added softly as he slid the crumpled paper in front of me. I shook my head and avoided him. I don't know why I was so upset being caught in my lame attempt at flirting, but I was. I was brought out of my thoughts when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out to see a text from an unknown number.