The Line Drive

thirteen

Mackenzie

I make it through Wednesday, and my classes on Thursday, before I feel truly destroyed by the week. I work Thursday mornings in the library before class, and there were a shocking number of questions this week. Usually it's pretty quiet, but today there had been nonstop questions.

I'm basically laying face down on the table, my arms spread out, and my cheek on my laptop keyboard when Dane shows up.

"Are you okay?" He asks.

"Tired." I mumble.

"Have you eaten lunch?"

I move my watch in front of my face to see what time it is. Already 11:30. "No." I tell him, trying not to sound too sad.

"Come on, let's go get something to eat. We can work over food." He pats me on the shoulder.

"You're almost done with your assignment, are you sure?"

"Mack, let's go!" He ignores me entirely. I reluctantly sit up and shove my computer into my bag. Dane leads the way out of the library, quieter than usual.

"Are you okay?" I ask as we make our way down the library steps.

"Yeah. My roommates just stayed up late last night. They didn't go to bed til 2."

"Don't you guys lift at like 6AM?"

"Yeah. They're stupid." Dane mutters.

"Where are we going exactly?"

"The coffee shop with the breakfast burritos."

I make a noise of agreement and try to keep up with Dane as he moves with surprising speed towards our lunch destination.

Dane lets me order first, then orders a coffee and three breakfast burritos. I have to try hard not to laugh at the look the barista gives him. Dane totally ignores her as he hands over his credit card. I feel mildly guilty letting him pay for my lunch, but then I remind myself that I am helping him with his work.

When we sit down, Dane stares off into the distance for a long moment before finally pulling out his laptop. I yank out a bunch of papers that I have to grade and start in on them, since Dane seems to be lost in thought.

I'm actually between papers when Dane's voice causes me to look up. "Mack?" I notice that he's watching me carefully, and I wonder if he was waiting for me to finish what I was doing. That's probably too much credit to give, but I can't help thinking it.

"Yeah?"

"I'm getting an error. Can you look at it?"

"Sure." He moves around the table and takes the seat next to me.

We pore over his computer for several minutes, trying to debug his code.

The barista calls his name and breaks our focus, so I stand up to grab our drinks. Dane follows me to the counter and picks up the pile of breakfast burritos. The barista gives Dane a look that I read as 'I wish you would fuck me', but Dane doesn't seem to notice. Instead, he watches me walk carefully back to our table, trying not to spill our drinks.

"You look like you're concentrating really hard."

"I didn't want to spill your coffee after learning that you need it so desperately."

"Good call. It would be devastating if I had to fire you for being bad at carrying my life juice."

I set the coffee safely down on the table and then put my hot chocolate down in front of my papers.

"I can't believe you got hot chocolate."

"Why?"

"You're literally a child." Dane's voice is teasing. "We're in college. Drink coffee with the rest of us people who lost our souls." He takes a disturbingly long drink from his massive mug of coffee.

"You're right. You clearly don't have a soul." I take a small sip from my hot chocolate and then unwrap my breakfast burrito.

As I take small drinks, I look at Dane's code. His error suddenly jumps out to me so I point it out to him. Dane nods, fixes it, and then finishes one of his breakfast burritos in four bites. I try not to stare.

Someone at the table next to us accidentally elbows their coffee mug and it shatters on the ground. Coffee sprays all over our backpacks. I snag our backpacks before the remaining coffee can seep into the bottoms and hand them to Dane.

Grabbing all of our napkins off the table, I lay them on top of the coffee that's starting to spread across the floor. The guy who knocked over his coffee hurries back from the counter holding more napkins, and being closely followed by the barista.

I get a hurried 'thank you' and then the barista helps them finish cleaning up the mess. Dane is clutching our backpacks, watching me closely. I feel mildly embarrassed under his gaze, but I stand and point to the bathroom and make a handwashing motion. Dane nods in understanding and I go to wash my hands.

When I return, the floor has been cleaned and the barista is just mopping where the spill had been. She ignores me entirely, because she's just staring at Dane, who once again, is ignoring her.

I edge past the barista and sit back in my seat. "I think that guy likes you." Dane whispers to me. Said guy is still sitting at the table next to us, and quickly looks away from the two of us when we look at him.

"I think you're overthinking it." I tell him.

"Unlikely. I have an excellent radar for that sort of thing."

"Sure you do." I mutter. "Aren't you supposed to be finishing your assignment?"

"Yes ma'am." Dane returns his focus to his computer, and I return to grading and occasionally answering his questions.

When the guy who spilled his coffee stands up to leave, he sets a slip of paper in front of me. I look up at him in surprise. "In case you're ever looking for a date." He tells me, and then nearly sprints out of the coffee shop.

"Told you so." Dane says in a sing-song voice. I roll my eyes.

"He didn't even tell me his name." I say.

"I think you made him nervous." Dane chuckles. I open the note, it's literally just the guy's name, Peter, and his number. I sigh and crinkle it up into my burrito wrapper, not ready to deal with a man that couldn't even say his name to my face. Dane gives me a look but doesn't say anything else, which I appreciate far more than I'd be willing to admit.

We manage to wrap up Dane's assignment by 1:15, but he stays for an extra half hour to just work on his homework with me.

Again, I find that our work time together is actually really productive. Dane is good about never interrupting me with comments when I'm in the middle of grading a paper, and it seems like he actually gets a lot done, just watching the speed that he manages to write at.

When he tells me he has to get to practice, I find myself feeling a little bit sad. We'd finished his second assignment for the week, which means there's no reason for us to spend any time together until next Monday.

This thought bothers me more than it should. Dane just needs help on his computer science assignments, and it's convenient for him to stay and work on homework instead of moving somewhere else to do it when we finish. It's the logical choice. I shouldn't be attached to him in any way.

"Thanks for your help this week." Dane says, as he stands up and shoves things into his backpack.

"You're welcome." I give him a small smile.

"You're really good at this." I think I must be mistaken, but it looks like he's blushing just slightly. "Do you want to do the same time we did this week next Monday?"

"Sure."

"I'll see you then, savior." With that, he walks out, leaving me sitting with feelings that I'm not ready to admit to myself.