Volley of Love

4

When Thursday came around, I had to work extra hard to trick Tristan into thinking I had the surgery. Apparently patients can't drive themselves home afterwards, so I had to get an Uber to the hospital and have him pick me up. It wasn't too hard to pretend my ribs were recovering since they already hurt.

I don't know why I picked Chemistry as my major, because I am a fucking fantastic actress.

The real struggle was hiding from him at practices. During our Friday practice yesterday, Bella yelled, "Good job today, Stellar!"

Tristan was right around the corner, and I practically tackled her. The girls were really confused by my behavior and I just told them I had a headache.

The athletes on both the Basketball and the Volleyball team are going to think I'm deranged by the end of this week.

My ribs have only been getting worse. Every time I aggravate them I feel like I'm going to pass out.

I had been sitting at the kitchen counter brewing on a Gas Laws problem, when Tristan walked into my dorm.

He smiled softly when he saw me. "Hey sweetheart. Aren't you supposed to be in bed?"

Shit. I froze, wide-eyed. "I- um-"

He burst out laughing. "It's ok. As long as you are staying in here and you aren't at practice, you should be fine."

I released a breath. "Yeah."

He smiled and peaked over my shoulder. "Hmm. I think you forgot about the temperature."

Of course I did. "I'm so stupid. Wait! How did you know that?"

I looked over my shoulder to see him smirking. "Well as much as I would love to say I'm a genius, I just noticed that one of the variables disappeared from this iteration to that one."

I looked back at my paper to see he was in fact right. I groaned.

He kissed my hair and walked around the counter. He opened the fridge and frowned. "Where is all of your food?"

I shrugged. "Aaron said he would go shopping."

He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "When did he say that?"

"3 days ago."

He rolled his eyes. "Of course." He pulled out his phone. "I'll call Jake and have him pick some stuff up."

"Thanks Glen."

"Sure thing Lircet."

He stepped out of the room. Aaron poked his head around the opposite corner. "Hey Ron. Are you hiding?"

I said the last part extra loud and he glared at me.

"No. Keep your voice down. I have a headache."

"So naturally you hide behind the wall and only appear when Tristan leaves the room."

He entered the room and grabbed the top packet off of my completed pile. After inspecting it for a while, he slapped it back down on the counter and pointed dramatically at the 3rd question. "That's wrong."

I looked at him blankly. "Says who?"

"Me. Don't be an idiot."

"What's your major?"

"Neuroscience."

My jaw dropped. "But you never do homework."

He rolled his eyes. "Yes I do. I just don't hang out with you while doing it."

I nodded. I fixed that problem and he placed it back on the pile to let me know it was correct. We stood in silence until I broke it with a question that had been nagging me for a while.