Cheesecake

03. How to be a Heartbreaker

                                                 CHAPTER THREE

                                             How to be a Heartbreaker

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Avery heard a soft rapping on the door. She groaned and opened her eyes, quickly regretting it. It was so bright in the dorm room with the sun beating hard against the window. When the hell was Serenity going to pick up those curtains? It's been three days since they moved in and there was still so much to be done. The walls were still bare aside from a Baylor University flag that Avery took upon herself to hang with two thumb tacks. The TV in the corner of the room still wasn't hooked up, and there wasn't enough lounging space.

The knocking came again.

"What?" she croaked, and opened one eye to peak at the door.

Serenity hadn't come storming in yet, so that must mean she's still in class. Avery glanced over at the clock on her nightstand -- eleven-ten.

"Wait a second, okay?" she shouted to whoever was outside the room.

Avery kicked her feet out of the blankets, yawned, and got out of bed. She'd stayed up last night studying while listening to the new Fall Out Boy album on her iPod. She probably should have been out with Serenity, checking out the college scene and all the local hot-spots, but in the end she kept her promise to herself and stayed in to study for next week's algebra exam.

When she finally made it to the door, she saw a boy leaning against the wall with his hands crossed over his chest. He smiled at her.

"You're Serenity's roomie," he said, and straightened. He was dressed in jeans and a white shirt, his dark hair curled around his neck. "I'm Archie."

Avery cocked her head to the side and furrowed a brow. "Archie?"

"Archie Creed. Serenity's brother."

"Oh," Avery looked him over again, trying to find some similarity between him and Serenity. There was none. His body was well-muscled, where Serenity's was too thin. His brown eyes were almost black, his pupils small and focused on Avery's face.

"She's in class right now. You can probably catch her at the English building though if you walk fast enough."

Archie nodded his head, but didn't seem interested. He stayed where he was, staring at Avery with those dark eyes.

Yawning, Avery pulled down the sleeves of her sweatshirt. “Do you know where to get something good for breakfast?” she asked.

“Breakfast?” Archie laughed. “It’s almost noon, honey.”

Did he just call me honey, Avery thought with a confused look on her face.

“If you’re in the mood for pizza then you’re in luck. There’s a great little place across campus that has every topping you could ever want. Brick’s Grease Hut.” Archie said with such casualness that Avery had to believe it.

“Interesting,” was all she said. There was something interesting about this boy - something that Avery couldn’t quite put her finger on.

“Cash only, by the way. They don’t take meal plan cards or the other crap colleges give us to buy food.” he said.

Avery nodded her head and made a move to close the door. Archie panicked and threw out a hand to catch the knob. “Wait,” he said, getting Avery’s attention. “I don’t have class for another few hours. Why don’t we get lunch together?”

Avery looked down to survey her appearance. She was wearing an old sweatshirt with the Dallas Cowboys logo printed on the front and black spandex shorts. She didn’t have the energy to shower yet, and she couldn’t let anyone see her like this.

“Maybe next time, Archie.” She smiled at him and shut the door.

Snuggling back into bed, Avery grabbed her cell phone from the wall charger and checked her messages. Three text messages from Serenity -- Save me! This class blows so hard! There's not one cute guy in here and the professor just called me Serendipity -- and one missed call from home. She laughed at her friend's text but didn't reply. Avery thought about returning the call, but decided against it when she remembered that she wanted to check out the coffee shop.

In the end, she sent a message to Serenity telling her that she'd be at The Claw and to meet her there if she was bored or something. Avery could  use some company. She also put something in there about Archie, and left it at that.

The first thing Avery noticed when she walked in the door of The Claw was the smell of something burning, then the scent of cinnamon and apples. She wound through tables and chairs, looking for an open spot among the chaos. There were candles all over the place and a fire burned in a blue pan, which Avery thought to be highly against the college's safety codes.

She found a small table for two at the far corner of the room, below a potted plant and a painting of  flowers. She took it and pulled off her sweater; the humidity from all the steam was suffocating. 

"Avery!" Serenity shouted from across the room, hurrying to the table. When she got to Avery, she took a seat and said, "Damn, what are they doing in here? Witchcraft?" She looked around and took note of the dim lighting and strange statues surrounding the walls. 

Avery laughed. "It feels like a hot box in here"

Serenity fanned her face with a hand and looked down at the drink menu. "What do you think they put in the tea?"

Avery shrugged, not caring the slightest bit about the tea. For a moment, she actually forgot how much she was sweating. "Your brother came by the dorm looking for you," she said, trying hard to pass it off casually. "I told him to catch you at the English building. Did he show up?"

Serenity's hand stopped. She looked up over the menu at Avery and cocked her head. "I haven't seen him all day. What did he say to you?"

A cool breeze whipped past Avery's neck as a waiter swung around the corner, missing her chair by an inch. The breeze felt good on her hot skin. "He didn't say much. He told me about Brick's Grease Hut."

Serenity gave her a weird look, like she had never heard of Brick's Grease Hut or had even known that Archie eats there. But of course, she wouldn't know that because there was some weird sibling rivalry between them -- or at least that's what Avery was hinting at with all this sourness coming from Serenity.

Avery wondered what was so bad about Archie. He didn't look to be much of a trouble maker, he actually seemed to be more innocent than anything else.

Serenity turned her gaze back to the menu and fell silent.

"So," Avery started as she pulled an appetizer menu from the rack on the table. "Your brother really isn't that bad."

Serenity grabbed a menu, too, and flipped through it's pages. Without looking up, she said, "You have to know him to really come to that conclusion."