Patch Up

Chapter 3

Chapter Three

I’m not eager to go to my Psychology class. Not at all. It’s so weird how much I dread this class when it is also my favorite one. Just because one guy is making my life more difficult, I’d do pretty much anything to trade this class for another one. I step in the big room and cringe when I see a couple of guys from Sean’s frat.

More often than not, I wonder what he told them to have them so eager to give me a hard time as soon as their dull eyes settle on me. Right now, they snicker at me, straighten, and walk over. Well, swagger would be a better word I think.

“Padawan Skywalker.” The taller one salutes me, his mouth half turned up in an amused smile. The other one just nods like an idiot, his long arms without many muscles crossed over his too thin chest.

“Very funny. Don’t you get bored with that shit?” I reply coldly, walking to the closest seat available. I put down my leather bag and take out my laptop, ignoring them even though they follow me, shadowing me so close that my heart beats loudly in my chest. I hate not facing them, it makes me feel weak, but I don’t want to give them any more of my attention. It would only encourage them.

“Be careful, little Skywalker. The Force won’t be happy with your behavior,” the thinner one retorts, laughing like what he has said is the epitome of funny. Really, sometimes I wonder how these people were able to get into college.

“How old are you?” another voice interrupts before I can comeback with something feisty. I look past them and see Duke, taller than both of them, a glare plastered on his face.

“What?” the thin guy says. He is way too lanky even for someone of college age. It’s like he never left the bad period of the early teenage years.

“I’m not surprised you don’t understand a simple question, since your bad jokes would suit kindergarten rather than college.”

I bite my tongue, stifling a laugh. He’s good at crushing these guys. He’s almost frightening with his dark eyes sending a warning, his tall frame obviously tense and his arms tightly crossed over his well-muscled chest. With just a glance, you know that you don’t want to fight with him. I shiver, and I don’t know if it’s from fear or from something else.

“We’re nineteen,” the other one replies with a scowl on his face, but he refrains himself from saying anything else when he realizes that Duke is one of the TAs. He taps on his friend’s bony shoulder and they walk away, but not without looking back at me with fury in their eyes. Like I did something wrong.

I shake my head and turn on my laptop without saying a word to Duke, who sits in the seat next to mine. I know we have over ten minutes before the beginning of the class, but it’s disturbing to have him so close to me, to feel his strong arm brushing against mine and to have several girls’ gazes zeroing in on us, on him.

“Since we’re friends, I suppose I should ask how you are today,” Duke says closer to my ear than I want.

I try to push away some of my crazy, frizzy hair and shrug. “I’m fine, I guess.” I don’t look at him. Instead, I lock my eyes on my laptop’s screen where there’s a picture of Seattle and the Space Needle by night.

“I know that you’re not exactly eager to be friends with me, but don’t you think that it would be better if you could look at me when we talk?” He taps on his knees where his jeans have a big hole. “It makes me nervous when you behave like I’m not really here.”

The vulnerability in his voice startles me. Of their own accord, my eyes find his and I can’t find it in me to look away. The gentleness in them is not something I’m used to, and I don’t know what to do with it.