A College Lie (A College Tale #2)

Chapter 7 - Inside information | Dax

After a brutal morning session at the gym I drag myself to my first class for the day. Lucky me it is my favorite, about network programming. Someone from a year over me told me that we are going to program our own chat room in this course and I am so pumped about it.

Last year I got pretty far behind due to me struggling with some personal shit but I spent all summer catching up. I managed to pass my freshman year by sheer luck and Ella's help. She is a genius when it comes to computer science and to date there has not been an assignment or test she can't solve in half the expected time.

I take my seat beside her in the classroom with a few minutes to spare until class starts. I can see the excitement in her and I suspect she is probably bursting with questions about me and Olivia.

She has to get in line, I have some questions myself. The first one is why the hell did I agree to this charade? It seemed to make sense on the bus home but now with some distance to the whole thing I see some potential red flags. I must be desperate for her forgiveness by doing this.

I plan on taking her home with me as her favour. I need someone with me to convince my mom to leave her old, shitty life behind and come with me. The trailer park I grew up in, in Des Moines, is something that my mom has to realise is not good for her.

My upbringing was fairly good, poor but good with lots of love and devotion from both my parents, but when I was seven my dad relapsed. After a year he left one day to buy whatever he could afford but never came back. The police didn't do shit to help since they had no care in the world for people like us. Mom took it really hard and spent the first year looking for him. As a consequence, she didn't manage to keep her job and that forced my two older sisters to step up and make money in some way. My sisters would never let anything bad happen to me and it wasn't until I was a few years older I realised they had started selling them self to be able to feed me. I didn't know better and didn't put a stop to it. That is something I am ashamed of and will never be able to forgive myself for.

I have been trying to get mom to leave that shithole and come with me and start a new life. I wish I could take my sisters too but they got too deep into drugs during my high school years and even though I will never lose my hope, I will start with convincing the person that I have the best shot at getting through to. I figure I can take my sisters once I have mom on the right track.

My mum has always been embarrassed about how she lives and how we had to grow up fast and adapt to the harsh life in Capitol East. Even though I have talked to her multiple times she has to realise that she needs to move, like yesterday. If I bring Olivia, my hopes are that mum will finally hit her rock bottom out of embarrassment and that I can shake some sense into her, once and for all.

"Hey, you look deep in thought" Ella greets me as I place my coffee on the table and sit down. She looks at me with kind eyes and I feel myself relax from my earlier gloomy thoughts. I am forever grateful she was able to forgive me last semester for my crazy actions that lasted all through fall. How I could ever see her as something else than a friend is beyond me.

Don't get me wrong, she is stunning, but so not my type. I would probably crush her if I let her into my deepest secrets. She is like this white tulip, pure, sensitive and a bit closed off and a guy like me would be a disaster. But I am immensely thankful to be allowed to call her my friend. You couldn't ask for anyone better and I am genuinely happy for her and Mac, they are perfect together.

I need someone stronger, not afraid to bite back and who won't put up with my shit, and sometimes bad mood. Preferably someone with dark hair, piercing green eyes and beautiful freckles over her whole face, someone like... Olivia. I know I have to let go of that line of thought since our charade is only for show and to save her grade but I can't deny that I am attracted to her. The thing is that it is not only her body, which is hot as hell, that draws me in, but her personality.

It was her personality that lured me in that first party I met her at. Since it was sparsely with light I could only see her contour but her personality and fierceness was more than making up for it. She saw right through my crap and actually challenged me right from the beginning and it was so refreshing.

"Sorry, just tired and a lot going on right now" I answered her. She gives me a pat on my shoulder in a comforting way.

"You had a really great interception last game by the way" She tries to lighten the mood and I laugh at her, but not for the reason she thinks.

"Who told you to say that?" Ella knows about zero to nothing about football. She is a genius in school and seems to be able to absorb any knowledge, except anything related to football.

"What? Can't I have an opinion of my own?" she challenges me, not realising her mistake.

"Ells, I play on offense, we are in the possession of the ball when I am out on the field and an interception means that you steal the ball from the opponents" I give her a pat on her shoulder and continue ".. you see where this is going?".

"Damn Sugar!" She says under her breath, I just laugh at her expense.

"Over to things I can comprehend, what is going on between you and Olivia? I thought she hated you, like from deep within her?" it hurts a bit to hear Ella's take on Olivia's hatred but I deserve it.

"I know, but something happened. I stayed in Michigan all summer and you know she is from here so we bumped into each other and the rest is history" thank god we decided on a background story a few weeks ago.

"It is just so weird seeing you two together but I guess she never got over her massive crush on you"

"What crush?" I ask her. Did she really mean Olivia?

"Hasn't she told you? She had this huge ass crush on you from the beginning of the school year. She was practically drooling over you during games. That party I introduced you to each other everything changed though, she was furious at me for apparently not warning her you were an asshole but I had no idea what she was talking about. I didn't learn about the whole 'incident' until much later" I flinch when she mentions 'the incident' but quickly collect myself.

If this is true that means that maybe I haven't read too much into her stolen looks and glances that linger a bit too long on my body. Maybe she is attracted to me and I am not this loser with a too vivid imagination. Too bad I can't make her mine. She deserves so much better than a trailer park offspring that not even his dad could love enough to stay.

"Are you serious?" I ask Ella, just for confirmation.

"Like a heart attack, she is going to be pissed I told you this" she responds and I can only agree.

"I wished I could say that your secret is safe with me but I am so going to use this against her" I can't believe this bit of information, it is gold.

"Just promise me to be gentle with her?" Ella pleads with sad eyes that goes straight to my heart.

"I can't promise.." she looks disappointed so I add ".. but I will try" and she looks a bit happier.

After a minute in silence thinking over this new bit of information the professor enters the room and demands attention "Today everyone we will look at..." but my mind is far, far away from this lecture hall and instead plotting about how I best can use this to my advantage.