by Kara Jones
This is easy. He should get this one right; it’s practically elementary level science, Chloe thought, anticipating Evan’s answer.
Her heart plummeted when he shrugged and said, “An organ?”
Their professor shook his head as he smiled mirthlessly. “I guess science doesn’t come as naturally to you as football does, huh?” He turned around and went right back to writing on the board.
Chloe closed her eyes and placed her head on top of her hands on the desk, groaning silently.
“I’m doomed,” she grumbled to herself.
“Are you saying something?” Evan asked, leaning closer to her. She turned her head and glared at him.
He is as dumb as a rock! He’s going to mess everything up for me! Chloe mentally cried.
She mourned over her predicament, her mind running on auto pilot and paying the barest bit of attention to the lesson until the bell rang. She gathered her stuff quickly and was about to leave when Evan called after her.
“I’m not going to ruin things for you, you know,” he said.
Chloe turned around and looked at him, not even concealing her annoyance.
“You better not,” she said, before turning around and walking away, leaving Evan staring after her.
Chloe sighed as she snuggled up to her favorite book and wiggled comfortably on the couch. This was one of the moments she treasured the most – alone inside her room and reading in peace. Vanessa was out doing whatever she did on the weekend, so Chloe had their room all to herself.
Her happiness was short-lived, however, when the door suddenly opened. Vanessa and Evan walked in, busy making out and blindly making their way to the couch. Chloe barely managed to remove her legs from the other side of the couch before the couple crashed into it, their hands still groping each other, and their lips making smacking and slurping noises so that Chloe could not help but grimace in disgust.
Chloe shook her head and stood up. Her plan to have a relaxing evening was ruined, so she might as well head over to someplace else to study. She went into her room and took her backpack with her and made her way to the door. Evan managed to pull his mouth away from Vanessa and saw Chloe about to leave.
“Hey, do you want to come with us? We’re going to one of the frat parties over at Greek Row later,” he asked. Vanessa rolled her eyes and huffed while Chloe scoffed.
“No, Evan. I’m going to do something productive with my life and go to the library instead of a party,” she said. Evan furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head in confusion. “You don’t know what a library is?” Evan didn’t answer and just continued to stare at her. “The place with all the—? You’re an idiot. Google it or something,” Chloe rolled her eyes and left. Vanessa shrugged and went on to plant kisses on Evan’s neck as he continued to look troubled.
“You know, she always does that,” Evan remarked.
“Who?” Vanessa asked, not caring.
Evan sighed. “Never mind.”
Chapter Three
It was already late in the evening when Chloe got back to the dorm, which was really quiet she realized, thankfully. She had completely forgotten that it was sorority rush week, and the library was packed with rushers and students hiding out. The librarians were particularly lax in their duties during this time since they experienced very little excitement with their jobs, and this was one of the only times they saw something interesting.
Resigned that she’d never be able to get the rest and relaxation she wanted, she went and set up her math textbook and papers on the living room table and started doing her homework. She was already on her fifth problem when the door opened and Evan walked in, visibly upset.
“Have you seen Vanessa?” he asked.
Chloe shook her head. “I thought she was with you. You said something about a party earlier, remember?” she replied.
Evan groaned and sat on the couch next to her, his jaw locked and tense. Chloe didn’t say anything and just waited for him to do something – anything really – to give her a clue as to what was happening to him. She also took the time to look at Evan closely, her eyes marveling at his handsome face, angular jaw, and chocolate brown eyes that said everything he was feeling. His shoulders were broad and his arms were huge, the muscles still showing definition even when he was wearing his varsity jacket, which was bulky enough.
He really is such a handsome man, Chloe grudgingly admitted to herself. If only he wasn’t so stupid.
“Vanessa’s getting on my nerves,” Evan spoke, making Chloe look at him in surprise. “She’s so dramatic about everything, always bossing me around, wanting me to go to every single party with her and show her off to my bros. It’s like she wants me to treat her like some prize I should be grateful for winning. I mean, have you ever felt that she’s... I don’t know, annoying?” he asked, turning his head to look at her.
Chloe raised her eyebrows and pointed at herself with her pencil, looking at him like she’s saying, ‘Hello, have you met me?!’ Evan laughed, shaking his head, and Chloe bowed her head a little, a small smile forming on her lips, pleased that she got him to laugh.
“Aw man. Why couldn’t I have fallen for simple girls?” he asked, and Chloe snorted.
“Simple girls? Really? Do you even know what they are?” she asked.
“Sure I do,” he answered confidently. “Like red-headed, wears glasses, likes to read, and just cares about her studies? Doesn’t hurt that she’s pretty easy on the eyes, too,” he answered, looking at her cheekily. Chloe blushed as she realized he had just described her and proceeded to hit him with her notebook, making him block her assault with his arm as he laughed.
Afterward, Evan said he was going to try and sleep a little and Chloe shrugged before continuing her homework. She was struggling over the seventh problem, and she was getting really frustrated over it. She felt something hit the side of her head and she looked down to see it was a paper plane. She glared at him and she picked up the plane angrily.
“You’ve overstayed your welcome. Now get out!” she yelled.
Evan pouted, but he stood up and did as he was told. Chloe was still glaring at the door before she unfolded the paper plane, intent on using it as a scratch paper. She frowned as she noticed something was written on it.
“What?” she asked aloud. It was the math problem she was working on. She read and reread the solution he had written, and she was stumped because he had gotten the answer right.
He had solved it for her.
The next day at lab, Chloe became antsy as she waited for Evan to arrive. She had been thinking about him all night because of what happened. She had misjudged him, thinking he was just another dumb jock, but he actually has a good head on his shoulders. She didn’t understand why he refuses to apply himself when he was capable of doing so much more than just play football. Why would he want to feign ignorance when, clearly, he could be brilliant academically?
She stopped her train of thought, realizing that she was becoming too engrossed with Evan Cross. She shook her head, trying to snap herself out of it. This was not and would not be a precursor to an attraction or even something deeper than that; she could not allow herself.
Evan arrived in the nick of time and took his seat beside Chloe, giving her a smile. She smiled back before she realized it. She quickly dropped it and looked at him seriously.
“Evan, about the problem you solved in the paper airplane–”
“You’re not still angry I poked you with it, are you? Because I can’t control where the air current takes it once I get it to fly,” Evan teased.
Chloe scowled at him. “Not about that! I meant how you helped me out with my math homework. The number I was having a hard time answering?” she reminded him.
It was only for a split second, but Chloe could swear she saw Evan’s face turn stone cold before he covered it up with a good-natured smile.
“I think you overworked yourself with that assignment, Chloe. How could I have solved something you, one of the smartes
t students in school, can’t answer?” he asked. He turned to look at the board, and Chloe didn’t get to ask anything else as the professor began discussing their next laboratory activity.
It was a disaster.
Evan had single-handedly ruined their entire lab experiment and successfully got Chloe the first ‘F’ of her life. He messed up the calculations, the mixing of the chemicals – basically, everything he could do to sabotage their grade. Chloe was outraged. She told him to stop ruining their experiment on purpose, even going so far as to beg him to stop, but Evan feigned stupidity once more. Unfortunately for Chloe, the professor believed his act.
The horrified devastation on Chloe’s face as she saw the red mark on their paper made Evan rethink his actions. Wincing that he had probably overdone it, he opened his mouth to apologize, but Chloe glared at him, her gaze filled with so much hate that Evan felt his heart drop.
“That crossed the line,” she said quietly.
He shrugged, trying to maintain his bravado. “This is me. This is my life. If you can’t accept it, it’s not my problem,” he said coldly. Chloe looked like he had splashed cold water on her face with his answer.
She gathered her things swiftly and ran away from him. He cursed, thinking of how he was going to make it up to her.
Chapter Four
“Hey, man. Did you check out how the captain was totally screwing up his passes earlier?” the male student asked, as he held out his tray and moved slightly ahead of the line.
“Oh yeah. Coach was livid. He said he was going to tell captain’s father about him slacking off. Can you believe that?” the student beside him said. The two students stopped and laughed boisterously at the memory.
“Excuse me,” a voice asked behind them.
The males shrieked and looked behind them, seeing Chloe standing there, holding her tray and gazing dolefully at them. They immediately associated her with those witches in the movies that sucked your soul.
“I need to buy food,” she whispered, and the two men immediately scattered, running away from her. Chloe shrugged and scooped up some baked potatoes in her bowl, already used to that kind of response.
She wasn’t supposed to hang around here in the cafeteria during dinner time, to be honest. She made it a point to come to the cafeteria an hour earlier because she despised the noise. The students were too rowdy, and girls like her all too often became a target for the popular students’ amusement.
She had spent her time since the lab earlier in the day begging her professor to give her another chance or, at least, to let her make up for the bad grade by submitting an additional report or two. He wouldn’t give her that chance, and Chloe had been sulking ever since.
Her growling stomach was the only reason she went down and risked eating in the cafeteria at this time of the night. She had hoped that, if she ate her food fast enough, she’d be long gone before Vanessa, Ethan, or any of their groups arrived.
But being the unlucky girl she was, they were here, and they immediately spotted her.
“Well, look who’s finally decided to join the land of the living,” Vanessa snidely remarked, her cheerleading lackeys all laughing at her. She was practically seated on Evan’s lap, his hands wrapped around her waist, causing Chloe’s heart to twinge in pain a little. Chloe rolled her eyes, but kept on walking, searching for an empty seat. “Oh come on, Casper. We’re roommates, aren’t we? Why don’t you be a nice ghost and haunt somewhere else?”
Chloe didn’t get to hear Evan tell Vanessa off as she saw a group leave their table, and she immediately walked over and claimed it. She focused on her food, steeling herself each time she heard someone laugh around her. All the laughing was making her paranoid that she was the object of the ridicule, but she wasn’t about to give them the satisfaction of looking around her to check. Doing so would mean Vanessa’s taunts were getting to her and that Vanessa was winning. Chloe wasn’t going to let her win.
She saw the chair beside her move, and she looked up to see Evan pull it out and sit down, looking at her solemnly. She turned her head away, not willing to hear whatever he came to say to her.
“I’m sorry,” he said, and she ignored him. He sighed and tried again. “I’m sorry I messed up our grade earlier. I’m sorry I was such an asshole. I’m just really sorry,” he bowed his head and Chloe sighed, giving in.
“I don’t get it, Evan,” she said, turning around to look at him. “Why did you have to do that? Why did you have to ruin me when all I did was call you out for pretending to be something you’re not?” she asked.
It was Evan’s turn to sigh. He bit his lip, mulling over the idea of telling her before he nodded. “My dad, he’s uh… he’s a professional football player. He practically had my future planned out for me before I even came out of my mother’s womb. You see, he wants me to concentrate on one thing, and one thing only: getting drafted into the pros. He’s not interested in academic standing at all, so in order for me to do what he wants, I pretend I’m a big dumbass and make sure that I do only the bare minimum to graduate, so the professors don’t expect anything from me,” Evan admitted, and Chloe bowed her head as she finally understood. “As long as I go the way I am, my dad will stay off my back enough to let me be in peace here.”
“But don’t you want to be something else other than what your dad wants you to be?” she asked softly.
Evan shook his head. He kept silent, and she knew that that was all he was going to reveal to her now.
She decided to change the topic and nodded her head toward the jock and cheerleaders’ table where Vanessa was currently seething. “Thank you for explaining yourself, but I think you should get back to your girlfriend. I’m pretty sure she’s trying to shoot lasers at me with her eyes right now.”
Evan laughed, shaking his head. “No, I think I’m the one she’s trying to burn a hole through right now. I broke up with her just a few minutes ago.”
Chloe raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Why? I thought you really liked her,” she said, and Evan smiled wryly.
“It’s about my dad too. He’s fine with me sleeping around and all, but he doesn’t want me to get too serious with any girl, because I might lose focus. So, as soon as I feel that they’re wanting something more from me, I cut them loose,” he answered, and she wrinkled her nose in slight disgust. He shrugged it off, ignoring her reaction. “Besides, Vanessa was becoming too dramatic and overly-clingy for my taste. I don’t like girls like that,” he winked at her and Chloe scoffed, making Evan look at her hopefully. “So, am I forgiven?”
Chloe hummed and pretended to think it over before nodding. “Yeah, I guess I forgive you. I just,” she sighed, and Evan looked at her in concern. “I just wish the professor would let me make up for that grade. I can’t afford to have a red mark. It might have a huge impact on my scholarship,” she explained.
“Oh hey, I almost forgot. I talked to the professor earlier. I told him that it was mostly my fault and that you were trying to stop me from goofing around, and I begged him for another chance at that experiment. He gave me the keys to the lab,” he held up his hand where the key was dangling on his finger, and Chloe’s eyes widened. Evan smiled, his eyes sparkling as he watched Chloe’s sadness slowly dissipate. “What do you say? Want to give it another go tonight?” he asked.
Chloe smiled brightly before throwing her arms around his neck, surprising him. She squeezed tighter until she opened her eyes and realized what she was doing and abruptly let go, jumping back to her seat. They looked at each other for a few moments before Chloe stood up, making the table shake as she slammed her hands down on top of it.
“Uh, I’ll meet you at the chemistry lab then. Bye!” she said hurriedly, running away from him. He sat there trying to process what happened, and when he remembered the smile Chloe gave him before she hugged him tightly, he smiled to himself, pleased to have made her happy again.
Vanessa, however, did not like what she had just witnessed… not at all.
Chapter Five
Chloe wasn’t sure about anything anymore.
She was so excited to meet Evan at the chemistry lab that she ran the whole way to the dorm from the cafeteria. She then spent a long time looking at all of the clothes she had, checking if they looked good before her eyes widened, her brain having caught up with how she was acting.
She was acting like a silly school girl about to go out on her first date.
She dropped the clothes she was holding and looked at herself in the mirror, her face betraying how scared she felt. Her heart was betraying her, doing exactly what she had prevented herself from doing for so long. She was falling into that trap her parents always told her to watch out for, or she’d never succeed in her goals.
She was falling in love. She was falling in love with Evan Cross of all people.
She looked at herself in the mirror, scrutinizing every detail of her heart-shaped face, her violet eyes that always remained obscured by her square-cut glasses, and red hair that was long, flat, and had never been styled a day in her life.
She was just as Evan described: simple, which was another term for ‘boring.’
And, despite knowing that she didn’t have a chance in hell compared to the rest of the girls vying for his attention in this university, her stupid heart still went and fell for the quarterback.
“Screw it,” she mumbled to herself, picking out what she deemed was the best outfit in her closet and laying it out gently on her bed before getting in the bathroom for a quick shower. She put on some lip gloss and left her hair down, another first for her, before grabbing her things and leaving the room.
So what if I’m falling in love with exactly the kind of man I’ve trained myself to hate? It’s about time I do something I’ll be happy about for a change, she thought to herself, feeling a burst of determination course through her.
Tonight, she was going to do another thing that she’s never done before: take a risk.