by Rebel Hart
“Yeah. Since I’m up, I’ll go to breakfast with you.”
“Oh.” I smiled. “Okay.” I turned around and went to lock the door to the other room, then walked back into my room. As Devon passed, he snapped his towel at my leg. “Hey! Knock it off.”
He let out a low chuckle as he passed, and it lit my body up from the inside. I shook my head. As if things weren’t complicated enough, the last thing I needed was to consider Devon as anything more than a friend. I wanted Kai, after all, and thanks to Devon’s sound advice from the past week, I really thought I had a chance. I waited for Devon to come out, and when he was cleaned, dressed, and ready to go, we left for the dining hall.
“Okay, give me a little more advice,” I said to him when we were finally both seated at a table with a tray of food in front of us.
Devon groaned. “I’ve given you so much advice already.”
“Hey, this is the deal,” I said.
“Fine.” Devon took a bite of a piece of bacon and then nodded his head toward my backpack. “Pull out your notebook.”
I furrowed my brow. “What? Why? I don’t want it to get greasy.” Devon shrugged and went back to eating his food, so I scowled. “Fine.”
I opened my backpack and pulled out one of my notebooks. “Okay. Now what?”
Devon snatched the notebook from my hand and started to rub it over his neck.
“Hey! Stop that!” I yanked it back. “What the hell did you do that for?”
“Smell it.”
I recoiled. “Gross. No.”
Devon raised an eyebrow. “Girl, nothing that touches me is gross. Smell it.”
I lifted the notebook to my nose and apprehensively took a whiff. The look of nervousness on my face left instantly, leaving shock behind. It smelled heavenly. It was a perfect blend of Devon’s body soap and cologne, plus his natural, sort of dusky scent. “Wow, you’re right. It smells amazing.”
“There you go.” He winked. “My advice, if you end up in a class with him, use that notebook. He’ll smell that cologne all over it, know it’s not your scent, and wonder whose it is. For it to be all over your notebook, it’s gotta be someone close. It’ll drive him crazy. Trust me on this.”
“Wow,” I said. “Are all men this easy to manipulate?”
“Given that, as a species, we’re pretty food motivated, followed closely by breasts, I’m gonna say yes.”
“You’re more motivated by food than breasts?” I asked.
Devon looked up toward the ceiling as he considered the question. “I mean…” He was staring so hard that it looked like his eyes were gonna pop out.
“Okay, okay,” I said. “Don’t think too hard. You look like you’re gonna combust.” I tucked the notebook back into my bag, smiling at the thought that the amazing smell was going to spread to the rest of the contents, and turned back toward Devon, who’d given up and was back to his food. “Any other advice?”
“None for now. We need to see how this first batch works. You know, like an experiment or something. This is the first iteration, then you tell me the results, and we’ll adjust as needed.”
I nodded. “That makes sense. Thank you.”
“No problem.”
Once breakfast was over, Devon walked me over to the GenEd building, as my first class of the day was just a prerequisite academic course that all students had to take, and then continued on his way. I walked into the building and smiled at the fact that it was already bustling with students. See? I wasn’t the only one excited to get the school year underway.
I entered the Introduction to College Writing course and saw it was a lecture hall style classroom, with tables and chairs situated on four different levels that led down to a whiteboard and podium. A professor with short brown hair and a dress shirt and tie was smiling and waving at any students that walked in, and a handful of students were already picking spots out around the hall. I walked down to the bottom level and slid into the first chair of the first table in the middle row.
“Hello,” the professor greeted. “The first one brave enough to come all the way down.” He walked over and held out a hand. “I’m Professor Adam Stampede, and yes, like an animal stampede. Please, for the love of god, just call me Adam.”
I giggled. He must get that a lot. I took his hand and shook it. “You got it. I’m Nina.”
“Garrison, right?” I nodded. “Nice to meet you.” He looked next to where I was sitting. “Good morning. I’m Professor Adam Stampede, and yes, like an animal stampede. Please just call me Adam.”
“I think I can do that.” My heart leaped up into my throat at the sound of that voice. I looked over, and Kai was standing next to the table, shaking Adam’s hand. “I’m Kai.”
“Oh, of course. Dean Keli’i’s kid, right?” Adam pulled his hand back and crossed his arms. “You have to promise not to report me to your dad.”
“I won’t if you won’t,” Kai replied, and Adam laughed.
“Deal!” A few more students walked in through the other lecture hall door, so Adam drifted off, calling out, “Hello,” as he went.
Kai looked down at me with a sweet smile. “Hey, Nina.”
I smiled back, my heart already racing. “H-hey. You have this class, too, huh?”
“Yeah. I thought it was gonna be pretty boring, but things are already looking up.”
I furrowed my brow. “Because of the stampede joke?”
Kai laughed. “Well, it was a good joke, but no. It’s because you’re here.”
My skin prickled. “Oh. Yeah.”
“Mind if I join you?” Kai asked.
“Of course!” I hated myself for how eager I sounded. I considered trying to cover up for it, but instead, I just took my time gathering up my things and moving over a chair so that Kai could sit down next to me.
He settled in and smiled at me before unpacking his bag. More students walked into the classroom while Kai and I chatted about nothing in particular. Soon, the room was full. Adam was still busy greeting students, so though the class’s official start time had passed, there was still a quiet murmur of many conversations buzzing about the room.
“I meant to ask you this the other day,” Kai started, “but did you dye your hair?”
I grabbed the tips of my hair that were dyed purple thanks to Sydney and her constant need to add bright, neon colors to my life. “Yeah. Sydney convinced me to do it. I thought I was going to hate it, but I actually really like it.”
“It looks awesome. You’re wearing your hair down, too. You don’t do that much.”
I grinned, knowing that he’d at least paid enough attention to me to notice that. “No, I’m just not a flashy person, but I figured it might be nice to try once.” I chuckled.
“I like it,” Kai said with a warm smile. “Although you’re cute no matter how you wear it.”
My skin prickled with excitement at the compliment. “Thank you.”
That was the reason I could never get over Kai. Things were always like that between us. I could never quite decipher if he was flirting with me or just being friendly, but every now and again, he said stuff like that. It didn’t seem like the kind of thing someone would say to someone they were just friends with. There were many times when he would compliment me like that, or when hugs would linger a bit, with his hands slightly too low on my back, and I would think, “He has to like me.” Any prospective relationships that I had at that time would take a back seat with me thinking things might finally move forward, but then he would mention to a friend that he thought of me as a sister or tell me that having me around was like having a sibling around, and it dashed my hopes. I couldn’t blame Kai for it, though. My lack of romantic understanding wasn’t his issue, nor was it his fault that his beautiful face made everything worse.
In truth, I could see what everyone back in high school saw—the reason they were all so confused that he seemed to latch onto me. In short, I was far out of Kai’s league. Taylor, who I hated—even I could admit that sh
e was a bombshell. She looked like something fresh out of a vogue magazine. Kai was the same, unreasonably good looking. Why would he go for a plain, pretty at best girl like me?
“Nina?” Kai’s voice pierced my thoughts.
“Hm?”
“I said, are you rooming with Sydney this year?”
“Oh, sorry. Yeah, I am.” I imagined Devon asleep in her bed, and my face warmed. “She’s an interesting roommate.”
“I bet,” Kai said. “Well, my door’s always open if you need a break. I’m in the North Tower. Room 210.”
My heart did a little backflip. Did Kai just invite me to his dorm room? “Thanks. Same here. East Tower. 401.”
Kai’s smile got a bit wider. “Good to know.”
It was hard not to get too attached to his kind, romantic-adjacent words. I thought of how Devon had made a couple of comments about my attractiveness, too. Maybe guys just functioned this way. Thinking of Devon reminded me of the advice he’d given me up to that point. I already failed to seem aloof, given that I nearly jumped out of my pants when Kai asked to sit with me, but I still had that morning’s advice to fall back on. I reached into my backpack and pulled out my notebook and set it on the tabletop. I whipped open the front cover and had to bite my cheek to keep from smiling at the strong waft of Devon’s soap and cologne that flew off. I side-glanced Kai, and he was looking through the air as if to find the source of the smell. His eyes landed on my notebook and then flicked up to me.
“That’s an interesting smelling notebook.”
Shit. I had no idea how to respond to that. Devon had only mentioned that Kai would be curious about the notebook, not that he would bring it up. “Y-yeah,” I replied. “A friend of mine got a little too close, I guess. My whole bag smells like it. Thank god it’s not a bad smell.” Was that good? Why didn’t I have a little Devon earpiece on to help me navigate?
“A friend?” Kai asked, and there was a noticeable furrow to his brow. “Who got close to your notebooks?”
It took everything in me to not smile. I didn’t have the best track record for reading Kai’s moods, but he did seem a little jealous. “Yeah,” I said, and decided to throw caution to the wind. “He came over last night and… yeah.”
For the first time since I’d met Kai, he wasn’t smiling at me. “Ah.”
I swallowed hard. Was it a mistake? I’d clearly insinuated something. Was it going to make him back off? Kai watched me curiously for a minute, and then a sly smile crossed his face. “Maybe I’ll have to visit 401 soon and meet this friend.”
Holy crap. “Maybe.”
Kai let out a husky laugh, and my heart was racing so fast that I thought it was going to come flying out of my chest. Thankfully, Adam made his way to the front of the class and clapped his hands, officially starting the day. I could see a pensive look on Kai’s face throughout the lecture, and every time I flipped the pages of my notebook as I took notes, I noticed him wince a little. It’d worked! I couldn’t wait to tell Devon. For as crappy as I thought his advice was, it seemed to be doing the trick.
The class ended, and Kai and I left the lecture hall together. Sydney was waiting just outside. She smiled at me, but when she saw Kai, her smile faded a bit. In true best-friend fashion, she wasn’t a fan of the guy she claimed was toying with me.
“Hey, Nina. Kai,” she greeted. “You guys have a class together?”
Kai wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Yeah. I’m pretty lucky, huh?”
Sydney forced a smile. “I’d say so.”
“I’ll see you later, Nina,” Kai said. He winked at me, took his arm from around my shoulders, and walked off.
Sydney looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “Please tell me—”
I held up a hand to cut her off. “Don’t worry. I’m not stupid. I know this is all just part of who he is. Nothing has changed for us.”
Sydney let out a sigh of relief. “Good. I’m glad to hear that you won’t be getting caught up in all of that again.” I chose not to mention the deal I had struck with Devon. I wouldn’t concern Sydney with thinking that Kai was part of my picture again until I could ensure that it was real feelings this time around. “Anyway, you should just forget about Kai altogether and date Devon.”
“Again with this?” I scoffed. “I’m not interested. He’s not my type.”
Sydney raised an eyebrow. “He’s a good looking, older guy with amazing grades, a job, and a career path. What isn’t interesting about that?”
I didn’t realize that Devon had all of that going on. “Really? I’d kind of written him off as a slacker, goofball type.”
Sydney shook her head. “Henry wouldn’t hang around with someone like that. He’s actually really dedicated. Maybe you should get to know him better.”
Sydney said it with a bit of hopefulness in her voice. Though I wasn’t interested in anything romantic with Devon, it probably would bode well for me to get to know him a bit better. “Fine. I’ll get to know him.”
Sydney clapped her hands. “Yes! Just for that, I’m buying you lunch.”
I chuckled. “No, you aren’t. We both have meal plans.”
Sydney put a finger to my mouth. “Shh, just go with it.”
Not only did I have a class with Kai, but things were great with Sydney, and Devon’s advice seemed to be working. Maybe my freshman year of college was going to turn out okay, after all.
8
Devon
Only taking one class on my Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule seemed like a bad idea at first, but my Psychology of Emotion and Motivation course was clearly going to be a draining one. The professor of the course was notorious in my program for being difficult to work with, but he was the only one who led the course I needed, so I gave myself a heavier Tuesday-Thursday schedule so that I only had to deal with him coming off of or going into a weekend. It was a good choice, I realized, as I discovered that he was not only a stickler but a drone. His voice sounded like the adults from old cartoons, not to mention the fact that the course material seemed like it was going to be really tedious. If I wasn’t careful, I’d end up falling asleep in his course, for sure.
A four-hour-long lecture from ten o’clock to two in the afternoon was exhausting, and I had my first day of the Dean’s Club at four o’clock, so I didn’t dare risk heading back to the dorms for a nap. Instead, I made my way to the admin building, where the Dean’s Club met every single day after the latest courses ended. I was early, but when I arrived, there were a few students hanging around inside, along with the dean himself, Nikolao Keli’i.
When he noticed me, he smiled and held up a hand. “Hello!”
“Hi,” I said as I entered. The other students inside looked over at me and nodded. I nodded back to them. “Hello.”
Nikolao approached me and held out a hand. “I’m Dean Keli’i, or you can call me Nik.”
I took his hand, and he gave it a firm shake before letting go. “I’m Devon McMillian, sir. Nice to meet you, and thank you for this opportunity.”
“McMillian, of course. I was impressed with your reference letters. You’re well-liked by your professors. I always welcome students who go the extra mile. Welcome to the Dean’s Club.”
I grinned. “Thank you.”
Nik checked his watch. “Well, you’re a bit early, but feel free to join your peers or find a quiet spot of your own and do some first-day review.” He pointed to a table at the front of the meeting room we were in. “There will always be some sort of refreshment here for you. I like to mix it up. Sometimes cookies, sometimes donuts, sometimes fruit. There will always be water and a rotating selection of juice.”
Free food was always a good perk. “Cool. Thank you.”
“Once everyone has arrived, we’ll begin.”
I nodded. “Sounds good.”
“Typically, this isn’t so formal,” Nik continued, “but I like to wear my suit and tie on the first day.” He winked. “Do you—” He looked up and his face lit up. “Hey! There he
is!” He tapped me on my shoulder. “Excuse me.”
I looked over my shoulder as Nik walked past me and approached a kid who’d just entered the meeting room. He looked almost exactly like Nik, and upon closer inspection, I could see it was none other than Kai, the dean’s son and the apple of Nina’s eye. I’d seen him at a distance a few times before, but now that he was standing in the same room as me, I could see that he was his father’s twin.
“Kai! How was your first day?” Nik tapped Kai’s back. “You look so grown up.”
It was adorable seeing the dean of students fawn over his son. It sent a jolt of jealousy running through my body. I imagined my parents doing the same to Dante. I’d never know that feeling.
“Dad, will you relax?” Kai grumbled. “It was fine. We’ll talk about it later.”
“Right, sorry.” Nik held up his hands and backed a few feet away. “Professional. We talked about this.”
I wondered if Kai had been admitted to the Dean’s Club simply because he was Nik’s son, or if he had to go through the same degrees of difficulty that I had to. I shook my head and found a chair around one of the round meeting tables. I pulled out a notebook with my notes from my first lecture and started to read them over and highlight what I thought was important, and a few seconds later, a backpack slid down into one of the chairs opposite me at the table.
I looked up, and Kai was standing there. “Hey. Sorry, man, but he says he wants me to sit with you. I won’t bother you.”
“It’s fine,” I replied, shaking my head and motioning to an open chair. It probably would be a good thing for me to get to know Kai better if I was going to be helping Nina make him fall for her. “I’m Devon.”
Kai reached a hand across the table, and I took and shook it. “Kai,” he replied.
I dropped his hand, and he settled into an open seat. He glanced over at my notes and then chuckled. “Ah. I see. Are you a psych major, too?”
“Oh, yeah. You’re in psych?”
Kai didn’t make any attempt to pull out any of his materials, leading me to think he’d been forced into the club by his dad. “Yeah. I mean, I’m in freshman GenEds right now, but I’ll be there, eventually. That’s probably why he wanted me to stick with you.”
