by Geri Watson
She shook her head, not knowing what else to say.
Tristan looked stricken. "I finally saved you, and I can't even remember it. What does that mean?"
CHAPTER 30
The professor droned on through his introduction of their Statistics class and turned toward the board. Tristan sat behind Star, his head resting on his palm. He tapped his pencil rhythmically on his notebook, trying to focus and failing miserably at it. Why can't I remember being Johnny? No wonder she didn't say anything, it doesn't make any sense.
Star glanced back and looked down at his pencil, irritation across her face. He smiled sheepishly at her and let go of it, allowing it roll to a stop in the middle of his notes. It wasn't a good idea to distract her from a math class that she hated having to take, to begin with. At least he could help her through this one, that is if he could pay attention to what was being taught. He sat back and took a deep breath, trying again to train his ears to what was being said instead of letting himself get lost in thought.
It didn't work.
Tristan hadn't been sleeping lately. When he finally passed out due to sheer exhaustion, he only found himself awakening to Star's heartbreaking screams. It was miserable. All he wanted was to make it stop for her, and he knew he was helpless in that regard. When he comforted Star, Tristan gave it all he had, because he knew that was the only thing he was capable of doing to help.
Not being able to set up a meeting with Dr. Walker yesterday had set him on edge. He'd had a hard time focusing in his two labs and Inorganic Chem class. He wanted to skip his Latin class to make himself available when she was, and Star hadn't let him. Tristan wanted to get this over and done with. All this waiting was getting under his skin, and he felt like a shell of himself. He hoped it wasn't as evident as he thought it was.
When Tristan went home yesterday his parents had fussed over him. He hated it. They wanted to meet Star and hear all about his trip. All he'd wanted to do was to talk to Art, and he'd been at work by the time Tristan made it over to the house. He guessed it was good that they were interested in his life, but he wasn't up for spouting off pleasantries and acting like the good son.
There was still a guilty feeling in the back of his mind when he thought about how he'd brushed them off when they'd tried to talk to him as he packed. He could only imagine what they thought was going on with him. Oh well, let them worry about me for once.
Tristan had seen their surprised faces when he'd taken Scout's things and loaded her into the car with him the first night they'd gotten back. It's not like I was going to abandon her. He covered his mouth as a wide yawn overcame him, and he rubbed at his tired eyes.
"Am I boring you Mr. Montgomery?" the professor's voice boomed. Tristan saw Star cringe in front of him at the sound of his name being called out.
"No sir," he replied crisply.
"Could you read the next section of the syllabus for us?"
Tristan cleared his throat and sat up straighter. "Sure."
He rattled off the two paragraph summary of what the course covered and looked the professor in the eye when he finished. The professor nodded and continued with an in-depth explanation feeling like he'd made his point. Message received, no yawning in your class, Tristan thought.
He grabbed his pencil again and ran the top of it lightly across the back of Star's neck. She visibly shivered, and he could imagine the blush staining her cheeks red at the feeling. Continuing with his trail, he slid it over her shoulders and finally down her spine. She shuddered again and sat up straighter, adjusting in her seat. A second later her hand went to the back of her neck, and he watched as she rubbed it, knowing she could still feel the fresh trail on her skin. It made him smirk with satisfaction. Torturing her during class would make an enjoyable pastime if she let him get away with it.
A piece of folded up notebook paper clipped his shoulder before it landed with a small thud on the notebook in front of him. Twitching his lip in curiosity, Tristan glanced at the professor once before slowly opening the note and reading it.
Triscuit,
Leave the poor girl alone! Some of us are trying to pay attention in this class, and you're SO distracting. What is going on with you? You were a total space cadet yesterday in class. Now you're drawing attention to yourself by yawning on the first day of this one? From one friend to another, you look like death warmed over. If this is you in love, you were better off alone! Oh, and thanks for not even noticing me sitting behind you! Wake up!
Only one person he knew had the gall to call him Triscuit. He licked his lips and looked up to see the professor's back was to him and slowly turned around to see Emily's emerald eyes scowling at him and her arms crossed in front of her.
All he could do was shrug and mouth an apology, and Emily didn't look like she was accepting it. He turned back around and sighed. Great, as if I didn't have enough to worry about already. Now he had Emily on top of everything else. Laying his head back on his palm again, he started drawing in his notebook.
After a few minutes, he pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on. He half-hoped it was the beginning of a blackout. At least then he'd feel less defective. It was odd to get used to having the blackouts on a daily basis and then have them suddenly disappear as mysteriously as they'd begun. Tristan felt guilty that Star was still having flashbacks and he wasn't.
I need sleep. I'm exhausted. It's not going to do either of us any good if I'm less alert then usual...Oh no...Don't-yawn-don't-yawn-don't-yawn.
Losing the battle with himself, Tristan yawned, covering his mouth and ducking so he wouldn't be seen again. He shook his head a little. Maybe he could take a nap after the meeting this afternoon.
The professor finished up early and decided to excuse them after assigning some reading work for the night. As soon as he stood up, Emily stepped forward, and Star stood before turning around.
Cornered, Tristan looked at each of them in turn and scratched the back of his head. Both of them looked back expectantly, but he knew it was for different reasons. Emily wanted him to blow off Star and walk with her to their next class. Star wanted him to spend the extra time with her, which was his obvious choice at the moment as well. Here goes nothing, he thought groaning internally.
"I guess you two already know each other, but Star, this is Emily," he motioned towards her.
"Em, this is Star," he motioned again.
The two girls eyed each other. He saw Star size up Emily's figure and choice in clothing. Emily's eyes narrowed slightly as she looked Star over. It was incredibly uncomfortable. When another full minute of none of them saying anything went by, Tristan brushed past Star and started for the door.
"Thanks for making this moment as awkward as possible guys, I appreciate it," he threw back at them, shoving his hands in his pockets and walking out.
He heard the two of them start barking at each other as he headed down the hallway. "Women," he grumbled to himself. When Tristan had gotten halfway down the stairway, he heard footsteps above him and glanced toward the sound. Surprisingly it was Emily and not Star that had run after him.
"Tristan, wait up! I want to talk to you about something!" she panted out of breath as she reached him.
"Where's Star?" he asked, looking back up the stairwell and then again at Emily.
"Oh. Zack met up with her. He was acting strange and told me to go away, he had to talk to her alone," her face contorted. "He may be gorgeous, but he's weird."
"You have no idea," Tristan laughed shortly. If Star was with Zack, she was safe, and that was all that mattered to him right now. He allowed himself to relax a little. "What did you want to talk to me about?"
Emily looked like she was thinking about what to say as they started walking toward the building their next class was in once they'd gotten outside.
"You look like hell, Tristan. There's no nice way to put it." She scrunched up her nose. "What's wrong?"
"Everything..." he moaned out. He had a full-blown headache no
w, and the bright sunlight was not helping in the slightest.
"I'm confused. I thought you were happy with Star? Wasn't that what you wanted?" Emily asked, flipping her hair to the side.
"She is what I want. I am happy with her; it's just.... there are some issues we have to work out that are taking more out of me than I thought they would." Tristan hoped she'd buy that explanation as he shot a sideways glance at her.
Emily frowned and tried to let his answer sink in. "She's not pregnant is she?"
Tristan stopped walking and looked at her incredulously. "Why does everyone assume I knocked her up? Do I look like a horndog or something?"
"Oh! No! I mean...I...I don't know...it would make sense..." Emily trailed off, blushing furiously.
He sighed and rubbed his face with both hands. "It's fine. I'm not mad. You're not the only person who thought that was what was going on between Star and me."
Emily looked over at him apologetically and rested her hand on his shoulder, squeezing it gently. "I'm sorry."
"Thanks...and please be nice to Star, Em. It's important to me." He looked over into her catlike eyes. "What happened after class was just..." he looked away. "I don't want you two hating each other. You're both important to me."
She kicked at the sidewalk, looking down. "Fine."
Tristan allowed himself a smile at Emily's unwillingness to cooperate, caving because he'd affirmed she was still important. It was so typical of her to have to hear she was wanted or needed.
"Emily! Tristan!" a bright voice called out.
They both turned to see Alyssa running toward them. "Hey!"
"Hi...umph!" Tristan was cut off by her hugging him tightly. "How was your break?"
She tackled Emily next and kissed her on the cheek. "It was great! But we missed you, didn't we Emmers?"
Emily laughed a little, nervously. "Uh, Alyssa, I forgot to tell you about something..."
"What? Alyssa asked, but a second later her face lit up. "Hold that thought!" she put a finger up and dashed over to someone walking toward them and grabbed his hand.
Tristan looked over at Emily, and she shrugged. "I forgot to tell her about you and Star."
"Oh, swell. So Alyssa still thinks you and I are..." he trailed off.
"Yeah," Emily replied.
Tristan looked over at Alyssa who was in the middle of a scandalous looking lip lock with a shoulder-length sandy-haired and very tanned individual. She then pulled him over to where Tristan and Emily were standing.
"Hello Emily." he greeted her with a smile.
"Hey," she said softly.
Alyssa still had her arms wrapped around one of his, so he held out the other to Tristan. "You must be Tristan. I'm Alex."
Tristan accepted his hand and shook it firmly. "Nice to meet you."
"Hey, have I seen you before?" he squinted a little.
Tristan thought back to the night he was sitting in front of Star and Zack's apartment and swallowed. "No, I don't think so."
Alex waved his hand. "No matter. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of each other now then on account of the ladies, huh?"
"Well, Emily and I aren't dating," Tristan corrected him. "But I do have a girlfriend."
He saw Emily's face fall and then she looked over at Alyssa, whose mouth had dropped open a bit at his announcement. "When did that happen?"
"At midnight, on Christmas day," a voice answered behind him as he felt a hand grab his. He smelled the plumeria perfume and turned to see Star beside him.
Alyssa's eyes went wide as saucers and Alex blinked. "You're dating Star?" his heavy Aussie accent drawled out.
"Yes," Tristan answered, feeling better now that she was with him. He figured Zack couldn't be far behind.
"Well then. No wonder you wanted her address from me." Alyssa laughed and then hugged him again.
Tristan hugged Alyssa in return for the free arm he had since Star hadn't let go. "Yeah, thanks again for that by the way."
"Well, well, the gang's all here," singsonged Zack as he walked up to them. "I assume all said cats are out of the bag then? If not, whoops."
"You have the most impeccable timing," Tristan mused.
"Speaking of timing, the reason I came over here was to pull Star away so we wouldn't be late for class." Zack pointed to his watch and looked over at Star.
"That late already?" she said disappointedly.
Zack nodded, and Star sighed and went to kiss Tristan but then looked at the group and decided against it. "I'll see you later?"
"Yeah." He smiled and squeezed her hand. "We've got to get to class too."
Tristan watched her and Zack walk away and then turned back to see everyone looking at him. "What?" he inquired, raising an eyebrow.
"You drop a bomb like that and expect no repercussions from it?" Alyssa crossed her arms.
"Excuse me, I figured that Emily had told you beforehand." He looked over at her.
Emily looked over at Alex. "I didn't want to hurt your feelings, and I haven't seen Alyssa without you attached lately."
"Why would my feelings be hurt? Star and I broke up almost two months ago. I cared about her, still do actually. But seeing as I'm with Alyssa now, I can't say anything about her being with Tristan here without being a hypocrite, now can I?" Alex explained out his thoughts.
"He's got a good point there," Tristan said before yawning. "Let's go, Em. It was nice meeting you Alex. I'm sure I'll see you around."
"Sure. Nice meeting you too, Tristan. Although I heard a lot about you beforehand from this one," he laughed and pointed to Alyssa who gawked at him in response.
As they walked to class, Emily was quiet which he found odd. Maybe she was embarrassed by what just happened. It could have been handled better, but he thought they had gotten through it alright.
After seeing Alex up close, Tristan wasn't surprised that Star had been attracted to him. He seemed friendly and caring and genuine. The accent threw him off a bit, but Tristan thought he remembered Zack saying something about Alex being an exchange program student. It would be nice to have another guy friend. He hoped they wouldn't be as awkward around each other as Star and Emily had been. It didn't seem like Alex wished any ill-will on him for being involved with Star. He hoped he was right about that.
CHAPTER 31
"Zack if you flick my ear one more time, I swear..." Star hissed quietly as she scrawled in her notes.
She heard him chuckle behind her and felt the air move as Zack settled back in his chair. He was always doing that, and he knew she hated it. She felt hot breath on her neck and smelled his aftershave a minute later as Zack leaned over her trying to copy her notes. She shoved at him, and he grabbed the page she had finished up off her desk and took it with him as he settled back down. Shaking her head, Star went back to her notes. One of these days she was going to write down the opposite of what Dr. Walker was saying, just to throw Zack off. It would serve him right for never paying attention.
According to her watch, in 15 minutes class was over and then Tristan would be meeting up with her. She hoped he hadn't fallen asleep today. He looked haggard this morning. Thinking back to the end of Statistics class, she snorted softly. As soon as Tristan had left the room Emily pounced.
"You're bad for him," she said flatly, flipping her blond hair back.
"Excuse me?" Star retorted with one arched eyebrow.
"He looks terrible." Emily stepped forward and held out her hand, examining her nails.
"Oh, and you think you'd be better with him?" Star challenged, Emily's green eyes reminding her of a snake.
"As a matter of fact, I was headed down that road until he got the bright idea to go after you." her lips curled up into an evil knowing smile.
Star blinked and shook her head. "What?"
"You heard me." Emily's eyes roamed over Star's form again in disapproval.
"Now you listen here, you little..." Star retaliated.
"Me-ow. Catfight!" a male voice purred from the doorway.
His smile widened as he walked over to Emily. "Hey, there princess. Hate to break up your party, but if you wouldn't mind, I kind of need to talk to Star." He showed his pearly grin. "Alone."
Emily had huffed and stomped off in the direction Tristan had gone.
Looking down at her pencil, Star noticed it was bending at an unhealthy angle and released it. It was pretty evident that Emily was going to make things difficult. She hoped Tristan would be able to see what was going on. Just what she needed too, another complication.
