5

I made sure to get to class early on Thursday. My Notebook Guy, my project partner, slid into the seat next to me without saying a word. I handed him the paper with my name and number on it.

"You dropped this," I said pointedly.

He stared at me for a minute, then added the contact information into his phone. I got a text a few seconds later. It just said "Tyler."

Good. Names were progress.

My phone vibrated again.

Mom: You have a meeting with Chloe this afternoon. You're going to rush ADB this year. You can't keep using what happened with her brother as an excuse

Me: I'll talk to her, but I'm not going to promise anything.

Me: You know I've never been interested

Mom: We'll talk about this later.

I internally groaned and put my phone face down as the professor walked into the room.

He said that we were going to have to submit our ideas for the final paper by the end of class. I pulled out the notebook and opened it to the page with our list of ideas.

"Preference?" I whispered to him, nudging the notebook over.

He looked over the options we'd picked for a minute, then circled Cleopatra. Perfect. I was hoping we'd do our report on her. I raised one eyebrow, and he shrugged.

"You sure?" I asked.

He nudged the notebook back to me.

"Okay," I whispered, writing our selection on a separate piece of paper and tearing it out of my notebook. I wrote my name at the top, and handed the page to him. He wrote his under mine and gave it back to me to take to the professor after class.

Tyler Armstrong.

Then, he began writing in his notebook again.

But, now, he kept glancing over at me.

Why was he being so secretive? What was his deal? I was determined to find out.

"Have you ever heard of Vivian Maier?" Everly walked through my open door later that afternoon and threw herself onto my bed with her textbook and notebook in hand.

"Who?"

"My new professional hero."

I was sitting at my desk putting all of my due dates and assignments into my planner. Every time I looked at my History syllabus I thought about Tyler. "Yeah, I'm gonna need more than that."

"She was this amazing photographer, but people only found her negatives after she died. Which is pretty depressing, actually."

"Mm," I said, going back to my planner. I was almost done planning out my semester when a ball of paper hit me on the side of the head.

"You're not even paying attention are you?" I looked over to see Everly with another ball in her hand, poised to strike.

I tried to come up with a retort but couldn't. I admitted, "Sure wasn't."

I glanced at the clock and as my stomach growled. "It's almost two, do you want to grab a late lunch?"

"Obviously," she said, flattening out her paper ball and picking the other up from the ground. She flattened that one too, and put them both inside her textbook.

"Good. There's this guy in my History class I want to talk to you about."

***

I was walking back to the dorms after lunch with Everly when I got a text. Checking my phone, I saw it was from Tyler.

Tyler: You aren't going to bail on this project, are you?

Me: No. I think it's an interesting choice for a final, but I'm with you all the way

Tyler: I've just been screwed before. I really don't want to go through it again and would just like a heads-up if that's what you're planning on doing

Yep, been there, done that. That's exactly why I hated group projects. I've always been the one left to do all of the work while the entire group gets all of the credit.

Me: Nope, I'm going to see this all the way through. I'm not the best at researching though, but I write a killer paper.

Tyler: Okay. I'll start researching this afternoon.

Me: Cool. I'm free the rest of the day if you want to meet up

Me: I'll help you with anything you need

Tyler: I'll let you know.

I'd arranged to meet with Chloe after her last class, so I waited for her in the mostly empty Commons area of my dorm. I was studying the periodic table for Chemistry when she slid into the seat across from me with a smug look on her face. Her dark blonde hair was pulled into a high ponytail, and she looked like she wanted to start a fight."Your mom said you wanted to talk to me?" She leaned forward in her seat, invading my space.

I stifled a groan. My mom just couldn't leave it alone. She obviously didn't trust me to set the meeting up myself, so she'd gotten Chloe's mom involved.

I put the periodic table into my notebook and closed it. I most definitely did not want to talk to her, and it was annoying that my mother was trying to push us to be friends again. The more I'd gotten to know Chloe after high school, the more I realized how shallow she could be. She was more worried about how people perceived her than about anything else.

"Let's not waste time. I don't want to join Alpha Delta Beta, and I really don't think you can do or say anything to change my mind," I said.

"Why are you working with him on the project for History?" Chloe asked me, smirking. I knew she was changing the subject. She didn't want me to join ADB any more than I wanted to join. Was this really why she came over here? To try to rile me up? This was another reason that I didn't want to be friends with her. She was a bully.

"Is that what this is going to be? You're insulting my friends because I don't want to join Alpha now?"

"You'd rather be friends with someone like him than like us? Come on, Alexia. The dude is like strange."

"What do you know about him? And so what if he's strange?" I used air quotes around her word. "I'd rather take the time to get to know someone than make snap judgements or assumptions about them based on two days in class together."

"I had two classes with him last semester. He didn't say a word to anyone the entire time."

He hasn't said a word to me either.

I also thought it was strange, but I wasn't going to make a big deal about it. It wasn't really any of my business.

"I would rather become friends with someone and find that they're genuinely a good person, than join a sorority whose members are bullies." I was struggling to keep my voice from shaking.

"I'm not a bully, I just call it like I see it."

"No, Chloe, you've always been a bully. That's why we've never really been friends. And I'm not going to join your stupid sorority. Especially after this. You're supposed to be an example for your new sorority sisters, and this is not the way to do it. You and my mom are so close now, so why don't you tell her how you just talked me out of joining entirely?"

She stood up, almost knocking the chair over. "I don't have to take this. You are the bully, Alexia. It's no wonder you can't get real friends." She stormed off, making sure to knock my notebook off of the table as she walked away.

When I stood up and put everything back in my bag, I noticed a text from Tyler.

Tyler: You didn't have to do that

I turned around and saw him sitting in the chair by the window, trying to make himself look as small as possible. I was surprised to see him there. I'd never considered that we might be housed in the same dorm.

Heart racing, I walked over to him, surprised I was able to keep my anger in check.. I was still really upset about what Chloe said, dreading the inevitable conversation I knew was coming with my mom, and appalled that he'd heard that conversation.

"I told you I'd help you with whatever you needed. Do not," I whispered through clenched teeth, "ever question my sincerity again."

I turned on my heel and quickly walked back to my room.

My phone rang as soon as I got back to my room, just like I knew it would. I put it on speaker, because I was anticipating yelling. I was not wrong.

"Alexia Rochelle Bresnahan! I just got off the phone with Chloe's mother. She said you're not rushing Alpha because you're hung up on some guy?! You've been in school for less than a week. It's way too soon to be throwing your future away over someone you just barely met."

I thought of Tyler and his bright green eyes, his constant writing in his notebook. Shaking my head, I pushed the thought away.

I tried flinging my window open, but it got stuck. I started to wiggle it, but it kept sticking.

"Mom –" I gritted out, trying to push the window the other way.

"No, I'm not done," She cut me off. "You know I wasn't able to join. Do you know how many girls would kill for the family legacy you and your sister are throwing away? This had better not have anything to do with what happened. It was three years ago, Alexia."

I finally succeeded in opening the window.

"Mom!" When she didn't say anything further, I started talking.

"Did Chloe tell you why I don't want to join? Do you remember how she treated me after what happened with Brock? And then, how she acted toward me senior year? Did she tell you that I called her out on bullying someone? And because I stood up for him, all of a sudden, there's a guy I'm ‘throwing my future away for'? No, she didn't. But, you should know me better than that. Mom, Chloe and I are not friends. We haven't been friends in years. And I can't join Alpha knowing the kind of example she's setting for the other girls."

I laid down on the bed, trying to catch my breath. My cheeks were hot and my hands were sweaty.

There was a long pause. My mind wandered again to Tyler. Why doesn't he talk to anyone? Is he just shy?

Finally, she said, "Have you talked to your father about this?"

I took my glasses off and rubbed my eyes. My parents had been divorced for two years, but sometimes she just couldn't let it go. Unlike her, Dad just wanted me to do what was going to make me happy.

"What? No! Why would I? Dad doesn't care about me joining a sorority. He—"

"Of course, he doesn't. He doesn't care about much of anything of importance anymore."

"If this is going to turn into another dad-bashing session, I'm out. I have homework to do."

"You can't continue to take his side, Alexia."

"I'm not taking sides, Mom. Just like I'm not joining Alpha."

She sighed heavily. "I'm too tired to fight with you right now. Have a good night, sweetie." The way she said "sweetie" always sounded forced. The fact that I'd always been closer to Dad than her had always bothered her, especially in the few years leading up to and since their divorce.

"Night, Mom. Love you."

"I love you, too, Alexia."

I ended the call and let out an exasperated half-sigh. I briefly scrolled through social media and quickly grew tired of everyone's new school photos.

I couldn't stop thinking about Tyler.

I hadn't been able to since I'd met him, but suddenly it was consuming me.

Why wouldn't he talk to me?

What was he writing in that notebook?

And probably the most pressing at the moment: Could I really count on him to follow through with this project?