Carnelian by B. Kristin McMichael

intense. He hadn’t
stopped staring the whole time and when he stopped my fall when in
line, I swore that I felt a slight hum where he touched me. Maybe
they were in the witness protection program because they were
aliens. Yep, I had read one too many fantasy books lately.
    I got only two feet out of the building
before someone was right behind me. I didn’t need to turn around to
know it was Seth. I felt that same hum as he grabbed my arm to turn
me around.
    “Wait,” Seth said quietly, like he was used
to being obeyed and didn’t need to use a louder voice. I pulled my
hand free and turned to face him. I couldn’t just walk away like I
wanted to since I was his tutor. He could have a question about the
schedule or something. I waited as he didn’t immediately talk.
    “Seth, I need to get going,” I replied. “I
already told my roommate I’d meet her to go to the bookstore.”
    Seth looked up and me and paused a minute
more. “Would you go out with me?” he asked. He actually looked
nervous. You’d think after twenty-three girls, he would have this
down by now.
    “I don’t think your girlfriend would like
that much,” I answered. What did he think? I saw him kissing that
girl less than an hour ago.
    “I don’t have a girlfriend,” Seth replied.
It was hard to look at him. Either he was lying to me, or lying to
her. I had enough of guys like that in my life. I was going to find
myself a nice, honest guy, not a lying, cheating bastard.
    “Could have fooled me,” I answered.
“Besides, it’s against the rules to date someone you’re tutoring,”
I said, knowing it wasn’t exactly true. It wasn’t against the
rules, just frowned upon. Seth nodded and turned away. He didn’t
look deterred by my response. That was a bit confusing, considering
that I had just turned him down. I didn’t think a player would give
up as easily.
    As Seth made it to the building, he turned
to me. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” he replied before going
through the doors and leaving me standing there, confused. We
weren’t meeting tomorrow, and I was sure he knew that.
     

Chapter 4
    Hot Pursuit
     
    Second day of college was like the first. Sim was late, I was
early, and no one seemed to care that it was the first class. By
lunchtime my load of homework for the weekend had already doubled,
and I was struggling to get ahead of it to have my weekend free. I
had homework in high school but nothing like this. I always got it
done each night, if I had to do anything at all, and never did
homework on the weekend. My weekends were always free. Goodbye to
high school life and welcome to college, where the professors think
you have nothing better to do than read five chapters of boring
material each night. At least it was Friday and no classes for two
days, which meant no additional assignments.
    Sim met me for lunch again at the Union.
This seemed like it would become a regular thing. Four days a week
our breaks around lunch were the same. Neither of us had been
outgoing enough yet to meet new people. I had seen the Barbies
around the dorms and campus, but I wasn’t about to bleach my hair
and try to fit in.
    “Do not take chemistry with Professor
Manthis,” Sim complained, sitting by me. I had already started on
my Cobb salad.
    “Why not?” I had actually heard he was the
best chemistry teacher they had at Morton.
    “Do you really think I’ll get anything from
reading a chemistry textbook? He assigned five chapters and will
quiz us next Monday to see what we got out of it,” Sim complained.
“My weekend is going to suck.”
    “Join the club,” I replied. “Two of my
classes already assigned four chapters to read, but at least there
isn’t a quiz.”
    “I don’t learn anything from reading,” Sim
complained, biting into her sandwich. “I need to do problem sets
and do the math to learn. I hate books and science text is the
worst.” She pouted. “My parents will kill me if I don’t do well,
but this just