I leered over at him, and he flashed me a wide grin. I couldn’t deny that Devon was good looking. I remembered our kiss from Friday night, and my face burned. That he was still single was kind of shocking.
“So, when’s your first class?” he asked again.
I averted my gaze to keep from blushing outright. “Nine o’clock.”
Devon fell out laughing. “That’s in three hours!”
I giggled with him. “I know, but I was thinking of heading over right after breakfast. I could pick out a good seat and get my notebook all ready to go.”
Devon gasped. “You really are a dork.” I held up my left hand with the middle finger held upright. “Ah, there she is,” he added.
I went back to packing everything in my bag, and when I was confident it was well packed and ready to go, I set it on the edge of my bed and grabbed my clothes to go and take a shower. Being an early riser meant the adjoining room’s inhabitants weren’t up, so I could get into the bathroom before anyone else. I was quick, not wanting to take up any more time than I needed, and returned to the bedroom, where Devon was now sitting up and clicking through his computer. His backpack was sitting on his bed and was unzipped.
I pointed at it. “Is that a packed bag? When’s your first class?”
Devon snickered, not looking up from his computer. “I had to pack my bag last night, remember?” He looked up. “Can you go get the bathroom lock for me?”
“Oh, sure. Are you gonna shower down here?”
Devon and Sydney usually swapped rooms in the morning after breakfast. Because of this, Devon would wait to do any sort of showering or cleaning up until he was back in his own room so that there was no risk of the adjoining room’s tenants walking in and seeing a guy. When he had to go into the bathroom, I would go in and lock the door to the other room from the inside to ensure he would have privacy.
“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?”