"Ms. West, I'm sorry but you can't switch partners. Not when everyone already has one." Mr. Garrett puts his stack of papers in his briefcase ready to leave for the next class to come in.
"I can't do this project on my own?" I ask hopefully? "I would really like to do this by myself instead of with a partner."
"Evangeline," he stops midway and turns to me. "The reason why I do partners is so you can learn how to work with different people. Not everyone is always going to be easy to work with. I'm sorry, but I have a meeting I have to get to."
He rushes out the door and I'm left reeling and feeling disappointed. I sigh and make my way out of the lecture hall. I gave Mr. Garrett so many reasons why I didn't want to be partners with Tre and he didn't listen to any of them. He said he knows Tre and was doing him a favour by letting him in this class.
"He's going to be difficult sometimes but he has a lot to contribute to this project." Professor Garrett said right before he stepped out the door. "You're a smart girl Evangeline and you're doing very well in here, but you could learn a little something from Tre."
What is that supposed to mean? What can I learn from someone who is rude and doesn't take our work seriously?
I'm a little confused by what he just said but I open up my messages to send a text to Tre to see if we can meet again. I'm still really embarrassed about him almost catching me spying on him, but I swallow down my pride and send him a text. He wasn't in class today, which seems abnormal since I always see him in the same seat in the back of every class. I sometimes feel like his eyes are on my back a lot during class, but I keep my attention to the board and never look back to see if he's really staring at me.
Hey, you want to meet again to work on our project soon?
I'll try to get a head start on the project before we meet just in case he doesn't do any work again. I'm not going to be surprised if he doesn't. I don't expect anything from him anymore. That lesson was learned the first time. I'd rather do all of the work because at least I know we'll get a good grade.
I put my phone back in my dress pocket and head out of the classroom that's starting to fill with students for the next class. I go back to my room, stopping to grab a bottle of water from one of the food carts outside, and Samira is sitting on the floor with canvases spread around her.
"Hey!" She looks up from her canvas with a smile on her face and a paintbrush in her hand. "How's it going?"
"It's going okay, I guess," I sigh and set my backpack on my bed.
"Why just okay?"
I sit down next to my backpack with my hands in my lap and tell Samira my situation.
"So I went to talk to Professor Garrett, my philosophy of religion professor, and asked him if I could do this project myself instead of working with Tre."
"What'd he say?"
"He said I couldn't do it by myself." I frown. "The whole point of working with partners is learning how to work with difficult people." I sarcastically quote, wanting to roll my eyes.
She chuckles. "That's some Professor university style bullshit, Eva."
I nod in agreement and then shrug. "I just gotta suck it up and get this project over with."
Samira's silent for a moment, touching her paintbrush to the colored canvas. "I think you should just tell Tre straight up to start helping you out."
"Sam, he probably won't do anything if I tell him."
She looks up at me. "Eva just tell him how you feel."
Easier said than done Sam.
"Honestly he is not that bad if you are straight with him and tell him how things are." She explains and goes back to painting. "He'll respect you a lot more if you are honest with him."
"I'm kind of scared of him honestly," I admit. "He's just really intimidating."
She stops painting again and I want to end this conversation so she can get back to concentrating on her artwork. "Tre will never give you a reason to be scared of him, Eva." She says after a few silents seconds. "No matter what you may think of him right now, he will never give you a reason to be afraid."
She moves her paintbrush across the swirl of colors and the conversation is over. I am left thinking around my own thoughts and I already know this will keep me up all night.
I start on my homework to try and get my mind off of things and I end up getting it all done within the next three hours before dinner. Sam continued working on her canvas for another hour and then she left to go to Trell's apartment, saying she'll be back in a few hours.
Reina knocks on the door and she comes in, sitting on the opposite end of my bed.
"I finally talked to that guy I was telling you guys about!" She squeals in excitement.
"How'd it go?"
"It went great Eva! His name is Cooper and he is the sweetest guy. He's a nursing major like me and he's also from Chicago," she explains. "It's kind of funny but our suburbs aren't that far away from each other.
"That's awesome Reina." I'm happy that she found a guy that's really sweet and compatible with her. I could never go up and start talking to a guy I think is cute so I admire her courage for speaking up. She doesn't seem like she has a hard time talking to others she doesn't know. She makes making new friends look super easy and I'm always embarrassed knowing I can't do the same.
"I gave him my Snapchat and we've already started some small talk getting to know each other." She smiles and looks down at her phone.
"That's cute. Hope everything goes well."
She tells me a little bit more about their conversation and then we go to dinner, talking throughout about the new rom-com movie coming out this weekend that we both want to see. Samira joins us as we are walking back to the dorm.
"Hey!" She waves across the campus when we get closer to the dorm. She's clasping Latrell's hand and I look to the other side of her and Tre is standing there. I inwardly roll my eyes when I see him looking on his phone. He's always on his phone, but he never replied back to my message I sent him earlier today.
"What's up?" She asks as we get closer to them.
"We just got back from dinner," I reply, never looking over at Tre.
"Was it any good?"
"Not really," Reina says and we all chuckle. We know that the cafeteria food is not always the best food in the world. It really makes me miss my mother's home cooking I didn't realize how much I would miss while being here.
We all go into the dorm, Latrell and Tre still following, and I realize that everyone is coming into our room.
As soon as Tre walks in, his eyes dart around from my bible scriptures to my pictures of crosses and Jesus on my desk. "Damn, so you're one of those girls huh Evangeline?"
There he goes trying to hurt my feelings again. I knew he was going to say something about them. Everyone always does.
"Tre, fuck off! Don't judge Eva," Sam defends me and sits on her bed with Latrell. "She can put whatever she wants up."
"Sorry," he shrugs and puts his hands in his jacket pockets. "I just wasn't expecting Evangeline to be mother Mary."
"What did you expect me to be like?" I blurt out without realizing it and the whole room is silent.
He looks directly at me, then to the floor and chuckles. "Never mind." He walks towards Sam and Latrell as Reina sits with me on my bed.
I listen in to their conversation and join in whenever I feel like saying something, which isn't a lot since I don't really know what they're talking about. They're talking a lot some rapper that's just released some new music. Whoever Chance the Rapper is? I don't know.
I can't help but look over at Tre throughout the conversations. He never looks over my way, but he keeps rubbing his palms on his jeans like they're sweaty. He talks with ease and I will admit that I love hearing him talk, even though he annoys me. His voice is deep but smooth and hearing him laugh for the first time was better than any music I've ever heard. I know I shouldn't be thinking about these things, especially with how much school work I have. I know he's a distraction. He's a distraction that I don't want to have, but I need to stop these thoughts before they get me in trouble. I'm here for a degree, nothing less than that.
Another hour is spent in our room before Latrell and Tre decide to leave. As Latrell kisses Sam, Tre comes over to me.
"From your text earlier, we can meet the same time on Friday."
I nod slowly. "Sure that'll be fine."
"Aight cool," he says and puts his hands in his pockets again. "See you in class." His smile resembles a smirk more than a real smile, but it still makes my brain stop functioning to where I don't smile back at him. Thankfully he had turned his back to me already.
He and Latrell leave and shut the door behind them. Right when the door closes, I sigh in relief.
"I saw those looks you made at Tre." Sam smiles teasingly.
"I wasn't looking at him." I shake my head in denial, trying not to blush.
She and Reina share a knowing look but don't press about it anymore. They know I won't admit anything without getting embarrassed.
I can't even think about Tre anymore. I just need to focus on getting this project done and I'll never have to see him again.
~*~
I walk out of Philosophy and Religion and head towards the library. Class got out early today so I decided to go ahead and go to the library for my meeting with Tre. It's not very busy at this time, so I sit at the table we were at last time and pull out my laptop to get started on the project. I lay out all of my notes that I have and read through an article that I haven't finished reading through yet.
"Every time I see you Evangeline you have your nose buried in some book."
I look up, startled, at Tre who is smirking that ridiculously cute smirk down at me.
"I, I like to read." That's all I can come up with.
"I can tell," he says and sits down across from me.
I go back to highlighting my important passage I was reading and Tre gets out more than his phone this time. I actually see a notebook and some folders on the table so I'm impressed already.
"So what are we doing today?"
"I already started on it so we have three presentation slides already done on what religion says about life and I'm ready articles now about different philosophers," I explain and highlight another passage.
"Damn you already got a lot done and didn't tell me." He crosses his arms in front of him and leans back in his chair. "This is a group project you know?"
"Yes, I know." I don't look up from my notes. "But after last time, I did all the work so that's what I figured this is how it will be."
"Damn you went all out for this. I didn't think it was that serious."
I look up at him with wide eyes. "It's a semester-long project that encompasses everything we learn in class and demonstrates our ability to make our own judgements."
He laughs right after I finish. "Okay Professor Evangeline West."
I don't appreciate his teasing and it shows on my face.
"Lighten up a bit. You're so serious all of the time. Even at parties, you're so uptight."
"Well if I'm so uptight then why don't you just leave me alone and I'll do this project myself," I blurt out. My blood starting to boil at his judgement.
He can leave and I'll happily finish this project by myself. I don't need him.
"I'm not gonna flake on you and make you do everything when we're both partners."
"It's not like I'm not used to it," I mumble and go back to my notes.
"That's pathetic."
I ignore him and keep my eyes on the words that I'm having a hard time concentrating on.
I hear him sigh and tap his fingers on the table.
"You know what?" He breaks the silence and his voice carries throughout the entire room.
My eyes curiously rise to his face that is now serious and his brown eyes are swirling with some anger.
"What?" I hesitantly ask.
"I knew you were gonna be one of those people."
"What do you mean?" I have no idea what he is talking about. I stare at him like I'm lost.
"Those people who are so quick to judge me and already have an opinion before they meet me."
I am at a loss for words. I don't know what to say to him because he is not wrong and guilt stirs up inside me.
"I thought that you would be different from everyone else since you're always off in your own little world but you're just like everyone else Evangeline. Quick to judge and don't care about who you hurt in the process."
His voice never gets really loud, but it's angry enough to make me want to run away and hide from his venomous words.
"Typical rich girl," he points. "who grew up with everything she could have ever wanted and you still don't get it! You never will! You're so used to having the perfect life with the perfect parents and big houses and fancy cars that you don't see how real people are. You people look at us like we're shit and think you can do no wrong."
"If you're gonna insult me," I finally speak up, but my voice feels so small. "I'm just gonna leave."
"I'm not insulting you, I'm just telling things how they are. You are the privileged rich girl who does everything off daddy's dime and you shouldn't judge me when you don't know me. You don't know shit about me and my life."
What else is there to say? He's right and my feelings are hurt, again.
"You don't know me," I mumble. "You don't where I come from."
"Well you don't know me or where I come from," he states. "And you still act like I'm stupid. I know you think I am, why else would you have half of this project almost done already?"
His words anger me, but they also humble me. I don't like what he said about my "perfect" life because it isn't true, but he does has a point and I understand that.
"I'm just used to doing all the work myself," I explain and look down at my papers. "Everyone always expects me to do it since 'I'm so smart,' and so I'm just used to it."
"You don't have to be used to it anymore. I'm not gonna leave you to do all of the work yourself. I'm not that shitty of a guy Evangeline."
"Eva," I say and finally look back up at him. His intense brown eyes locking in on mine, making me want to look away. "I like to go by Eva."
"Okay." His eyes are too intense for me to handle. But I could still spend years looking into them and getting lost, never finding my way out.
I take a deep breath. "And I'm sorry for mistakingly judging you. I didn't mean to do that."
"I appreciate that. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings."
I chuckle. "You kind of have a way of doing that."
"I just don't bullshit." Yes, I have now realized that.
I nod. "But what you said about me, it's not all true."
"It's not?" His questioning eyes makes me feel a little uncomfortable from the intensity I still feel and I swallow hard.
"If you really knew.." I trail off, think about home and how much I'm honestly glad to be here away from it.
"Well good thing we have a whole semester to learn about each other right?" He cracks a smile and I can't help but smile too. His smile is so bright and cute.
"Yeah, we do."
We start our working together and it seems like this is going to work out after all. When Tre works, he actually works hard and Sam was right. He's really smart. We work for almost an hour together and we get quite a bit accomplished. At this rate, we'll be done by halfway through the semester.
"I don't think we should meet for a few weeks." Tre says when we're packing up all our stuff.
"What?" I stop midway putting my folders in my backpack.
"We've gotten a lot done already and it's only the third week of school. Why don't we just take a break for now? We have all the rest of the semester."
"But if we get it done early then we don't have to do it later. I'd rather have everything done weeks before it's due so we can go back and change things if we need to."
He chuckles and leans back in his chair. "Fuck, could you be any more of a square?"
"Could you actually use some manners," I retort, hearing an attitude that I didn't know I had in me.
"I do have manners," Tre states and I roll my eyes at that.
Tre and manners do not belong in the same sentence together.
I stare hard at him, challenging him to try and say some manners.
"Yeah keep twerking it girl," he says like he's so cool. "Come sit on my face."
"Ugh." I turn back to my folders in disgust.
"Okay seriously," he stops and sits up, looking right at me. I think he's going to be serious now.
"Come sit on my face, please."
His smirking grin comes back and I feel my body uncomfortably warm at his vulgar words I've never heard before.
"Could you be any more disgusting?" I manage to ask through my blushing.
I finish putting everything away in my backpack and hurriedly get up from the table. Tre's words make me want to go back to my room and read my bible until these words leave my head. I don't even know what sitting on your face is supposed to mean but I know it's something sexual from the tone he had. Maybe I'll ask Sam about it later.
I'm more disgusted by each thought of it, but deep down, I am a little intrigued. I would never give Tre the satisfaction in knowing that though. And at least he did say please.