Next was the introduction to literature. I walked into the class, and I immediately saw Jake with wide eyes, slapping his hand over the empty desk beside him.
“Thank God,” he whispered as I sat in the seat he’d saved for me since he hadn’t left me much of a choice. “You made this class so much more interesting.”
“That bad, huh?”
Jake nodded as he continued to tell me about the monotone professor and the number of papers we would have to write this semester. I hated English, literature, and everything else that went along with it, unable to understand why people would be intrigued by something that was entirely made up. How on earth was it essential for survival in the real world? Each story had a different meaning to different people, different interpretations, so there was never a precise answer.
After class, Jake quickly gathered his books together to keep up with my pace. I was almost out of the door—almost.
“Care if we walk together to the mess hall?” he asked, catching his breath.
“Only if you let me read you.”
“Let you read me?” He panted.
“Yeah, it’s a game I like to play.”
Jake’s face twisted with an amused and curious smile. “Alright, sure … yeah, read me.”
Though I’d already figured him out, I took the time to study him up and down for dramatic effect. Jake straightened his posture and managed to grow another inch. I was only 5’3”, and he couldn’t have been more than four inches taller than me. “Alright, Jacob … goes by the name Jake because it makes you seem … less masculine …” He rolled his baby-blues before shifting his books to his other hand. Jake was in touch with his feminine side; you could see it in his stride. “You are a middle child surrounded by sisters—”
Jake opened his thin lips to speak, but I put up a finger to silence him.
I quickly added, “But you have an older brother who is the star athlete of the family, and whom everyone is compared to. So that would put you as the second youngest.” Jake raised his eyebrows, and I knew from his expression I was on the right path. “You come from a religious family, and even though you are a poster child, always followed the rules, always did the right thing, your parents still sent you here to try and knock the gay out of you.”
Jake shook his head in disbelief. “Bloody hell, you’re good.”
I dusted off my shoulder. “It’s a talent. Though, what I don’t understand, is why you agreed to come here. You’re an adult. Your parents can’t force you.”
“You’re right, they can’t force me, but they sure as hell can bribe me.”
During the rest of our short walk to the mess hall, I’d learned Jake had a boyfriend back home, whom he was caught in bed with by his father. He didn’t even get to say goodbye before he was brought here. At first, the school turned Jake away, but since his father was a pastor of a church, they offered to help students with community service upon their release in negotiation to take Jake in.
Jake tried to convince me to sit with him during lunch, but I decided to keep to myself at my table.
After I finished eating, I pulled out my class schedule to see psychology was next—my favorite. I folded my arms over the table and laid my head down until the lunch bell rang.
My eyes wandered toward Jake’s table. The pixie-haired girl had her head against Ollie’s shoulder as he talked to Midnight. Alicia and Jake were laughing and pointing at a girl across the room who had trouble bringing her food to her mouth. Ollie caught wind of Jake and Alicia’s amusement, turned behind him to see what they were laughing about, then slammed his fist against the table.
Since I couldn’t hear a word they said, I instead pretended they were all part of a soap opera while making up commentary in my head.
Pixie-haired girl removed her head from Ollie’s shoulder before curling into a ball next to him, and Ollie’s gaze drifted in my direction. I quickly turned my head over my hands in the opposite direction to look out the window instead. The view wasn’t any better, but I didn’t like what his stare did to me. It pulled me in, and suddenly I was losing control.
I never lost control. Control was all I had.
The class was small in psychology, about ten students at most. Though there were plenty of desks available in the front, I chose one in the last row in the back. Again, I blame it all on my need to control the situation. I could see everyone in front of me, knew the location of my exit, and understood my surroundings.
The professor still wasn’t in, and I took the time to analyze each student. The way they either slumped in their chairs, or sat tall and ready for class to begin, which ones had friends in the classroom, and which ones didn’t. In the second row on the far right sat a girl with short blonde hair and small shoulders. She looked up from her desk and toward the door every ten seconds.
She was waiting for someone.
“Good afternoon, hello, good day,” a gentleman rambled while bustling through the door. “Sorry I’m running a bit behind today, but if everyone could quickly get their textbooks and find the chapter regarding Maslow’s Hierarchy of Emotional Needs, we will jump right in.”
The teacher was a tiny fellow with gray wiry hair and patches of stubble surrounding his jawline. His glasses sat on the tip of his nose as he shuffled amongst his papers at his podium. He was a slob, with his shirt half tucked into khakis two sizes too big. From the looks of it, you could tell he was late often.
He glanced up from his desk, and his attention was immediately drawn to me in the back. “I’m Dr. Kippler. There are extra textbooks on the bookcase behind you if you need one.” After I retook my seat, I flipped through the pages of the textbook when Dr. Kippler spoke up again. “Ah, nice of you to join us, Masters.”
I lifted my gaze to see Ollie taking a seat at the front of the room in front of the girl with blonde hair, and then it made sense. She was waiting for Ollie. Her small shoulders relaxed and she tucked her short hair behind her ear.
“This time I will let it pass since I was late myself, but no more warnings,” Dr. Kippler added, but I knew this was a regular thing for Dr. Kippler. He would never be on time.
Ollie nodded before turning his head to the blonde-haired girl who greeted him with a gentle hand over his shoulder.
But his attention quickly became mine the moment he spotted me in the back.
Three intense seconds passed with his eyes on mine before he mouthed, “Hi.”
The blonde-haired girl turned to see what had robbed her of his attention. She narrowed her eyes, and I gave them both a small wave with my fingers.
Dr. Kippler cleared his throat, and both Ollie and blonde-haired girl snapped their heads back to the front. “Masters, what are the six human emotional needs?”