The weekend came and went. Beth and I attended the basketball game and Kim, Beth and I joined Ryan, Josh, Tucker, and Chad for air hockey and nachos. I refused to talk about Jared, even with Beth. I couldn’t even bring myself to explain what had happened that caused me to be so furious anytime they mentioned his name.

Ryan seemed to enjoy my change of heart. One night he called to ask me for help with his chemistry, and we found ourselves sitting on the floor of my dorm room alone.

“No…it’s….” I pressed my lips together as I rewrote the last line.

“Chad said he failed this test last year,” Ryan grumbled.

“Well, Chad didn’t have me for a tutor, now did he?” I threw my pencil at him and it bounced to the floor.

“Tutor or not, this test is gonna suck.”

“Have you lost your faith in me?”

“Have you reconsidered my offer, yet?” he grinned.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I shrugged, playing dumb.

“Yes, you do. It’s okay if you haven’t….you will eventually,” he smiled wide.

“I’m fairly certain I won’t be interested in dating for a long, long time.”

Ryan didn’t skip a beat. “I’ll wait.”

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

The Ring

The next weeks proved to be fairly mundane. I hadn’t seen Jared or Mr. Dawson, and Ryan’s propositions had tapered off. Beth had been noticeably absent from our room. I hadn’t even been sequestered for a ballgame.

I didn’t leave campus for further theory-testing walks, and I tried not to venture off campus in general. My feelings were conflicted at any given second between being desperate to see Jared again and cringing at thoughts of any chance run-ins. I committed to pushing him from my mind, even if I had to do it a thousand times a day.

At study group, Ryan and I took our normal spots to work together on his latest academic crisis. Kim passed the time by shooting rubber bands at Josh while Beth and the new girl, Nicole, compared notes.

Josh caught one of Kim’s rubber missiles in mid-air and yawned. “So, when are we going out again?”

Kim shrugged. “I don’t know. When do you want to go?”

“I don’t think Nina’s up to it,” Beth hinted. The entire group stared at me with a mixture of pitiful and expectant expressions that I was desperate to deflect.

“Of course I’m up for it,” I said, aiming for a casual tone.

In truth, going out again with the same people to the same place made me anxious that we were just asking for a repeat, and I wasn’t ready to see Jared again. In the same moment, I worried that he wouldn’t show.

“Are you sure?” Beth asked, leaning forward in her chair.