With a heavy sigh, I allow him to pull me off the couch.
“What about Marshy?”
“He’s fine. He’ll make this weird noise when he wakes up, but he should be out for a couple hours.” Zach tugs on my hand. “Lead the way.”
I direct him down the hallway and to my room.
I do my best to push my dirty bras and random socks under the dresser and the bed, but I think he notices anyway.
His eyes roam over the small space. “This isn’t what I was expecting. It’s so…”
“White? I know, but we can’t paint. I mean, we can, but we only have like four shades of white to choose from. I guess since they have so many college kids coming through here, it’s easier to tell them they aren’t allowed to paint than deal with the hassle of it.”
“Smart on their part. I do like that you tried to dress it up with the teal.”
“Girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.”
He takes a seat on my messy bed, pulling the open econ book onto his lap. “This what you’re working on?”
I nod and take a seat next to him. “Unfortunately. Anything familiar to you?”
“Oh yeah. I can breeze you through this. I have a trick to remember all these names for everything.”
We make ourselves more comfortable on the bed, lying on our stomachs with the book propped up between us.
It feels like hours later, but what Zach’s explaining is finally starting to click. I’ve already worked through two of the example problems in the book, plus one Zach created.
With his help, I think I could ace the upcoming tests.
“What’s with all the studying anyway?” he asks during a coffee break.
“Our professor enjoys pop quizzes, and I have a feeling there’s one coming next week since he assigned a bunch of reading everyone groaned about. I also hear he likes to do a round of testing around Thanksgiving and since it’s not that far off, I figured I’d need to do well on these quizzes before then.”
“I knew I kept you around for something. You’re a smart cookie.”
“Dude, cookies sound so delicious right now.”
“Food-whore,” he teases.
“Guilty.” I yawn. “I’m tired of studying. Let’s do something else.”
“We could have a naked pillow fight.”
“Something less pervy.”
“We could watchHemlock Grove, you know, since you put it on a hiatus because you were getting creeped out.”
“Are you really even watching that shit? It’sweird!”
“So weird and so good.”
I nod. “So good.”
I clap my hands together and roll off my bed, getting to my feet in one swift movement. “Okay, let’s do this. I’ll grab the popcorn—”
“Food-whore.”
“—and you load Netflix and check on Marshy. Ready, break.”
