Eva scowled over my shoulder at the table behind us. A pair of lacrosse players were watching a YouTube video at full volume in the otherwise quiet library.
"I wish they'd shut up," she said.
"I can tell them to turn it off if you want," I blurted out. I immediately regretted my words.
Yeah, let's go piss of two athletes twice your size, Clay. Great idea.
"No, don't worry about," Eva sighed. She passed a hand firmly over the page of her book, as if ironing it. Her nails were traffic-cone orange today. On anyone else this would be tacky, but it went well with her skin.
"Like them?" Eva wiggled her fingers in my face. I blinked rapidly.
"Very pretty." She gave a warm smile and scratched playfully at the back of my hand. The hairs on my neck stood on end.
"You're sweet."
The reality of the situation was still sinking in. At first, I'd been annoyed when Professor Burt said she'd assign our lab partners; I'd wanted to work with Matt. I'd had two reactions when I found she'd paired me with Eva Hernandez. My first was exaltation: who wouldn't want to spend more time with their crush, one of the prettiest girls on campus? The second reaction, however, was dread. This girl was a frequent guest star in the erotic theater that was my mind, and I could barely spend an hour in her presence without circling through a half-dozen erections.
I was going to humiliate myself.
Still, our first meeting was going relatively well. She was wearing a shapeless hoody today, and no makeup. I hadn't realized she'd drawn on most of her eyebrows. It was a strange thing to notice, but it somehow made me like her more. She was comfortable enough to relax her appearance. Not that it made much of a difference to me. Her lips, full and soft, were her best feature by far, and I noticed them whether she wore lip gloss or not. I had a tendency to stare at them when she spoke; she must think I'm hard of hearing.
Eva slammed her book closed, bringing me back to the present.
"They're
so
rude." The athletes were guffawing now. We weren't the only ones giving them dirty looks.
"I'll talk to them," I insisted. Eva rolled her eyes.
"No, let's just leave. My dorm's next door." Eva gathered her books and threw on her back pack. "Coming?"
My mind rushed to process what was happening. Eva had just asked me to go back to her room with her. That had happened, right? I hadn't just made that up?
She was watching me expectantly.
"I am absolutely coming," I answered, stuffing my textbooks mindlessly into my bag. I hunted for the zipper, aware of the heat creeping up my face. Eva was too nice to point out my frantic state. She smiled and began to walk away.
I noticed her pants now that she was standing. The seat of her jeans clung to the scoop of her ass like cling-film. Apples and melons danced through my head as I watched her jiggle her way down the stairs. God, why hadn't I changed out of my gym shorts?
The brisk outside air helped me relax. I quickly caught up to walk beside her instead.
"Where do you live?"
"Funston."
"That's women only, right?"
"Yeah. Catholic parents, am I right?" Eva laughed, showing her teeth. I smiled automatically.
Eva's roommate let us into their room on her way to a student council meeting. Curiosity penetrated my anxiety and I looked around the dorm. If I was being honest, it was a mess. Discarded clothes, shoes, and old assignments littered the floor. Both beds were unmade. And here I was, thinking that all girls' bedrooms were mysterious caves of perfume, nail polish, and Vogue magazines.
"What's so funny?"
"Sorry?" Was I smiling? "I'm...just thinking of a joke."
"Tell me!" Eva dropped her back pack on her desk chair and took out a folder. I spun rapidly through all the non fart-related humor I knew. "Uh, how do you make holy water?"
"How?"
"You boil the hell out of it." She stared at me for a second.
She's Catholic, you idiot!
Just as I was about to face-palm, she laughed loudly.
"Okay, that's a good one." Still chuckling, she threw her remaining textbooks on her bed, kicked off her sneakers, and reclined against her pillow. She patted the space beside her.
Divine revenge?
I sat down but opened my textbook over my lap just in case.
"You look so studious," Eva said. "Here I am with my unilluminating notes."
"I really don't know much about entropy or molecular organization," I confessed.
"Do you want to bullshit it?" She looked so mischievous I couldn't help but grin.
We spent the next few minutes filling in our worksheet with almost verbatim quotes from the book. Out of my peripheral vision, I noticed Eva continually rolling the sleeves of her sweatshirt up and down. Finally, she gave up and lifted it over her head.
A tank top, of course. A tank top two sizes too small. It hugged her soft belly and squeezed wobbling cleavage into view. Melons again. As if pulled by a string, my cock lifted to press against the cover of my textbook.
"All good?" she asked. I wrenched my eyes up to her face, my own already tomato red. She'd seen me staring.
"Uh—I'm sorry—I—"
"It's okay. Men are visual, I get it. I'm taking human sexuality with Dr. Yumi."