"What did you get?"
My eyes snapped open.
"Huh?"
Elliot waved his hand in front of my face. "Woooh, wakey wakey. I said, what did you get?"
I shifted in my seat and rolled my eyes at my best friend. "I hate it when people ask that."
Folding his arms, Elliot raised an eyebrow. "No you don't. You love boasting about your grades, really. Come on, what did you get?"
"82." I turned my paper over so that he couldn't see my marks.
Elliot's jaw dropped. "No fucking way. Are you serious? Let me see that," he demanded, grabbing my assessment cover sheet and pulling it out of my reach before I could stop him.
"Damn. I knew you were good, but damn," he muttered.
I gritted my teeth and tugged at the paper. "Thanks. Can I have that back now?" I asked, but I was too late. Elliot had seen the comments Maria had written under my marks.
"What the..." He trailed off.
I cleared my throat and peeled the piece of paper from his hands.
"You gonna explain that or...?"
"I don't know. Are you going to close that gaping mouth of yours?"
Elliot snapped his mouth shut and glared at me. "Rude." He turned back to his notebook and wrote the date in the corner.
I glanced down at Maria's commentary. All of the official feedback was typed and printed -- this was obviously the version that had been uploaded to the university system. Under the typed comments, however, Maria had written another comment in pen:
"Impressive work. I wonder if making me come improved your assignment-writing skills. Yes, 82 percent is excellent, but I still feel like you could improve. Maybe you should come and see me for some extra 'help.'"
I smirked as I read my feedback again. I could feel Elliot's eyes boring into the side of my head.
"What?" I finally asked.
He made an exasperated noise. "What do you mean 'what?' I'm waiting for an explanation as to why Maria is writing the word 'come' in that context on your paper."
The lecture theatre doors suddenly opened an energetic Maria entered the buzzing room clutching a large black folder. "Hello all! Give me two minutes just to set this powerpoint up." As she put her folder on her desk, she looked at me from across the noisy room and licked her lips.
I turned to look at Elliot and raised an eyebrow, a smug smirk still plastered on my face.
He shook his head incredulously. "You sneaky son of a bitch!" he hissed. "You're screwing her, aren't you?"
I said nothing. I looked back at Maria, watching her bustling around her desk as she prepared the lecture. Today she looked much more casual than usual. She was wearing grey skinny jeans and a light blue blouse that, of course, was opened just enough to show some cleavage. I, too, was wearing skinny jeans, except mine were black and had a rip in the left knee. I had also chosen to wear my favourite dark blue Vans t-shirt with my matching Vans skate shoes. My blonde hair was down for once, and underneath my clothes I was wearing a matching set of emerald-green lingerie.
Maria finally stopped faffing at her desk and tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear.
"Right! Shall we start?"
At the end of lecture, I did my usual trick of packing away as slowly as possible until everyone else had left the lecture theatre. Today, however, Elliot had decided to linger.
"Dude," I said. "Why are you still here? I thought you had another lecture now?"
Now it was Elliot's turn to smirk. "Oh it was cancelled. I can hang with you for a bit. You have a free period now, don't you?" His eyes glinted. "I love being a cock-block. Or a vag-block. Whatever you want to call it," he whispered.
"Oh my god you're such a dick," I hissed, grabbing my bag and marching down the steps.
"What do you mean?" Elliot raised his voice, following quickly behind me. "Do you already have plans? Am I intruding on 'extra study?'"
I made eye contact with Maria as I reached the bottom of the steps. I rolled my eyes at her as I tried very hard not to turn around and trip Elliot down the stairs.
Maria piped up from her desk. "I'm sorry to steal her away, but I'm afraid I'll need to borrow Ellie for a few minutes."