Jake Undone(14)

He paused for about a minute looking through the stack of homework submissions.

“Where is Ms. Kennedy?”

I raised my hand. “Here, sir.”

Professor Hernandez put his glasses on and examined the paper in his hand a bit more closely before looking over at me. “Pimps and whores, Ms. Kennedy?”

My heart fell to my stomach, remembering that I had submitted the two examples Jake and I put together for the transportation and nutrition word problem assignment. Whoops.

Please don’t mention Mrs. Ballsworthy’s shit cake.

The class erupted in laughter at the pimp reference, and when it started to die down, I said, “Yes, sir.”

He shook his head and examined the document again. “All I can say is, you’re lucky the solution is correct, Ms. Kennedy.”

I nodded silently, wanting to crawl into a hole.

When the attention of the class finally left me, my breathing settled. Just as the professor moved onto another student’s assignment, my phone vibrated then began to play a song I didn’t immediately recognize, loudly disrupting the lecture.

I then quickly realized it was Everywhere You Look, the theme song to the show Full House.

No. no. no. no.

I looked down at the screen: Jake Calling.

I immediately silenced the phone, and the noise from the song was replaced with the sounds of my classmates laughing and whispering.

He didn’t.

He did. Damn it, Jake.

Apparently, when he took my phone away the other day, he must have programmed it as a “special” ringtone for his incoming calls.

I looked up at Professor Hernandez’s stern expression. “Ms. Kennedy, I suggest you silence your phone during my class.”

I swallowed and said, “I am very sorry.”

As the professor continued with the lecture, the guy next to me said, “That was classic.”

I turned to him and noticed that he had a really nice smile. He was actually very good looking, not in the darkly gorgeous way Jake was, but in a preppy with fine features sort of way. His short, light brown hair was neat, and he had big blue eyes and a small perfect nose with a dusting of freckles.

“I’m Alistair,” he whispered, holding out his hand.

I took it and smiled. “Nina.”

Professor Hernandez glared in my direction again. Alistair took notice, so we stopped talking, turning our attention back to the front of the room.

After a few minutes, I looked down at my phone to find a text from Jake.



Jake: How did the test go?



Nina: Still in class. We haven’t taken it yet. He is going over the assignments and called me out for the whore example. Thanks a lot for that ringtone. That was the icing on the cake.



Jake: The shit cake? LOL. My pleasure. Let me know how the exam goes. I need to know if I have to start planning. (Insert evil laugh here.)



I laughed even though the text made me very uneasy and reminded me what I was up against.

My phone vibrated again.



Jake: Stop freaking out, Nina.



How did he know I was freaking out? I smiled to myself, put my phone back in my purse and glanced over at Alistair who grinned at me.

Professor Hernandez instructed the class to put all mobile devices away and began handing out the exams.

The problems presented were very similar to the homework assignment, and I began to make some tables and break down all of the information like Jake had showed me.

By the time I had finished, I knew I had gotten at least two out of the five problems correct but was unsure about the rest.

I could feel the doubt and anxiety building, and then the professor indicated our time was up. He walked around to collect the exams and let us know that he would correct them after class and post the results online tonight. He had setup a page on his website where we could log in for exam results.

The class was dismissed, and as I was walking out of the classroom, I heard Alistair behind me out of breath. “Nina, wait up.”

“Hey.” I smiled. “How did you do?”

“Pretty good. I think I got them all right, actually,” he said.

“I wish I could say the same. I know I got at least two correct, but not sure about the other three.”

“Well, if you’re having trouble, I’d be happy to help you after class sometime.”

“That’s really sweet, but believe it or not, I actually have a really great tutor and still can’t manage to do well…so…”

Alistair nodded and flashed me another big smile. “Well, maybe we could just hang out sometime?”

I hesitated. “Sure. That would be nice.”

“Great. Um, let me get your number. I’ll put it in my phone.”

As I watched him enter the information, I suddenly felt uneasy and deep down, I knew it had something to do with my growing attraction to Jake. I was pretty sure I wasn’t even Jake’s type but still couldn’t help the crush I had on him. I guess in a strange way, in agreeing to a date with Alistair, I felt disloyal to my own feelings. I was never the type that could focus on more than one guy at a time, even if the guy in focus had no clue how I felt. But I needed to move past that. I was pretty sure that it was unhealthy to think something would happen with Jake, especially after the little sexcapade I had overheard when I first moved in. Clearly, my roomie has his own “stuff” going on. That, coupled with the fact that he disappears to Boston every weekend…well, even if I was his type, which I’m not, it just wouldn’t—