“Not a problem.” He smiled. He had a nice smile. I bet money it had taken years of orthodontist’s appointments to get a smile like that.
“So, you’re not from around here are you?” he questioned. Obviously, he was trying to change the subject away from the fiasco that was my life.
“No, I’m not. I’m actually from a town a few hours away. My best friend Jessi and I dorm over in Hager.”
“Nice. That’s one of the nicer dorms here.” He winked.
“So, is this your first year?” It was apparent it wasn’t if he knew which dorm buildings were better than the other … but might as well ask to keep the conversation going, right?
“Nah, this is my third year. I don’t live in the dorms though. I’m part of the KZB fraternity, so I live in the frat house.”
Fraternity boy, huh? To me, fraternity boys always signified drunken, ass-grabbing, Neanderthals. Nate, however, didn’t look that part by any means. He looked more along the lines of a trust fund baby who probably drove a Lexus or BMW. Definitely not as though he would be doing keg stands every other night in what was, quite possibly, a filthy house surrounded by a crowd of fellow drunken Neanderthals cheering and fist pumping him on every step of the way.
“I’m sorry, but you don’t really strike me as the fraternity type,” I admitted.
“Really now? Why is that?” He crossed his arms over his chest and smiled.
He smiled, that’s good. Smiling is good. It means I didn’t offend him. I should really walk around with a warning that says, ‘Hi, my name is Kelsey. Let me go ahead and insert my foot in my mouth before our conversation has even begun.’
“I don’t know, really. When I think frats I think National Lampoon's Animal House.” I shrugged.
He surprised me by barking out a laugh and grabbing his stomach. “Oh man, that’s a good one. I could get offended but I am enjoying the fact that you have actually seen Animal House too much for that. Actually, my frat is nothing like that. We are more along the lines of, ‘join the frat because your father was in it.’ It also helps you gain great connections to further your schooling and career. Like in my case, one of my brother’s fathers has the ‘in’ for a med school I plan to attend. Every little connection helps, right?”
That did make sense. I’d also seen the movie The Skulls, so I guess I could understand that all frats were not full of raging horny guys, hell bent on seeing how many beer cans they could crush against their skull before passing out.
“So you said you’re not from around here right? I saw you walk in with Kane Riley. You know him before enrolling here or something?”
While I didn’t see how my knowing Kane had anything to do with him, I figured there was no point in questioning it.
“No I didn’t know him before starting here. We just met the other night actually.”
“That’s cool. Kane and I are friends. We actually rushed together, but he dropped us last year. He still comes to some of the parties every now and then, though.”
If picturing Nate in a frat was hard, picturing Kane in one—especially the one that Nate had described—was almost down right impossible. Kane and Nate, appearance-wise, were polar opposites. Kane with his tattoos, piercing, biker boots and—from what I had seen so far—monotone wardrobe, didn’t fit the whole frat-for-connections type. Nate, on the other hand, in his baby blue polo, tan slacks and Sperry Top-Siders, I could see.
Jessi decided to come rushing into class at that time. I could tell from the blush on her face and swollen ‘I’ve been making out … hard’ lips, that she had been putting off coming into class until the very last minute to spend as much time with Landon as possible. She came bouncing up to me with a massive grin on her face.
“So, where’s my seat, chick? Did I miss anything?” She pulled a small mirror and tube of lip-gloss from her purse, and began touching up her makeup. Yep, she really needed it too, a smearing of pink gloss covered the areas around her lips from her extra-curricular sucking face activates.
When she was finally done putting herself back in order, she glanced up at me, and then Nate. “Well hello there,” she purred at him.
Yes, Nate was good looking, any girl in her right mind would agree … so Jessi’s flirting was to be expected.
“Nate.” He nodded and reached out his hand to shake hers like he had done for me.
“This is my friend, Jessi I was just telling you about.” I went ahead and introduced her.
“Just telling him about, huh? So you have been talking about me?” Jess bumped her hip with mine.
“Yes, Jessi. He now knows your date of birth, social security number, and first pet’s name.”—I paused—“I was just telling him how I came to school here with my best friend.”
“Oh, I see. Well, I hope that you also told him that your best friend was super hot and had a winning personality.” She smiled
We all took our seats when the teacher finally came in to class and called our attention to the front of the room. Less than a minute later, I felt Jessi lean over toward my desk.
“We have been here a few days, Kels … a few days, and you already have all the boys falling over you. Damn girl, didn’t I tell you.”
I rolled my eyes. She was crazy. So I had made a few new friends and they just so happened to be male. That didn’t mean anyone was falling over me.
“Hush, and get back in your seat before you get us in trouble on our first day of class,” I hissed back at her while never taking my eyes off the front of the room.
She held up both hands as she leaned back into her seat. “I’m just saying, Kels. These boys want them some Kelsey. Bad.”
I rolled my eyes again. Sure they did. Even if that were true, once any guy really got to know all about me and my past, things would eventually change. You can’t carry around baggage like I have and there not be repercussions for it. I wasn’t like your average eighteen year old. I had seen things that had changed me, broke me. It would take a special kind of man to love a person as broken as me. But even if I found that man, I wasn’t so sure my damaged heart could give him that love in return.
When class was over, I shut down my laptop and placed it in my bag. Overall, the class had been just as Kane described. Her syllabus and standards were pretty high, so I was praying he was right about it getting easier after a few classes. I really wanted to take her class, but I was already feeling a little overwhelmed.