I didn’t like people bothering me when I calmly sat alone in the library either.
But Ryan had done that without pause.
“Was it because you were with your friends? I get it if you don’t think I’m cool enough to say a polite hello to on any given day when I’m not saving your academic career out of the goodness of my own heart—”
“Goodness of your own heart?” Ryan smirked, as if I were making a joke.
Was he seriously going to laugh right now?
“Yes. Maybe you haven’t heard of it since everyone else bends over backward for you.”
“Ouch.” He put a hand to his chest.
“Would you rather I lied to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?”
“I’d prefer if you didn’t look like you would rather be anywhere else but in front of me right now,” he offered. His humor turned solemn. “Look, I’m sorry that I ignored you earlier. I didn’t give it much thought, to be honest. You could’ve said hi too, y’know.”
Could I have? I wasn’t so sure.
My opinion of Ryan Gardner was changing, but not that much. Not yet.
There were still a few bricks of animosity standing between him and me.
The slant of my eyes as I stared at him said as much.
“Do you need me to apologize again?”
“No,” I said.
Still, he waited for more.
I glared out the window before facing him again. “So, you didn’t have some vendetta against me. Why are you here? To get a few more essay writing tips?”
“Well, y’know”—Ryan shrugged—“I do still have some biology to work on, and the whole footnotes thing is messing me up. I figured you would be here. For company, of course, nothing more.”
I stared at him.
He raised one hand in the air, nearly setting him off balance on his crutches. “Scout’s honor.”
“You were a Boy Scout?”
“No, but that always feels so official.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Can I sit?”
I waved at the seat. “Sit.”
“Why, thank you.” Slowly, Ryan arranged himself in the same seat he sat in the other night, making himself at home. Opening his laptop, he clicked on his document.
Reaching across the table, I automatically turned his screen toward me. All his sources were crowded together at the bottom of the first page. I raised an eyebrow at him. I knew for a fact that though Ryan might not be the most studious, he knew that he didn’t need to have his whole works cited page within the actual report. Nonetheless, I copied and pasted over to the next few pages, where they were actually referenced and labeled correctly.
He could’ve gotten anyone to tell him he was being a dumbass.
Instead, he had come here. To sit across from me.
“Whatcha got there?”
