Rachel and Elise ran out of their dorm and headed to class. Their classroom wasn’t large, but it was seated stadium-style, so the doors were located at the back of the room. They headed for the first empty row they saw and moved in a few spots because neither of them liked sitting on the end.
Professor Drumming was facing the clock on the sidewall but turned to frown at their almost-tardy entrance before looking at the wall again. He did this at every class, and the minute class started, he would turn around and do roll call. Roll call. In college. Thank heavens it was the only class they had where a teacher did this.
Rachel followed the instructor’s gaze to note that she and Elise had made it with about thirty seconds to spare. She’d known it would be close. As the clock neared the full hour, someone slipped into the seat next to her.
Rachel started to turn her head to look, but at the same time, Professor Drumming spun around and said, “Let’s begin.” He picked up his clipboard. “Jeff Anderson?”
“Here,” a voice in the front of the room said.
Suddenly, the air around Rachel crackled, and a male voice spoke in her ear, “Doesn’t he ever get tired of being a tight ass?”
She slowly rotated her head, already knowing who the owner of the voice was due to the tingle going down her spine.
Sean King was sitting next to her, and Rachel felt her breath catch. Even though he had arrived later to class than her, he smelled incredible and looked like he hadn’t rolled out of bed like she had. His blond hair was styled, and his T-shirt and jeans looked like they hadn’t been pulled from his bedroom floor. The light glinted off the silver ring he wore on his right middle finger, drawing her gaze to his narrow but masculine hands.
Thankfully, he was already facing the front of the room, so he couldn’t see her reaction to him. He wasn’t waiting for her response, and she doubted he felt the same way she did.
She didn’t understand this unwanted attraction to Sean. He wasn’t her type, and until this moment, they’d never spoken to each other. Sean was thin and on the shorter side, probably around five-seven or five-eight if she had to guess, and Rachel liked her men big and tall.
Hypocritical, she knew. At five-two and with the body of a twelve-year-old—aka small boobs and no butt—she shouldn’t judge someone for being small or thin. But that was probably why she went for big men. She wanted her future offspring to have a chance at having some height.
Plus, she and her ex-boyfriend had dated for over a year and just broken up over the summer. Rachel wasn’t really looking to start another relationship. She wanted to have some fun with being single in college for a while.
An elbow nudged her from the other side, rousing her from her thoughts.
“What?” she asked Elise, looking at her.
Her friend raised her brow and tilted her head toward the front of the room. “Your name was called.”
A soft male chuckle sounded next to her.
“Here,” Rachel called out and bent over toward her backpack, hiding her now-red face. She’d been so lost in thought, she hadn’t heard the teacher. She “searched” for a pen for several seconds, willing her face to cool before she had to sit back up.
Elise leaned over next to her. “Are you okay?” she whispered.
Rachel hadn’t told anyone about her weird attraction to Sean because she figured it was a biological fluke, assuming it would go away soon. She didn’t want to make a big deal out of it by talking about it out loud.
“Yeah. Fine,” she told her roommate and straightened. She smiled at Elise. “I think I’m half-asleep.”
Elise grinned. “Me, too,” she whispered. “We need to get coffee after this.”
“Agreed.”
Professor Drumming began his lecture, so Rachel was saved from having to look at Sean again or acknowledge his presence.
About twenty minutes into class, a woman came in the back door, approached the professor, and whispered in his ear.
Their instructor looked up at the class. “Please, excuse me. I have a phone call I need to take. Please look over your notes until I get back.”
He walked out, and the woman followed him.
“We should just leave now,” Elise said. “He already marked us down as here.”
Rachel wished they could leave. “Yeah, except he saw us come in late. He’ll know if we leave.”
Elise sighed. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
“I’m telling you, we need to get at least two kegs,” a voice on the other side of Rachel said.
She and Elise stopped talking to eavesdrop.
It was Sean’s friend Luke. Thanks to roll call, Rachel knew almost everyone’s name in the class. She hadn’t even seen him until now even though she should have known Luke would be there. He always sat with Sean.
“I don’t know,” said Sean. “I don’t think everyone is going to drink beer. Especially the females.”
“Let’s ask them. Ladies?” Luke said.
Rachel and Elise turned to look at the two guys while trying to pretend they hadn’t been snooping.
“What?” Elise said.
Luke leaned back, so he could look at them from behind Sean.
Luke was tall and muscular. He was the type of guy that Rachel was normally attracted to. Sean was short and skinny next to Luke, although Sean did have lean muscles. He was just a smaller guy all around. Luke had dark hair and dark eyes and looked to be of mixed heritage, although Rachel didn’t know what. Compared to Luke, Sean’s blond hair and blue eyes stood out. Blue eyes that were now staring at her.
Rachel purposely looked away to Luke since he was the one talking. Sean’s gaze made her squirm in her seat.
“Do you ladies drink beer?” Luke asked. “Or would you prefer something else?”
Rachel looked to Elise, and they both shrugged.
Rachel turned back to the guys. “Don’t know.”
Sean and Luke frowned.
“What do you mean, you don’t know?” Luke asked.
The girls exchanged looks again. It was a little embarrassing to admit that they hadn’t been to any college parties yet. They had talked about them, but so far, they hadn’t been invited to one.
Rachel looked at Elise, who rolled her eyes and said, “We haven’t been to any parties yet, okay?”
“But…” Luke started.
Rachel looked back at him.
“But, what?” Elise asked.
“But…you’re both hot.”
Elise snorted. “As if that’s the only reason to invite us to a party. If we were ugly, you wouldn’t expect us to get invited?”
Luke was unfazed by Elise’s comment. “Well, I didn’t say that.” He shrugged. “But you’re more likely to be asked because you two are hot.”
Elise made a sound of disgust.
Luke held up a hand. “Hey, I didn’t make the rules.” He narrowed his eyes at Elise. “Besides, you women are just as bad. You can’t tell me that you’d throw a party and want all the dorks and ugos to show up.”
Luke did have a point. Rachel knew she was more attracted to good-looking guys.
“You’re right—to a point,” she said. “Of course we’re attracted to cute guys. But women are more open to other attributes besides looks. Overall, we’re not as shallow as men.”
“Ouch,” Luke said.
Sean winced. “We’re getting off topic,” he said. “If you came to our party at our house on Saturday, would you drink beer, or would you want something else? Hard alcohol? Wine?”
Just then, the lady who had come in earlier reentered the room. “Class.” She clapped her hands, and everyone quieted down. “Professor Drumming has a family emergency and won’t be coming back to class today. You are all free to leave.”
“Sweet,” Elise said.
Rachel began putting her stuff away, grateful to get out of there.
She and Elise had to wait for Sean and Luke to get up and move before they could exit. The guys stood, and the girls followed.
Once they were in the hallway, Rachel and Elise started toward the nearest place to get coffee.
“Hey,” Sean said behind them.
The two of them turned around.
“What?” Elise said.
“You never answered. What would you drink?”
Since it didn’t matter and she didn’t know why he was asking again, Rachel shrugged. “I’d drink whatever.”
Elise must have thought the same thing as Rachel because she shrugged, too. “Yeah, it doesn’t matter.”
Luke grinned and elbowed Sean. “Told ya.”
Sean raised a brow. “I guess we’ll see.” He looked at Luke. “Let’s go.”
The two guys spun around and began walking the other way.
Rachel told herself to bite her tongue, but she couldn’t control her curiosity. “Wait.”
The guys turned.
“What did you mean, I guess we’ll see?”
“I guess we’ll see on Saturday. Party starts at eight. See you then.”
The two men turned back around and walked away, not sparing the girls another glance.
Rachel looked at her friend and roommate. “Are we going?”
“Hell yeah, we’re going. That Luke guy might be a sexist pig, but this will be our first college party.”
They grinned at each other, and like any other eighteen-year-olds, they squealed with excitement.
