Summer stacked up her notebooks and textbooks and shoved them into her bag, then checked the time on her phone. Even though it was the first day of the summer astronomy course, the professor had used the entire class period, so Isaac should be turning up outside any time now.
Which was good, because she hadn’t had any idea that Jesse had also stayed over the summer until he’d walked into the lab. They’d both looked away immediately, but she could feel his attention fixed on her, and it made her jittery. The /last/ time they’d ended up in a freshman-level course together, he had told campus security that she was stalking him, which had been its own special kind of hell.
A few months after that he had apparently decided that turn-about was fair play, and begun to actually stalk her. Or maybe she’d just gotten more sensitive to his presence — he seemed to be everywhere she went. It had been such a relief to go away to the seaside with Isaac and not have that niggling worry in the back of her mind for a few days.
She went out to the steps of the science building and perched on one of the great blocks lining the steps, keeping an eye out for Isaac and his bike. She’d put a bike rack on her car last week, just for this sort of situation, although she might take up riding her bike to campus again soon.
Cycling furiously as his blue eyes darted down to the watch strapped onto his wrist, Isaac winced and pushed himself even harder, not wanting Summer to have to wait on him for too long. He’d lost track of time – he’d slept in by accident and then taken far too long to have a long and leisurely shower followed by a series of catastrophes in the kitchen, so all in all, his day wasn’t progressing all that well.
He’d just glanced at the clock in the hallway and then cried out in surprise when he’d realised that he should have left twenty minutes ago, and now he was making up for long time by cycling faster than was humanly possible.
And as he turned the last corner and saw her waiting there by the steps, he smiled and skidded to a halt, nearly throwing his bike down to the gravel in his haste to get to her. “Sorry, I’m so sorry, I didn’t -” He stopped and tilted his head to the side, eyeing her warily. “What’s wrong? Something happened, didn’t it?”
Summer reached out for a hug, bracing herself for what appeared to be a flying tackle sort of hug (the sort only she ever got from him) when he stopped. “No? I’m fine. I mean, it’s astronomy, it’s not exactly easy, but — ” She blinked up at him, slipped an arm around his waist and added, “Did Derek keep you?”
Before he could answer, or kiss her, or anything, a hurtfully familiar voice came from her. “Robbing the cradle to get your fucks, witch? Or did you figure out I warned off everybody on campus?” The speaker was tall, even taller and narrower than Isaac, with wild curly black hair and several facial piercings in his olive skin.
Summer froze, her whole body tensing up. “That’s what happened,” she muttered.