THIRTY
Ozzie
The plan isgood on paper. It seems simple enough.
At first, everything goes perfectly. I spend most of Tuesday morning going to class with Mila, with a few odd looks from people in her philosophy lecture who are correct to suspect they’ve never seen me before.
But in practice, things get hairy after her first lecture.
“Oz, I need you to go to lunch.”
She says this while people are milling around in the hallway of the classroom building, scurrying around to get to their following lecture or head to the dining hall.
“Not yet,” I protest. “You have one more class until you eat lunch.” Yes, of course, I have her schedule memorized.
“Yes, but I could hear your stomach growling the whole time. My philosophy professor looked at me like the noise was coming from me.”
“I’ll manage,” I say.
“No, you won’t. My next class is only a ten-person poetry workshop, and it’ll be super weird if you’re in there with me.”
“Too bad.”
“What am I supposed to do? Tell everyone I brought my bodyguard?”
“I don’t care what you tell them.”
Mila purses her lips and grunts. “Can you, like, hang out in the hallway? I swear to god nothing will happen while I’m in a small conference room with a nerdy professor and nine other emo kids.”
“How the tables have turned. Now you’re the one not worried.”
She places one hand on my shoulder and rolls onto her feet to kiss me on the nose. “Please. I love this class. I was fortunate to get into it. They don’t usually admit first years, but…but Khaz did it for me because he knew I would like it. Somehow he got me in. I don’t want to make people uncomfortable.”
Looking past her shoulder through the conference room door, I spot the professor and students all gathering around the table. There’s no other entry point that I can see from here. So…I guess it’s okay.
I touch her chin with my thumb and index finger, tilting her face up for a kiss. Mila tries to get away with a peck, but I’m not having it. My tongue surges into her mouth in a claiming kiss, and I feel her gasp and her body melt against me.
Everything is quiet when we pull away from the kiss. Mila blushes and adjusts her backpack, patting me on the chest.
“I gotta go. We’re being watched.”
I watch her turn to walk into the classroom, and my stomach rolls over in my gut. About ten paces away stands a vending machine with the M&Ms and Vitamin Water that I like. I guess it can’t hurt to grab a bite to eat while I wait for her class to end. I gotta find something to do while I stand guard in the hallway.