My Intro to Drawing class is nothing like I expected, but it's everything I didn't know I needed. Starting my day this way was definitely the best thing I could have asked for for my first day back. My professor looks a little like Trelawney fromHarry Potter, but I love her kookiness and quirks.
Even her woo-woo-like voice made me smile as she tried to explain some of the more scientific aspects of drawing rather than just the creative ones.
When class finishes, I drop a text to Penn, who tells me that she's already waiting at the cafeteria for me, so I haul ass across campus and see her waiting at our normal table. I drop my bag with her before going and grabbing a sandwich and some fries, then make my way back, finding her still sitting alone.
"No Connor today?" I ask, and she shakes her head.
"No. I barely heard from him over the Christmas break. I'm not really sure what's going on with him right now."
I frown as I pop a fry into my mouth, wondering what could possibly be going on with him. They were both super tight before Christmas, so I don't understand what could have happened.
I say as much and she shrugs. "I have no idea what's going on. Everything seemed okay before break. But then I had Christmas with my family. I didn't get to speak to him for a couple of days, because… well, chaos—as I'm sure you can imagine having met my family—and when I tried to reach back out to him, he didn't respond until New Year's Eve. And that was just to say that he's been busy and he would see me at school when we started back in the dorm, but he hasn't shown up yet."
I frown harder, wondering what on earth could be going on because they're supposed to be sharing that dorm.
"You think something’s wrong?" I ask, trying to pry a little further. She doesn’t seemthatconcerned, but then, she’s known Connor longer than I have. Maybe this isn’t totally unusual for him.
"I don’t know," she says, chewing on her lip. "He doesn’t usually go dark for this long. Sure, a day or two, which has always pissed me off, but he isn’t usually this Casper-like."
"Casper-like?" My brow furrows as I try to work out what the hell she means.
She laughs a little. "Ghostie."
"Oh," I say with a gigglesnort. "You’re stealing my ‘90s references."
"Eh, they’re fun."
"Yes, they are." I grin wide, because I knew I’d infect her with my awesome at some point. "But are you sure we shouldn’t be more worried about Connor?"
"Honestly, I have no idea. Everything was fine, which makes me want to say no." She fiddles with her red locks nervously. "But this isn’t like him either."
"Okay, I’ll try and get ahold of him too, just to check in or something." I try to reassure her and make a note to myself to text Connor later.
I'm scheduled to have Brain and Behavior with him tomorrow morning, so maybe I'll just use that as a way of seeing if we're still taking the same classes this semester.
"Thank you," she says, some of the tension in her shoulders leaving. I guess she just needed someone else to acknowledge it. "Anyway, enough about my sad little lonely existence. What happened with you over Christmas break? You went kind of dark on me too."
"Yeah, sorry about that," I respond, wincing at the thought of how much of a terrible friend I really am. "Things were kind of crazy between Thanksgiving and everyone trying to engage me off to Cole, to Christmas where Cole basically told his dad that he wouldn't be marrying me—though, admittedly, that took the pressure off of me quite a lot. Then spending so much time with the twins that there's no way I wouldn't tell them apart. And everything with Travis…"
"What do you mean, everything with Travis?" she asks, cutting me off. She wags her brows at me, and I can't help but laugh before I fill her in on everything else that happened over the break.
By the time I'm done, her jaw is slack and her eyes are wide. I can't help but laugh as she just sits gawping at me. "Holy shit! And I thought my holiday was insane. It's got nothing on your chaos."
"My chaos has its very own brand of special," I respond to her, laughing. I check my watch and realize I need to make my way to my next class. I say my goodbyes to her and start making my way back across campus when I see a flash of blonde that has me stopping in my tracks.
I blink and search for the flash again, because there's no way I could have seen what I thought I just saw, but when I search the crowd, the blonde has gone and I shake my head thinking it must have been a hallucination.
I know I've been stressed, but even considering that, seeing Iris here is a physical impossibility. Right?
* * *
Adjusting back to everyday life has been strange, but after two full days of college and classes, I'm officially wiped.
Today's Brain and Behavior, and Reasoning and Rational Decision Making has me anything but reasonable or rational.
I still haven't heard from Connor and he wasn't in any of our classes today. I'm starting to worry about him a little, all things considered. He doesn't seem the type to miss class unless there's some very important reason.
I head to grab a coffee as I make my way across campus before heading home.