Kyle didn't know what he had been thinking when he signed up for classes last semester, but taking a chemistry class at eight in the morning every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday was not his idea of a perfect schedule. And since the first day of the semester was on a Wednesday, that meant that he'd have to get up at eight for the next to days.
He didn't think he'd make it.
He let his backpack plop on the floor next to a desk in the front row of the classroom. Unfortunately, all the seats near the back, were full. The professor walked in just as he sat down.
"I'll make this quick. My name is Professor Adams and I will not tolerate more than two absences. If you are gone more than two class periods no matter what kind of excuse you have, you're out. Got it?" He looked around at the students with beady eyes from behind thick frames. "There will be no disruptions, and if you miss a test, you're out of luck. There are no make up exams. Now, let's get right to business," he said as he walked up to stand right in front of Kyle. "I'll be picking your lab partners for you, and if you don't like it, too bad. You won't be able to switch for any reason."
Kyle tensed in his seat. This guy seemed like a real pain in the ass.
"You," he said, pointing to Kyle. "What's your name?"
"Kyle," Kyle said, leaning as far back as he could get.
Professor Adams slapped a sheet of paper on his desk. "Write your name on the top line."
Kyle pulled a pen out of his pocket and printed his full name on the top line of the sheet.
"Good!" Professor Adams exclaimed as he picked it up and then put it on the desk next to him. "Put your name under Kyle's. The two of you will be lab partners."
Kyle turned his head to look at whoever it was sitting next to him, and to his surprise and pleasure, it was a pretty girl with short brown hair and a pair of the bluest eyes he'd ever seen. When they met his, he smiled at her, but she didn't smile back. He tried to look down at the paper to see what her name was, but Professor Adams had already moved onto the next desk. When he'd moved on to the next row, Kyle nudged her.
"Hi," he said. "I'm Kyle. What's your name?"
"Evie," she whispered back. "And please, don't disturb the class."
Kyle gave her a sideways glance as he reached down into his backpack to pull out his notebook and book. "Okay..." he mumbled under his breath as he set them on top of his desk. When he had his notebook opened with the date placed somewhere on the top of the front page, he looked back over at Evie, who was carefully taking a pair of glasses out of a black frame case. She slipped them on her head and then picked up her pencil, ready to take notes.
Maybe it would be good to have a partner like Evie. Maybe she'd do all the work for him. Or maybe she'd make sure that he did his half of the work for the sake of fairness or something. Girls like her were never into cheating. Convinced that this was going to be one of the hardest classes he'd ever taken, he sighed, propping his head up on the palm of his hand while he waited for the professor to take his place back at the front of the room.
"You look really familiar to me," Evie said as she and Kyle measured out the ingredients for their experiment. "Have we met before?"
"Well, I did go here last year," Kyle told her. "Maybe you saw me around."
"No..." she disagreed. "That's not it."
"My brother used to have his picture in the Star Tribune every day while he was still writing his column. The two of us look a lot alike."
"I read the Pioneer Press."
"Oh. He actually writes the obituaries for the Pioneer Press, believe it or not," Kyle said, giving up. He didn't know where else she'd recognize him from. He suddenly glanced back up at her. She actually read the newspaper?
"What's your brother's name?"
"It's Justin."
"Oh, my gosh! You know what?"
Kyle filled a test tube with water and then secured it to the Bunsen burner. "What?"
"I think your brother is marrying my sister!"
He turned to look at her. When she smiled, it suddenly dawned on him. "You're kidding me. You're Adelyn's little sister? I didn't even know she had a little sister."
"Well, she does," Evie said while she turned on the gas and Kyle lit the flame. "I knew Justin had a little brother. I don't know why I didn't figure it out the first time I looked at you. Every time Adelyn brought him home he talked about you."
Kyle could feel his cheeks turning red. "He did? What did he say?"
"Nothing bad, if that's what you're thinking. He thinks highly of you."
"He does?" Kyle wondered, blinking at her.
"Of course he does. He said you were really smart."
Kyle cleared his throat. "I'm pretty sure that he meant smart as in sarcastic."
Evie smiled up at him. "You seem smart to me," she told him.
"I'm not," he assured her. "And I'm really sorry you got stuck with me as a lab partner. I know nothing about chemistry."
"I'm sure you'll do fine. Look, all those ingredients you measured out are perfect. I was watching you."
Kyle gulped. "You were?"
"It'll be easy!" she went on. "Just put the right substance into the corresponding test tube and write down what happens."
"That's it?" Kyle wondered, thinking that it sounded way too easy to be true. "I don't have to do any calculations or anything?"
"Not yet."
The two of them set up their experiments and watched carefully for reactions. Kyle was watching Evie more than he was watching the test tubes.
"What year are you, Evie?"
"I'm a junior," she answered. "You?"
"A sophomore. Believe it or not, I almost didn't come back."
She adjusted the goggles on her head and then looked back at him. "How come? Don't you want to finish school?"
"Not really," he admitted. "I don't even know what I'm majoring in yet. Nothing really interests me."
"Something has to. Don't you like anything?"
He shrugged. "Chemistry's not bad, I guess. My brother majored in English, but that's not for me."
"You should go talk to one of the counselors. I bet they could help you decide. They have those tests you can take and everything."
"Which building is that in?"
"Actually," she smiled, "I have my next class there, if you want me to show you."
By then, he'd forgotten all about the test tubes. Kyle sighed. "Everyone just seems to have it more together than I do. I always feel out of place."
"You shouldn't. I bet if you put all your effort into something, you'd excel."
"That's what my sister said."
Evie smiled over at him and then jotted some more notes on the test tubes. "Your sister is smart."
"It's just that I suck at studying. I can't seem to keep concentrated long enough to get anything done. Besides, it's really, really boring."
"Why don't you stop by my apartment tonight and we can work on chemistry together? I'll help you study."
Kyle grinned at her. "How come we didn't meet last year? I needed a friend like you."
"Oh!" she said, looking back at the test tubes. "Maybe we should turn down the heat a little before that one overflows."
Kyle straightened his shirt and then reached up to knock on Evie's door. His heart was beating like crazy, and when the door opened and he saw her smile, he thought he might explode.
"Kyle!" she exclaimed, grabbing his hand and leading him inside. "Come in and sit down. Do you want anything to drink?"
He shook his head. "No thanks, I'm good."
The two of them sat down on the couch, and Kyle looked down at the coffee table. It was covered in books and notes. He suddenly felt in over his head.
"Take out your books, and we'll start on chapter one," she told him, and he did so. "Do you understand what they mean by positive and negative ions?"
He looked down at her. "Not really," he said with a shy smile.
She scooted closer to him and moved her book so that it sat on his lap too. "See this diagram here?"
Kyle nodded, but when she looked up at him, he wasn't looking at the book... he was looking at her.
"Kyle," she smiled. "The diagram..."
"Oh!" He looked back down at the book, but didn't get much of a chance to understand it since the second his eyes moved away from hers, she met him in a searing kiss. He was so shocked, he almost pulled away. "Did you ask me here so you could hit on me?" he wanted to know when they parted.
"No," she told him as she pushed the book from his lap, letting it tumble to the floor. "You're just so adorable."
He raised his eyebrows at her. "Adorable?"
Evie climbed up into his lap and kissed him again. This time, he closed his eyes and kissed her back. His heart was pounding heavily in his ears, and his head felt like it might float away at any second. She pushed him so that he fell sideways on the couch, and then she climbed on top of him. When she tried to remove his shirt, Kyle grabbed her hands and broke away from her kiss.
"Evie, stop," he said breathlessly. "We barely know each other. Besides... I'll be killed if anyone finds out."
"Who'll find out?"
"My brother will, that's who! If he found out that I was messing with his fiancé's little sister, I'd be dead!"
She smiled at him. "And you're going to tell him?"
Kyle blinked at her. She obviously didn't know Justin all that well. If he were hiding something as big as screwing Adelyn's little sister from his brother, Justin would no doubt pry it out of him. "I wouldn't want to tell him, Evie, but he'd know. He can like read my mind or something, I swear."
She ran her fingers through his hair and gently kissed his lips. "Don't you want me, Kyle?"
"That isn't the issue! Of course I want you... but I'd rather be alive!"
"Do you really think he'll kill you?"
"You don't know Justin!" Kyle insisted. "If I did anything to jeopardize his relationship with Adelyn..."
"What if I promised not to say anything?"
Kyle struggled to sit up, but she held him down. "I thought we were supposed to be studying," he squeaked. "What ever happened to that?"
Evie looked down at the younger man beneath her and sighed. He was making things so difficult! She thought that maybe she was starting to scare him, so she moved off of him and sat back down on the couch. "I'm sorry," she sighed. "I just can't help myself. You're so cute."
Kyle sat up and moved next to her. "Don't be sorry," he said. "It's not your fault. It's not that I don't want to... you know... it's just that I don't think I could face my brother in the morning. Seriously, he'd freak out."
She turned to look at him. He really was adorable. Maybe she could get him after all... "You wouldn't have to tell him, Kyle. What goes on between us is none of their business."
Kyle reached over and took her hand. "You're right," he agreed. "Justin doesn't need to know." The second he said that last word, she had moved back on top of him and was kissing him like crazy. She tore at his clothes until she had his shirt over his head and his pants undone. Kyle shivered, holding her close when he felt her soft skin against his. He knew that he should probably get up, put his clothes back on and leave, but he was a man, after all... and walking away from Evie at that second would practically be a sin in itself.
Chapter 6
Keeping the Peace
Family: Timberlake
Non-Nsync Fiction
I'll Never Stop {Fiction}
Email Me (irishgirl982@yahoo.com)