Page 20 of Veiled in Brick

His tone was accusatory.

“What do you think?” I replied, and he snickered to himself while I asked, “How was class?”

“The Exceptional Child was not exceptional,” he told me. “The guy that teaches it talks. So. Slow. The room is always too hot, and it’s right after lunch so I’m all full and warm and it’s like he’s, I dunno, singing me to sleep.”

“Did you?”

“Hmm?”

“Fall asleep, I mean,” I clarified.

“I tried,” he said with a chuckle. “Girl next to me kept elbowing me in the side every time I nodded off.”

It was all so clear in my head:

Liam sits in a lecture hall, leaning back at his desk with arms crossed over his stomach. Sleepy-eyed as a deep-voiced man drones on, pointing at words written in chalk at the front of the classroom, his blonde head dips lower and lower until his chin finally rests on his chest. A pretty brunette sits next to him, eyeing him as his eyes drift closed, and she whispers his name to catch his attention. He doesn’t stir, and she anxiously glances to the head of the class and back to him, hissing his name a bit louder to no avail. Finally, she reaches over and pokes at his waist. Liam flinches, his head snaps to hers, she smiles at him, and this turns into a cycle that they repeat every time class is held.

I shifted in my seat. “Got yourself a savior there?”

“Who, Kelsey?”

“Kelsey?” Her name left a bad taste in my mouth.

Liam rolled his eyes, muttering, “Don’t even get me started on Kelsey,” and then took a long pull from his beer.

“Yeah, saying that makes me want to get you started on Kelsey,” I quipped.

He groaned. “She’s just…always there.”

“Is she, now?”

“Mhm, she’s in most of my classes. Sits next to me in all of them.”

His lips pursed together in distaste, and I cooed, “Does Kelsey have a crush on you?”

“If she does,” he sighed and grumbled, “it’s my own fuckin’ fault.”

“Why’s that?”

Liam chortled, “Nuh uh.”

I set down my cider on the coffee table with purpose. “What do you mean nuh uh?”

“I mean we don’t need to talk about it,” he stated with a laugh. “Semester’s over in a few weeks. She’ll go away.”

I narrowed my eyes at his attempted deflection. I was well aware of Liam’s reputation to be a bit of a playboy for it was one of the commonalities that we shared, and the way that his gaze darted around the room made my mind go straight to the inevitable.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing—”

“Liam.”

His voice hitched up high. “It’s nothing!”

“Oh my God!” I shrieked, my eyes widening with the dawning realization of his non-admission.

He cringed. “Don’t look at me like that, Zo’—”

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