Page 109 of Facing the Line

I shrug like her name doesn’t bother me, doesn’t rip my heart into shreds. “Hadley’s a great girl. I want the best for her. I put myself out there, and she said no. End of story.”

It sounds like Hunter mutters, “Dumbass,” under his breath, but he’s not getting involved, so I can’t be sure.

Evan pats my shoulder. “I’m sorry, dude. I liked you guys together.”

I did, too. I liked who I was with her, who I had the potential to be. But that’s over and it’s time to move on. Maybe the hollow feeling inside my chest will go away soon. At least I’ll be smart about it and stop trying to fill it with hockey.

Chapter

Forty-Eight

HADLEY

Hunter: I’m not getting involved but…

Hunter: What’s going on with you and Jonas?

Hadley: I thought you weren’t getting involved?

Hunter: I lied.

Leaning back in my chair, I close my eyes and stretch my arms over my head. We’ve been sitting at this table in the library for hours—but in reality it has probably only been twenty minutes. Twenty minutes with these guys feels like forever, though.

The computer science department is big on group projects and collaboration. Maybe if I had known that when I started, I wouldn’t have picked this major, because most of mycollaborators are arrogant jerks. Our assignment is to design, create, and set up a website for a potential client—any product of our own choosing.

After much debate, we finally settled on making a fake site for Starbucks. Coffee was about the only thing we could agree on.

When I blink my eyes open, I catch my classmates sharing a lecherous glance. I hurry to pull my shirt down and cover my midriff.

“Um, since we’ve got that figured out, where do you want to start?” I ask. My group members, Braden and Jackson, shift their belongings around our table. Braden busies himself with opening his laptop, and Jackson twirls his pen.

“Well, you’re primarily interested in design, right?” Braden asks, adjusting his glasses. His wispy blond hair is cut too long, and he reminds me of a shaggy dog. “So what if we do the heavy lifting on the coding and you make it pretty?”

They share another glance, this one condescending.Don’t give the little girl a hard jobtype of thing. My blood boils.

“Graphics and visualization is way more than making things look good.”

“Of course it is, Hadley.” Jackson uses what must be his soothing voice. “Braden didn’t mean to be a dick.”

Does that mean he can’t help being what he is?

Either way, I have to get through this group project, so I sigh. “Okay, let’s assign roles and make some progress. I have other places to be tonight.”

What sort of guys would plan to spend a Friday night in the library working on a project? These two.

Braden snorts. “Yeah, we know you have a busy social life.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I shoot back, offended by his derivative tone.

“Nothing,” Jackson rushes to say. “It’s fine you have plans. We’ll work for another hour and then wrap things up.”

Seething inside, I press my lips together and manage not to gouge out Braden’s eyeballs. Did I say I hated jocks? Turns out maybe I hate computer science guys, too.

Or maybe there can be guys who are jerks in every area, and guys who are awesome. Maybe stereotypes are useless.

I pop in one earbud and listen to Taylor on low. If they have questions, I’ll hear them, but I also don’t fully commit to listening to them, either. I get in the zone, typing and coding, figuring out the math and coming up with possibilities.

It’s not terrible, once I can ignore Braden. It’s gonna take some work, and unfortunately more collaboration with my group members, but we can do this. It’s fulfilling in a way I didn’t expect.

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