Page 26 of Alive and Kicking
Telling this girl that doesn’t seem right though, so I just settle on the truth. “They’re mine.”
Her eyes widen as they ping pong between Zane and Sloane. “Both of them?”
“Yep!” Zane says with a manic grin as he pops the P.
The girl’s eyes focus back on me, and she doesn’t actually look jealous or upset by that announcement. She looks impressed. “Go girl!” she cheers.
My cheeks warm at the praise. The other girl though, looks like she just sucked on a lemon. I think I need to figure out the red-haired girl’s name, I like her. Sandy introduced them when they all sat down but I promptly disregarded their names when they set their eyes on Sloane. Now I feel like maybe I was too quick to judge. Well, one of them at least. Maybe I could end upwith two friends and we could have sleepovers and girls nights. The possibilities are endless.
Zane distracts me from my train of thought when he looks down at his phone. “We’ve got to get to class.”
I pout, but gather up my stuff as Sandy give’s me a big smile. “I’ll see you later. We will definitely be talking about this later,” she says, using one finger to incorporate Zane, Sloane, and I in a circular motion.
I give her a sheepish smile. I guess we do need to have a talk. She should know that I have no problems removing fingers if any of her friends try to touch one of my guys. I let Sloane thread his fingers through mine when we walk away from the table, but he doesn’t get to walk very far with us before he’s pulling away to head in the opposite direction. “I’ll see you at home,” he tells me softly, leaning in to press a kiss to my lips.
When he leaves us, Zane takes up the hand that Sloane was holding, grinning at me, and walks me all the way to Cain’s classroom. It’s in a connecting building to the one his class is in, but he still goes out of his way to walk me to mine. It’s sweet and I enjoy the extra time it gives me with him. We used to spend a lot of time one on one, but after moving into the apartment above their house, I don’t get to see Zane alone that often. I need to make more time to spend with each of them individually.
When we stop outside of Cain’s class, he leans in to press a firm kiss to my lips. I nip his bottom lip and grin at him when he pulls away with narrowed eyes. “See you later.” I smile manically, ducking into the classroom before he can get revenge.
Cain is sitting behind his desk with a bored expression on his face. I feel like celebrating when I see that the desk I sat in last year in the front row is still open. Maybe I can convince Cain to edge me for a few hours after class in his office. I sit down to start pawing through my bag to get my text book and notebook out. I’m really excited for this class. Last year it was just anintroductory class on the subject, but now we get to dive into theory.
When the clock strikes eight-thirty exactly, Cain gets to his feet. The class room quiets down as his eyes sweep over the room. “I’m Dr. Price, and this is Criminology Theory. As ‘Intro to Criminology’ is a prerequisite to this class, I know that you’ve all gotten a run through of the basics. In this class we will talk more of the schools of thought within Criminology as well as touch on the factors of criminal behavior and the role of the criminal justice system. This class will be much harder than the introductory class. So if you struggled to get through that, I suggest you rethink taking this one. You’ve got two weeks to drop a class. Don’t miss the deadline if that’s what you need to do. For now, I’m going to hand out the syllabus and we’ll go over it.”
He steps toward his desk and grabs a stack of papers. He goes to the row of desks on the opposite side of the room and thumbs through the stack before setting a small stack on the first desk of each row for them to pass back. When he finally get’s to our row, I grab a paper and pass the rest back. My eyes skim over the paper as he goes back to the front of the room, and I’m excited about all of the points on this syllabus.
We’ll even be learning about criminal deviance. I have a sociology class centered around deviance after this one so I should be able to learn a lot in there that I can use for that week of this class. I’m excited to get back to my regularly scheduled programing. As long as nobody throws any more wrenches into my plan, I won’t need to go on a murder spree.
For the rest of the class, Cain takes the time to go over the syllabus before setting us free to read our first chapter. “I want you to read through the first chapter and write a paragraph, in your own words, on what exactly the scope of criminal inquiry is and what purpose it serves.”
We have plenty of time to read through the first chapter, and I’m already halfway through my paragraph when he dismisses us. I gather my things without glancing at Cain. I’m trying this whole ‘I’m not obvious, you are’ thing, and so far it’s working as long as I don’t stare at my professor with giant moony eyes. Though most of the girls do that so I probably wouldn’t stick out. In the hall, I find my favorite seating area and relax into one of the chairs to keep writing my paragraph.
I’ve just finished when my phone starts to vibrate. Looking around, I notice that there’s nobody near me, so I slip it out of my pocket and smile. “Hey.” I say softly, glancing around once more to be sure I’m not disturbing anyone.
“Hey. How’s your first day back?” Nox asks.
I can hear the clicking of keys in the background, so he must be working. “It’s pretty good actually. I just got done with Price’s class, and next I have Bowing.” I tell him, using Cain’s last name just in case anyone is listening.
“You’re going to get that poor man’s hopes up. He’s going to think you’re considering switching,” Nox tells me with a laugh.
I lean back in my seat. “I like sociology, I just don’t see myself majoring in it.”
Nox is great at sociology, so I’m going to enjoy picking his brain about my classes this year. I’m still surprised that he didn’t major in something to do with computers. He said something about how you shouldn’t mess with perfection. But I guess anything a college course could teach him wouldn’t really help with his shady business dealings.
Nox hums in response to my words and we sit in silence for a moment. “How’s work?” I ask.
“It’s okay. Boring for the most part. I’m just doing background information today. It’ll be more exciting when I move into surveillance,” he tells me.
I’m okay at hacking, but I just know it would be an experience to watch Nox work. I can hack into some mid-tier websites, but I’m sure Nox would be able to get through government quality firewalls. “Need any help with that?” I ask innocently.
Nox pauses for a moment. “Sure. I usually bring Sloane but I should try to keep him away from my priority case for as long as possible. We could turn it into a date and do something after?”
I chuckle at that. “A little B and E before dinner? Sounds exciting.”
Nox snorts and I grin. I’m going to miss not having him around during class hours. Nox sighs like he can hear my thoughts and is frustrated about it too. “It does sound fun. Maybe on Saturday if you’re free. Also, if you get through this week without stabbing anyone, I’ll teach you how to make beer cheese and pretzels sometime this weekend.”
My mouth forms a small ‘o’ at that, but then I promptly frown. “What if they really deserve it?”
Nox grunts out an exasperated breath. “We’ll put it up to the house for a vote.”
