Page 42 of Lessons in Chemistry

“Never.” Emory raises his chin and rolls his shoulders back. “I had a one hundred per cent attendance rate at school.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes.”

I rub my hair. “Fuck. You put me to shame.”

He tilts his head. “Wait. You said you went to boarding school.”

“Yes.”

“How did you miss school when you were already there?”

I laugh and fake a cough. “I can be very convincing when I want to be.”

“But why?”

“I didn’t enjoy school. Iced coffee?”

He looks past me to the lecture theatre door.

“Fine. I’ll sit through the lecture with you, and then you can come for coffee with me. You are a bad influence, Emory.”

“A bad influence? I think I’m a good influence.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“You haven’t done the reading, have you?”

“There was reading?”

“There’s always reading.”

I doodle through the lecture while Emory takes copious notes and puts his hand up to answer every question. Listening to him wow the lecturer is the highlight of an otherwise boring hour. Afterwards, we walk into town to an independent coffee shop I like, and I order us drinks.

“I don’t know how you can drink iced coffee in November,” I say.

“It’s warm in here.”

“Yes, but it’s cold out there.”

“I don’t like hot coffee.”

“Who doesn’t like hot coffee?”

He glances out the window. “Casey doesn’t drink coffee at all.”

“Wow. How does he survive?”

“I have no idea. Maybe that’s why he’s tired all the time. Not enough caffeine. Or maybe it’s all the training he does.” He rests his chin on his hand.

I graze my fingers over his arm. “What happened last night?”

I know what Casey said he was going to do, but the nice part of me hopes he caved and was as open and honest with Emory as he was with me. The not-so-nice part of me hopes he stuck to his word, leaving the door open for me to swoop in and pick up the pieces. That part of me is a real jerk at times.

“He told me he doesn’t love me,” Emory says in a miserable tone. “So you were right. I have a bad case of unrequited love.”

“I’m sorry.” My stomach churns.