Falling Up

7. Little Lamb

"Hey Jenson, how's it going?" asked Kain, grabbing his hand in a strong friendly handshake. "How's your dad doing?"

"Yeah man, he's doing good. His leg is back on the mend, thanks for asking," replied Jenson. "What brings you to this class anyway? Computer science is a far cry from a Fundamentals of Human Behaviour class."

"Thought I would take up a few extra classes this year," replied Kain. "Call it a personal interest."

Jenson laughed. "Man, I don't know how you do it. Football, computer science and now extra classes. Not only that but you're practically acing everything, or so I heard."

Kain merely shrugged. "Nah man, there are plenty of people well ahead of me. I'm just getting by."

At that point the professor started talking, hushing the students in the class and Riley was glad for the conversation to end. She didn't want to hear anymore about how great Kain was or anything about him. He was acting like a jerk towards her and his bipolar personality was grating on her. How could he be so nice to others but act like a stuck up jerk to her?

Maybe it was something she did. She tried to be nice and polite to everyone that she passed. Or least she thought she had been. The only other encounter they really had was yesterday when he knocked the books out of her hand. Maybe he was still mad at her for overhearing her call him a jerk even though he didn't even apologise for bumping into her.

She tore her focus away from Kain and pulled it back to the professor as she wrote on the whiteboard in front of her attempting to explain the fundamentals of human behaviour.

The class was pretty interesting and it was the right call for her. Her goal was to become a social worker and help families and children's suffering from domestic violence. She wanted to help as many families as she could to escape the torment that her and her brothers went through. It didn't pay the best but it was the right decision for her. And she was just thankful that she felt like she had a purpose and a direction forward. She was so much more different than the Riley of two years ago.

Class went by pretty quick and as soon as it began it was over. They were dismissed and she pushed her books and pens back in her bag. As she shuffled out of her seat, Kain did the same, saying goodbye to his friend Jenson.

She managed to navigate out of the classroom first, heading down the hallway with the other students and Kain following close behind. Even though he was probably just walking in the same direction he still made her feel uncomfortable and she could feel his presence behind her. She walked a little faster, turning a corner when she came across a girl, trying to carry a mountain of files in front of her and open a door.

"Here, let me help," said Riley without even thinking about it, trying to stop the girl from dropping everything on the floor as she juggled the files in her hand.

Riley grabbed the top files from the pile before pushing open the door to an empty science lab.

"Thank you so much," she said a little bit frazzled as she plonked the files on one of the desks.

"Anytime," smiled Riley as she headed back to the door saying goodbye to the girl. She pulled open the heavy door, stepping back into the hallway only to bump into the one guy she was trying to avoid.

"Shit," she cursed, trying to avoid Kain's eyes. She really needed to start watching where she was going. This was the second time today she had literally run into him.

The door automatically shut behind her, leaving her trapped between Kain, who didn't even budge at the contact and the door. He paused for a moment before lifting a hand and placing it behind her on the door.

"Listen up princess," he almost spat, looking down at Riley. "Don't think I can't see through this little act you have going on."

Riley confused as she gripped the edge of her bag which was poking into her shoulder. She wasn't liking him towering over her at all. "I'm sorry, what?"

"You're just begging for attention from everyone aren't you," he said, reaching up his hand to her arm. She could see what he was doing as his fingers were inches away from trailing along her cuts on her forearm.

She wacked his hand away from her, shocked that he would consider doing such a thing and ducked under his arm, itching to get away.

"Jerk," she seethed back over her shoulder.

She was still shaken up a bit as she walked faster, proceeding to the parking lot. It was still pretty early in the afternoon but she didn't have any other classes that day so she went to the parking lot texting Jason to come and pick her up.

Sitting down on the wooden bench she let out a breath of relief. What a jerk. How could Kain be so obnoxious to think it was okay for him to invade her personal space like that. Getting close enough to almost touch her cuts. Not that she felt he was going to hurt her or anything but it was a sensitive subject for her that she didn't need reminding of. And besides she didn't even know the guy.

She was brought out of her thoughts when she heard a honk of a horn and looking up she already saw Jason in the parking lot. Bouncing off her seat she opened the passenger side door and slid in.

"How was your day?" asked Jason as she dropped her bag on the back seat.

"Good," she responded, trying to focus on the good parts of her day rather than her run in with Kain. "You got here faster than I expected."

"I was already on my way when you texted," he smiled, putting the car into gear.

"How did your job hunt go?" he asked curiously when they were on the open road.

"Oh yeah, great actually. I got a job at the coffee shop on campus. I started tomorrow," she beamed. "Mostly mornings I think."

Jason reached over to ruffle her hair. "Congrats kiddo."

They chatted back and forth about their day, casually laughing when Jason told her about how Noah fell over into a bucket of oil. She could just imagine him covered in greasy slime while Jason laughed his ass off at him.

She was so engrossed in his retelling of the event that she almost missed it when Jason didn't take their usual turn back home and she curiously looked out at the window.

"Where are we heading?" she asked.

Jason's face lit up with a smile. "The tattoo shop."