So F*cking Special: 1996 (Book 1, The So F*cking Special Series)

Crash Into Me Part 2

"Well, I won't keep you. I just needed to drop this by. Mrs. Keagan left Adrian's assignment with a few equations marked. I can show you the ones she mentioned." The oven door shut, and Beverly looked at me strangely again.

"Are you kidding? If you think I could relay the Greek that woman has you all speaking to each other, well then, I'm flattered. Go on up, he's in there. He can't really go anywhere else right now." She chuckled at her own bad joke, then made a pity face.

I took my time up the stairs, trying to control my nerves. I had no clue what to expect. I took a deep breath, crept down the hall, and tapped on his door.

"It's open." My heart skipped a beat at the sound of a voice I recognized. Just act naturally, whatever that is with him. I stepped through the door and met his eyes. He was sitting on his bed against the headboard in boxers and a t-shirt with his freshly scarred knee straightened out. A large brace lay open beside him.

"Hey." I threw out the first word. He stared back at me as I stepped further into his room, motioning toward the notebook in my hand to immediately establish why I was there. "Reagan didn't get to pick up the assignment before she left, and Lynn had already left for work, so..." Steady. Keep it professional, friendly, but professional. I steadied myself through a beat of silence and no response from him. He was still staring at me.

I couldn't help but notice how meticulous his room was. I knew he was a perfectionist, but good God, did a teenager really live there? It was spotless, apart from a change of clothes tossed on the floor between the door and his bed, but I didn't think that was the norm. He obviously couldn't pick up after himself with his knee. Everything else was in strict order.

Usually when you walk into one of your peers' bedrooms you glimpse what they were like as a kid. An adolescent poster on the wall, ribbons, and trophies from random activities you didn't know they were involved in. Horses, teddy bears, and medals, at least girls still held onto a lot of that memorabilia.

Adrian's room looked like it belonged to an adult. A seasoned bachelor if you will. Everything was organized. Even his bookshelf was sexy. It didn't have stray sheets of paper sticking out of books that they were trapped between or random knick-knacks cluttering the spare spaces. I had to look away from it before I lingered too long and learned it was in alphabetical order.

He had no distractions other than a TV. This was obviously why he was so successful at everything he did. I felt a little inferior, thinking of my own room or rooms since I straddled two houses. I had my own bedroom at my grandparents' house and another a few houses down, in a house Mom and I were seldom home to occupy.

Compared to him, I lived in chaos and complete disarray. It was cozy chaos, though, and I handled it well. I always knew if I had one earring at my grandparents' and another at my house or if the missing curler to my hot rollers was in a drawer in my grandparents' guest bathroom from when I changed there for a football game.

Still, I had a sinking feeling that this might be why I was such a "Jack of all trades, master of none."

"What are you wearing?" Finally. It was shitty, but at least he said something.

"I have work. I was just on my way there."

"What kind of work?" He was relentless, and I was visibly annoyed with his disdain for me.

"The guard meeting at Prairie City Pool where I work if you must know. What does it matter?"

"You'd go to a job interview dressed like that?"

"I already have the job, and it's a swimming pool, not a law office or nursing home. Everyone there either just got out of the water or is about to go in it. No one's in a suit and tie, trust me."