The Project

Chapter 4- Give it a try

Sierra finished putting in the due dates and went out in the common area of her dorm to see what Lilian was doing.

"I know, I just miss you so much." Lilian complained. Sierra heard mumbles coming from the other end of the phone. She leaned against the wall outside her room and continued listening to Lilian's conversation. "You should come down for a visit. I'd love to see you." Lilian said. Sierra heard more responding grumbles. "You know I haven't done any cardio here, you could totally come down and help with that." Lilian said with a sly grin. Sierra decided to announce herself in the room by clearing her throat to prevent further dirty talk.

"Oh hey Sierra! Say hi to Andy!"

Sierra leaned in close to the phone and waved at Andy on the screen, "Hey Andy!"

"Hey, Andy I'm going to go and hang with Sierra for a bit. Call you tonight, love you!" Lilian said while hanging up the facetime call.

"We should absolutely go to the dining hall, I heard they have some really good quinoa and you know that's my favorite! We could also finally talk about that boy Dean." Lilian said eagerly.

"Okay so, we can go to the dining hall so you can eat some really good quinoa, but we are NOT going to talk about Dean. There's nothing that needs to be said about him, other than the fact that he is so obnoxious."

"Yeah, we need to unpack that. Let's go before you change your mind."

Once they reach the dining hall, grab their bowls of quinoa and jerked baked salmon, they sit at a table and talk while they eat.

"Wow you were right, this is really good. Not to mention how good the salmon is and I usually don't like fish." Sierra exclaimed. "See, told you!" Lilian said loudly.

"Okay now let's get to business. You and Dean." Lilian began. She watched as Sierra's lips parted to say something, but she kept talking to preemptively cut Sierra off. "There is a total attraction there, because there's no way you both annoy each other so much. I think there are repressed feelings of attraction there, for sure."

In an attempt to cut the talk of Dean out of the conversation Sierra avoided Lilian's point completely, no matter if it was un-true or true.

"Wow, okay you're acting like a psychology major right now." Sierra said with an uninterested look.

Lilian sighed frustratedly since she knows what Sierra is trying to do. She knows that every time there is a tough conversation or something Sierra does not want to address she ignores the point and responds with something irrelevant.

To avoid tension between the friends Lilian decided to change the topic to new music and then they began talking about the new assignments beginning to pile up. They continued to complain about school and make their way out of the dining hall and Sierra holds open the door to two boys coming in.

Dean's Pov

Dean and Thomas make their way into the dining hall, but are instantly met by Sierra and her friend. Thomas immediately thanks Sierra for holding the door open and smiles at her. Dean just looks at her and then in the awkwardness decides to look down.

Sierra whispers to her friend, but fails "he could've said thank you. See what I mean about the rudeness."

Dean rolls his eyes while Thomas stifles a giggle.

"You know she has a point, you could just start being nice and respectful towards her and both of you guy's despisal for each other might just disappear." Thomas states. "Yeah well you're right, I COULD. I won't because she should started it first. Whether you believe it or not she started it in class by being petty." retorts Dean. "I mean she held the door. She could've let it go when she saw you. Be positive." Thomas said. "Yeah, I don't care." Dean said.

Thomas decided to drop it since it was obviously a pointless conversation.

The boys kept walking and they circled the dining hall looking at all the options. As they were walking they ran into Jess and Devin. Thomas spotted them first by catching a glimpse of Devin. He stared at her in awe, stuck in a trance because of her immense beauty. He stared at her until she came over to the boys with Jess at her side and spoke.

"Oh hey, Dean." Devin said sweetly. "Hi, Thomas." Devin said plainly. Jess gave an excited wave to both the boys. Dean waved at the girls and gave a small grin towards his sister. "Hey, Devin," Thomas said shyly.

Dean and Jess left the group and made their way towards the salmon line. "Why is Thomas being so weird?" Jess asked. "How should I know?" Dean said as he shrugged. "Um, maybe because he's your best friend." Jess retorted. Dean shrugged again and grabbed his food. He didn't think Thomas was acting weird, he knew Thomas had a crush on Devin, but knew he couldn't tell his sister because she would immediately tell Devin.

The group ate together and talked about various things, but since the group dynamic was imbalanced the whole dinner,  per usual Devin stole glances at Dean while Thomas did the same thing but he was looking at Devin. Jess and Devin didn't notice Thomas while Dean didn't notice Devin. Everyone in the world who knew this group personally knew about Devin's adoration for Dean, except Dean himself.

Thomas never told Dean about Devin's crush like any other best friend would since he liked Devin. He never wanted there to be a chance that Dean and Devin got together since that would destroy his chance of being with Devin. He knew it was selfish, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He prayed to himself everyday hoping she would never confess her feelings to Dean because he knew that might mean he would not have a chance to be with her.

The group finished eating and headed once again to the boy's dorm to hangout for the rest of the evening. As they reached the common area of the boy's dorm their roommate was sitting on the couch and asked, "Did you guys go to the dining hall without me?" The boys responded in unison, "Sorry dude." Their roommate once again stormed off to his room muttering under his breath.

The group sat and talked until the topic of Sierra was brought up. "So what's this whole deal with that girl from your English class?" Jess asked Dean. Devin sat up thinking there's another girl in his life and she might be competition. Thomas spoke up and answered Jess. "It's actually our waitress from the cafe. She called him out on his rude behavior and he didn't like that so they have some kind of beef now, even though they are partners for a semester-long project."

Devin was not put at ease with Thomas' answer because their waitress from the cafe was very pretty and now they would be together the whole semester.

"Okay, I could've answered my sister's question myself. Thank you Thomas." Dean said sassily. Thomas nodded sarcastically in response. Dean continued, "You also make it seem like I started this whole ordeal, to clarify I didn't. She's petty and annoying and just today she made rude remarks to her friend about me. To make matters worse I have to sit by her tomorrow for class and then meet up later to work on our project."

Devin was put at ease with Dean's response from what he said he doesn't even like her so she marked Sierra off as a non-threat.

Dean continued to complain about Sierra and the English class as the group groaned and tuned him out. After Dean finished complaining they played a few games of Uno, then the boy played Call of Duty while the girls talked and fantasized about their future New York high rises and future pets. By 1:00am the boys walked the girls across campus to their dorm and went back to their own and headed to bed, unenthusiastic about waking up early for class.