Wonderland

❅H8❅ Still The Loner That I Am

Chapter Eight

Heather

Still The Loner That I Am

 

October 13

The air was starting to get colder, the trees starting to lose their color. I made my way over to the HUB with a hood over my head, hating how my hair was lashing against my face because of the wind.

Isabelle promised to meet me there for lunch today. Of the weeks I’ve known her, we’ve become really close. We do a lot of things together. Even though we’re both in different majors and have different course loads, we always set aside time during the week to hang out.

Aside from our study sessions, I rarely see Brayden now. He’s been hanging with Berkeley, Kane, and this one guy he met in his chemistry class more often. Actually, if I’m going to be honest, I skip out on my and Brayden’s study sessions sometimes. That’s because Berkeley joins us almost every time, and whenever she and Brayden are together, studying, they end up talking ninety percent of the time, getting little work done. I like to finish my work early, and since I was already starting to struggle in my math class, I decided that working by myself in the math study center was better than working with Brayden and his new girlfriend.

Okay, so maybe they aren’t officially a thing yet, but I know their relationship was inevitable. I can see how much Berkeley likes him. She’s always finding ways to touch him during our study sessions—not like I have anything against her touching Brayden; I just don’t like it when people express too much PDA in front of me.

Whenever I ask Brayden about his feelings for her, he always tells me that she’s all right, and that he only sees her as a friend.

“I could never date someone as annoying and clingy as her,” he told me, when I had asked him that question a few days ago. “And plus, Tyler and I are trying to build a robotic spider virus and invade the world some day; I’m not entering into any relationship until I’ve got that built.”

Ha! Yeah right. I secretly think Brayden likes her. He blushes whenever I mention her name. If that’s not crushing on someone, then I don’t know what it is. I somehow think she’s grown on him, but Brayden’s just too stubborn to admit that he actually likes someone. Oh, and also for the fact that he likes to work around questions that make him uncomfortable. I could tell that me asking him about Berkeley was making him exactly that.

“Hey, Heath!” Isabelle said, when I approached her at the table she was sitting.

I smiled. “Hey, Belle.” Of the few weeks we’ve known each other, we were already calling each other by our nicknames. (‘Heath,’ by the way, rhymes with ‘breath.’ It’s not pronounced as heeth.)

“Gosh, I rarely see you in our dorm now. I hope you aren’t ditching me for your other friends.”

“No, I’ve just been busy,” I said, truthfully. To be honest, unlike Brayden, I had a hard time making new friends here. Besides Brayden and Isabelle, I haven’t met anyone else. I guess some of my shyness hasn’t fully faded away. Sometimes, I hate myself for being so introverted.

But then again, I haven’t been out much, interacting with people—I’ve been studying more than I have been attending social events.

“Oh, well, in that case, you’re excused,” Isabelle joked. “Anyway, how was your day, darling?”

“Terrible. I didn’t get the math lecture,” I said, glumly. I was starting to worry about my first midterm, which was approaching fast. I just wasn’t getting any of the math we were doing. I’m a slow learner, too, which sucks, because college math classes literally teach you a new topic every lecture.