Elliot's pov
I wished Maude would stop breathing down my neck. It was distracting me from my studies. I hoped leaving the common room for the library would offer me some respite, but I was wrong. It had been well over an hour and I still couldn't move past the first two pages of my book.
"Elliot, I know I saw him this time."
"We both have tests tomorrow," I begged. "Stop smoking whatever you do and take your books out. You nearly failed last year."
"Ahem, I had a two point five two average."
"Yeah." I rolled my eyes. "Close call from having your scholarship revoked."
"Oh, fuck off..." she sighed and plopped down into the seat next to me. "Besides, you're in architecture. What on earth would they test you on?"
"Construction methods, Maude," I deadpanned. "At least this stuff comes to me naturally. What on earth made you choose poli-sci?"
"I can be smart, too!"
"Then study."
With a huff, she took her books out and plunged her nose into them. I sighed in relief and returned to my own books, although the diagrams were beginning to make less sense than before. The library was chilly, and I kind of missed the warmth of the common room. They had coffee there too.
I looked at Maude and wondered if I could sneak away. I loved her, but sometimes she worried too much and gave me anxiety. It was times like these that made me realise why God didn't make us biological siblings. I would've whooped her arse if we lived under the same roof.
There was a sinking feeling in my stomach that she might be right. She'd been going on about seeing a Bennett look-a-like the past two weeks, and there was a small part of me that was starting to believe her. For some reason, I felt nervous about it being true. I wasn't sure why, because it wasn't like Bennett bothered me ever since the tree incident. I barely thought about him since leaving for London either.
All right, that was a lie, but the point was that I wasn't concerned about him as a person. I didn't try rationalising his actions, or think about how he carried me to the hospital, or the way he always got in between me and whoever was trying to beat me up.
He was weird, and sometimes I got curious about people like that. But I couldn't afford any more distractions, and I really needed coffee. Quietly clearing up my space, I snuck away from a sleeping Maude and out of the library. The common room would be around the corner, and I only hoped no one had taken my favourite quiet spot.
Seemed like more students had a break at the same time as I did. However busy the common room was though, it always felt serene to me. It was a room large enough to host up to a hundred people at once, with table games off to one side, board games on the other, a loft, two walls of bookshelves, and another wall of sliding glass doors that lead out onto the schoolyard. I preferred the doors to be open when I sat by them, but I could see it was drizzling again. Someone was playing the keyboard horribly in the loft, but the soft chatter below muffled it.
My eyes scanned the reading spot for the red bean bag chair I would usually occupy, but halted on someone familiar.
"Professor Hendrix?" I said and neared him. He sat at one of the long workbenches overlooking some papers to grade. I would expect him at a teacher's lounge out of all places.
He looked up at me and brightened immediately, "Elliot! I've been waiting for you. How was your break?"
"It was nice," I said. "I did some workshops here and there. Did my last mentee do okay?"
"She was splendid, Elliot. You should consider being a teacher."
Only if I had my mother's patience, I thought before diverting from the topic. "Anything I can help you with? It's unusual to see you here unless..."
It was then I saw there was someone seated next to him hidden behind a book. My heart stopped for a moment, then picked up pace when I noticed the chestnut-coloured hair.
Oh no...
"Elliot, meet Bennett."
"Oh, piss off," I breathed.
"What?"
"Not you, Professor Hendrix."
Dread washed over me as the book dropped away, revealing none other than Bennett himself. The little shite had the nerve to smirk at me.
"Long time no see, Ellie."
I scoffed and crossed my arms. After all these years, I thought he would've changed a little bit. Maybe he would've acquired some decency or decorum, but no. I should've known.
"Left your head back in middle school, Harris?"
"Oh dear," whispered Prof Hendrix. "I'm sorry, Elliot. I wasn't aware you two were acquainted."
"How did you even make it into this university out of all places?" I sneered at Bennett.
He raised his brows at me and cocked his head, "What? Does it have your name written all over it?"
"Now, now," Prof Hendrix said sternly with a roll of paper on my shoulder. "Can we talk privately? It's important."
I grunted and followed the professor away to a corner of the commons room. He seemed apologetic, but also desperate.
"Would it be so bad to mentor him?" he asked.
I shook my head. "That won't be up to me, really. I doubt he'll be very cooperative."
"Bad history?"
"He was a bully."
His mouth parted in shock as disappointment slowly registered across his features. As much as I disliked Bennett, I didn't want Prof Hendrix to have a false view of him.
"Well, it's not like he was violent or anything," I explained. "Just really bothersome. Didn't know when to stop. Emotional terrorism, I guess? He hated that he couldn't shake me."
"Still no excuse, right?" he said softly and looked back at Bennett. "You think he's worth helping?"
I leaned to the side and saw Bennett reading a book. Jane Austen. He seemed pretty immersed. Was he even absorbing anything? It just felt like his head was empty all the time.
I sighed. "I can't believe I'm saying this but...him failing classes is not the punishment he needs."
"Goodness," Prof Hendrix chuckled, "you kids operate strangely these days. So, are you taking him on?"
"Only because you asked. Besides," I glared at Bennett over his shoulder, "I might get to teach him a lesson or two."
I sat silently beside Bennett as he booted up his laptop. How embarrassing it was that my heart was racing. It was out of anxiety, of course. I was on edge, waiting for him to make any kind of move, although I was sure he wasn't stupid enough to do anything in front of people on campus.
Being this jumpy was not my natural state, and certainly not around Bennett. He'd never hit me.
I stole a glance from the corner of my eye. He looked much different than before now. For one, he had a better haircut. His clothes fit him well, although he was simply in cargo trousers and a t-shirt. I looked rather nerdy next to him in tweed pants and a loosely buttoned shirt, but I'd grown into my body from the regular swimming I'd taken on.
"What's with the glasses?" he asked.
"I love looking like a pretentious nerd for the heck of it."
He rolled his eyes and turned the laptop to me. "Here's the next paper I've written. It's more than halfway done, and I doubt Hendrix will grade leniently like last time."
"What'd you get?"
He pulled out some papers from his bag and handed them over.
I scoffed and shook my head. "C plus? No wa–oh goodness, he really was being lenient."
Bennett knocked his knee into mine with a scowl, and I flipped him the bird while reading over the rest. To be frank, I felt a little thrown off because I didn't know Bennett could write so well.
"I mean," I cleared my throat lightly, "this would do really well in a creative writing class...but didn't you fail English in A levels?"
He knocked my knee again and I kicked his shin with a hiss. He grunted, and I admit that I might've intended to hurt him with that.
"Use your words," I scolded him. Almost laughed as I said it because it reminded me of mum when I got cross. "Just answer the question."
"It's irrelevant to the context."
"Fair enough. Are you going to pay attention? Because I'll only go over it once."
He nodded and I sprung into it straight ahead, fixing up his prior submission with sticky notes and placing them in relevant places. He was surprisingly rather attentive, although distasteful.
"That word's too long," he said.
"The sentence becomes longer without it," I argued. "People reading this will already know what it means."
"What about those who don't?"
"Just fuckin' annotate it if you're so concerned, yeah?" I said. "Jesus Christ. I mean, who would wanna read a paper besides an academic?"
"Oh, I don't know," he grumbled. "People whose first language isn't English, maybe? Ever occurred to you that people outside of the UK and the West are scholars too?"
"Well, I'm sure they've studied enough English to understand. If not, helps them learn."
Bennett scoffed, "They don't owe us that."
"They owe themselves that."
"Says the colonizer apologist."
I gasped and looked at him. Did he just imply I was racist?
Sanjana snorted lightly from across us. "He does have a point."
Bennett winked at her, she blushed, and I gaped at both of them.
"Don't fall for it, Sanjana!" I warned her. "It could be performative."
"He's still winning the argument."
I scoffed and went back to fixing his paper. "Fine, he has a point. Sorry for my ignorance."
Sanjana laughed. "A for accountability, Elliot. Good on you."
My phone rang and I answered it to a rather upset Maude. She was yelling.
"You left me alone!" she cried. "What if I'd gotten kidnapped!"
"It's a library, not a bar," I said. "Don't be so dramatic."
"I was still an unconscious and defenceless woman. You know the guys here are pricks! What if someone copped a feel?"
"Right in front of the librarian?"
"Well...I suppose not. Where are you anyway?"
I looked at Bennett who was poring over the corrections I'd made. "I'll let you take a wild guess."
"The common room isn't a wild guess."
"You're in for a surprise either way," I sighed. "Talk to you when you get here."
I tapped on my phone and gestured for his laptop to look at the changes he'd made.
"Huh, you're doing pretty well already. Guess you won't need me after today."
"Don't kid yourself," he said distractedly. "We're not done until I get an A on this."
"I'm sure you can manage," I said
exasperatedly as I got up to leave. I hadn't even stepped away before he grabbed my wrist. I looked at him in shock. "H-hey! Let go of me."
He did, but his hand smacked onto mine, leaving it empty.
My phone was gone.
"Enough with the stupid games, Bennett!" I hissed and crouched down to grab his hand. Where the hell could it have gone? How did he do that?
"You finally graduated to a smartphone, eh?" he teased as he looked at my phone in his other hand. How the hell did it get there? "Good on you, Ellie."
"Piss off."
I reached over for my phone, but he made it disappear again. I almost screamed in frustration as everyone watched us in amusement.
"You'll just have to come back the next day to get it." he grinned lopsidedly and shut his laptop. "Until then, good luck getting around."
With that, he grabbed his stuff and got up to leave. "Oh, hey, Maude." He nodded up at her, "Congratulations on losing the pigtails. You look good."
I turned to see Maude shell-shocked as Bennett passed by her, disappearing out of the common room casually.
Good grief...