Shatter (True Believers #4)(3)
Author: Erin McCarthy

“In volleyball, yes. But it doesn’t have that meaning off the court.” It was a teasing slur that could be interpreted in a thousand ways depending on the circumstances, but I wasn’t going to spell it out for him.

He glanced down behind my chair. “I think your butt is fine.”

That’s what I got for bringing up my butt in the first place. My tutor giving me a lame compliment to shut me up so we could get back to atoms and whatnot. “Thanks. Am I supposed to call you Darwin or Jonathon?”

“Whichever one you like. I answer to both.”

“I’ll test them both out and make a decision,” I said to him, standing up. “I’m going to grab a latte, Darwin, can I get you anything?”

He smiled, his mouth turning up like he was fighting the urge to laugh. “Sure. I’ll take coffee. Black. Costa Rican blend. Thanks, Kylie.”

I dug in my backpack for my wallet and he tried me to hand me five dollars but I shook my head. “It’s on me. For helping me. It’s the least I can do.” Especially considering I was a totally hopeless case.

He nodded. “Thanks. And hey, we’ll just divide the material into the major components and break it down one section at a time. You’ll be fine. You’ll ace this.”

Sigh. I used to be optimistic like that. When the earth was younger, and I hadn’t been cheated on by the guy I’d given my heart and the key to my back door to.

CHAPTER TWO

Two hours later my head was spinning, but I at least had a game plan for further studying. Darwin/Jonathon had shown me that the class was divided into elements, mixtures, compounds, gases, and measurements. He subdivided each of those for me into additional categories and talked me through every definition and gave example formulas, which I almost maybe understood if I squinted and thought really hard.

I had three days before my exam so if I spent every waking moment between now and then reading the notes over and over and over again, I might pass. Maybe.

But I was getting a little loopy. While he was in the bathroom I was going through some online study sites and I found a bunch of chemistry jokes. I couldn’t help it. I copied one and e-mailed it to him.

He was looking at his phone as he came out. “Did you just e-mail me while I was in the restroom?”

He really was cute. It just wasn’t right. His jeans fit the way they were supposed to and I found it interesting that he only needed a T-shirt in November. His tattoo was a complex sleeve of numbers and diagrams.

I nodded. “Yes, I did, Jonathon.” I was still testing his dual-personality names.

He gave a low, husky laugh as he settled back into his chair while reading his screen. “Really, Kylie?”

My head was propped with my palm and I smiled, feeling comfortable with him. He smelled good. Like coffee and clean.

“What did one ion say to the other?” he read back to me, even though I knew what it said since I’d sent it. “I’ve got my ion you.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. It was stupid, and even I understood it.

To his credit, he laughed with me. “See? Chemistry is fun.”

“Oh yeah. It’s a laugh riot. Hey, what do you do with a dead chemist?” I asked him, glad to rest my brain for a minute. I was a little afraid it was smoking from overheating.

“You barium.”

No way. He’d heard this one before. “Damn it! How did you know the answer?”

He tapped his temple. “Me use my head.”

“Well, Darwin.” I let the nickname roll off my tongue. I still wasn’t sure which one suited him better. “I guess I should let you get back to your regularly scheduled life. Thanks for all your help.”

“You’re welcome.” He efficiently packed up all his stuff. “You’ll do fine on this exam as long as you don’t panic.”

Easy for him to say. “So what all is in your tattoo?” I asked, reaching out and running my finger along his arm, over the maze of numbers.

He looked startled that I had touched him and I realized that probably wasn’t appropriate. But I came from a touchy-feely family and I had always been someone who reached out and made contact without any thought about it. I hugged my friends, I put my hands on arms when I spoke to people, I squeezed knees. If I liked you—and it was rare I met someone I truly didn’t like—I touched. The me before the RAN incident wouldn’t have even thought twice about it, but now I suddenly felt like I needed to apologize or something. Like he would think I was hitting on him.

But he just started pointing out parts of his sleeve. “The periodic table of the elements. Avogrado’s number. The molecular graphic for propane.”

After that, I couldn’t follow any more. “But won’t professors think you’re cheating? If you have stuff on your arm?”

The smile he gave me was patronizing. I don’t think he meant it to be, but his answer told me how clearly stupid my question was. “When you’re studying reactions kinetics and advanced nucleic biochemistry you don’t need to cheat on basic chem.”

“Oh.” I felt heat in my cheeks. Most of the time, I was perfectly happy with who I was. But then there were other times, like then, where I just didn’t want to be the dumb blonde. Just once, I wanted to be taken seriously, instead of having everyone think I was cute, but ten IQ points off from needing the short bus. “Duh.”

“In between are dates representing people and events that are important to me. My birthday. My mom’s birthday. The first time I—” He looked up and gave me a grin. “Well, you get the idea.”

So genius or not, he was still like any other guy. Needing to brag. “Are you seriously telling me you inked the date you lost your virginity on your arm?”

“I never said that.”

But he did wink at me, and I thought he was actually growing even cuter the longer I sat with him. “Honestly, it should look like a total mess, but the artist did a really good job. It’s very cool.”

“Thank you.” He pushed his chair back. “You ready to head out?”

“Sure.” I stood up and pulled my coat off the chair.

“Do you have any tattoos?” he asked.

“No. I do have a piercing, though.”

“Belly button?”

“No.” Let him interpret that however he wanted to.

His eyebrows shot up. “Are you telling me you have your love button pierced?”

I laughed. “Love button? And I never said that.” I winked back at him after echoing his words.