Shattered Rose (Winsor Series) - By T L Gray Page 0,51

same, opting instead to make a joke about something he had to memorize for class. I watched him as he studied and wondered how he learned anything. He was constantly fidgeting or messing with his papers. About every fifteen minutes, he would come up with something to ask me or would start telling me something interesting about what he was learning.

I looked at him, feigning exasperation. “I’m not going to get anything done like this!”

“Sorry. I’m a loud studier. I’m done. Not another word.” He made the motion like he was locking his mouth and throwing away the key. I shook my head affectionately and then returned to my books, starting again in chapter one. Back to the basics, I had decided.

I was on my fifth problem in the chapter when Parker leaned over and drew a little smiley face on my paper with the word “hi” underneath it. I looked up and he was looking at me expectantly, almost like a lost little puppy.

“I’ve never seen anyone with such concentration. That was the longest half hour of my life.” I couldn’t help but laugh. I had a whole new appreciation for what Shelia was talking about.

“Let’s get some air,” he offered.

Parker and I always seemed to do our best talking outside. It was like the fresh air rejuvenated us both. The quad was normally packed with students, but today the entire place belonged to only us.

“So, any big plans for Thanksgiving?” he asked as we found a nice spot on the grass and sat down.

“Well, I’ve been suckered into going to Issy’s house to be a buffer between her and her dad. I’m not especially looking forward to it.” I didn’t mention the fact that Jake would be there as well, not wanting to revisit our earlier conversation.

“It’s nice of you to go, though. I get the sense that Issy is lonely.”

I looked at him like he was crazy. “Issy? The girl literally has a phone call or text every second, and I’m not exaggerating. She is anything but lonely.”

“Huh. Maybe your’re right. I just got that vibe the other day. Of course, popularity doesn’t necessarily equate to friendships. It just means you know lots of people.”

I pondered that thought for a minute and then dismissed it, remembering how easily she had dumped Danny the minute she had no more use for him. There was no way that Issy was lonely. Thinking of Danny reminded me of how easily Jake had discarded me and I decided I wanted to change the subject. “What about you? Are you going home?”

“Oh yeah, or the wrath of my mom would overtake me! Actually, I really do love Thanksgiving…almost as much as Christmas, but not quite.” He had a sparkle in his eyes like he was reliving fun, family memories. “We usually have lots of family over and watch football. We also have our annual football game in the afternoon, which can get pretty intense.”

“How so?”

“Well, my mom has two brothers, so between all of us, there are eight testosterone filled guys on the field, and it can get competitive. My first broken bone came from one of those games…I was twelve.”

“You’re kidding! What did you break?”

“My finger.” I started laughing at him. “Ok, so it wasn’t a major injury, but it hurt all the same.” He bumped me with his shoulder and laid back on the grass, covering his eyes to shield from the sun.

“This is one of my favorite things to do. Just lay here in the quad and soak up the heat,” he explained. I followed suit and laid down next to him. I had seen students do this a lot, but never took the time myself to come out here. I always had somewhere I needed to be or something on my mind that I needed to do. Truth was, it was really hard for me to just be still.

The sun felt warm on my face and I could feel the grass through the back of my shirt. It smelled like summer, even though it was cold. The scent of the fresh grass took me back to being a kid, when life was so full of promise and excitement, and part of me wanted to stay there forever.

“I can see why you like it. Do you do this a lot?” I was curious about his thought process. He was so different from anyone I knew.

“I don’t know. It seems to come and go in waves. I enjoy just being