AN: If anyone wants to discuss my writing or anything else with me, feel free. I'd love to chat. I check my messages semi frequently here, but I'm on Tumblr and Twitter more often, same name. I love to read reviews, and I appreciate the fact that it takes time and effort to write them. So, even if they aren't always complimentary, I'm going to post them. :) I hope you enjoy Chapter 2.

Chapter 2

October 1986

Henry walked to the basement of the library. He was swallowing his pride in a big way, not that the math tutor would know that, but it pained him greatly to ask for help. He was six weeks into classes and was struggling. With everything. Henry quickly realized how much slack his high school teachers had given him. He was reasonably smart, but because he always had a job, and perhaps a rough homelife-although he hated to think that anyone knew about that-his teachers were quick to give him extensions or give him a second chance if he didn't do something well enough the first time. Henry didn't know at the time, but they were doing him a disservice.

College professors didn't care about your excuses and they left it up to the students to figure out what they needed to do. There was no hand holding at UVA. That's what brought him to the tutoring center. He was falling behind in his College Algebra class. In order to keep his ROTC and academic scholarships, he needed to keep his grades up. Failing was not an option because he was not going back home. His pride could go to hell because Henry McCord was not going to fail.

He gently knocked on the door before pushing it open fully. "Come on in," the voice beckoned. Henry stepped inside and set his backpack down. The tutor had her back to him, digging in a file cabinet. "Go ahead and have a seat. I just need to get the file out. You have Professor Jacobs, right?"

"Yes, that's correct." He sat down and pulled his books out. She turned to sit down beside him and they recognized each other instantly. Elizabeth knew immediately he was the guy she almost hit on move in day, but Henry didn't really see who was in the car. He remembered her from her lonesome trek back and forth across the Quad later that day. "I'm Henry McCord. You live in the Quad right? I'm pretty sure I've seen you around."

"Uh, yeah. I'm Elizabeth Adams." Elizabeth was tense. He seemed to have no recollection of the near miss, but she still vividly remembered the name calling and openly hostile glare he threw her way. She shuffled a few papers. "Alright then, then, let's go ahead and get started. I'm going to give you a placement test to kind of see where you are. There's no reason to spend time going over what you already understand. We'll start at the point where you need some help." She slid the test over to him and he got straight to work. She pulled her own math work out and started on her homework. After fifteen or so minutes, Henry sat back.

"I think that's about as far as I can go." Elizabeth looked over his work and nodded definitively.

"Let's get started then." At the end of the hour, Henry had already made great strides. "Wow! I'm impressed. You catch on really quickly," Elizabeth said by way of compliment.

Henry immediately took offense. "Is there some reason you think I wouldn't be able to do it?" His words were sharp and his glare sharper.

Elizabeth screwed up her face in confusion. "What? No. Why would you even say that?" She appraised him and the words left her mouth before she thought them through. "Are you this hostile with everyone or is it just me? I already know you hold a high opinion of me."

It was Henry's turn to be puzzled. "I don't really have an opinion of you. I barely know you and I don't like the insinuation that I somehow wouldn't be able to do the work because of where I come from."

"I don't know anything about you other than your rather pointed use of the word 'bitch' and that you had some pretty poor math instruction, but you catch on quickly." She lowered her voice. "Just so you know, I was going to stop and apologize that day, but you looked so angry. I just wasn't in a place that I thought I could deal with that. So, I am sorry that I wasn't paying attention and I nearly hit you.'

It was suddenly like all of the wind had been taken out of his sails. He stopped. "That was you? I had no idea." He remembered back to that day and all of the things that had happened and how overwhelmed he was and how angry he was when that happened. "Listen, I'm sorry for calling you a bitch. That was unnecessary and rude. I wasn't having a very good day myself." He stopped and evaluated the situation. He thought about asking her why she was alone and then thought better of it. "Do you think we could start over? I seemed to have jumped to a lot of conclusions and I'm really trying hard to change that."

Elizabeth studied him for a moment. He had an anxious look, like he was truly worried that she would think poorly of him. She extended her hand. "Hi. I'm Elizabeth Adams. I'm from Danville, Virginia. It's close to the North Carolina border."

Henry took her hand and shook it. "Hi, Elizabeth. I'm Henry McCord. I came here from PIttsburgh, Pennsylvania." They smiled at each other. "Well, I better be going." He dropped his books into his backpack. "I have to go back to my room and change. I have to be at work in an hour."

"I'm done here. Do you want to walk back together?" Elizabeth asked. Henry nodded and waited for her to gather her things. The exited the library together.

"How did you get a math tutoring job as a freshman?" Henry asked.

"Math is kinda my thing. I'm in Advanced Calculus now, so I applied and I can tutor everything up to Calculus I." She looked away from him for a moment before turning back. "So, where do you work?"

"There's a new diner on the other side of town. I help out in the kitchen for the dinner rush and I get to take a meal home plus I get paid. The only downside is the walk, but It works out okay. I have to run so many miles each week for ROTC, so I run the long way home after my shift and that gets most of my miles in. I have to walk there though or I'd be a sweaty mess, and I don't think they'd want me cooking food." Henry grinned at Elizabeth and she chuckled.

"Probably not," she said. "So you don't have a car here?" Henry shook his head. "That makes it harder to get home then, I guess," she said.

Henry met her gaze and she seemed genuine. "I have no plans to go back to PIttsburgh. Ever."

Elizabeth was shocked. "You aren't going back to see your family? That's ridiculous Henry. They're your family." She acted almost hurt.

"Not all families are created equal Elizabeth. Mine isn't a good example of what family should be." Elizabeth studied him, but didn't say anymore about it. They parted ways in the center of the Quad, each going their own way. Elizabeth paused in front of her building and watched Henry go up the stairs and into his suite. She thought about what he said about his family and about how sensitive he was to being seen as different or inferior. She wondered if that had roots in how his family treated one another. She wanted to do something nice for him, but felt that he wouldn't look favorably on anything that might be construed as charity. Elizabeth decided she would offer to drive him to work. She went to her room to toss her things down and grab her car keys. Maybe he wouldn't want a ride, but she thought it would be nice to offer.

Henry emerged from his room about 25 minutes later wearing black pants and his diner logo t-shirt under a plaid button down. He didn't really like for people to know he had an off campus job. It seemed that most students either didn't work at all or just worked a few hours a week at a work study job on campus. In Henry's case, his ROTC scholarship and academic scholarship paid for tuition, room, board and books. That was wonderful and there would be no way he could attend college without it, but there were lots of extra expenses just in toiletries, laundry, clothes and such. Henry had only been able to get away from Pittsburgh with a couple sets of clothes, so he needed to buy everything, which meant working more than just 5-10 hours a week. He'd been working 15 and sometimes 20 hours a week. It was a lot, but failing wasn't an option, so Henry was going to do whatever it took to succeed.

Henry glanced at his watch, as he started through the parking lot. He had about 30 minutes to get to work, which wasn't a problem. It was about 2 miles away and he could walk that easily. As he made it to the street, he heard a horn honk. Turning, he saw that it was Elizabeth who pulled up next to him. The electric window slid down. "I have to run to the store. Since I'm going that way anyway, would you like a ride?" She smiled widely at him and for the first time, he noticed how pretty she was. It was a detail he missed in their previous encounters.

Henry pondered it for a moment and went ahead and climbed into the passenger seat before traffic backed up behind them. "Thanks," he said. "I didn't take the time to say thank you for today. You are a good teacher." She murmured her thanks. "This is a nice car. Your parents must have good jobs to be able to afford a car like this for their kid." He immediately saw her jaw clench. "I'm sorry. Did I say something wrong?"

In that moment, Elizabeth had to decide how she was going to handle this question. Henry obviously knew that he struck a nerve, so she decided to get it out in the open. He'd already said that he wasn't on the best terms with his family, so surely it would be okay. She hoped things wouldn't get all weird. "Uh, no. Not really. This car was my dad's car. I just started driving it this summer so I could take it to college." Henry started to speak, but she interrupted him before she lost her nerve. "Both of my parents were killed in a car wreck. It happened almost 4 years ago." Just saying those words, she felt like a crushing weight was sitting on her chest. How could it be four years when it just seemed like yesterday?

"I'm really sorry Elizabeth." He paused and thought about it for a moment. "I bet you have a lot of good memories with your parents." He said it wistfully, feeling guilty that he had living parents, but could recollect no memories that weren't filled with sadness and pain.

"All of them," she whispered, the ache growing. Then, quickly pushing those feelings down, she gestured ahead. "That's it, right?"

Henry nodded and she pulled in, parking at the rear of the building. "Thank you for being so understanding about earlier in the year. I was out of line, and I really am sorry." He looked at her and smiled. "Thanks for dropping me off."

She grinned back at him. "We aren't going to talk about that anymore, just like we aren't going to discuss how I'm surprised you would get in a car with me after almost becoming intimate with my front bumper." They laughed.

"Do you have to tutor tomorrow?" Henry asked. Elizabeth shook her head, and Henry continued. "I am planning to study all afternoon in the library if you'd like to join me at any time. I have to work at 5, so I'll probably leave at 4."

She smiled and nodded. "I have class at 1, but I'll come over after that." With that Henry climbed out of the car and waved. He walked into the diner feeling lighter than he had since arriving at school.

After that, they sort of fell into a rhythm. She tutored him on Mondays, they studied in the library together on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The conversation was always light and superficial. They danced around the heavy stuff, alluding to it, but never talking about it. Their relationship was Elizabeth's ideal one. She had someone to hang out with and they expected nothing from each other. The thought did cross her mind occasionally that they couldn't keep it like this forever, but it would be good while it lasted.