"Hi. Mind if I sit here?" Jess felt her pulse race, having worked herself up through the day for this moment.
The scholar glanced up at her. She was a little taken aback at the rather handsome baby face and striking hazel eyes, which were revealed to her. She couldn't help but smile a little as his forehead scrunched down as he looked at her, as if wondering who she was and why in the world she would be asking him such a question. With his comely appearance, she was somewhat surprised at the reaction. Maybe he wasn't aware of how he looked? She found she rather liked the thought.
"Uh, no, please." He stood up in a rush as he realized his stuff was in the only other seat and moved to empty it, hitting his knees against the edge of the table in the process. Though she'd come here purely for getting her curiosity satisfied and him out of her system, she found her smile growing. Was she making him nervous?
She'd never seen him standing before. He was tall! Six foot three at least. Rather nice to her own five foot eleven. Jess shook her head as she took her seat. No sense in thinking about that at all – this was purely a 'getting rid of one of her many problems' exercise.
After his initial glance and panic to clear the chair, her scholar sat back down and seemed to be avidly avoiding looking her way. This was a new thing for her. Normally most males just blatantly stared if they got this close.
"I'm Jess, by the way." She stuck her hand out.
He looked up at her, at the offered hand, and glancing away, reached out to take it. Jess made sure her grip was firm and sure, just like her father taught her. She was pleased to note his palms were dry, and his grip strong.
"I'm Sam." He gave her a shy, tentative smile, dimples forming at his cheeks.
Much to her chagrin, she thought they looked adorable. "Nice to meet you, Sam."
He nodded. "You, too." He let go her hand, picked up one of his open books, and bringing it up close to his face, leaned back into his chair.
The seat really was too small for him. She couldn't imagine sitting still like that for hours in such a chair. Must be horribly uncomfortable, poor thing. She doubted there was much furniture he found comfy though, not as tall as he was.
She was making him anxious, too. It was obvious. It tickled her for some reason. It was cute. The one thing she definitely hadn't expected her mysterious scholar to be.
Pulling out her own work, she tried not to think about it, and got on with her studies.
Insufferably, however, she found herself launching glimpses at Sam on occasion. It was kind of fascinating watching his eyes scan the pages, seeing how his brow would furrow whenever he encountered what she could only assume was a difficult passage. Occasionally, his whole face would screw itself up, as if he were battling to chew something distasteful, tearing it into more palatable chunks with his mind.
She tried to catch a glimpse of the book's title – Beyond Primitivism: Indigenous Religious Traditions and Modernity. Dang.
She was smiling again. She could feel it. How stupid was that? Then she saw him go totally still, like he had when she'd tried to peek in on him from the bookshelves. Jess held her breath, wondering if it really was what she thought, unable to look away. A moment later he glanced up over the edge of his book right at her.
Jess brought her own book up, her cheeks feeling hot. What was that about? She was being ridiculous. This was just some guy. As if to prove it, she closed her book and forced herself to look right at him. "So, Sam, are you a freshman?"
She saw him pull away from his book, his eyes darting to read just one more sentence before giving her his complete attention. "Junior actually." Then after an almost breathless pause, "Yourself?"
"Oh, a sophomore." Her scholar definitely looked younger than his years.
He nodded at that, but asked nothing else. He didn't immediately go back to his book either though, as if giving time to make sure she was done. It was almost attentive in a way. She liked it. And because she did, she decided to push just a little more. "Sociology Major by chance?"
"Not exactly. It's for pre-law, the bachelor requirement."
Impressive. "So you want to be a criminal lawyer?"
Something about the statement made him smile for a second, as if at some private joke. Even so, she liked seeing it. It totally opened up his face.
"Probably not. I haven't really decided on a specialty yet. Figured I'd wait till I got in before I went that far."
A cautious scholar, too. Interesting.
"You?" he asked.
"Oh, nothing so lofty as law. Geophysics is my game. Also planning to do a Studio Art minor." She watched him closely, having encountered way too many blank stares or rolling eyes at this declaration before – because she was a woman, because she was cute, because she was blond. But instead of either of those, she actually saw his eyes spark with interest.
"Any particular area?"
He didn't balk at the geophysics, but she was sure she'd have him now. "Stanford is ranked as the top third or fourth school in the country for the field, and I'm interested in a new branch of study called computational geophysics – which are basically mathematical models and numerical simulators to describe crystal processes." If that didn't make his eyes glaze over, nothing would.
"Damn!" He grinned from ear to ear then realized what he'd said and looked away his cheeks coloring. "Sorry."
She laughed. She couldn't help herself. "Don't worry about it. It's a lot better reaction than I normally get." Who was this guy? And why bury himself down here? "I guess I should let you study."
The way he looked at her right then made her feel she didn't have to, that he might not want her to, but since he didn't actually say so, she figured she needed to do the safe thing and leave it at that.