#chapter threeeeee

Gabi raised an eyebrow at the door slamming at her suitemate’s back, but shrugged it off in favor of mixing herself a cold drink. Her plans for the night was already set in motion, as soon as she had returned from the good-for-nothing college fair (but not without ogling some of the other students and professors at the school). Ninety percent of her overall interest in anything was based on the appearance of the man talking about whatever the fuck it was he was sellin’—at least, that’s what it looked like to her, some kind of overly-expensive craft fair. There was something in the fray, however, that did peak her interest. It was a table full of fliers behind which a man sat who couldn’t be more than three or four years her senior. He appeared rather stoic, not bothering to harass anyone to pull from his table. Enough men and women were as it was.

  His booth was out for the purpose of advertising what on-campus (or extremely close) jobs were hiring. The thought of a little bit of extra cash was appealing, despite the need not being present. It could be good incentive, she thought, eyeing the table before approaching, Having a small income is still better than nothing. Mom and dad’ll have more to contribute later that way and I’ll be able to buy my supplies in bulk with the extra cash. The thought of being able to turn her room into a smokey haze of glory brought a twisted grin to her features, and Gabi skipped over no more than a second later.

  Gabi burnt the last hour of waiting before the orientation working on the stupid little job application that was on the website. It was one basic application that she could submit to any campus job, so the deed only had to be done once. “Let’s see… Uh… Skills… Well, fuck.” Drinking bitches under the table, drunk pole-vaulting… I can ride bikes. Her fingers slowly tapped at the keyboard as ideas came to her that were actually valid. “I did work that one time over summer at a coffee shop,” she murmured, and began to type out what exactly that job entailed. By the time it was time to leave, she had pressed submit. By the next week, she’d know if she had any interviews or not.

  “Hey, I’m going out! I left my number on the counter! Won’t be back ‘til late though!” Gabi exclaimed, popping up to her feet and throwing a leather jacket around her shoulders. It was one of her nicer, more tight-fitted numbers, and it looked damn good in her opinion. Her jeans were equally tight and her Converse were clean. Her hair had been brushed and tied back in a plain ponytail, just like she liked it, and her black-on-white Enterprise blue-print shirt clung to her in more ways than one. There was no way those hot foreign exchange fuckers were going to miss her.

  Her uncle had been set up for twenty minutes when she arrived. The fashionably late arrival wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. He hadn’t started the shindig yet and there was still a full table of free food out. “Nice to see you made it,” Jeremy greeted her with a goofy grin and arms outspread for a hug. If there was one relative she had that wasn’t obsessed with pressuring her into life-choices, it was going to be this guy, Mr. Contractor-Turned-Actor-Turned-Counselor-Turned-Linguist-Turned-Whatever-The-Fuck-He-Was-Now.

  “Nah, I wasn’t gonna miss this,” she responded, patting his back as she hugged him before pulling away.

  Before she could say another word, the brunette was already a few steps ahead of her, and speaking her language. “Your fees have been paid. They’re in the purple fabric bag under the buffet table. Gabi could see it from where they were standing, not even fifteen feet off. She nodded. That was good enough for her, for the time being.

  Students began filtering in by the troves in the following ten minutes. They grouped together in ways that were almost comical. The Koreans stuck with other Koreans, Japanese kids sticking to their own group, while the Europeans kind of grappled together into one big melting pot of sister countries. But then there was a very small group of three who occupied the back corner, three guys in button-down shirts and board shorts, and from the backs she could tell they had some variation of dirty blonde or light brown hair. Kinda hot, she thought, and one of them turned around. She could practically see the bright hues of his eyes from across the room. I am going to FUCK THAT, HELLO. “Jeremy, so uh… Do I speak to them or?” She nodded toward the small group.

  Jeremy shook his head. “Nah, I just need you to translate what I say to the group that’s seated right here,” he gestured to a handful of kids just off to Gabi’s right, who were watching her intently. “You’ll be sitting with them and translating in Czech, just like the other translators will be sitting with each group. Take Tom here,” Jeremy pulled over a familiar face, who greeted her in Swedish.

  Tom flashed the same smile he flashed Gabi when she approached his table, ran a hand through his hair, and said, “Hey, you’re the girl who came to my booth today, right? I remember you. I forgot to tell you I’m the manager of Peet’s on campus.”

  “Oh?” Huh, he’s not bad-looking. Maybe not my regular type, but it’s all the same in the dark and with a build like that, we could have a good time. “Yeah I think I just sent my application there.”

  “Cool, cool. I’ll check it out in the next couple’a days and get back to you…”

  “Gabi.”

  “Right, yeah. Gabi. Tom.” They shook hands.

  The event had wrapped up within an hour. Gabi’s patience was beginning to dwindle as her most recent high wore off and the flavor of alcohol in the back of her throat had dwindled to a need for a mint. If she didn’t always carry around a tin of Altoids, she would have been fucked. That little group of foreigners was calling out to her, and the second that the mix and mingling portion of the event started, she bolted. Her b-line went fairly unnoticed. She shoved a mint in her mouth before popping up beside the fellows’ table. “So where’re you guys from?”

  They had hardly noticed her arrive, but the particular boy with the slightly disheveled light brown hair and obnoxious, almost honey-hazel-colored eyes. Gabi couldn’t even stamp a goddamn fucking color to them. She suddenly felt the urge to punch herself in the throat to maintain control of herself. Instead she only flashed a grin. “We’re all from New Zealand,” he offered in the most heinous accent she could possibly imagine. “Marc’s here for the semester and Ian an’ I are here for the year.”

  “What’s your name?” she breathed, trying not to either fall into a bad impression of his accent or cackle.

  “Karl,” he responded with a smile. “You are?”

  “Name’s Gabi. I’m one of the translators.” A brief pause. “So uh… What’s with all the swim clothes, guys? Y’know it’s approaching winter, right? You’re gonna freeze your asses off.”

  “Nah,” Karl shrugged. By that time, the other two were losing interest. Not like she was talking to them anyway, fuck. “Cold is only a state of mind.” Oh cute, he has a sense of humor. “I’m here with a swim scholarship, so I’m practicin’ every day before tryouts, keepin’ fit.” And fit you are, Karl, fit… you… are… The mental image of beads of water rolling off of his bare chest was enough to make Gabi’s smile a little bit too wide. Come to think of it, his shirt was hardly buttoned. She could already make out the contours of his pecks right there.

  “Swim team, eh? I love swimming! Are you in any of the classes?”

  “Yeah, actually, I’m taking eh… KIN111-02, or somethin’ like that.” Clearly he didn’t know what the ‘02’ meant, but that was fine, because it was officially fixed in Gabi’s head as a class she was going to go add to her schedule right that second.