Turns out, it’s not so much a group assignment as we are supposed to work in pairs. Pairs that luckily the professor is going to pick randomly for us. Fingers crossed that I don’t have to do it with Becca or Camilla, I don’t want to spend any more time with them than I absolutely have to. Bad news is that apparently the pair work is going to be a weekly thing throughout the whole semester, which means I really need to end up partners with someone decent or it will be hell. 

The professor is reading out names and when she comes to my name she pairs me up with someone named Wyatt. Wait, did she say Wyatt? That sounds familiar for some reason. Becca turns to me and tells me I’m lucky. 

“Why?”, I ask her. 

“You don’t know Wyatt?”, she counters. 

“No, who is he?”, I ask. At this point I’m scanning the room, trying to see if I’ll find a familiar face to match the name to. 

“It’s that guy in the front row, he’s like super smart or that’s what I heard anyway”, Becca says as she points him out. I can only see the back of his head, but it looks familiar. It can’t be him, right? Not the guy I made out with at the volunteer event? No, surely it isn’t him. It’s just some other average guy, he was very average after all. It could totally be someone else. The odds of ending up doing pair work for a whole semester with a random guy I made out with in a shack on the beach can’t be that high… right? 

“Yeah, he’s a real nerd”, Camilla adds, “Apparently he’s here on scholarship, so I guess he has to be”. 

“Well, I heard he always takes on the leadership roles in group assignments, but otherwise he’s apparently, like a people-pleaser through and through”, Becca says. 

Leave it to Becca and Camilla to have all the gossip about literally everyone on campus, even the average looking nerds, it seems. I’m still in denial, until I see his face properly I’m going to assume it’s not the same guy from the beach. If he could just turn around so I could see… 

“So, maybe he’ll do the work for you, is all I’m saying”, Becca says and lets out a big sigh. She then goes on to complain about how she got paired up with someone who apparently has the lowest grades, which is surprising because I was convinced she had the lowest grades in our year. 

When class is over he finally does turn in his seat as he packs his stuff away. And, yup, just my luck. It is the guy from the beach. I school my features, I’m not going to let anyone see that I’ve met him before. Our eyes meet across the lecture hall. Wyatt’s eyes widen as he recognizes me and his face flushes like he’s thinking about the hookup. He’s making it so obvious, how annoying, get a grip dude. Does he want everyone to gossip about this? It makes me almost angry how little control he has over his face right now. 

“Wait, did he just blush just from looking at you Audrey?”, Camilla says, as she must have witnessed the whole thing. 

“Do you know him?”, Becca asks in disbelief. 

“No, why would I know him? This is literally the first time I see him”, I lie so well I nearly believe myself. 

“He must have seen you before then, I mean that’s to be expected, everyone knows you even if you don’t know them. Figures.”, Becca says. She seems almost disappointed, she’s probably sad she couldn’t get any juicy gossip about me. I know she talks behind my back. Camilla and Becca don’t let Wyatt’s blushing go though, they start theorizing about why he blushed and what he was thinking about when he looked at me. Proposing more innocent things like he must have a crush on me to more explicit things like he must be feeling embarrassed about meeting me after potentially having dirty thoughts about me. That’s where I cut them off. 

“That’s enough, ew”, I say sternly. They quiet down immediately. I usually keep my tone light, so they know to shut up when I really mean it. After that we part ways to each go find our own pairs and sort things out for the work. A few other people must also have seen him blush because I can tell they’re whispering about it as I walk by, but I can tell no one actually thinks I know him, they’re more on the same train of thought as Becca and Camilla. As usual I act like I have no idea they’re talking about me as I walk towards the front row. Towards Wyatt.