Turner paused.

“Possible, maybe,” he said. “But not probable. He’s an ass, Lily, and if you knew him as well as I do you would see that.”

Thankfully the conversation ended as we stepped into the large lecture hall.

“I’m sitting in the back, care to join me?”

“No, I do better in the front.”

“See you after class?”

“Sure,” I said.

Turner waved to me and went to the back of the lecture hall while I picked a seat dead center in the front row. Students trickled in and sat in the middle and back rows. So far, I was the only one who was sitting in the front row. I bent down in my seat, rifling through my bag for a notebook and a pen. When I sat back up, Nash was sitting right next to me, tapping a pen against the desk.

“I knew that you would be sitting here, in the front row.” Nash said.

Nervous, I turned back and saw Turner frowning at me. I shrugged helplessly. I didn’t ask him to sit next to me. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Why did it matter? Turner acted like he owned me, like we were already a couple.

I was single and I could talk to whoever I wanted.

I liked Turner when I met him. He seemed cool and fun. But the issue with Nash and the looks he gave me every time I was around him were starting to annoy me. He didn’t like Nash, that I understood, but that didn’t mean that I had to stay away from him too.

“Are you trying to piss him off?” I asked as I nodded my head towards Turner. “He thinks that you want nothing to do with me unless it has to do with sex.”

“Turner’s being a baby,” Nash said. “I’m not trying to piss him off. Sorry that he put you in the middle of us. I really wanted to come sit and talk to you.”

“Sorry,” I said, my voice low. “I didn’t know what to say and wasn’t sure that you wanted me to talk to you...”

“Why wouldn’t I want to talk to a sexy girl like you?”

Sexy?

He was hitting on me like the other night.

Why didn’t he just bother all the girls that were glaring at me from behind us while he talked to me?

“Because it was just a walk back to the dorms. What did you want me to do obsess over you like all the other girls do? I'm just not that type of person. Sorry if that's what you wanted.”

“I don’t give girls my number if I don’t want them to call.”

I looked at Nash warily. Before I could answer the professor walked in and slammed his bag on the desk.

“This is Introduction to Psychology. I don’t take any crap from any student so if you think you can sit on your butts and do nothing, leave now. The rest of you, shut the hell up.”

After an hour and twenty minutes my hand was cramped, my head throbbed, and my eyes were crossing. The notes that started off neat and orderly were now scribbled every which way in my notebook. I didn’t know where they began and where they ended.

“God, I forgot how intense professor Salmon is,” Nash muttered as we exited the lecture hall.

“You had him before?”

“Once and obviously that was a time that I chose to forget.” Nash rubbed his temples. “My head feels like it’s going to explode.”

“Join the club,” I said.

“Mines from boredom.”

I laughed.

We stepped off to the side and I looked for Turner. I would probably walk back with him as long as he didn’t try to kill Nash before we left.

“Hey,” Turner said when he finally arrived. “Nash.”

“Turner.”

The two looked at each other but no words were thrown. The air crackled with tension. Other kids pushed past us, completely unaware of the scene in front of them. They wanted to get as far away from the class room as much as I did.

“Did you love my sister?” Turner asked suddenly.

I shrugged as Nash’s eyes slid towards me and then the two of us stared at Turner.

“Yes man,” Nash said and it seemed like he was being honest. He sounded the same way he did when he and I talked the night of the concert. “I wanted her to be happy.”

“So then why were you trying to fuck her?”

“We both wanted to be together. It was a mutual thing. You had to have known that, Turner. It’s not like I raped her.”

The word stung my ears…

“What I know is what I saw and what I saw was you taking advantage of my baby sister.”

“I told you she meant the world to me.”

“Like hell she did,” Turner snapped.

“Fuck you Turner.” Nash’s words began to have a hard edge. “You don’t know because we didn’t tell you. It was our business, hers and mine. Get over it. You’re becoming annoying.”

“Fuck you. I had every right to interfere. I was trying to keep her safe.”

“She was fine!”

“You were using her.”

“You’re sister cared about me more than you and that’s why you’re pissed.”

Suddenly Turner’s fist swung out and hit Nash squarely in the jaw. Nash fell to the floor, clutching his mouth, and I yelped. Turner was shaking his hand and hopping from foot to foot.

“What the hell did you do?” I cried.

I looked around but thankfully no one else was there to witness it. Seeing this would surly get the two expelled.

 “Turner what the hell were you thinking? Are you trying to get expelled or even arrested? You can’t go around and punch people.”

“Take that you pussy,” Turner hissed. “You self-centered asshole.”

He turned on his heel and walked briskly away from Nash and I. I watched Turner go, torn between following and making sure he was okay or staying with Nash.

I chose Nash…

Grabbing his arm, I pulled Nash up to a standing position. Blood trickled down his mouth and to his chin where Nash wiped it with his bare hand.

“I tried to tell him,” Nash said as we watched Turner’s retreating form. “What a fucking baby.”

“He’s just in shock,” I said. “Are you okay?”

I pulled Nash’s hand from his mouth and wiped away the blood with a tissue I had in my bag. He had nothing but a busted lip, not even requiring stitches. A bruise was already blossoming on his jaw.

“Do you want to go to the infirmary to take care of this?”

“No, I’ll take care of it myself. I took a beating from my brothers all the time so no big deal.”

“Let me come with you, maybe I can help.”

Nash smiled and then winced.

“Want to go back to my place?”

I tried not to ask why it was his ‘place’ and not his dorm.

“Sure…”

Nash touched his face tenderly.

“Damn! I forgot how wicked his right hooks were.”

“This isn't the first time this has happened?”

 “No, we used to get in fights all the time. That shit happens though. It's just part of growing up and having lots of disagreements. We were guys hanging out with each other all the time so it was bound to happen.”

“I just don't get guys sometimes. I can never imagine fighting with any of my friends. Then again, I didn't have many close ones anyway.”

“You didn't have many friends? Well, that is strange.”

“I guess if you want to call it that.”

When we got to his house I hesitated at the door. I was nervous and terrified to be alone with him. It wasn't that he had done anything specific to be afraid of him but I was scared of being alone with any guy because of my past. I knew I had to get over it though and I just needed to be cautious instead of holding myself back all the time.

“Are you okay?” he asked with a concerned look on his face.

The door was wide open and he was standing inside on the rug. He smiled and waved me in.

“Yeah, I'll be okay,” I said, slowly walking inside.

I sat him down and began to tend to his mouth. The bleeding clotted and I gently wiped away the dried blood. His lip was swollen, not unexpected, and on his jaw there was a nice flourishing bruise. He winced as I cleaned him up but not once did he complain or tell me to stop.