The third time I saw him he asked me questions about the brain and I answered best I could.

Allie's P.O.V

I was sitting inside a little café, tapping away wildly at my computer while sipping on coffee, more specifically, Frappuccinos as I worked on my schoolwork.

College was a stressful monster, which made you lose out on sleep, social lives and most of all sanity. It literally made me stay up until seven in the morning writing essays and highlighting passages out of my way too expensive textbook. I was studying Psychology because I wanted to be a therapist to kids. I had always loved them, and learning about minds was always interesting to me, so I wanted to do this.

Pausing in my typing, I sipped my Frappuccino and surveyed the café. I was one of the only two people in here, and the barista was looking rather bored, lazily leaning against the counter while she twirled her hair around her finger. The lighting was dimmed, which illuminated my laptop screen, and I was sitting in a booth tucked away in the corner. Music was playing softly and I went back to typing; I was writing an essay on how children's minds developed. It was all very peaceful, until two boys came crashing in.

I looked up irritably, my focus broken as one laughed at the other's joke and then they went up to the counter. The girl instantly stood at attention, a stupid smile on her face as she took their order and flirted as they paid. I rolled my eyes and went back to typing.

Stupid girls.

I was on my third paragraph and going strong when all of a sudden a body sat themselves down right next to me.

"What the hell?" I said, rather loudly, so the barista and the other person in the café, a middle-aged business man, looked at me. I stared them down and they eventually looked away.

That's what I thought.

"Now, now, Allie, that's not a very nice way to greet your friends," Luke grinned.

I groaned and felt like smashing my forehead against my keyboard. "What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like?" he grinned, holding up his cup, which looked like another Frappuccino. "Getting coffee."

"Couldn't you go to Starbucks or something? I asked irritably, trying to reread the sentence I had just written.

"That's so expensive," he waved an airy hand. "And you're here, which makes it much more fun."

Just then, his friend, who was the guy wearing the snapback at the party where I first met Luke, slid into the booth across from me."Hey," he grinned, winking. "My name's Chris, which is short for Christmas came early."

I was unimpressed. "Wow, take you twenty years to think of that one?"

Chris laughed. "I see what you mean," he said to Luke. "She's a firecracker."

"Right?" Luke smirked.

I looked back and forth between the two. "You told your friends about me?" I exclaimed.

"Why, you flattered?" Luke teased.

I scoffed. "Please. More like feeling the urge to puke."

Luke chose to ignore that. "Well, to answer your question, yes, I did, because Chris here wanted to know why I was not getting laid."

"You have to be the first girl to turn him down," Chris said. "I mean look at him!"

I cast an eye over Luke. He was fairly attractive, with warm brown eyes like chocolate and brown hair that puffed up in a quiff and a lean build.

Luke noticed me looking and smirked. "Done checking me out?"

I snorted. "There's nothing to look at."

"Ouch," Luke said, holding his hand over his heart. "That hurts me, pretty girl, right here."

"Good," I said flatly. "And don't call me that."

"What, pretty girl?" Luke grinned.

"Yes," I said. "My name's Allie, use that like a normal person."

"Okay, Allie, what are you doing?" he leaned over my shoulder and tried to read what I had written.

"School," I said. "You may have heard of it, it's a place where you go to learn."

"You're in high school?" Chris asked, sizing me up.

"College."
"Ah, I see," he said, nodding. "The land of the sleep-deprived and horny."

I nodded. "Yup. I think I may have gotten maybe two hours of sleep in the past two days."

Chris winced. "Yikes. So where do you go, Ohio St?"

I nodded. "Yup. Go Buckeyes!" my cheer was so sarcastic even I winced.

Chris laughed. "But you're not from around here, are you?" he asked.

I shook my head. "Nope. Moved to the US when I was ten. I'm from Australia."

"That's cool," Chris said.

"What even is this?" Luke whined. "This can't be English."

I snatched my laptop away from him, where he had been reading my essay.

"It is English, dumbass. Why can't you be more nice, like your friend Chris here?"

Across the table, Chris winked and flashed a thumbs up.

Luke made a face. "And be studying to be an engineer? I don't think so."

I turned to Chris. "Engineer?"

He nodded.

"Nice."

"So what is this, anyway?" Luke gestured to my laptop.

"My essay," I said shortly. "I'm studying psychology."

"Like brains?" Luke asked.

I sighed. "Yes, like brains."

"Cool!" Luke exclaimed. "So you can like, read my brain right now?"

I rolled my eyes. "I can't read your brain. I'm learning about how kid's brain's develop."

"And how do they develop?" Luke asked, leaning forward.

I took a deep breath. "Well, the brain doesn't fully develop until age twenty-five or so, but kid's brains are different. Different parts develop faster. Like the part of the brain that controls memories develops when the child is about three."

"Mm," Luke rested his chin on his hand. "Tell me more."

"Um," I said, completely unprepared to recite the development of brains, so I referenced my essay. "Well, the frontal lobe is the part of the brain that controls emotional expression, problem solving, memory, language, judgment, and sexual behavior."

"Like if I'm gay or not?" Luke asked.

I laughed. "Kind of."

"Fascinating," he murmured.

A warm feeling filled my stomach; no one had ever taken the time to listen to me ramble on about the brain, something that I was passionate about. "You really think so?"

"Yeah," he nodded, seeming surprised by the question. "I  think learning about the brain is really important. It helps us understand people."

I smiled softly. "No one ever was interested in hearing me talk about the brain."

"Well, I'll just be your listening ear then, yeah?" he smiled.

I smiled back. "Why not?"

Luke and I were having a nice bonding moment and then Chris had to ruin it.

"Oi, lovebirds, you aren't going to have sex on the table, are you? I'm pretty sure the barista wouldn't appreciate it!" he shouted.

Luke shot him a smirk. "Please, the barista would love to see the show. after all, she did give me her number." with that, he held up his cup, where she had written in a very loopy print, call me and then listed her number.

I rolled my eyes. "Unbelievable."

"What, that I get people's numbers?" Luke asked, setting his cup back down.

"No, that girls really are that desperate to sleep with you," I shot back. "I mean, there clearly isn't much for them to work with."

Luke's mouth fell open. "And to think I was listening to you talk about the brain!"

I shrugged, finishing my Frappuccino with a loud slurp. "Not my fault you only think with your dick."

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Hey guys! Sorry this is a bit late, but the Spanish exchange student is here and she's super nice, and her accent is awesome. I've been mostly just hanging out with her (this morning we made cookies from scratch and brownies) and yeah, all is good :) hope you enjoy this chapter, it kind of shows Allie can be nice too, you know? Anyway, please vote and comment!

Love ya!

-T A Y L O R