Chapter One

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A/N I can't even begin to say how excited I am to share something new (I was so excited I rushed through editing the first chapter- oops). I just want people to know that this book really saved me in a time of need. Every time I finish a novel, I worry it's going to be my last, that another story won't just come to me and I'll be lost, and I was honestly about to give up, but then I was rereading The Thing About Glenn Pearson (yes, I read my own books in repeat), and there was just something about Lawson that I liked, and the idea just came to me. I know I said I was leaving Florida with the last book, but I decided to stay for a little longer to solve the final piece of the puzzle.

There was a routine Lawson liked to follow in the mornings, and he was sure he had perfected it to the point that he would never be late to class again. It was a simple list of steps that were easy to follow, and he only did the things that were extremely necessary to assure he could sleep in until exactly fifteen minutes before his class began.

Wake up. Brush teeth in dorm room sink. Put on clothes (hopefully something clean, but it was college and he often didn't have time, or motivation to carry all his laundry to the basement every week). Put on shoes. And, if time permitted, fix hair so it looked like he was actually kind of trying.

All of this took approximately ten minutes, which gave him five to leave the dorm and cross the street to get to the math and science building. On most days- permitted that he didn't forget anything in his room- he got to his class two minutes before the professor even entered.

It took Lawson about a week to learn he needed a routine, and then another to work out the timing and such, but by the second Friday of his college career, he was sure that tardiness was something he'd no longer have to struggle with in his morning classes.

Of course, life wasn't something easily planned, and on the Monday that began his fourth week on campus, he was shaken awake by his roommate rather than greeted by his familiar alarm. Admitably, it was slightly less unpleasant, but that was only due to the fact that Wesley was nearly a hundred times more attractive than his iPhone (though he was a million times harder to shut up).

"Why are you still sleeping?" Was the question Wesley asked of him, hovering over his face. For a moment, Lawson blinked up at Wesley, slowly in a sort of trance because his roommate was hands down the most attractive man on earth- at this point he was mostly used to it, but it was very early in the morning and he wasn't really thinking straight.

Wes looked extremely tired, Lawson noticed, and when he turned his head to the side, he saw that his roommates bed was unslept in.

"Did you just get back?" Lawson asked, sitting up in bed and rubbing his eyes. "I thought you were supposed to be back last night". It was something Lawson typically would have taken note of before going to bed the night before, but he had ended up coming back to the room at an hour so late it was technically early morning, and he hadn't bothered to check Wesley's bed before he fell into his own.

"I was," Wesley agreed, taking a few steps back from Lawson's bed to take a seat on his own. The close proximity of their mattresses was slightly distressing to Lawson, but it couldn't be helped given the small size of their room. "Laney wasn't ready for me to leave yet though, and I don't have class until later, so I stayed the night and woke up early this morning to drive back". Lawson nodded in understanding before turning his face away. He hoped that Wesley took this as a sign that the conversation was over so he could sleep until his alarm went off- which he guessed would be soon given the amount of light filtering in through the sliver of window not covered by the curtains. "Can't say the same for you though".

"Huh?" This was accompanied with a miserable sigh. He tried not be annoyed with Wesley as often as possible- though he was an annoying person in general so it was kind of hard- since overall, he was a good roommate who cleaned up after himself and gave Lawson privacy when he needed it, but sometimes, in moments like this, Lawson was reminded of what it was like to not share a room with someone, and the longing he felt to experience that bliss once more resulted annoyance directed towards Wes. Still, he tried his best not to show it, and chewed his lip as the other boys voice filled the room again.

"Don't you have class like eight minutes ago? You skipping?"

Lawson's eyes opened, and he turned his head to look at the other once more. The attention seemed to surprise Wesley a little, because he blinked his brown eyes wider. "What are you talking about?"

"It's like, 8:38," Wesley responded, and Lawson swiftly leaned over the edge of his bed to retrieve his cell phone from it's charging spot on the floor. The first thing he noticed when the screen lit up was the fact that he had a handful of text messages from his friend Reese. The second thing he noticed was that Wesley was correct, and he was already late for his 8:30 calculus class.

In his haste to get out of bed, his legs tangled in the thin sheet he slept with, bringing him to his knees with a bang that the people below them would certainly have something to say about. Despite Lawson's clear struggle, Wesley just sat on his bed and watched with raised eyebrows as his he rolled around on the floor for a minute in an attempt to free his legs. "I haven't slept through my alarm since I got here," Lawson grumbled as he pulled on the pair of sweatpants he had been wearing the day before without even bothering to stand first. "This is all Nathan's fault".

It was. Due to his late night excursion to Nathan's apartment- which had been at his friends insistence since he wanted someone to talk to about his relationship problems and Lawson was apparently the only one Nate hated enough to make miserable with his hours of woes- Lawson was exhausted, and when Lawson was exhausted, he had a habit of absently turing off his alarm in the morning and continuing to sleep.

Wesley made an amused sort of noise, and by the time Lawson was back on his feet, he noticed his roommate had seemingly lost interest in his embarrassing attempt at life, and had laid back on his bed to, eyes on the screen of his phone.

"Is it gross if I skip brushing my teeth?" Lawson inquired as he slipped his feet into his shoes, already knowing he wasn't going to no matter the answer Wesley provided him with.

Perhaps this was why he didn't even bother to wait for a response before leaving the room, slipping his keys- which hung on a hook by the door- into the pocket of his sweatpants as he went.

On most days, Lawson wouldn't panic as much being a few minutes late, but it was not most days, and every second he missed of Calculus- his worst class by far- was a second of missed review for the first exam of the semester. The exam was on Wednesday, and his professor had been very clear that this class period was the only time she was willing to address any questions about the exams contents, and based on Lawson's lack of understanding for nearly everything he was about to be tested on, he needed to take advantage of the offered aid.

He ended up being fifteen minutes late, due to his friend Reese spotting him the second he entered the math building, and then insisting he had something important to tell him before proceeding to stick his tongue in Lawson's ear when he got close enough. Lawson only managed to ask a disappointed, "why?" As he rubbed at his ear, to which Reese raised his shoulders in response.

"I don't know," he answered, and then he got a little grin on his face that was strikingly similar to the one he got before he took a lot of shots. "You just look good today". With a wink, and a quick slap to a place where Lawson didn't appreciate, Reese wandered off down the hall, probably to go harass one of his other many acquaintances. Lawson allowed himself a few minutes to blink after the other boy, wondering how he was still so caught off guard with Reese's antics after a month of dealing with them, before he shook his head and turned into the stairwell to get to the second floor.

When he pushed open the door to his lecture hall with an embarrassingly loud bang, he grimaced, and then smiled apologetically at the girl closet to the door who jumped at the sound and accidently kicked over her backpack, causing the contents to spill. Before she could even react, he was bending over to gather the items and shoving them back into her bag. As he did this, he remembered that he had left his own backpack at the foot of his bed, packed full of his Calc textbook and more importantly, his calculator. Getting through Calculus when you were an idiot was hard enough, but getting through calculus when you were an idiot without a calculator was impossible.

He stood, muttering one more apology to the girl before starting down the sloped aisle toward his seat. His professor, who had stopped lecturing upon his noisy arrival, begin once more.

And because it clearly wasn't his day, because when he got to his seat, there was someone sitting in it.

The room was arranged so there were fifteen or so rows leading from the front of the room to the back of the room, each row slightly higher than the one before it due to the rooms decline, providing a view of the board no matter where you sat. Lawson always sat in the same seat, in the first set of the fourth row from the back, not because it was different from any of the other seats, but because on the first day of class, after searching for the room long enough he was far more than fifteen minutes late, he had finally stumbled into the right classroom, and that was the seat he had chosen to sit in. Sitting anywhere else now felt wrong, mostly because everyone else in his class still sat in the same place they had on the first day. There was an unspoken agreement between them all, or so he thought.

Lawson paused beside his usual seat, hesitating as he looked down at the dark haired boy sitting where he shouldn't be. He was unsure of exactly what to do in this situation; he was very tired after spending a long night at Nathan's apartment, and social situations weren't exactly his forte anyways.

Lawson wasn't exactly sure how long he spent standing there, staring down at the kid who was in his spot, perplexed, but it was long enough that the boy turned his head up to gaze back at him. "Can I help you?" he asked in a voice far softer than Lawson had been expecting and his eyes grew wide. Lawson's mouth opened, and closed, and then opened again as he momentarily forgot what he was going to say.

When the boy had been looking ahead, showing Lawson only the side of his face, nothing about him really stuck out to Lawson. But now, with his face turned towards him, lifted up slightly, blue grey eyes fixated on his face, Lawson was struck with the realization that the kid was attractive in a casual sort of way that he didn't see often. In a way that occured when one had the perfect proportions of facial features, and used them in an interesting way, but also looked perfectly normal in the way that every non famous person did. Briefly, Lawson compared it to Wesley's attractiveness, which was very in your face, and found he preferred this form of beauty far better.

"Umm..." The boy pressed his lips together, his blue eyes shifting slightly off to the side of Lawson's face, reminding him that he had been asked a question, and had already taken a ridiculous amount of time to answer.

"No!" he exclaimed suddenly, his voice raising to a volume that it shouldn't have in the lecture hall, causing the boy sitting the row ahead to turn in his seat and shush him. Embarrassment was an emotion Lawson rarely experienced, so he was surprised when he felt his face get hot. He brought his eyes back to the student in his seat. "It's nothing, just..."

"Just..." was repeated back to him as he trailed off in that same calm voice. Lawson's face felt hotter than he ever remembered it feeling before.

"Well, you're kind of in my seat," Lawson explained, and the blue eyes widened a little. "It's not a big deal. I can just go sit somewhere else-" even before he had finished his offer, the boy was sliding his textbook and notebook down the table and moving into the chair directly to the right. "Oh. Uh, thank you". The kid hadn't bothered to pay attention to him long enough to hear his gratitude, his attention already back on the board. With a sigh, Lawson slid into his own seat, considering the potentially awkward situation he had just put himself in before pushing those thoughts back. Any other day and he would let himself indulge, but not on the day of review he desperately needed, especially since he already missed a portion of the class period.

With a small sound of displeasure, Lawson crossed his arms over the table in front of him, where his textbook and notebook should be, and pressed his chin at the cross in his arms, eyes on the professor at the front of the room. Upon a students request, she was reviewing how to find the derivative of trigonomic functions, which was one of the many things Lawson failed to understand in the course, and he tried his best to listen closely, wishing he had a pencil and some paper to scribble notes down on to study later.

He needed a good grade on the exam. So far, his two quiz scores in the class were less than subpar, and his part of the arrangement with his father was maintained at least B's in all his courses. He literally could not afford to do any worse.

As he listened to his professor speak, Lawson wondered if he'd be able to convince her to open her office hours for him, even though she specifically said this period was the only time she'd help with review. She knew him though, he had spent hours upon hours during her office hours struggling right in front of her, and she knew how hard he worked.

He figured he'd be able to get her to agree to meet him for an hour, but it would probably have to occur at the same time as his Chemistry class later in the day, which would most likely piss Nathan (his Chemistry partner) off. Nathan wasn't any good at Chem, and relied on Lawson to get a passing grade in the class. It was funny to him, since in high school, Glenn (Nathan's boyfriend) had been Lawson's partner in advanced Chem, and if Lawson recalled correctly, he was quite good at it.

"Our exam will take place on Wednesday," His professor said, her voice projecting from the front of the room. "It will be handed out at the start of class, and collected at the end regardless of completion. If you come to class late, you will lose that time, and your exam will still be collected at the end of this class, so be on time". Lawson sank a little in his seat as multiple pairs of eyes focused on him. The boy in the seat in front of him physically turned in his seat to glare, and Lawson wanted to defend himself in some way, to tell the kid that it never should have happened- that he had a system- but the kid was turning back around, and probably didn't care much anyways.

"I'm going to write thirty or so textbook problems on the board that I expect you to take the rest of class to complete with a partner. To check attendance, and to assure you've done this, I will expect you to turn in your papers at the end of class. If you have any questions, just raise your hand and I'll come around," his professor finished. She turned then and began writing page numbers on the board, and Lawson allowed his eyes to wander off to the side, towards the kid who had taken his seat at the beginning of class.

Blue eyes met his own, and the other boy looked away quickly and then laughed at his shyness. Not even a second later the intense gaze was back on him, and a hand was being held out towards him. "Sean," he introduced, and Lawson allowed a friendly smile as he reached out and shook the hand. Like his voice, it was softer that Lawson was expecting, and his eyebrows raised. "And your name is..."

"Oh. Shit," Lawson dropped his hand, embarrassed, and the guy, Sean, looked amused. "Uh, I'm Lawson".

"So, Lawson," Sean immediately began and Lawson eyebrows raised. "Should I consider myself lucky to be your partner?" This time when he spoke, Lawson caught the hint of a subtle accent, and his curiosity kept him from thinking too hard about the implication of those words.

"Huh?"

"You must be really good at Calc if you don't need to take notes or anything," Sean elaborated, raising his chin in the direction of the empty table in front of Lawson.

"Oh," Lawson glanced down between his elbows and then leaned back to lift them off the table, looking back at Sean to smile sheepishly. "Yeah, I was late".

"I noticed".

"Ah, of course". Lawson blinked away, and then back again. "You see, I have a system so I'm never late to my morning classes, but I was up late last night, so I was tired this morning, and I absently turned off my alarm so my roommate had to wake me up, and in my rush to get here, I left my backpack and stuff in my room".

Sean raised his shoulders in a shrug. "Well, at least you only missed some basic review".

Lawson rubbed at the back of his neck. "Yeah, some people might think that. If I'm being honest, I need the review probably more than anyone". A second after saying this, Lawson realized he was telling this to the boy who was supposed to be his partner in the subject. "If you want another partner, I totally understand-"

"It's alright," Sean cut in, his blue eyes peering up ahead at the chalkboard as he began flipping the pages in his textbook, trying to find the problems from the board. Lawson watched his hands with interest, noticing a scar on the back of his left hand. It started at the base of his thumb ran all the way to the web between his thumb and ring finger, and then Lawson assumed, continued on to his palm. He had to bite his lip to prevent himself from asking how it happened. "You know, I'm actually quite good at this- not that I'm trying to brag or anything- but I could help you if you like. You missed most of the review, and it didn't really look like you were paying attention for much of the part you did get to hear, and our test is on Wednesday".

The book was opened to the correct page now, and Lawson looked down at the contents of the page, and then up at Sean, who was already looking at him, awaiting an answer. "You mean, you actually understand that stuff?" he asked, pointing at the book. Sean looked down at it as well, and then nudged it towards Lawson until it was between the two of them.

"I mean, yeah". He shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal. "This is fine. I guess I've always kind of been math oriented though. You should see the grades I get on my english papers". A soft humm left Lawson at this, and he thought about how he was the complete opposite.

He didn't mention it though, since he doubted Sean would be interested. Instead, he watched the boy out of the corner of his eye. The more he looked at him, the more curious Lawson became. He wondered why Sean wasn't acting like a douche to him. Not only had Lawson come in late, and made him move seats- both of these were justified reasons for Sean to be rude, he thought- but the boy was also attractive, and all the attractive people he'd met so far had acted like assholes.

Nathan was smug, as if he automatically knew that Lawson found him attractive. Wesley was

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