Loud: The Complete Series (A Bad Boy Alpha Male Romance) (9 page)

“Yeah, but it wasn't by choice. My neighbors are two
frat boy types. One of them apparently just got a new sound system and they
were playing loud music until the early hours of the morning. I couldn't get
any sleep.”

“Oh man, they sound like real winners. Why didn't you
call the cops on 'em?”

“Well, uh, that sounds a bit extreme. And, I'm sure
the cops have more important things to attend to.”

“In this town? Nothing happens here, Brooke. Next
time, call the cops. I promise it works. I lived next to this guy who used to
get drunk and play drums until after midnight.”

“Drums? Oh man, that must have been terrible.”

“It was, trust me. He wasn't even a good drummer!”

I laughed. “Wow, so it was super bad, huh?”

“Yeah. One night, and this was after he ignored me politely
asking him to keep it down a few times, I’d had enough and called the cops.
Like I said, they've got nothing to do in this town, really, so I think they were
kinda excited to actually have something to deal with. They showed up five
minutes after I called. I don’t know what they said to this guy, but he never
played drums at night again. Not even once.”

“Really?”

“Really. So, I'm telling you, if your jerk neighbors
start making a racket late at night again, don't even talk to 'em. Go straight
for the phone. Get the cops around, and they'll shut those guys up in about two
seconds.”

“Yeah, maybe I should.”

“Hey, Brooke, um, we need to schedule a time to do
this week's practicals.” The familiar voice interrupted the conversation.

Emerson.

I froze. I could practically feel my face turn crimson.
I wondered if he’d been sitting behind me the whole time. I had to assume he’d
overheard the entire conversation. I prayed for the earth to open and swallow
me up. Garrett, however, jumped right into the conversation.

“Oh, are you two lab partners?” he said, turning
around to face Emerson.

“Yeah, we are.”

“Nice to meet you, man, I'm Garrett.” Garrett extended
a friendly hand to Emerson.

I sat and watched in mortified silence as Emerson took
Garrett's hand and shook it. I wondered if he was going to tell him that he was
the “jerk neighbor.”

He didn't.

“Hey, man. I'm Emerson. You new here?”

“Yeah, just transferred.”

At that moment, the professor walked in.

“I'll, um, I'll talk to you after class about a time
to do lab work,” I mumbled to Emerson. My cheeks still felt like they were on
fire, and there was no way I could bring myself to make eye contact with him. I
turned and quickly opened my book, hoping he wouldn't notice the flush in my
cheeks.

After class, Garrett said he had another class to get
to, but that he hoped he would see me again soon. He wrote his Facebook contact
info in my notebook and invited me to add him. As I walked out of the lecture
hall, Emerson was waiting for me. If he was upset about what he'd overheard me
saying earlier, he didn't show it. Instead, he smiled coolly and walked up to
me.

“Hey, Brooke. Sorry, again, about the noise last
night. Me and Chris, we just had a bit too much to drink, you know? He just got
a new sound system and was really eager to see how loud it would go. He's
learning to be a DJ and stuff, so, yeah… Anyway, now that we know just how loud
it is, we won't turn it up like that again, I promise.”

“Um, okay, thanks. Sorry I complained about it.”

“No, no, don't apologize. We were wrong for turning it
up so loud that it bothered you guys. You've got a right to peace and quiet in
your own place. Totally understandable.”

“Thanks.”

“Anyway, about this lab we have to do, when's good?”
he asked.

“Um, are you free tomorrow afternoon at three? I'm
pretty sure the lab is available then.”

“Yeah, that works for me.”

“Great, I'll go book the lab right now.”

“Okay. I'll see you there at three tomorrow,” he said
with a smile, and with that he turned and walked off.

“Yeah. See you then.”

CHAPTER
TEN

Emerson

“Dude, that was such a bangin' party last night! Damn,
bro, I'm surprised you managed to get up in time for class today! ‘Course, it
would have been even better if little Miss Noise Patrol from next door hadn't
come over and bitched about it.” Chris chuckled and shook his head. “Man, she's
got a stick up her ass. I mean, don't get me wrong, she's smokin' hot and I'd
bang her without a second thought, but, dude…
such
a whiner.”

I shrugged. “It
was
kinda loud, dude.”

“So? It was awesome music! I'm nailing my new sets,
man! Those DJ classes are totally paying off. Hell, those bitches next door
should’ve come over and
paid me
for the privilege of hearing the dope
beats I was droppin’.”

“Well, that's your opinion, but I overheard her
talking to some guy in class about it today, and she wasn't happy. She might
call the cops if you do it again.”

“What?! Dude, what a
bitch!”

“She needs to study, man. That doesn’t make her a
bitch. And as awesome as your beats are, they're not exactly conducive to
studying, ya know.”

“'Conducive to studying,’ huh Emerson? Bro, you sound
like a nerd.”

“Chris, college isn't a joke for me. I really want to
get through this year with solid grades. I need to make up for last year's
disappointments in that area.”

“Well, it's not a damn joke for me, either, bro!”

I raised a skeptical eyebrow. “You sure? Did you even
go to a single class yesterday?”

Chris folded his arms defensively across his chest. “I
had a lot of important stuff to do!”

“More important than actually passing your classes,
huh?”

“Whatever, man.” He turned to walk to his room. “I'll
talk to you later, nerd,” he said and slammed the door shut behind him.

I actually felt bad, even though I knew I was right.
Chris needed to slow down with the constant partying and start taking his
studies a little more seriously. He had come pretty close to flunking last
semester and was pretty much guaranteed to flunk this one if he kept on like he
was. Considering I hadn't done too well last semester, either, we both needed
to buckle down. It didn’t help that I was a little concerned regarding what I'd
overheard Brooke and the new guy — who I had to admit I felt an immediate dislike
for — talking about. If she called the cops, we'd be in a world of trouble. Chris
and I each had a couple of months to go before turning twenty-one and underage
possession of alcohol wasn’t something I wanted to face the dean over, for more
than one reason.

My blood heated a little as I thought about that new
guy and how quick he was to suggest Brooke call the cops. But what bothered me
more was how open she was to his suggestion. She’d just met the guy and he
seemed to be able to influence her. There was something in my gut that
instinctively didn’t trust him. And, the way he’d eyed Brooke when she wasn’t
looking only made me distrust him more. I’d seen guys like him before. He was
hiding something.

Also, I had to admit I was a little jealous about how
easily he had gotten Brooke to open up in conversation. While it seemed that
she was content to answer my questions with short, awkward, one-word sentences,
she'd seemed pretty at ease when chatting with him.

But what could I do about that? Not much. I could try
to be a decent neighbor and a good lab partner. As much as I wanted to get to
know Brooke better, it seemed that she wasn't interested in getting to know me
and I guess I just had to accept that. Still, I was eager to see how our first
lab session together would go. I decided I'd better brush up on my reading so I
wouldn't look like a total fool when it came time to get down to business in
the lab.

With that thought in my mind, I went to my room,
closed the door, and hit the books.

***

“You're early,” Brooke said as I walked into the lab
the next afternoon.

“I am. So are you,” I replied with a smile.

She responded with a strange half-smile. I couldn't
tell if it was forced or if she was merely feeling a little shy. I went with
the latter option. It was the option I was hoping for, at least.

“You've done all the reading, right?” she asked
leaning across the counter in a white lab coat. I tried not to think about it,
but she looked pretty sexy in that thing, whereas I was fairly certain I looked
like a complete dork in mine.

“I have,” I assured her.

“Brought all your notes? And, a pen and a notebook, of
course? We've each got to record all of the details of the experiment.”

“Yep! I was a boy scout once upon a time, and you know
what they say about boy scouts!”

“That you're all a bunch of nerds?” she replied with a
wink and a grin.

I laughed, feeling pleasantly surprised that the Ice
Queen had something of a sense of humor, after all.

“Yeah, yeah,” I replied. “The
other
thing they
say.”

“Always prepared,” she replied. “And you are?”

“Totally prepared. I've got everything you need…I
mean, I need,” I stammered, trying to recover from my Freudian slip. Brooke
arched an eyebrow. I wanted to smack myself in the forehead.

“Well, okay then. Let's get started, shall we?”

She headed to the cabinet to get the beakers together
and started setting everything up. Straight down to business. I felt a little
disappointed, having hoped to have been able to at least get a little more
conversation in. On the other hand, I did want to demonstrate that I was taking
this class as seriously as she was.

“Should I measure out the chemicals while you're doing
that?” I asked.

“Please do,” she replied, without looking up from what
she was doing.

I went about sorting the chemicals, carefully
measuring the exact quantities we needed for our experiment.

“Alright, I'm all set here,” she said. “How about you?
Are you good?”

I measured out the last of the potassium. “Yep. We're
good on this side.”

“Great. Write that down, then we'll get it going.”

We both scribbled down the details needed, and we then
put everything together in the main beaker and turned on the Bunsen burner.

“Are you writing the chemical equations under each
step or have you created a separate table for them?” I asked.

“Separate table. It looks neater that way, but I think
the prof is fine with either.”

We watched as the concoction started to bubble.

“Looks like the elements are starting to separate,” I
remarked.

Her face remained cool and expressionless. Strictly
business seemed to be her attitude about this whole thing.

“Yeah. It should only take another two minutes before
the process is complete,” she responded.

“You sure?”

“I know it will.”

“You know nothing, Jon Snow,” I replied with a grin.

For the first time since I'd entered the lab she
looked up and locked her eyes with mine. “What did you say?”

“Oh, nothing,” I replied, feeling deflated, assuming
my joke passed right over her head. “It was just a
Game of Thrones
reference. Just, you know, trying to get a bit of humor in here.”

She chuckled, and I could see from the way her eyes
lit up that her laughter was genuine.

“You know nothing, Jon Snow,” she said, repeating my
words with a smile. “He's my favorite character, you know. Him and Arya.”

I smiled, realizing I may have just struck gold.

“My favorite was Eddard — that is, until he lost his
head at the end of season one.”

“Oh my God, spoiler alerts please!” she exclaimed with
mock horror.

“Come on,” I chuckled, “if you know the line, you've
already seen way past season one!”

“Alright, alright,” she said. “I'm just messing with
you.”

I tried to keep the conversation going. It felt good
to finally connect on something with this girl.

“So, as I was saying before I so selfishly gave away
that massive spoiler, Eddard Stark was my favorite character, but now I'd have
to say it's Tyrion.”

“A Lannister always pays his debts,” she commented. “I
have to say I'm pretty fond of Daenerys, too. She's come a long way since being
sold as a bride to a Dothraki warlord in season one. I feel like she's really
gonna start causing some proper chaos with those dragons of hers in the new
season.”

“Oh man, I literally cannot wait! She's gonna set shit
on fire!”

We had gotten so into our conversation that we hadn't
noticed the chemical reaction in the beaker had started to intensify and was
bubbling over the edges.

“Oh no!” exclaimed Brooke as she saw this. “Looks like
we're
gonna set something on fire!”

I leaned across the lab table and turned off the Bunsen
burner. Immediately, the mixture started to recede back into the beaker.

“Whew,” I said. “That could've been bad.”

The smile that on Brooke's face while we had been
talking about
Game of Thrones
had vanished and been replaced by a look
of icy somberness.

“It
is
bad. We've overcooked this. We should have
been paying attention.”

“That's alright, just dump that out, I'll measure out
the quantities again and we'll repeat the experiment.”

She seemed rather upset, and I couldn't help but
wonder whether the fact that we'd messed up the experiment was upsetting her or
the fact that she'd let her guard down in front of me. Perhaps it was a bit of
both.

“Alright,” she conceded, “I'll get rid of this mess.
Get those quantities measured out again and this time, no talking. We pay close
attention and get things right. Got it?”

Her tone was stiff and almost authoritarian — a total
reversal of the easy, open, and chatty Brooke I'd witnessed just moments
earlier, and all I could do was mumble a quiet agreement.

We repeated the experiment in silence. When we had
completed it successfully, she cleaned up the equipment without a word and
packed it all away by herself.

Things had gone from light-hearted to severe in the
blink of an eye. And somehow, I felt as if she was blaming me for the chill in
the air, even though I felt like it was coming from her and her alone. I had no
idea why was I feeling this way, anyway. She really wasn't my type. Having
feelings for her considering how she was treating me didn’t make sense. But for
some reason, there was something there.

“Got all your notes?” she asked.

“Um, yeah. I've got everything.”

“Alright, I guess that's that then. See you in class
tomorrow.”

Without another word, she turned and walked out,
leaving me alone with my bruised ego…and my disappointment.