Chapter 47: Apparently, I Had Plans

Chapter 47: Chapter 47: Apparently, I Had Plans

The rest of the day went by without much happening, although I couldn’t say the same for the last class.

It was the only class I had scheduled today since Professor Richards was nice enough to be unavailable, which should have meant I’d be getting out early. Unfortunately, one of the guys decided to mention that little detail out loud, apparently forgetting that professors could hear him.

Our professor paused, looked around the room, and seemed to discover something wonderful.

"Oh," he said. "You all only have this class today?"

Nobody answered quickly enough to save us.

"Well, in that case, you won’t mind if we extend today’s lecture a little."

By the time we were finally dismissed at 5:49 instead of 5:00, I was seriously considering whether engineering was worth the trouble.

We’d barely made it out of the classroom before Jackson started complaining about a game he’d recently picked up. Apparently, it had been designed by someone who took personal offence at the idea of players enjoying themselves.

"It keeps doing the same thing," he said as we walked out of the classroom. "I’ll get all the way through a level, then something stupid happens, and I have to start over. And it’s not even my fault. The game just decides I don’t deserve to win."

I adjusted the strap of my bag on my shoulder and kept walking. I’d already told him that he could simply stop playing the game, but knowing Jackson, that suggestion had about as much chance of working as asking a gambling addict to leave a casino because he’d lost all his money.

He’d already decided that the game had personally insulted him, and now he needed to defeat it to restore his honour.

"So I tried a different strategy," he continued, sounding as though he’d discovered a breakthrough in modern warfare. "And you know what happened?"

I glanced at him, already expecting the answer.

"It got worse," he said.

"That sucks," I said, giving him a sympathetic look I didn’t really feel.

"I know, right?"

We crossed the remaining stretch of campus toward the parking lot, with Jackson still explaining the various ways the game had cheated him, when he slowed down and looked ahead.

"Is that Chloe?"

I followed his gaze.

Chloe was standing beside Nicole’s car, close enough to Nicole that they seemed to have been talking for a while. Neither of them had noticed us approaching yet.

I started walking toward them, with Jackson following beside me. Chloe noticed us first, and her face brightened as she smiled and waved. Nicole turned at the movement and smiled when she saw me.

I stopped in front of them, Jackson coming to a halt beside me.

"Good evening, Professor Collins," Jackson greeted her, sounding considerably more polite than he had been a literal minute ago.

Nicole smiled back at him. "Good evening, Jackson."

Jackson then turned to Chloe. "Chloe?"

She grinned at him. "Good evening, Uncle Jackson."

I immediately looked at her. "Uncle? Who? Him? You call me Nathan or Big Bro, but you’re calling him Uncle?"

Jackson smirked. "Don’t listen to him, Chloe. He’s jealous."

Nicole smiled at that, which was all the encouragement Jackson needed.

I turned to him. "I thought Evelyn was waiting for you."

His smirk disappeared. "Oh. Right." He looked back at Chloe. "I’ll catch up with you another time, okay?"

"Okay!" Chloe replied, still grinning.

Jackson gave Nicole a polite nod before heading toward his car, looking considerably less pleased with himself than he had a few seconds earlier.

Nicole was still smiling when I turned back to her.

"We didn’t finish class on time," I said. "So Evelyn’s waiting for him at some café."

Nicole nodded. "Oh, all right."

I turned to Chloe. "Why are you even here?"

"Big Sis said she’d show me around today," she replied immediately.

I looked back at Nicole, who was still smiling as though nothing unusual had happened. "We were waiting for your class to end first," she explained. "I didn’t know you’d take this long."

"Yeah, me neither. But you could’ve at least sent me a text saying you were showing Chloe around today."

Nicole blinked at me. "But you’re already aware."

I paused. "I’m aware?"

She nodded. "Mhm. Chloe said she told you that I’ll be showing her arou—"

Nicole stopped mid-sentence, and we both turned to look at Chloe, who was now wearing a decidedly cheeky smile.

"He did say he’d show me around the other day," Chloe said, looking at Nicole.

I narrowed my eyes at her, which was apparently all the warning she needed. She immediately slipped behind Nicole, leaving only her head poking out from the side.

"You promised to show me around," she said, looking directly at me as though I was the one who’d broken a promise.

Nicole let out a small laugh, clearly enjoying the fact that Chloe had decided to use her as a human shield.

"She’s acting like this because she thinks you’ve got her back," I told Nicole.

Nicole smiled. "I’m her big sis. I should have her back."

Chloe immediately stuck her tongue out at me from behind Nicole before ducking farther behind her, apparently satisfied with the support she’d secured.

I looked at the two of them, and I couldn’t help feeling a little warm at the sight. My sister was getting along with my—

My sister was getting along with Nicole.

That was nice. Really nice, actually.

I exhaled and looked at Nicole. "You’re sure about this? You know..." I gestured between the two of us, leaving the rest unsaid.

She nodded. "It’s already getting late, and most students are either back in their dorms relaxing or stuck in class because their lectures have run over. We should have the campus mostly to ourselves."

I glanced at Chloe, who was still hiding behind Nicole. She’d been looking up at her a moment ago, but now she turned those annoyingly effective puppy eyes on me, as if she hadn’t just tricked both of us into this arrangement.

I looked at her for a moment before turning back to Nicole. "Sure."

Chloe immediately beamed. "Thank you, Big Bro! Love you!"

Nicole laughed again, apparently finding the speed of Chloe’s change in attitude amusing. I decided not to give either of them the satisfaction of a response and turned around, heading back into campus.

Naturally, the two of them followed right behind me.