"I didn't do this. Didn't you see that girl just storming out? It was her," Jules insisted. Kehi just chuckled and shrugged.
"It's chill. I believe you. And now that you mention it, I did see someone running out of here. Kind of why I decided to see what was going on. You guys made a lot of noise — Sorry, she made a lot of noise," Kehi added before Jules could protest again. "Was she another heartbroken one-night-stand?"
"I guess. I don't know. It's weird to learn this about Knox. He seems so nice," Jules said.
"Oh, don't be fooled. A man can be both nice and noncommital," Kehi said, his arms crossed. "You still up for Chili dogs, by the way?"
"Yeah, of course — Should we clean this up?" Jules asked, looking around at the mess that was Knox's room. She gently deposited her history textbook on his desk.
Kehi shook his head. "What do you mean, we? I'm not cleaning this shit. That's Knox's problem, not ours. Come on, let's get some dogs."
"Yeah, okay," Jules said, exhaling a short laugh over the awkardness of the situation. Kehi was right. This wasn't her problem. Knox had it coming for breaking that girl's heart.
Unfortunately, when they arrived at Chez Monique, it was closed.
"What? I thought they stayed open until midnight!" Kehi protested.
"Wait, look, it says they're always closed on Sundays," Jules said, pointing at the sign with the opening hours.
"Shit, I forgot they were Mormon... Man, I really wanted some chili dogs," Kehi said, stretching his arms behind his head.
"Same," Jules said with disappointment. The evening really was just a bust now.
"Wanna check the dep over there?" Kehi asked, pointing a bit further down the street to a corner store. It was open, at least, an electronic sign lighting up the word "OPEN" in red. "A bit of a downgrade, but..."
"And at this hour, their hot dogs are probably stale, but..." Jules added. Against their better judgement, the two friends ambled over to the corner store.
They went to the self-serving section rather quickly. There was a middle-aged woman watching really loud videos on her phone working the cash. She barely even glanced at them as they scurried through the store.
"Aw, man... There's nothing left," Kehi said rather disappointedly when they reached the fully-emptied hotdog stand. He rubbed the back of his neck and glanced around the store. "What about some trashy microwaveable meals?"
"Down!" Jules exclaimed, laughing.
They bought some lasagna and pâté Chinois, which they microwaved inside before departing merrily from the store, forks also in hand.
"You know what the best thing about living in this city is?" Jules mused as they traipsed to the nearest park.
"Me?" Kehi said with a confident yet hopeful smirk.
"No — Well, yes, but I mean... The fact that we can still kind of see the stars, sometimes," Jules went on, her face lighting up under the faintly sparkly night sky. The moon was barely out, and the stars were tiny and unassuming, but Jules still marveled under their beauty.
"That's because we're not downtown," Kehi said, noticing the look of wonder on Jules' face and smiling to himself about it.
They arrived at a lone bench in front of some flower bushes and opened up their containers, ready to eat.
"Man, this shit smells good, though," Kehi said when he opened the container of his pâté Chinois. His eyes rolled to the back of his head as he took in the smell of it.
"Probably gonna taste like ass, but..." Jules joked as she opened her lasagna. She and Kehi promptly began eating their meals.
"You say that, but funny thing is, you don't actually know what ass tastes like," Kehi said after swallowing his first bite.
"And you do?" Jules returned, throwing him a playful look.
"No. But I'll try anything once," Kehi said with a light shrug. "I mean... picture this. The most beautiful, most sexy woman in the world — If she asks me to eat her ass, I would gladly."
Jules exploded into laughter and Kehi joined in soon after.
"That's such a you thing to say," she said, wiping a nonexistant tear away.
"And you know what? You know me so well, Jules," Kehi said, not protesting, not defensive, not even ashamed.
"It is a good philosophy, though," Jules pointed out before taking another bite from her lasagna.
"What is? Eating ass?" Kehi asked innocently.
Jules giggled but shook her head. "No, when you said, I'll try anything once."
"Would you try anything once, Jules?" Kehi countered.
"Yeah. Why not? I totally would," Jules said with unwavering certainty. Kehi gave her a dubious look. "What? You don't believe me?"
"No, I do. I believe that you think that," he said simply, looking away for a brief moment. But Jules' eyes were on him, analyzing him, pressing him to elaborate. "What?"
"You did not just say that. Oh, you believe that I think that? Please. Way to be indirect about your thoughts, Kehi," she said with a laugh.
"I'm not trying to be indirect or whatever. It's just true. You think you're a lot braver than you actually are. But the truth is, Jules, you don't really go out of your confort zone unless someone does it with you."
"That's rich, coming from you," Jules said with a playful frown. "You're like the king of wussing out on things."
Kehi chuckled at that. "Okay, so we're both cowards."
"That's what I'm saying!" Jules overtly agreed. Kehi laughed at that, and the two went back to eating quietly together.
The next day, Jules went to her history class, not too sure what to make of seeing Knox again. After his room got trashed by Paola, she and Kehi just ran off to get some food. She hadn't really considered the fact that she would be confronted with Knox's appearance again on Monday.
As expected, he traipsed into the classroom, his bag slung lazily over his shoulder, and a vaguely unserious look on his face. He first greeted the professor with a nod and then promptly found his seat next to Jules.
"Here you go, Jules," he said kindly. He pulled out from his bag her history textbook that she'd lent him and placed it before her.
"Did the school store restock on the textbook, by the way?" Jules asked smoothly.
"No, why? Is it too bothersome to share your textbook with me?" he said, genuinely asking. Okay, so not so smooth, Jules.
"No, it's fine. I don't mind," Jules said, half-truthfully.
Jules wasn't sure anymore about getting too close to Knox, not after finding out what he did to Paola. To be fair, she wouldn't have to see him again that much once the semester would be over. So, maybe she would only have to live with the discomfort for just a little while longer.
"Okay," he said simply. "And I'm thankful, you know. I should probably pay you back for half the cost of the textbook."
"Don't bother. I'm keeping it after, anyway," Jules said quickly and not necessarily truthfully.
"Then, how about dinner?" Knox offered. His facial expression was utterly unreadable. It seemed like there was a plausible reason for Knox to ask Jules out, but what if he was planning on using this as an excuse to get in her pants, or something?
"Uh," Jules stalled. What could she possibly say? She had to refuse, right? "That won't be necessary. It's okay."
"I insist. I owe you, big time, Jules. Can't pass this class without the textbook, you know? And as you know, it's out of stock right now, so..." Knox went on.
"You really don't have to pay me back," she insisted. Before Knox could find another reason why he absolutely had to pay her back, their professor addressed the class and started the lesson.
History of Latin America was a very content-heavy course. This was their first official lecture, and there was an ungodly amount of note-taking to take, so Jules was just typing like crazy during the entirety of class.
For a wild, scary moment, Jules thought that Knox was going to be one of those guys who didn't take notes to then later beg others to share theirs with him after class, but no. He had his laptop out and was intensely focused on taking as many notes as possible. Maybe working with him in this class wouldn't be so bad.
When class was over, Knox was texting on his phone, absent-mindedly. Jules thought they just wouldn't be biding goodbye, which she thought wasn't the end of the world, so she hoisted her bag over her shoulder
"Wait. Prince was just texting me..." Knox said, fingers still typing at an impressively rapid rate.
Jules' eyebrows jumped as she waited, fingers almost tapping impatiently on the desk. Promptly, Knox put his phone away and hoisted his bag over his shoulder too as he got up.
"Let's go," he said with a quick nod.
"I have to go home," Jules responded before he could say something about buying her dinner.
"Oh, okay, well... Let's hangout another day, then," he said with a shrug. "Uh, and for the textbook—"
"I'll bring it by your place before the weekend," Jules affirmed almost robotically. She desperately needed to get away from Knox, lest she finds herself actually befriending him.
When she got home, Jules kicked her shoes off and immediately ran up the stairs to her bedroom. She didn't notice anyone home, though her mom's car was still parked out front.
Anyway, that didn't matter at the moment because she desperately wanted to finish her history readings so that she could give the textbook back to Knox and not think about him for the rest of the week. She didn't find it ideal to do the readings so early, but she'd just have to brush up on her note-taking skills so she wouldn't forget important information before next class.
On her desk, she placed her laptop with her notes app open, the history textbook, and a crumpled bag of chips she'd left in her backpack all day.
"Okay... Chapter three..."
Immediately, a sticky note. For a second, Jules thought it was the same one she'd unwittingly left for Knox the first day she left the textbook to him, but then, she didn't recognize the handwriting as her own.
Right there, on the first page of chapter three, a sticky note read: "Hope you liked my little notes."
Jules frowned. What notes?
She flipped the pages all the way back to the ones of chapter one. There was a sticky note just below a drawing of non-domesticated corn.
"I can't believe corn used to look like that. Humans are crazy creative."
Jules went back a few pages where the textbook explains that humans first arrived in America some forty thousand years ago.
"So, basically... Mormons are wrong?"
A couple more pages forward where the author describes the way of life and traditions of the Incas.
"The Incas were so chill."
Jules had to hold back a chuckle. She couldn't allow herself to be entertained by Knox and his silly notes, but as she looked over at all his other notes on the other pages, she couldn't stop herself from smiling. This was fun.
Feeling a tad guilty for going against her conscience, Jules rummaged through her drawers to find her own sticky notes. She would be ready to add comments to the readings as she read chapter 3. Maybe she and Knox didn't have to be friends per say, but sticky notes were just a fun way to study history with a classmate. There couldn't possibly be any harm in that, could there?