Breaking Free: A Living Again Novella Read Free Page B

times a week, and work with her on experiments. He really liked doing things himself. He could rely on himself to get it done and do it correctly. What if she was mean? His partner last year in Biology 1 just let him do all the work. He was okay with that. He hadn’t liked him, but he hadn’t called him names, either.
    Give her a chance, his mom had urged. You have to learn to work with other people if you’re going to have a job after college. Greer had never had a job, unless you counted mowing lawns in his neighborhood and working on computers. He had saved thousands of dollars and had bought his own car when he was eighteen, not wanting to drive before then. While he was still undecided on his major, he was going back and forth between being a doctor or being an engineer. A doctor would be more difficult for him, since he would have to talk to patients all the time. But his parents said that would probably be good for him, to be outside of his comfort zone. He knew they were right.
    “Greer?” a soft voice broke through his thoughts, and he stood up, shoving his chair back. He looked at this girl, this woman, in front of him and felt speechless. He wasn’t good at talking in the first place, but she… she was way out of his league.
    Her long blonde hair fell in soft curls down her back, and her big blue eyes blinked while she waited for him to answer. Her smile took up her whole face. A small dimple showed in her left cheek. She was average height, and wore a shirt that said FSU CHEER. Oh, great. She was a cheerleader. All of his hopes were dashed at having a good semester in Biology lab. He remembered back to last year when he had a class with a handful of cheerleaders. One day they had all surrounded him and started talking to him. He had been in disbelief until the real reason for them being there had surfaced. One started taunting him about “had he ever had a real girl”, and “did he even know how that thing worked down there.” They had all been touching him and taunting him…
    “Are you Greer?” she repeated. Crap. He had been staring at her for too long. He needed to answer.
    “Yes. You must be Alexis. You’re my lab partner.”
    She was still smiling. He figured that was a positive. “Yes. Nice to meet you.” She stuck out her hand and he reluctantly put his out. He knew it was part of what he needed to do, but he hated it. He pulled back as soon as he could, then settled himself in his chair. He had cheese pizza, just like he did every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. He sat here from 11:15 to 11:45 and ate his pizza, listened to his music to drown out the noise around him, and drank a Coca-Cola. Today, he wasn’t listening to music. He was meeting Alexis.
    She sat across from him and opened her own pizza box. He smiled. She liked cheese pizza, too.
    “Cheese is your favorite, too?”
    She nodded, chewing a piece of her pizza. “I like it completely plain.” She picked up her drink, still watching him. He wondered how long it was going to take her to realize he was a freak.
    “You’re a cheerleader?”
    She looked down at her shirt, then back up at him. Her smile was so pretty. She hadn’t looked at him in any weird way yet. That must be a record.
    “Yes. I have been my whole life. What do you like to do?”
    Greer shrugged, looking away. He hated talking about himself. There was nothing that interesting about him. “I’m good with computers, and science.”
    “What are you majoring in?” His eyes met hers again as they both chewed quietly for a moment. She was asking about him and wasn’t rolling her eyes.
    “Not decided yet. Trying to figure out whether I want to do pre-med or engineering. I have until the end of this semester to decide.”
    “Those are two very different things.”
    “I’m good at both. I’ve always loved taking things apart and putting them back together. But I also have a mind for science. So, I’m not sure yet.”
    “I’m good at science, too,” Alexis