held the flashlight while I skimmed through my notes. “Um, the Corona Borealis, I think.”
“Ah, the northern crown.”
I glanced at him, brows raised. “You knew that off the top of your head?”
He laughed. “I might not take notes, but I do pay attention.”
I was pretty sure he slept through the vast majority of the class yesterday. I slid out the grid Professor Drage made for us and then the star map and found the Corona Borealis on it. “I really don’t understand how anyone sees shapes in the stars.”
“Really?” He scooted over and peered over my shoulder. “The shapes are pretty obvious.”
“Not to me. I mean, it’s just a bunch of stars in the sky. You can probably see whatever you want to see.”
“Look at the Borealis.” He tapped his finger off the map. “It’s obviously a crown.”
I laughed. “It does not look like a crown. It looks like an irregular half-circle.”
He shook his head. “Look. You can see it now easily. That’s a crown. Come on, see the seven stars.”
I tipped my head back as I grabbed a pen from my bag. “I see the seven stars, but I also see about a hundred other peeking out. I also see the cookie monster.”
Cam burst into laughter. It was a nice sound, deep and rich. “You’re ridiculous.”
My lips pulled into a smile as I hovered my pen over the grid. I had no idea what latitude line to start at. I glanced up toward the Borealis and managed to draw a line where I thought I should, connecting two dots.
“You know where the name comes from?” When I shook my head, he reached over and took the pen from my hand. His fingers brushed mine, and I pulled my hand back, planting it in the lush grass. “It represents the crown given from the god Dionysus to Ariadne. When she married Bacchus, he placed her crown in the heavens in honor of their marriage.”
I stared at him. “Professor Drage didn’t teach that in class.”
“I know.”
Leaning back, I studied him. “Then how did you know that?”
“Why don’t you know that?”
I cocked my head to the side, brows raised.
“Okay. Maybe most people wouldn’t know that off the top of their head.” He twirled my pen between his fingers. “I actually took part of this class as a freshmen, but had to drop it.”
“Really?”
He nodded, but didn’t elaborate.
“You’re, what, a junior?”
“Yep. I ended up having to take a year off, which put me behind.”
I wanted to ask why, but decided it was none of my business. “Why did you retake astronomy?” I decided that was a safe topic. “Is it a part of your major.”
“No. I just like the class and Professor Drage.” He paused, flipping off the flashlight. “I’m studying recreation and sport. Would like to get into sport rehabilitation.”
“Oh. Did you…” I trailed off as the girl behind us broke out into a fit of giggles. Glancing over my shoulder, my eyes widened.
The two students from our class were definitely a couple or well on the way to becoming one. Their notebooks were forgotten on the bench. She was in his lap, their faces inches apart and his hand was slipped under the hem of her skirt.
“Now that is an interesting form of stargazing,” Cam commented.
I was grateful for the darkening sky, because my face started to heat. I knew I should turn away, because watching them made me a total creeper, but I couldn’t. Not even when the girl’s hand threaded through the boy’s hair, pulling his head to hers and they started really kissing and his hand was all the way up her skirt, to his forearm.
Wow.
Cam poked me in the arm with my pen, drawing my attention. He looked… curious. “What?” I said.
“Nothing. It’s just that…” He seemed to choose his next words wisely. “You’re watching them like… you’ve never seen a couple do that before.”
“I am?”
He nodded. “So unless you were raised in a convent, I imagined you’ve been in a lap a time or two, right?”
“No, I haven’t!” I winced, because I practically yelled that. “I mean, I haven’t been in a guy’s lap.”
“What about a girl’s lap?”
“What? No!”
A slow grin spread across his face. “I was joking, Avery.”
I gritted my teeth. “I know, it’s just that…”
“What?” He poked me again. “You what?”
My mouth opened and the worse kind of verbal vomit happened. “I’ve never been in a relationship.” The moment those words came out of my mouth I wanted to kick myself in the boob. Who admitted that to a virtual stranger? Clenching the edges of my notebook, I peeked up at Cam. He was staring at me like I’d just claimed to be the Virgin Mary. My cheeks burned. “What? It’s not a big deal.”
He blinked and gave his head a little shake as he turned back to the sky. “You’ve never been in a relationship?”
“No.” I shifted, uncomfortable to the max, like I laid my soul bare.
“Nothing?”
“That’s what no means.”
Cam's mouth opened and then closed. “How old are you?”
I rolled my eyes as I wiggled. “I’m nineteen.”
“And you haven’t been in a single relationship?” he asked again.
“No.” The paper was starting to crumple under my fingers. “My parents… they were strict.” Such a lie, but it sounded believable. “I mean, really strict.”
“I can tell.” Cam tapped my pen off his notepad. “So have you gone on a date or anything?”
Sighing, I cast my eyes to my paper. “I thought we were supposed to be mapping stars?”
“We are.”
“No, we’re not. All I have is a scribbly line and you have nothing.”
“That scribbly line is between the Delta and Gamma.” He leaned over, connecting two of the dots. “Here is the Theta and this is the Alpha—brightest star. See, we are halfway done.”
I frowned as I glanced up, tracing the pattern of the stars in the sky. Hell, he was getting it right. Then he leaned in again, his shoulder pressing into mine as he drew a perfect line to another dot on the map. I bit down on my lip as he continued to finish the map without looking up once or at the star map. I was acutely aware of how warm his arm felt even through the two layers of clothing. The warmth from the contact spread up my shoulder and across my chest, kicking my pulse up.
He turned his head toward me. “Now we’re done mapping stars.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. Our faces were inches apart and he was way too close. My gaze fell to his lips. They were tipped up on one side and that dimple started to appear in his left cheek. His lips started moving, but I didn’t hear a word he was saying. I wanted to move away, but I… I didn’t want to. Confusion swept through my body as I struggled not to shy away… and not to move closer. It was like being caught between two opposite magnets.
Maybe I should stop staring at his lips.
Sounded like a good plan, because staring at a guy’s lips