Chapter 5 office hours

Emmy

Saturday mornings were sacred.

At least they were supposed to be.

Emmy arrived at the library fifteen minutes early with a coffee in one hand and a stack of SAT prep packets in the other.

The community library sat just outside downtown, tucked between a bakery and an antique shop. It was quiet. Predictable.

Her favorite kind of place.

The study room she'd reserved was empty.

Almost.

Luka sat at the far end of the table.

Already working.

Emmy checked the clock.

He was twenty minutes early.

Interesting.

"You know the session doesn't start until nine."

Without looking up from his practice test, he said, "I know."

"Then why are you here?"

A shoulder lifted.

"Traffic."

"At eight-forty in the morning?"

Now he looked up.

For half a second she thought she saw amusement in his eyes.

"Maybe I wanted a good seat."

Emmy rolled her eyes.

The corner of his mouth twitched.

That was becoming a problem.

Not because he smiled often.

Because she was starting to notice when he did.

She quickly unpacked folders and spread them across the table.

Scholarship deadlines.

Practice exams.

Essay workshops.

Color-coded tabs.

Everything exactly where it belonged.

"Do you organize everything?" Luka asked.

"Yes."

"You have a label maker, don't you?"

Emmy narrowed her eyes.

"Maybe."

Luka actually laughed.

A real laugh this time.

Low.

Brief.

Dangerously attractive.

Absolutely not.

Before she could think about that further, the door burst open.

"No one panic."

Emmy sighed immediately.

Noah.

He stumbled inside carrying two coffees and looking like he'd sprinted across town.

"You are twenty-three minutes late."

"I brought offerings."

He held up the coffees triumphantly.

Emmy hated that one of them had her name on it.

"You bribed me?"

"I prefer the term strategic relationship building."

Luka leaned back in his chair.

"You were late because you stopped for coffee."

"I was late because the line for coffee was long."

"Which happened because you stopped for coffee."

Noah pointed accusingly.

"You sound like Emmy."

"That's because she's right."

"Betrayal."

Emmy took the coffee anyway.

Mostly because it was exactly her order.

Which was annoying.

"How do you know what I drink?"

Noah looked surprised.

"You get the same thing every morning."

She blinked.

"You noticed that?"

The second the words left her mouth, she regretted them.

Noah's expression softened.

Just slightly.

"Yeah," he said.

"I noticed."

For some reason, that made her look away first.

The next two hours passed surprisingly quickly.

Mostly because Noah turned every section of the SAT into an argument.

"This question is subjective."

"It's math."

"Numbers are just opinions."

"They literally are not."

Luka shook his head.

"I think he's getting worse."

"I'm getting creative."

"You're getting a sixty-three."

"A passing grade."

"A barely passing grade."

Noah grinned.

"Still counts."

Emmy hated that she was laughing more than she had all week.

The three of them settled into an unexpected rhythm.

Noah talked.

Luka observed.

Emmy corrected both of them.

At one point she caught herself enjoying it.

That realization was so alarming she immediately buried herself in grading practice tests.

Bad idea.

Very bad idea.

People were temporary.

Goals weren't.

That had always been her rule.

The rule had worked just fine until two scholarship athletes invaded her study group.

A chair scraped across the floor.

Emmy looked up.

Luka stood near the whiteboard.

"Break."

Noah looked horrified.

"We're allowed breaks?"

"You're staring at the same paragraph."

"I was thinking."

"You were asleep."

Noah considered that.

"Fair."

The three of them wandered outside into the small courtyard behind the library.

The September air was warm.

Leaves drifted lazily across the sidewalk.

For a few minutes nobody spoke.

It wasn't uncomfortable.

Which somehow felt strange.

Noah eventually broke the silence.

"What would you do if college wasn't a thing?"

Emmy frowned.

"What?"

"No applications. No scholarships. No expectations."

He kicked at a loose pebble.

"What would you do?"

The question caught her off guard.

She'd spent so much time planning her future that she'd never considered an alternative.

"Medicine."

Noah laughed.

"That wasn't the question."

"It is for me."

She looked toward the street.

Toward the future she'd spent years chasing.

"I've always wanted it."

Noah nodded slowly.

Like he understood.

Maybe he did.

Athletes spent their lives chasing dreams too.

"What about you?" she asked.

Noah looked away.

For the first time all morning, his smile faded.

"Honestly?"

"Yeah."

He shrugged.

"I don't know."

The answer surprised her.

More than she'd expected.

Before she could ask anything else, Luka spoke.

"Hockey."

Both of them looked at him.

"If college didn't matter," he continued, "I'd still choose hockey."

Something about the certainty in his voice made Emmy's chest tighten.

She understood certainty.

She understood wanting something so badly it became part of who you were.

Maybe that was why she suddenly understood Luka a little better than she wanted to.

The library doors opened behind them.

The break was over.

As they headed back inside, Noah fell into step beside her.

"You know," he said quietly, "today wasn't terrible."

Emmy smiled despite herself.

"That's the nicest thing you've said about studying."

"Don't tell anyone."

She shook her head.

And for the first time since senior year started, she wasn't counting the hours until she could leave.

Which should have worried her.

Instead, it felt suspiciously like happiness.