All In My Head – Ch. 07 – Page 3 of 4

“What’s up Jenny girl?” Antonio said eying Jen up and down. “You’re looking hot.”
“Thanks,” Jen said, sipping her beer and looking the other way. Antonio was gorgeous and normally she’d flirt with him, but she didn’t feel like it tonight. Where had Allie gone? The least she could do is run interference.
Antonio put his hand on Jen’s back, running his hand from her bra strap to just above her ass. “Heard you and Colin broke up,” he said looking down her blouse. “Wanna go out sometime?”
“Um … I’m kinda working on my grades this semester,” Jen said.
“Yeah right,” Antonio smirked. “The party girl, working on her grades.” He laughed at the idea.
“Where’d you go?” Jen snapped later at Allie.
“Saw you talking to Tony-Tony,” Allie grinned lecherously. “You bitch, you know I’m hot for him.”
“Take him then,” Jen said dismissively.
“Come on Jenny, go fuck him,” Allie urged her. “It’ll get Colin out of your system.”
The idea of sex with Antonio was tempting. Tony-Tony – their nickname for him – was gorgeous and had an incredible body. And rumors said he sported twice the normal package, hence his nickname. But …
“He’s just another Colin,” Jen said dismissing the idea. She’d already had too many Colins in her life.
Later, Jen was heading back to her room when a guy she didn’t know approached her.
“Beer?” Mike asked nervously. He’d been waiting for over an hour for a chance to talk to her.
“Already got one,” she said holding up the red Solo cup.
“Oh,” he said. He looked uncertain, like he didn’t know what to say next. Finally he blurted out, “Don’t you think Emerson and Thoreau at some point became conformists by both being so non-conformist?”
“I guess so,” Jen said with a shrug. “Do you always talk about French literature at parties?”
“Uh … well …” Mike stammered, red faced.
Just then Allie appeared. “Where have you been?” Allie said to Jen, pulling her away.
Across the room Allie whispered into Jen’s ear, “Why are you talking to that geek?”
“Who is he?” Jen said.
“Mike something, he’s the TA in my math class,” Allie said dismissively.
Jen looked back. She smiled seeing Mike muttering as if chastising himself for not having a better pick up line. “He’s sorta cute,” she said.
Allie looked at him as if for the first time. “I guess he’s kinda hot, in a geeky sorta way. I’d do him.”
“Jeez Allie do you have to screw every guy on campus?!” Jen snapped.
Allie gave Jen a WTF look. “Whatever, fine, he’ll be your bubble boy.” Earlier that week in their sophomore film class they’d watched “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble” about a boy no one was allowed to touch.
Mike already forgotten, Allie tugged Jen’s arm. “Tony-Tony and I are going to the Crypts. Come with us. Victor’s going too, it’ll be a double date.” Victor was Antonio’s buddy and was just as good looking. But he was another Colin too.
Jen shook her head. “I think I’ll hang here.”
Jen wanted to go upstairs to bed but she kept getting stuck talking to people. From time to time she glanced over at Mike. He was hanging out drinking a beer, mostly by himself. He kept looking at a painting on the wall. She kinda felt sorry for him, but not enough to go over and talk to him.
At one point Maureen joined the group she was with. “You’re a math major right?” Jen asked Maureen. She motioned towards Mike. “Do you know him?”
“What’s he doing here?” Maureen asked surprised. “That’s Mike Andrews, I’ve never seen him out of the math lab. He’s really smart, he just won the Barnes award.”
“What’s that?” Jen asked.
“It’s like the Nobel prize for college students.”
“Oh, wow,” Jen said impressed.
Jen got stuck talking to Tony-Tony and Victor. They were talking non-stop about the club football game they played that afternoon. She tried to look interested, but really she just wanted to go to bed.
Then they tried talking her into going to the Crypts, a local bar just outside campus. Jen shook her head. “I’m not feeling it tonight,” she said.
She made her way to the stairs, to go to her room. She had to pass Mike on the way. “Why do you keep looking at that picture?” she asked.
Mike looked startled at seeing her. “Uh, well, it’s kinda interesting.” He pointed to the painting, a work of abstract art. “This is an arithmetic progression.” Then he pointed to another place. “It switches to a geometric progression here. Do you know who did it? It’d look cool in my office.”
Then Mike realized he’d drifted into geeksville. He expected Jen to look bored or smirk at him for being such a geek, but to his surprise she smiled and laughed. “You can have it. I didn’t know I was putting that stuff into it.”
Mike’s eyes widened. “You painted this? I thought you were a marketing major.”
“How do you know my major?”
“Oh um – I think someone mentioned it,” Mike stammered. He obviously couldn’t reveal he’d hacked into the Penn State computer while stalking her.