Still the One (Book 2 in the Four of Us Trilogy)

25 | No Air

Miles

"Miles Salazar?" Dr. Harris called.

"Here," I answered, not making eye contact.

Dr. Harris, my Hydraulic Engineering professor, was a total asshole. I was already nervous enough about this class because it was known as one of the hardest classes in the entire program, but he just made it worse. I don't know why, but every chance he got, he made me look stupid.

And he got a chance today.

Halfway through his lecture, he called my name.

"Mr. Salazar?"

I sat up a little straighter in my chair, glancing at the people sitting around me. They smiled sympathetically. I cleared my throat. "Sir?"

"Can you explain Bernoulli's equation for the class?" he asked expectantly, like I was supposed to know what the fuck that was. 

"I – I'm sorry?" I stammered. 

"Bernoulli's equation. Please explain it for the class," he repeated. 

I had a minor flashback to Ms. Johnson's AP Euro class senior year, when she asked me about a cause of the French Revolution and I had no idea. Except she hadn't done that on purpose. I was pretty sure Dr. Harris was asking me about something I wasn't supposed to know yet. I had heard of Bernoulli's equation, but it was a standard for this class. And it was only October. We hadn't gotten to that yet. I was certain of it. 

"I apologize, Dr. Harris, but I don't know," I admitted, not even able to venture a guess. 

He eyed me with disgust, and I felt my face turning red. He looked around at the rest of the fifty people in the room. Finally, the guy who always sat in the front row, got to class fifteen minutes early every day, and knew everything about everything raised his hand and rattled off some complicated string of letters and numbers. 

"Thank you, Mr. Collins. I appreciate your attention," Dr. Harris said, looking back at me condescendingly. 

I clenched my teeth and crossed my arms, completely zoning out for the rest of the class. 

When it was finally time to dismiss, I grabbed my stuff and was first out the door. 

"Miles?" a voice said from behind me. I stopped and turned around to see a petite girl with curly brown hair and horn-rimmed glasses. I'd seen her in class but had never talked to her before. 

"Yeah?" I asked in confusion, but trying not to be rude. 

"I just wanted to say that what Dr. Harris did was really uncool. He has literally never mentioned Bernoulli's equation before today. That's one of the last things we cover in this class. It's on the syllabus for the end of November." She shifted on her feet uncomfortably, like talking to me made her nervous.

Which was odd because I had no clue who she was. 

"Uh – thanks," I said, shifting my backpack on my shoulder. "And you are...?" 

Her face turned bright red and she pushed her glasses up on her nose. "Oh, crap, sorry. I'm Iris," she rattled, sticking her hand out. 

I shook it politely and nodded. "Well, nice to meet you, Iris, and thanks for the validation. I was pretty sure we hadn't been over that yet," I said. 

She smiled and I noticed she had braces. "You're welcome." 

We stood there for a moment until I couldn't take the awkwardness for another second. "Well, I have to run and meet my girlfriend. She has an audition in a few minutes, and I want to wish her luck beforehand," I said, taking a step backward.