Adam is late arriving at school. The lot he normally parks in has been blocked by the police crime scene investigators. He and the other disgruntled students had to park in the overflow lot, necessitating an additional ten minute walk. Not an auspicious start to the day. He falls into step beside a guy he’s seen in various lecture halls, the two of them trail the larger group of students hurrying to cover the ground between purgatory and the school.
“What happened?” he asks the guy.
“No idea. Just the cops were waving me away from the Lester Street lot.”
“Yes, me too. Perhaps there was an accident. I hope no one was injured, but I would rather it was cleared up today.”
“You and me both. I don’t feature this much of a schlep twice daily.”
“We might end up in very good shape.” Adam says.
The guy laughs. “Buff. What a concept.”
As they enter the oval from the north, a red sports car speeds up the ring road. “Wow,” Adam’s companion says admiringly. “Porsche Boxter Spyder. That one might even be this year’s model. I haven’t seen one offline before. Sweet.”
Adam says, “I didn’t think you could park there.”
“Oh, you can’t, it’s just a drop zone. Usually nobody uses it except for commencement ceremonies when they have celeb guest speakers. Limos. VIPs, that kind of thing.”
“Ah. I’m Adam by the way. I believe we have some classes together.”
The other guy extends a hand for a quick shake. “Dave. Yeah, I’ve seen you around too. How are you getting along?”
“Okay, I guess. Not quite what I was expecting, though.”
Dave laughs. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”
“How so?” asks Adam, curious.
“Well, it happened to me too. Quite the shock to suddenly not be the smartest guy in school, eh?”
“You know, that never occurred to me.” Adam stops and suddenly everything is clear. That seems to answer everything. He looks at Dave gratefully. “You may well be correct .” Adam shakes his head and laughs. “I’ve been feeling as though I’ve lost my identity.”
“Once you understand that, its not quite so bad.”
Adam grins. “I suspect that if we’d gone to the same high school, I would have been the second smartest student.”
“We’ll never know. My first class is over in the Arts Centre this morning. Maybe I’ll catch you at lunch, Adam.”
“That would be good.” Adam smiles.
Dave nods toward the Porsche, still idling in front of the Medical Centre. “If that thing’s still there when you go by, give one of the tires a kick for me.”
Adam laughs. “I certainly will, Dave.”
The two students go their separate ways and Adam’s curiosity about the hot car draws him toward it. Dave seemed seriously impressed. Even Adam knows that a Porsche is a very expensive machine. He’s never paid much attention to cars, that’s one of the things his brother knows. Looking at the Spyder it he can kind of understand the appeal. It doesn’t look like an ordinary car. Certainly nothing like his beater.
Maybe it’s some specialist here to lecture the pre-meds. The med school gets lots of extra perks, probably paid for with the donations they get from doctors they graduate.
As Adam draws near his good mood evaporates when he realizes that the blonde woman in the passenger seat is Barbie.
Last night Adam had hoped what Nick said was all lies, but part of him didn’t really believe it, even then. Why would Nick lie? It doesn’t look like he did. Because beautiful Barbie is wound around the driver.
They’re kissing and, and, and.
The man’s hand is inside Barbie’s blouse and he’s touching her. They are practically having coitus in public, like one of those terrible movies his brother hides in the back of the cabinet. Adam can hardly breathe. But he pauses long enough to kick the rear tire before hurrying past to the tech building.
She liked him.
He thought she liked him. She smiled at him, she even kissed him. How can she kiss this other man? How can she let another man touch her like that. Adam should be the only one who gets to touch her like that.
Not some rich creep with a hot car.
