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He glanced over at the other two, but only Diane nodded. Holly would need some convincing, but her roommates were usually the perfect ones for the job. “Okay, see you tomorrow,” he said.
As he hurried toward campus, he checked his watch. There were still a few hours of study time he could squeeze in, and he needed every minute. In less than five months, he would start his internship at Schreiber Foods. It was the largest private producer of cheese products in the United States, and Logan, Utah happened to have a factory with a quality assurance internship cooperation with Utah State, Hopefully he would get an internship there in the next semester.
Out of all of his studies, the homework assigned in his business classes seemed more relevant than ever.
Whenever he had a free chance, he read up on new health and safety mandates, food handling policies, and the latest news in food production. When he’d started college, he’d had no idea what his focus would be, but after visiting the Gossner Cheese Factory in Logan on a weekend break, he was fascinated with the careful production of each product.
Linus, the quality assurance manager, had taken extra time to answer his questions and had even kept in touch with him after recommending him for the QA internship.
Eric dodged a few big groups gathering around the student center and started toward the library.
“Hey, Eric.”
Eric frowned and turned toward a large group gesturing for him to join them. There were a few guys he recognized from his business classes, but in the smattering of women, no one looked familiar. Eric was famous on campus for doing “raptor attacks,” something he’d regretted doing since day one. But when people asked him to do it, he usually obliged.
“Hey, there’s our favorite dinosaur,” a feisty and flirty woman said, sidling up to him. “What are you doing tonight? We were just about—”
“Studying. I was about to study.”
“Well, do a raptor attack before you go,” Gus, one of the goofier guys, said with a wide, toothy grin.
Eric shrugged and forced a smile. “If you say so.” He turned around, took a few steps away from the group, and suddenly flung himself around and crouched, his fingers curling into themselves like claws. He contorted his face, or at least he hoped he had, and pounced on the too-flirty girl, hopefully scaring the pee out of her. He couldn’t confirm her bodily sensations, but the shocked expression on her face kept a smile on his face all the way to the library.
The library was crowded for a Friday night, too crowded. More like a party. What was going on? He left his things at a table and went to investigate.
A crowd of people were gathered around a sweet, older lady who clasped her hands together as her coworkers sang Happy Birthday to her and brought out a candle-lit cake from one of the back rooms.
People hadn’t taken him seriously for years. Always the jokester with a big heart. But once he’d performed the first raptor impersonation, it seemed no one was interested in learning more about who he was. Other than his roommates and the girls in apartment 103, he hadn’t met anyone he would miss. And that thought concerned him. He wanted more, someone who he could rely on, share his thoughts with, even after school ended.
Eric smiled and headed back to his seat. Once there, he waited a few minutes for things to quiet down and then dove back into his numbers and facts. A lot of his major consisted of memorization, and thankfully, Eric had top-notch recall. People stopped to talk to him, and he was grateful they didn’t press him when he refused to do a raptor impression while studying. But by the third interruption, he was done. He gathered his things just as someone glanced his way, appearing to want to chat.
Aimee had been wrong. The library was not the quietest place to study. It was more of a social center to find quiet people studying and then distract them. If only Holly had given him a suggestion. Her head was in her textbooks more than any woman he’d met on campus. She would know the best place to study, and it would probably be behind closed doors in her room.
He smiled as he thought of the three roommates. It had been lucky the girls meshed so well with the guys in his apartment. Three years of friendship. Three years of food parties, movie nights, and shopping trips together. Whenever he saw them in the parking lot, he dropped everything and hung out with them.
His phone buzzed on the way to the engineering building—a place that was sure to be vacant on a Friday night.
“Hey, Mother,” he said, after checking the caller ID.
“Hey, son,” she said back, just as formally. “It’s nice of you to call.”
“But I didn’t—”
“I know,” she said, laughing.
He laughed too. His parents were two of a kind. They ran a veterinarian’s office in St. George—one of the busiest vet clinics in Utah. His dad specialized in surgery, and his mom ran the office. They were the perfect team, and their sarcasm had only been refined over the years.
“What are you up to tonight? Studying?”
“Yep, for a little bit longer. I was eating lunch with some friends, but I had to leave to finish up some studies on how to increase consumer confidence.”
“Hmm, well at least you are studying.” His mom grunted. She was obviously still hurt over the fact that he hadn’t wanted to go into veterinary science.
“It’s going to be a doozy of a test, but I’m confident I have what it takes.”
“Want me to call your professor? Put in a good word about you?”
Eric stared at his phone. “What? No, of course not. I can handle things on my own.”
