Broken First (Never Again)

Episode Five

About twenty minutes into the second half of the match, he felt a presence at his shoulder and turned to find Jason not one of his main circles, but a guy from his department who moved in overlapping social orbits, someone Chris had crossed paths with enough to know he was sharp, observant, and generally useful to know.

Jason leaned down and spoke quietly, close to Chris's ear. His voice was low, the way someone talks when they've been waiting to deliver something important and don't want to share it with the whole room.

"She's in the cafeteria."

Chris went still for exactly one second. Then he turned his head slightly, just enough to see Jason's face without making a show of it.

"You sure?"

Hundred percent. Dark braids, light skin, silver earrings that's the description you gave me. She's there right now. Sitting with a group of girls by the far end, near the windows."

Chris had done that the previous day quietly, almost casually circulated a description to two or three people he trusted to be discreet. Not in a way that would look desperate or obvious. More like dropping a quiet note with a select few: If you see a girl matching this description, come and find me. It was the move of someone who understood that the campus was large and that timing, in matters like this, was everything. You couldn't be everywhere. But you could have eyes in the right places.

Jason had been one of those eyes. And now here he was, delivering.

"Good look," Chris said, already standing.

"You want me to come?"

"No. I've got it." He clapped Jason on the shoulder once. "I owe you."

You owe me a full story," Jason said, grinning. Jason was just like one of those humble guys who always want to hang out with the big guys in school just to be carried along and maybe after college graduation he did get a good connection that will set him up for good and Chris was one of those rich kids so he knew his favors will one day pay out, he didn’t care if the information he was giving out was going to be used for good or bad things.

Chris didn't reply. He was already moving.

Where are you going Chris? Bradley asked.

Yeah! And who is that nigga whispering something to you? Joe added

You guys gave me an assignment right so I’m working on it. I will be back before the game ends guy just keep my seat for me okay.

You better come back here with something positive. Tucker said.

Chris smile and continue moving. He didn't rush. Rushing was for people who were nervous, and Chris was not nervous. He moved with purpose across the stands, down the steps, out through the side gate of the sports complex and into the open walkway that connected to the main campus strip. The cafeteria was a five-minute walk. He did it in four, and he did it without breaking into anything that could be called a hurry.

The cafeteria at this hour was mid-afternoon busy not the lunchtime crush, but populated enough to have energy. Students at various tables, some eating, some studying, some doing neither, just using the space as a social gathering point the way university cafeterias have always doubled as. The smell of rice and stew and something fried hung pleasantly in the air. Ceiling fans rotated overhead. The sound was a comfortable, layered hum.

Chris stood just inside the entrance for a moment and scanned the room.

He found them near the far windows, just as Jason had said.

Five girls. They were clearly wrapping up a meal plates pushed toward the center of the table, the easy posture of people who had eaten and were now just talking. Energetic and comfortable, the kind of group energy that told you these were real friends, not just classmates who happened to share a table.

And then he found her.

Katherine Norris

From across the cafeteria, Chris had already known she was pretty the secondhand accounts had made that much clear. But accounts are accounts. You remember there was a description from the guy and the girl the other day and Chris had saw her once so he could she was really beautiful.

Katherine was laughing at something one of the other girls had said, her head tilted slightly back, and the light from the window caught the angle of her face in a way that held his attention a beat longer than he'd planned. Dark braids framing her face. Clear, warm skin. The silver earrings Jason had mentioned caught the light when she moved. She had an easy, natural quality about her not the performance of someone who knew they were being watched, but the unguarded energy of someone comfortable in the company of people they trusted. The people she trusted where her two friends and they where all there.

Chris exhaled slowly. Then he walked toward the table.

He didn't hover or hesitate. He walked straight up to the group with the easy, unhurried bearing of someone who did this kind of thing not because he was reckless, but because he simply had no reason to be afraid. Social situations where his native terrain. He had been navigating rooms full of strangers since he was old enough to understand that confidence, more than almost anything else, determined how you were received.

"Hey," he said, and his voice came out warm, easy, pitched just right for a table of five.

All of them looked up. The energy shifted not badly, just the natural recalibration that happens when an unexpected presence arrives. A couple of the girls exchanged a quick glance. One smiled immediately. Katherine's expression was open but neutral, the careful composure of someone who had learned not to give too much away to strangers.

"Sorry to interrupt," Chris said, and he didn't look sorry at all, which paradoxically made it land better. "I just wanted to come and say hello properly. I'm Chris.

He delivered it simply, without flourish. No performance. Just his name, offered like a handshake. He was looking sharp, well spoken and very handsome.

The girl who had smiled immediately bright-eyed, natural hair, the kind of face that was always on the verge of laughing leaned forward slightly. Emily, she said.

Another girl, sitting across from Emily, tucked a loc behind her ear and offered a composed smile. Rachel.

The other two introduced themselves in quick succession Nelly and Bentley with varying degrees of warmth, one curious, one amused.

And then there was Katherine. She looked at him with those steady eyes and said, simply, Katherine, in a voice that was clear and unhurried and gave absolutely nothing extra away.

Chris looked at her. Katherine," he repeated, as if confirming something he already knew, which he was, I mean with all the research he has done he already know much about her that she didn’t even know. This is one thing about someone who is on a mission you make research about your target so as not to disappoint when you finally meet the target. Chris let it sit for exactly one beat. Then, he said "I was actually hoping to talk to you for a minute, if that's okay."

The table shifted. Not dramatically just a slight change in atmospheric pressure. Emily's eyebrows went up a fraction. Rachel brought her cup to her lips to cover whatever expression was trying to form on her face. Nelly and Bentley were watching Katherine now, waiting. You know that look girls always look when a guy approach the most beautiful one among them. From the look on Nelly face you could tell she was jealous on Katherine but who cares. Not that it was a thing though.

Katherine, to her credit, didn't look flustered. She looked at him with the same measured steadiness she'd had from the start, and then she picked up her bag from the back of her chair.

We were actually just leaving, she said. Her tone was polite. Completely, immovably polite. We just finished eating and I have a lecture to catch up to. Maybe some other time. She also offered a handshake to Chris who then smile.

She said it the way someone says something they mean not harshly, not unkindly, but firmly. The door was being closed, gently but clearly. The other girls were already gathering their things, the natural choreography of a group that moved together.

Chris read all of it in real time and did the only intelligent thing available to him. He nodded. He smiled genuinely, not a forced recovery smile, but the smile of someone who understood the game was long and a single exchange was never the whole of it.

Of course," he said. "It was nice meeting you all."

There was a chorus of polite goodbyes. Emily's was the warmest. Rachel's was measured. Katherine's was brief a nod and the kind of small, noncommittal smile that people give when they're not sure what to give but don't want to be rude.

And then they were moving, filing out of the cafeteria in the easy, coordinated way of a close-knit group, and Chris was standing beside a table that now held only empty plates and the lingering warmth of a conversation recently ended.

He made his way back to the sports complex without any particular urgency, hands in his pockets, thinking.

The guys looked up when he reappeared. Tucker immediately sat forward.

"Well?"

Chris dropped back into his seat in the stands and watched the tail end of the match for a moment before he answered.

"I saw her."

That got everyone's attention. Even Joe turned from the pitch.

"And?" Tucker pressed.

And I went to meet her." He paused. "She was with a group five of them. I introduced myself to the whole table. They all introduced themselves back. Then I asked Katherine if I could talk to her."

"And?" Tucker again, leaning in now.

She said she had a lecture to catch. Maybe some other time."

Silence. Then Bradley let out a short laugh. "She shut you down."

She deferred me," Chris said. "There's a difference."

"Is there?" Tucker asked, genuinely curious.

"Shut down is 'no, never, don't come near me.'" Chris stretched his arms above his head. "Deferred is 'not right now.' She wasn't rude. She wasn't cold. She was just... composed. Which means she's not shaken. Which means she's going to need more than one approach.

Wait will you guys just allow me to do this or I should opt out of the bet? Chris was already getting frustrated with the whole questioning from his guys. This was not his regular game show so I wonder why Bradley, Tucker and Joe where on his neck to get this done.

We are sorry about that. Bradley said. We just want to be updated with the process that’s all.

Then let me update you guys when it is done. Stop this questioning it getting me angry already guy.

The atmosphere was now calm no more questioning.

Chris had seen her face now. Not a description. Not a guess. Her actual face, up close, in real light, unguarded and real. He had heard her voice, measured her composure, watched the way she handled an unexpected approach from someone she didn't know. She was smart. She was self-possessed. She didn't rattle easily. He even had a handshake with her and feel her soft palm.