Chapter 8

All I can hear is the sound of my heart beating and my labored breaths as I run. I run as fast as my legs will take me because my life depends on it. Well, my academic life. I've overslept. This is my first ethics class, some being late is especially horrible. I finally make it to the lecture hall two minutes late and as I open the door, all heads turn to face me like I'm THAT person that can't make it on time to class. Even the professor gives me a glare before going back to speaking. At least he didn't say anything. I think I would actually combust if he did. I decide to sit in the back of the class, and the only available seat in the area was one next to a guy with platinum blonde hair. He only seemed to be half paying attention to the teacher, he seemed to be focusing more on reading a small, worn-out book on his lap. On the other side of me, there's a girl with black hair who is chewing gum while sketching what looks to be a rose. As I sit, I slightly cringe at the squeaky nature of the chair, then pull out a new notebook and one of the twenty pens from my bag. I smile, thinking of Cooper. I want to ask someone what the teacher was talking about before I walked in, so I decide to ask the guy instead of the girl: she seems very invested in her drawing. "Excuse me?" I whisper to the guy. He doesn't look up at me as he grumbles, "What?" "Sorry to bother you, I was just wondering what the professor was talking about before I walked in" I whisper once more. He sighs, places a bookmark in his book, then turns to face me. When he looks at me, his eyebrows raise, almost as if he wasn't expecting me to be talking to him. "Um... He was just talking about how attendance is mandatory and how he hates tardiness" he says quietly while slightly smiling at the irony of my situation. My eyes widened as I realized that I was late as he was talking about how he hates it when students are late. "Crap" I mumble more to myself than to him, however, he chuckles anyways. "It's okay, it's the first day. He won't remember that it's you" he says, which makes me feel slightly better. I smile at him, then go back to listening to the professor. He is talking about assignment due dates when the guy next to me nudges me lightly with his elbow. "I'm Eli," he says. "Thea," I say, to which he grins. "Nice to meet you, Thea." About twenty minutes into class, the professor gives us an assignment. "Since I only have you guys once a week, a lot of your readings and assignments will be done online. Today, we're going to start with a quick writing assignment. I know you haven't learned anything yet, but I would like to see where your moral compasses are. This isn't graded, so please answer honestly. Here's your prompt: If you're walking alone in an empty parking lot and see a person's wallet on the ground, what would you do? Would you bring the wallet to the closest building in hopes of returning it back to the owner? Would you remove the money first, then return the contents? Would you leave it on the ground and pretend you never saw it? Write a paragraph or two on what you would do. Later in the semester we will analyze the different responses and see which school of thought you all revert to. You may begin." I begin writing my answer down. It's very obvious what I would do- I would try my best to return the wallet to the owner. It's their money and identification, not mine. I finish writing quickly, then read over my answer. On my second reread, the paper is snatched from my hands by Eli, who begins to read it over. "Hey! Give that back!" I whine, but he leans over with the paper so I can't reach it. He begins laughing softly as he returns the paper. "There's no way that's what you would do." I scrunch my eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean? Of course, I would return it" I reply. "Okay, but you wouldn't even want to look inside at the money? You wrote that it wouldn't matter if they had hundreds of dollars in the wallet, you still wouldn't take anything." "And I stand by that" I defended. "But what if I told you that you wouldn't be caught? No one would ever know that it was you who stole the money?" Eli asked. “Doesn’t matter. I would know that the money I'm using is stolen money. It's morally wrong and my conscience wouldn't allow for that." "Well, you're a good person then" Eli replies. "I would take some of the money. I'd still return it, but who cares if it's $400 instead of $600 in the wallet? Nobody would catch me, I'm still returning the wallet, and I'd be $200 richer!" “That's Not Right, Eli. What would your friends and family think of you?" I ask him. He looks me in the eyes when I question him, and his dark brown eyes are almost black in the light. He blinks a few times, then looks away as he says "They would do the same. Or worse." "Oh" is all I can think to say. He chuckles. "Not everyone is as pure and naive as you are." "I'm not pure and naive!" I say, slightly louder than anticipated, so a few people begin staring at me. I shyly duck my head, which only seems to make Eli laugh at me more. "Sure" he mumbles under his breath. After we turn in our responses we are free to leave. I pack up my bag and walk out the door along with fifty other students. I feel a little cramped in the crowd and huff out a sigh when I finally have my own space. I feel a tap on my shoulder and I nearly jump out of my skin in surprise. I turn to see Eli with his hands up as he attempts to hide a smile. "Sorry, Jumpy. Didn't mean to scare you." “Oh! Um, it's fine" I mumble. "So... Did you need something?" "Right! Um, I wanted to know if you maybe wanted to-" Eli is interrupted by my phone ringing. "Sorry, one second," I say to him as I pull the phone out of my backpack and answer after seeing Cooper's name at the top. "Hey," I say into the phone. “Hey, Thee! Wanna hang out and grab dinner with me? I was thinking of inviting Axel and Grayson, but only if you're okay with-" "YES!" I blurt out, before realizing that I must sound like an overexcited, obsessed person. "I mean... I would be fine... With Grayson coming." "And Axel" Cooper chuckles. "Yes, and Axel.: "Great! I'll pick you up from your house at six? Axel and Grayson are busy until then. We can meet them at the restaurant?" "Sounds good," I reply with a smile. "I gotta go, Cooper," I say as I look at Eli patiently waiting for me to finish my phone conversation. "Bye, Thea! Dress cute!" Cooper says, then hangs up. I put my phone away, then turn to Eli. "Sorry about that. Needy friend" I say, hoping that explains enough. "It's fine," he says. "Listen, I have to go. But I'll see you next week in Ethics?" I ask. He looks a little disappointed at my response, but nods his head and says a quick goodbye to me before he disappears behind the building. I grab a quick lunch at one of the dining halls on campus, then rush off to Psychology. I sit next to Cooper, and the entire time I'm trying to listen to the lecture, Cooper is talking about where we should go to eat, what I should wear, and how I should do my hair. If I wasn't sure he was gay before, I'm definitely sure now. Cooper drives me home after class, and I open my closet to figure out what I want to wear, which is when I realize- I am very unprepared for this dinner!