Love's Decisions

The next morning I walked out of my dorm room towards the cafeteria, where I picked up a quick breakfast before rushing to my next taster session. The day consisted of many different lessons that I could take at Oxford, which I had tasters of. My first lesson was English, which was (as my mother always liked to say) easy peasy lemon squeezy. It made me smile to think about her. It was stupid, really, that I missed them so much. But honestly, I didn’t feel safe being away from them. I didn’t feel protected.
Maths and Bio-chem passed without a flaw, and then I was in the ‘medicine’ course – which was what I would have pursued. Halfway through my medicine course, I’d seen the door to another class open and close. In that minute, I’d seen it was a neuroscience class, and decided to enroll in a taster session for that too.

We were examining a brain in Neuroscience, when it happened. When he happened. I looked up as the door opened, and a university student walked into the class to talk to the teacher. Our teacher. Who was currently busy, at the moment. The boy waited patiently, while the teacher finished what he was doing. The boy took this time to glance around the classroom, before his eyes locked with mine. He smiled and nodded me, and I blushed as I smiled back. His smile grew wider, exposing his brilliant teeth, as he saw me blush, before he was pulled back into reality by the teacher
“Ryan I don’t have the papers you were looking for, try the medicine department” the teacher responded, before returning to address the class. The boy nodded and walked towards the door. Just before he left the room, he turned to smile at me, and then walked away.

At lunch time, I walked outside into the greenery to relax a little. The various choices of lessons and all the information that I’d taken in, in the past few days, made my head swirl. I looked around the field, sitting under a shady tree. I felt movement beside me; before I turned my head to see Ryan – the boy that had come into the neuroscience class – sit next to me underneath the tree. I smiled at him.
“I saw you checking me out in 4th lesson” he noted, as a greeting. I chuckled
“Hypocrite, much?” I responded, a challenging glint in my eye. Ryan smiled a breathtaking smile
“It’s ok, I get that a lot. The staring, I mean” he replied, taking a bite of his sandwich. I laughed
“I’m glad I found someone modest here” I responded sarcastically.
“Everyone’s glad when they find me” Ryan replied cockily, smirking at me. “I’m Ryan George” he introduced himself, sticking his hand out. I placed my hand in his and shook it, my breathing catching up I felt his skin on mine. I had initially opened my mouth to introduce myself, but words had evaded me. “Did you have a name?” he asked, after a while, pointedly looking at our hands – still intertwined. I took my hand from his quickly, blushing as I did.
“Kara Wild” I murmured, looking down at the floor. I could almost feel his smirk.
“That’s a pretty name. It suits” he replied, consistently looking at me until I turned to look at him.
“Thank you” I respond lamely, looking past him instead of at him.