He's Not What He Seems

College wasn't surprising; I knew what was coming when I stepped on to the grounds.

All day I was asked with the same questions of 'what happened to you?' Or 'are you okay?' the normal choice of questions. My replies, always the same. 'I can’t tell you’ and ‘yeah I’m fine.’

The most of the day passed in a breeze, the questions were asked, but what surprised me the most was who was waiting outside during my dinner break. I was sat on the wall with my friends, catching up on all the news I have missed, when I spotted him at the corner of my eye.

He was sat on his motorbike sideways, his eyes shadowed by his face shadowed by his hat as he sparked a cigarette.

“Girls, as much as it hurts me to leave you just for a minute, but I need to speak to someone a moment,” I explained.

Before they could protest to come with me, I slipped of the wall and began to make my way through the crowd towards him.

Before he could look up, I snatched the cigarette from his lips and flung it to the floor. As I was crushing the cigarette under my shoe, I could feel his eyes on me. When I looked at him, his head was tilted up towards me, his eyes were masked by the shade, but I could see that menacing grin on his face.

“Smoking’s bad for you,” I pointed out.

“So is stealing,” he shot back calmly.

“I had no choice,” I said fiercely.

Adrian stood up from his bike, towering a head over me. He looked down at me, a not so innocent smile on his face. He lent forward slowly to the side of me.

“You had a choice, but you didn’t choose it,” he whispered into my ear.

He pulled back, his not so innocent smile still lurking in his features. I rolled my eyes.

“Whatever,” I muttered. His smile grew stronger.

“Enough of the cheek. Didn’t this school teach you to respect your teachers?” he hinted.

“Yeah but your -” I stopped mid-sentence when his smile grew darker.

“But your only twenty one, how can you be teaching a class?” I asked surprised.

He laughed and shook his head. He hung his arm loosely around my shoulders and turned us towards the college. “Don’t worry, it’s only for today. I’m just helping your teacher out with a dangerous science experiment.”

“Lovely, you’re in my class. You save my life and now I can’t get rid of you. That’s from only meeting you yesterday,” I laughed jokingly.

The bell rang for final lesson and my friends began to call me back over.

“You know you love this, being able to see me once more,” he laughed, walking us towards the college for last lesson chemistry.

When we made it to the steps, my friends causally waiting, but when they spotted me with Adrian, they stared at me before their eyes swept over Adrian from head to toe, and back up again.

I shook my head before the questions were asked.

“As much as I thank you for saving my life, I’d appreciate you wouldn’t droop your arm over my shoulder like that.”

Adrian laughed as he pushed open the door for me and my friends, allowing his arm to drop back by his side.

“Just being friendly, since this will be the last time you’ll see me,” he laughed as he trailed in behind me, but there was something to his laugh that sounded . . . gloomy.

I stopped outside my classroom door and waved good bye to my friends as they head for their lessons.

I rolled my eyes. “You scare me at times.”

“Lovely. Good to know I’m feared,” he joked as he push open the door and held it open for me.

The moment we both stepped in, all eyes turned to Adrian and then me, but for two completely different reasons. I was the last in class. I rolled my eyes and sat down at my desk, at the back of the room.

“Roll them eyes again and I’ll make you pay,” he called as he scribbled his name on the black board in neat loops.

“Yeah you wish,” I muttered in laughter.

Adrian turned to the class who chatted amongst their selves. With one quick glance at me, a dark grin on his face, he slammed his hands down with a sudden loud thud, which brought the class to attention. They quickly went quite.

“Thank you. Let me introduce myself, I am Mr Adrian Thomas and I will be assisting your teacher today with a very dangerous experiment,” he explained.

The students raised their hands immediately and he pointed Abbey, a Goth girl with purple and black hair, who wore red contact lenses, a mysterious girl that sat two seats down from me.

“Why do you dress like that? You look very dark and mysterious,” she asked, a slight flirt in her tone.

“That’s the whole point, I like being dark and mysterious,” he grinned.

A second later he slipped off his gloves, trench coat and his hat and slung them on the back of the chair. A second later the gasps came. They all stared at him.

I raised my hand casually and he pointed to me before rolling up his sleeves. Gasps followed once more.

“Do you think it was wise coming in with a birth mark like that?” I asked a daring smile on my face.

“I would ask the same for you. Is it wise to be in today after the recent events?” he asked back.

“Because I want to make my life normal again.”

He nodded and resumed back to the whispering class. He slammed his hands down once more, regaining their attention.

“Anyway, todays experiment is extremely dangerous. Since I am trained in this area, I am able to help. -”

Before he could continue, the main sectary entered the room looking all flushed. She must have sped walked here. “I’m sorry to disturb you Mr Thomas, but the experiment won’t be able to take place today, Mrs Rose is off ill and we are unable to find a substitute teacher. Are you willing to take this class for the hour?”

Adrian glanced at me before replying. “Sure, I’ll be okay.”

The sectary nodded and quickly left. I rolled my eyes. Why me?

Adrian dropped down on the seat, behind the desk, placed his hands behind his head and propped his feet on the desk at an angle.

The class began to moan and whine, but quickly stopped when Adrian flipped up his hand.

“This is now free time. Rosalina, I need to speak to you and I believe you left this at mine this morning.” He dangled my ‘hope’ necklace at the end of his finger, swinging it side to side carefully.

I sunk down in my seat, when all eyes turned to me. This was so humiliating.

“It’s not what it seems. I was the one to return her home. I found her down an alley on her way to death, patched her up and took her home,” he explained.

I sunk further in my seat. “I hate you!” I growled.

“I didn’t mean to, say anything, but they would have found out anyway soon,” he sighed, his voice laced with pain.

I sighed and shook my head. "It's okay; I know you didn't mean it. Your right, they would have."

With that I stood up, headed towards the desk and took the necklace. His fingers brushed mine a moment, sending a flash of red across his eyes. I stumbled back in shock, hitting my side of the corner of a desk, the side where the cut was. I let out a moan and held my side.

I sighed heavely and lent forward, one hand resting on the desk while I held the other hand over my cut. Under my hand, I felt something warm wet my skin and clothes.

"Rosalina you’re bleeding." Adrian stood up quickly and came to my side.

I shook my head and headed back to my desk. "I'm okay."

I made it up to Abbey's desk, when my legs buckled under me. A second later Adrian placed his arm just under my shoulder and my arm over his.

"Someone get the door and someone else go warn the nurse we have an emergency," Adrian asked the students.

"This is your fault," I growled.

"You can thank me later for helping you once more."

I rolled my eyes as two students rose from their seats. One student opened the door, while the other headed down to the medical office.

As we were passing through the door, he stopped and pointed to Abbey.

"Do us a favour, could you please pass me the bottle of pills from my jacket pocket," he asked, nodding towards the chair.

I looked at him in confusion. He shook his head an 'it's hard to explain gesture.' A second later Abbey returned with the pills and handed them to him.

"Sir before you leave, how old are you?" she asked.

"Twenty one, now I really must be going." And with that we left, heading down the hall way towards the lift.

"Are you stalking me?" I asked.

He shook his head and laughed, not surprised by my sudden question. "If I was stalking you, I wouldn't make it this obviouse," he pointed out.

I elbowed him in the chest, making him laugh at my failure and myself moan in pain.

"Anyway, I was asked to do this job before I even found you that night."

We stopped in front of elvetor shaft and wait for the elevator after Adrian pressed the down button.

I moved my hand from over the bleeding wound and glanced down at my blood stained shirt, before my blood smoothered hand.

"Some job you've done to me," I muttered.

The elevetor door pinged open and the fimilar 'fourth floor, please mind the doors,' ecod out the metal box. We stepped inside and Adrian pressed the button for ground floor.

“I warned you to be careful,” he pointed out.

“If that means being careful, that means you did a cruddy job!”

“All new stitches do that,” he said with a shake of his head.

“Whatever,” I groaned, all of a sudden feeling drowsy. My legs buckled under me once.

“Here, I’ll carry you,” he said as he picked me up in his arms.

“I feel sleepy, is that normal?” I asked.

He nodded. “Take my advice, get some rest you haven’t slept properly in a while and plus it will relax your heart, which will increase the speed of blood flow and you won’t lose as much blood,” he explained.

“Nerd,” I whispered as I closed my eyes, just as the doors chimed open.