Forelsket

“Hey!” I walked faster. “Hey, come on!” He was getting closer; I could hear the gravel crunching under his feet get louder as he neared. “Hey.” His voice was a mix of force and exasperation as he sped in front of me and stopped, blocking my path.

“What?” I snapped, face red and eyes glaring. I’d given up on trying to get past him and instead gripped onto my bag tighter so I wouldn’t “accidentally” sock him in the face.

“What’s you’re fucking damage?” He was breathless from running after me, though it simply reminded me of how breathless he’d been minutes earlier from laughing and it was making me smolder.

“My damage?” I said the words carefully, mulling over them. “What the fuck is my damage? I could ask you the same question! You seem to go out of your way to screw with me whenever you can and it’s beyond annoying!” We stared at each other, my heart pounding from how quick I’d been moving. “And who the hell says damage anyway?” I added, chewing my lip. I saw a glint in his eyes as his lip began to twitch again. “Don’t you dare laugh again I swe—“

“Okay, okay. Look, I’m sorry just calm down, alright?” I crossed my arms and look away with a huff. “We have to write this paper together, so you can’t just leave every time we sit down to do it. You’re a huge pain in my ass too and this situation certainly isn’t ideal but we have to at least try to be cordial. “ I sighed. He was right. I rolled my eyes and looked back at him, chewing my lip again.

“Fine.”

“Fine.” He echoed. We stood there for a minute. “So, where are you going?” I gestured with my head down the road to the left.

“I was going back to campus. Maybe to the library, maybe to my dorm I haven’t really decided.” He nodded.

“Well I have to go that way too, so lets see if we can make it fifteen minutes without killing each other.” My lips involuntarily turned up.

“Alright.”

It was a beautiful day. It wasn’t hot, but then it never was in our small mountain town. It was roughly seventy degrees and the slight breeze danced through my loose curls. I glanced to my right side where Seth was walking. The light of the late afternoon sun was shining through his eyes, turning them a translucent forest green. His tousled hair was messily hanging out underneath his beanie and he clearly hadn’t shaved in a few days. He wasn’t a model or anything; his nose had a bump on it and seemed a little out of character with the rest of his facial features, and his body was tall and vaguely lanky, but he wasn’t all that unpleasant.

He’s kind of cute.

Gabriella’s voice was reverberating through my head again. No way, I inwardly scoffed. I was lost in my own head again, and staring. I watched as Seth looked over at me, watching him.

“Can I help you?” His voice was calm, if not slightly amused. I blinked, clearing my throat and shaking my head. I looked forward, trying to think of a cover for myself.

“So, you know I’m an art major, what do you do?”

“International business.”

“You’re international business and you don’t know the difference between the Pantheon and Parthenon?” He rolled his eyes.

“It’s international business not international historian, alright? I wouldn’t even be in that dumb class if it wasn’t a gen ed requirement.” I laughed some.

“Oh poor you, having to take one art history class. I have to take four for my major.” He pretended to gag.

“I’m so terribly sorry for your loss, Princess.” I shot him yet another glare and he responded with a cheeky grin. We were on the outskirts of campus now, on the back side of the library. “So what’ll it be, are we going to work on this paper or what?” I knew we should but after the coffee shop fiasco I wasn’t really in the mood anymore.

“I guess we could use the computers in the library to—“ Before I could finish I was toppling down to the ground. There was a giant pothole in the sidewalk that I’d been too preoccupied to notice. I hit the ground with an ‘oof’. I sat up to catch the breath that’d been knocked out of me and noticed the contents of my bag had slid all over the sidewalk. "Shit.”

Seth hurried over. “Are you alright?” I nodded and rubbed the dust off of my pants. “Here let me help.” He began picking up the things that had flown the furthest away.

‘You really don’t have to do that.” I insisted, grabbing my wallet and jamming it back into the tote. I was crouched down at this point; I had steadied myself enough to pull my ass off of the ground and was scanning for more things to pick up. The last thing I saw was my phone, and as I went to grab it so did Seth. His hand engulfed mine and I couldn’t help but notice how warm it was, and how the callouses of his fingers tickled. I looked up at him, our eyes locked. He seemed just as surprised as me, a glint of something in his eyes. They really were a pretty color, a light green with a ring of what looked like an almost navy blue around them. He cleared his throat and I snapped back to reality, pulling my hand away quickly and standing to my feet.

“Here’s your um.” He outstretched the phone to me and I took it quickly shoving it back into my bag.

"On second thought I should probably just go back to my dorm. I’m hungry anyway. Thanks for your help picking up my stuff. See you in class.” I was speed walking away before he could reply. That was weird, I thought to myself as I walked up the hill to my dorm. Had he been blushing?