Unfair

I stared at him. I guess he was right; there was a first time for everything. He stood up and stretched his arms over his head. My eyes immediately shot to where his shirt pulled up to reveal a little bit of his defined stomach.

“Like what yeh see?” Damn, I had been staring. Heat rose to my cheeks and I turned my head away from him harshly, like a child. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

A few stray hairs fell into my vision and I blew at them to no avail. I reached up to put them behind my ear, but Caeden’s hand beat me to it. He brushed them behind my ear and let the tips of his fingers graze my jaw. The skin burned where he touched it and I found myself staring into his eyes again.

“I guess I’ll leave now if yeh need yer sleep.” He let his hand linger on my jaw for a few more seconds before he turned around and strolled to my window.

“You know that there is a door right?” I found myself asking.

He turned to me, a grin on his face. “Well, that’s no fun.” And with that he climbed out of the window.

I let out the breath I had been holding in, since he had touched my face, in a rush.

“Yeh know yeh should keep this window open.” I turned around and saw his head poking into my window.

“And why would I do that?” I asked, confused.

“So I don’t have the look fer yer window again. It’ll be easier that way. Fer next time, I mean.” I stared at him for a moment and watched a smirk form on his face. He vanished from sight again and I waited for a moment to see if he would pop in once more. He didn’t.

I sighed, a little relieved, a little disappointed that he hadn’t stayed. I just had to ruin it by revealing that I had no rebellious side in me, didn’t I? Walking to my bed, I let my fingertips brush against the comforter that he had laid on. It was still a little warm. Smiling to myself, I pulled back the covers and slid underneath them. I had a restful night.

When I woke up the next morning I was surprised that I didn’t feel like I had lost a few hours of rest. I was able to get through my morning routine easily and packed my bag with that day’s textbooks. I felt a twinge of sadness that I didn’t have that physics class that day. But it was only the second day of the new semester. Maybe I would see him somewhere on campus.

I went down the stairs to the lounge and picked up my daily coffee from the vending machine. After that I just walked to my first class. There was no one for me to talk to in the lounge. I was never really noticed, only the teachers acknowledged me by my good work in class. There were little groups on the campus grounds and I steered myself around them.

A voice laughed and I looked up out of habit. Caeden was with a group of friends, predominately girls, laughing at what someone said. I ducked my head down and walked a little faster.

I shouldn’t say ‘hi’. What if he doesn’t want to be associated with me in front of other people? What if he doesn’t want to talk about what happened last night? I nearly kicked myself, Of course he doesn’t want to be seen with me. How could I have been so naïve?

I was at the door of Building D.

“Deirdre!” My head snapped up and located the voice immediately. Caeden was pushing through the tight circle of friends to get to me before I went into the building. I stood frozen in slight shock that he would willingly pull himself away from a group of girls that seemed to be fawning over him. There was no other word for it, and once he cleared the groups and strolled toward me the girls’ eyes turned on me. I shrunk back against the door, weighed down by their glares.

Caeden looked at me in curiosity, but I was a deer in the headlights, staring right back at them. He glanced over his shoulder as he reached me and gave them a little “shoo” movement. They reluctantly broke up, but I could sense the silent promises in those eyes. I shivered and jumped when Caeden reached behind me to open the door.

“Thank you,” I mumbled and quickly retreated into the safety of the building. Clutching the books in my arms tighter, I turned around and watched as Caeden stepped into the building behind me. He looked up at me curiously as I stared at him, a confused expression on my face.

“What is it?” he walked up to me, now concerned. I still stared at him in silent confusion.

“Uh…Why did you walk away from your friends?” I mentally shook myself and regained the ability to talk.

“Oh, dem? They were just asking me annoyin’ questions. Yeh know, ‘What’s it like the grow up in Ireland?’ ‘What town were yeh born in?’ The usual crap that I have the put up with bein’ a guy with an accent.” He grinned down at me.

I stared at him for a moment and shook my head. “Still doesn’t make sense why you would want to talk to me instead of them,” I mumbled and turned to walk down the hallway. My comment must have shocked him for a moment because when I turned down a different hallway I heard his hurried footsteps as he tried to catch up to me.

A fleeting thought to hide in an empty classroom came across my mind, but I shook it off. His footfalls grew louder until his hand landed on my shoulder turned me around, faster than he had meant to. My books slipped out of my arms once again as I tried to quickly regain my balance. Caeden quickly wrapped his arms around me to steady me as I stumbled toward him.

It took my mind a few seconds to register what happened, but it was all too real when Caeden chuckled.

“I di’n’t know yeh were already fallin’ fer me.” I looked up at him quickly, my expression probably bewildered, but I quickly got over it and shoved away from him and bent down to get my books. Caeden handed me the last one and I snatched it away from his hand. I knew that my face was probably a few shades of crimson, but I looked at him defiantly.

“You are most mistaken.” I nearly kicked myself for how proper it sounded. Caeden gave a low whistle.

“Looks like I’ve awoken somet’in’ here.” I sucked a breath through my nose and turned on my heel. “Aw come on! You should’ve seen how cute yeh look when yer all bothered like that.”

I stopped for a moment, almost taking a glance over my shoulder. Instead I huffed and stomped the rest of the way to the classroom.