Excerpt from Loyalty and Lies
The locker next to me slammed shut, and I jumped. "Everything okay?" a deep voice asked.
I looked up and my breath caught. The green eyes staring back at me were the most beautiful things I had ever laid eyes on, sending a pang of guilt through me. I was so entranced that I didn't notice the rest of his face at first, which, as I pulled my eyes back, I realized was equally as gorgeous.
My cheeks burned with embarrassment as I managed to choke out, "Hmm, yeah. My toggle's caught."
I tried to shuffle closer to the locker in an attempt to hide, wishing the ground would just swallow me up. It was bad enough that he was talking to me, but I was attached to the locker looking all flustered. Just perfect.
"Let me have a look." He dropped his bag to the floor and reached for the black elastic tethered to my jacket on one end and the plastic toggle on the other. His fingers worked the toggle and with a small tug, I sprang free. "There." He looked down at me and smiled, sending my heart into overdrive. His eyes...wow, they really were something else.
"Thanks. Hopefully, the rest of my day will go better." My eyes fluttered down as I acknowledged the moment. I hadn't interacted with—let alone talked to—a guy in sixteen months. To anyone watching us, it would have looked totally normal, but for me, it was huge. Dr. Simmonds would be so proud.
"Well, my work here is done. I have to get to class. See ya." He brushed past me, and I watched him walk away.
In their usual fashion, my eyes noticed the little things. The way that his shirt clung to his well-defined arms and broad shoulders. His short brown hair, sticking up in different directions. How his jeans hung low off his slim hips. The small, indecipherable tattoo hidden under the shaved hair at the base of his neck. It looked like wings or some kind of leaf, but I couldn’t be sure. Okay, so my eyes noticed everything, but it wasn't until he disappeared out of sight that my world crashed down around me.
What in the hell are you doing? my mind scolded. Shaking the thoughts from my head, I hurried to class and hopefully, my salvation.
I was late. The door opened with a loud creak, and the whole room turned to see who was making all the noise. Sinking into a free seat at the back of the room, I hoped nobody would notice my beet red cheeks.
"As I was saying before we were interrupted, do not expect this class to be easy. Each and every one of you will earn your grade." The tall slim man down on the stage stalked from one end to the other, his stern gaze eyeing the audience.
"Name your price, sir," an unidentified voice called out and a low rumble of snickers broke out around me.
"Who said that? Identify yourself."
Silence fell over the room, and the man pinched the bridge of his nose and heaved a sigh. "I will not be bought, young man. Anyone who thinks as much should transfer out of this class."
At first, I thought it was a joke, but there was a note of sadness in his voice and look of defeat etched into his expression that suggested it wasn't a joke at all. What is it with this place?
The man walked to a small desk at the side of the stage and pressed a button, causing an interactive board to flicker to life. "We start with the classics. Irving, Poe, Twain, Hemingway. You should have all seen a copy of the reading list, purchased, and read said books, but for those of you who did none of the above, catch up. You've got a month before we start comparing works by Poe and Hemingway."
For the next hour, the professor introduced us to the course with a series of slides and a monosyllabic explanation. After a while, his voice became a robotic beat and I was no longer hearing definitive words, only a jumble of sounds and grunts.
My eyes wandered from my position at the back of the room. It was a first-year course, so I figured most, if not all, of the students were freshmen. Some yawned, doodling on their notebooks, while others were holding their own whispered conversations. I even spotted one guy, sitting two rows in front of me, asleep. As I chuckled under my breath, my pen started to roll and before I could catch it, it dropped off the end of the table, clattering to the floor.
A couple of heads turned in my direction, but I ignored their stares and leaned down to pick up the pen. My fingers fumbled around until I grasped it and straightened in my seat. Someone on the end of the row in front of me was turned in my direction, watching me. Except it wasn't just anyone—it was toggle guy. His greens sparkled, widening slightly in recognition as a slow smile spread over his face. We stayed that way for a few seconds, staring at each other, before the redhead sitting next to him placed her hand on his arm and commanded his attention. She glanced behind her, locking eyes with mine. They spoke volumes as they narrowed at me, and I received her message loud and clear: Back off, he's mine.
The professor’s voice cut through our stare off. "...I want a two-thousand word paper on your favorite classic author, due next week. Class dismissed."
The room erupted into chaos as students packed up and hurried out of the room. I hung back, preferring to avoid the crush. Besides, I was in no great hurry to get to the cafeteria and endure Elena trying to talk me into yet another party.
I couldn't help but watch toggle guy and the redhead. She seemed to hang off his every word as they headed up the stairs toward the exit. Toward me. She stood close to him, mirroring his stride, but he seemed less interested in her. When they reached me, she let out a snort of disapproval, but the guy smiled right at me, and my stomach fluttered. It was only subtle, and if I had been moving, I probably wouldn't have noticed, but it happened...I had felt it. The feeling was strange—alien, something I had only ever experienced with one other person, and not in a very long time. The torrent of emotion left me a little winded. The sadness, the memories, the regret...the excitement. It wasn't right, though, to be feeling a rush of excitement after everything. I didn't deserve it.