"So what do you say?" asked a young man with blonde hair and dark blue eyes, a charming smile on his lips that had already won over more than a few of the girls around campus.
"I'm not ready," replied the girl walking beside him as they made their way to the lecture hall.
"Come on, you've been saying that since last semester, and the one before that. What's stopping you? Are you crushing on someone else?" he said, his frustration starting to show through.
"There's no one else. I just isn't ready for a relationship," she replied, her lustrous black hair swaying as she walked, her calm bluish-green eyes fixed on the path ahead.
"Just be straight with me," he said, stepping in front of her and placing both hands on her shoulders, looking her directly in the eyes. "Do you feel anything for me at all?" he asked, but the silence that followed was answer enough and he could feel his heart sink.
"I," her lips parted and she was about to say something when he let go and cut her off, "Don't say it, I already know I won't like the answer," he said, forcing a smile even though he felt bitter about it.
"Sorry," she said quietly, and started walking again.
"You don't have to apologize, just give me a chance, I promise you won't regret it," he said, stepping in front of her again and taking her slender hands in his.
She was starting to feel guilty at this point. He had been pursuing her since the beginning of college, and it was getting harder to keep turning him down.
"Hey!" Her eyes went wide at something she spotted behind him, but before he could react,
BAM.
"Oh damn!" he yelled, realizing he had walked straight into someone and knocked them to the floor, their books scattering across the ground.
"Sorry, bro," he started to say, reaching out a hand, then stopped, "It's you," he muttered, staring at the young man with hazel brown hair and eyes who was looking straight back at him from the floor, calm enough that it made him instinctively take a step back.
"What do you mean, 'it's you'? Help him up," the girl said, bending down to pick up one of the fallen books, but then,
"Ah!"
A hand closed around her wrist and she turned to find the young man on the floor staring up at her with hollow brown eyes that seemed to look straight through her, "Leave it," was all he said.
"Let her go," the blonde-haired young man grabbed his hand and pulled it off her wrist.
The young man on the floor looked at them both for a moment, then gathered his things and walked away without another word.
"Did he hurt you?" the blonde-haired young man asked.
"Not really, and I guess it was partly my fault for not asking first," she said with a small, wry smile, shielding her wrist which had gone red from how hard his grip had been.
"You sure?" he asked, though his mind was already moving in a different direction.
"Yeah," she replied, managing a smile as she met his eyes.
They continued in the same direction the other young man had gone.
"You seem to know him," she said, because she also had the strange feeling that she'd seen him somewhere before.
"Yeah, the guy's a creep, don't let him get close to you," he said, not offering anything more than that.
"What do you mean?" she asked, her curiosity picking up.
"It's better if you don't know," he said, walking ahead, and she slowed down for a moment, thinking it over.
She didn't know why, but she wanted to see him again.
...
...
"DUDE, WAKE UP!"
My eyes snapped open.
What was that? A dream?
I've been having dreams about her a lot lately. Could it actually mean she's close?
"Hey!" Someone nudged my side, and I remembered that someone had just woken me up in the first place.
Wait. When did I even fall asleep?
I looked to the side and found a young man with green hair and green eyes looking a little panicked, gesturing toward the front of the room.
I looked up and realized the entire class was staring at me.
"Your name, young man," the teacher said, and it hit me that I'd just made a complete fool of myself.
"Hehehe." A barely audible giggle reached me and I followed it to, of course, Ariana, but the moment our eyes met her expression went cold.
Crap.