Again Rumie peek at the guy behind, Ezra.
She knew he was aware of her secret glance and just playing cool. Yet she couldn't resist the voice in her head that kept telling her to steal one more glance, again and again to be sure that she had seen right.
"You know what they often say about someone who steals a glance at another person?" A voice creeped onto her ear.
She snagged her head to meet the intruder, Dux. She sighed, relieved that it wasn't Ivan.
He was still at the desk she had seen him drop on earlier. This time he was chatting with some students. Such a social butterfly!
"You scared me." She complained hoping Dux would listen and not creep on her like that again.
"Two things, either you like the person or you are planning evil towards the person, death." She saw Ezra glance at her from the corner of her eyes.
When she looked to meet his eyes he turned his gaze back to the person he was speaking with.
Still Rumie caught the weird look he sent her.
It was not like she was speaking out, she was using her mind to communicate with Dux and Dux was not visible to the eye.
She turned to Dux. "I don't like him, at least not the way you are thinking. And I am not planning to kill him. I'm just curious." She leaned closer "I think I saw him in my dream," she whispered.
"A wet dream?" Dux covers its mouth in a mocking shock. Rumie rolled her eyes.
"Gesh! Gross. Not that." She said, Her eyes circling around anywhere but Dux. It was not entirely wrong. The dream was a bit like a wet dream.
"Your eyes say something different."
"Don't you have something to do?"
"I thought you like me here with you."
"That was until you started teasing me."
"Hey bestie. Let's go have lunch. Hello?" A hand waved in front of her. Ivan's.
She turned glaring at him. She thought he wouldn't disturb her now that he made new friends.
"Are you okay, you were making weird faces." He sat on the empty desk beside her.
"Ivan Lawson is quite a spec," Dux said and she shot it a look.
Not wanting to hear anymore of Dux teasing, she stood up and walked out.
"Hey wait for me," He called after her but she just hurried her steps.
Through the hallway, she considered ditching the next class and retiring. Or follow through till the end. The next class was thirty-six minutes away.
She looked down on the map she had in her hands, lost. She had arrived at the same place twice now even after following the mapped route.
She squeezed it, shoving it into the nearest trashbin. It was useless.
She shut her eyes, searching for the sound of fork and spoon hoping to identify one.
The sound from her surroundings gradually quiets down, only the sound of her heart beating against her rib echo in her ear.
'Fork, fork. Spoon, spoon.' she whispered as her mind searched through, then, she found it.
She snapped her eyes open and continued on her way unaware of the pairs of eyes peeking from the shadow.
She paused at the door. The nag she felt earlier when she first arrived.
"Hey, over here." Ivan's voice called through snapping her attention.
She looked towards the direction she heard his voice from, scanning through the crowd until it finally locked onto him.
She moved toward him, face high, against the burning stares shot her way. He was seated alone but had about three food plates.
"Where were you, I thought you arrived earlier." He stood up, helping her adjust the seat.
"Thanks," She said, "I got lost on my way."
"See, you should have waited for me." He grinned but Rumie just ignored him. He noticed her eyes on the untouched two extra lunch plates,
"Oh. Just Fresh fries and grilled salads available today. I didn't know which you would go for, so I decided to get both for you."
She opened the pink cover, scrowled her face on the sight of greens. She hated green vegetables. Her hands moved to the second plate, it was an egg salad with some fries.
"None." She pushed the two plates back to him.
"Come on, try the egg salad. It's nice. Go on, have a taste." He brought a spoon to her mouth, urging her to have a bite.
She pushed his hand away, "Really, I'm fine."
He hands lowered, sighing in defeat.
"It's your loss then." He went back to eating his lunch.
"Are you okay?" She turned to see Ivan peering eyes.
"Yeah sure." She said, her hand on the nape of her neck subconsciously.
Just now she had felt a glare on her back but when she turned to identify who it was she saw nothing.
Maybe it was the same feeling of paranoia she had on her first day of arrival that was coming back.
"You know you can't just sit and watch me eat. I'm flattered no doubt but, it makes me no gentle man."
Again she felt it, but waited for one, two, three seconds then…She turned.
It was Sophie, her roommate. She waved at her and the two girls with her did the same, all smiley.
Weird. She lifted her hands unsure if to wave back or not and then lowered it. Maybe they weren't waving at her, especially not Sophie, all she did was to ignore her existence until this morning.
"What's your next class?" She asked.
Ivan raised a finger, chewing on the food he had in his mouth.
"Such a baby." Rumie teased.
"Did you ever bother to listen when your mom taught 'table manners'?" He retorted after he gulped down water from the bottle.
Rumie shrugged.
"We share the same class." He said pulling out his class schedule. Rumie took it, scanning through the paper.
As if bolted by lightning she stood up, "No way." And left the room without looking back.
"Hey, don't get lost again." He said at her retreating figure.
She didn't want to walk into the class with him again. The morning's event was still fresh on her mind.
She sighed in relief as she found the class. Thankfully she had not gotten lost.
There were a few students inside. Against their glance, she stood, deciding where she would sit.
She had sat at the back for CCC, hoping that she would not be noticed but her hope had gone hella away. Now she was going to sit in front.
She saw an empty seat on the third row and she marched toward it, sitting on it directly.
She brought out her note intending to jot down what she still recalled from the last class but ended up sketching a figure.
The same one who had appeared in her dream, taunted her. She had not had time to confront the guy in her CCC class or maybe the fact that she didn't know how to go about the confrontation had stopped her.
She couldn't go saying 'Hey, I had a dream about you, why?' she shook her head at how absurd that would be.
She should have asked Dux earlier when it had appeared to her. She looked around hoping to see it lingering around. It never appeared when she needed it most.
She dropped her shoulders, her eyes going back to the sketch.
Just then another student walked in, Amy. Her burning eyes glared at her as she walked to where she sat, and took the next empty seat beside her.
"Hello?" She greeted, trying to be polite. Amy glanced at her and then back to the book she opened.
Rumie ear redden. It was the first time someone ever ignored her. She still did not understand why Amy gave her a cool shoulder.
Choosing not to dwell further on it, she checked the time from her wrist watch. It was two minutes before the class began.
More students stumble into the class. Ivan amongst them. He took a seat behind her.
She felt a light kick on her shoe. Ivan grinned when she turned around to glare at him.
In her heart she already made up her mind to go for the next class late. Maybe then she wouldn't have to deal with him.
Shortly, the lecturer walked in.
"Good day class." Her voice echoed through the classroom. Something about her seemed off.
She closed her eyes feeling the energy in the room but was interrupted almost immediately. She felt a tap on her shoulder. Ivan.
"What?" Her glare was even more intimidating than it has always been.
"Come on, you are not thinking of killing your reading partner are you?" Reading partner, what was he even speaking about?
"Seriously you were not sleeping, were you?" He asked upon seeing her confused look.
She looked ahead. The class was a little chaotic. Divided into groups. Was this what he meant by the reading group?
She had just closed her eyes
for a few seconds or so she thought until now.
"Is it just the two of us?" He looked at their rows.
Great just what Rumie needed, Amy was in the same group as her.