♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡
Jennifer

I was early.

The lack of negative energy provided me with an enthusiastic morning energy.

I walked through the pathway leading towards the main building surrounded by lawns with beautiful flowers and old trees at the corners. Once I was inside the building, the polished cream marble and white walls greeted me along with brown doors which lead inside different offices.

There are so many department buildings spread throughout the area while I was headed to the business department.

I was walking towards Mr. Smith’s class with a phone—attached to a power bank as I forgot to charge it in the morning—in one hand checking for any texts and books in another.

When I reached the lecture hall, no one was there which instantly made me open the class group. Even if I am early, there are always front row students waiting to get in.

Five hundred and fifty one messages. And more messages keep coming.

I skimmed through the messages only to come to the conclusion that two girls have been fighting each other along with their minions for a guy. These girls talked in paragraphs.

They shouldn't use the class group for a silly fight concerning a person named Adam who apparently slept with Becca during the holidays while Kristen is his alleged girlfriend. However, instead of confronting him, they are fighting each other, telling the other to back off. I can't find the text if we have a class today or the class might have been moved to another lecture hall for some reason. Gosh, that's annoying.

“What happened to Mr. Smith’s class?” I dropped the text, hoping someone might be interested in live tea and read my text.

My gaze unintentionally went to the class next door which is brimming with students. Some girls are fixing their makeup with a compact mirror in hand while some are busy setting their hair. What is going on?

“He's heading this way!” Someone exclaimed loudly, making everyone rush inside the lecture hall. It made me curious so I proceeded to step in that direction to check what's happening.

My phone pinged, stopping me in my tracks. Someone from class replied saying, “He'll take the class at 12:30 since he's in a meeting right now. I texted that earlier as well but some people want to discuss their differences here. @Kristen and @Becca, in case you don't know, THIS IS A CLASS GROUP TO SHARE CLASS RELATED INFORMATION”.

He got dragged into the fight as well.

No wonder I didn't notice that the class had been postponed.

Ugh.

That's not fair, my friends are on their way to college as they do not share this class with me, meaning a lot of alone time.

So in the meantime, I decided to spend my now free-time tucked away amidst the library reading a wonderful book. That's my plan for now.

I opened my bag to look through the bookmarks I purchased this morning. I bought them in a hurry so I had no time to check them all.

My phone vibrated and I checked it was a text from an unknown number.

Hey, beautiful. Where are you? You know we are in the same class this semester. I just saw your text in the group.

I opened the profile picture to be greeted by the obnoxious guy I have been trying hard to avoid for about a year now. He shares this class with me? I'm doomed.

Hiten, the living embodiment of the word creepy. Even though I have made it clear with my actions that I don't want anything to do with him, he just wouldn't leave me alone. Whenever he sees me, he follows me around and would continuously ask me to consider him as a candidate for a date.

Don't get me wrong but I have never felt this weird in anyone’s presence. He on many occasions creeps the hell out of me. Just like today. I don't want to be in the same room as him for the rest of the semester. Damn. 

What a great start to the semester...

Another text pops up from him,

You know what darling? I know you must be standing outside Mr. Smith’s classroom. Right? I'll be there in roughly five minutes. Wait for me ;)

Oh no, no, no, no. I need to get out of here. There is no way in hell that l would be waiting for that dumbass.

Gotta run.

Without thinking twice I made a run for the library. However, my sprint was cut short when I came face to face—or rather literally lips to lips—with someone. I was shocked for a second but before that someone could see my face I quickly looked down, utterly embarrassed. The said person’s woodsy and earthy scent was making me want to lean in more but I gripped myself.

He has rich taste in shoes as he’s wearing oxfords without a speck of dirt on them. Wait, those are bookmarks next to his shoes. My bookmarks were all over the place after the collision.

“It wasn't intentional.” I blurted without facing him but rather behind him to make sure Hiten isn't in my vicinity yet.

I was about to leave when he urged, “Wait,” grabbing my hand.

“You dropped your bookmarks.” He bent down to retrieve it but I don't have time for this. If leaving my precious bookmarks behind is the price I need to pay for avoiding Hiten’s company, then so be it.

“I know, you can keep it. B-bye.” My gaze darted to the direction I was planning to use but I was left frozen when I spotted Hiten making his way from the same direction. So I took a few steps back only to accidentally step on the guy’s hand who was picking up my bookmarks.

I gasped, “I’m really sorry. I need to go.” After that I did the one thing I'm best at, I started to run again as fast as my feet allowed and only stopped once I arrived at the library.

Oh my god.

That was so embarrassing.

Shaking my head at the recent encounter, I reached the third floor of the library because normally no one's there. This place provides me peace. Picking up the first book named Ikigai from the rack, I took a seat at the end of one of the aisles. Engrossed to the point that nothing else matters, I forgot everything around me.

Checking the time, I realised that I would be late for my eleven o’clock class if I didn't leave now. I quickly put the book back in its place, grabbed my purse and picked up my water bottle.

I checked my phone which shows ten missed calls and texts from Kathy, and a few texts from my cousin and Hiten. I didn't bother opening texts from Hiten.

I straight away opened the text from my cousin who lives a few blocks away from my apartment. We mostly hang out together and have an extra key to each other's apartment.

Audrey♡:
I'm so done with everything.

I quickly replied,

Me:
Did your boyfriend’s cat make a mess again?

And you can’t tell him that because you think he would freak out?

Her reply was instant,

Audrey♡:
Are you sure that you’re not psychic?

Me:
Why don’t you go to his apartment instead?

Pack up the hygiene stuff you love so much and spend time there.

Problem solved!

Audrey♡:
His cat hates me *crying emojis*

I was already planning on going to his apartment!

Trust me I feel the side-eye she gives me every time I get close to my boyfriend.

Me:
You are describing it as if you are the side chick.

Audrey♡:
I might as well be.

I need all the sympathy you could offer. Let’s have a movie marathon this weekend!

Me:
Don’t worry too much.
The plan sounds good!

Then next, I opened texts from Kathy,

Kathy:
Where are you?  

I just reached. 

Hiten is asking about you desperately. Why is he following me? I don't like this creep :(

Where the hell are you?

I swear when I find you, you are so dead.

Okay! Ignore me if you want but I'll hunt you in every corner of the college until I find you.

OMG so many threatening texts from Kathy.

It's never a good sign.

Before I could call her she was standing right in front of me, arms crossed with the deadliest glare across her face.

“Kathy, I swear to god, I just saw your texts. You know how I always put my phone on silent once I enter a library. I forgot to check my phone. I'm sorry.” I blabbered with my hands going here and there.

“Not so easily,” She said wickedly, “I had to deal with that idiot Hiten. Why do we even know him again?” she wondered out loud.

“It's all because of Monica! She makes stupid boys like him fall under the category of ‘friends’ leaving us to deal with them. I sometimes feel like there’s a magnet on Monica attracting men with the words: ‘All idiotic men, come, be my friends’”. I offered. She sighed as she pulled out her phone to show me that Hiten even contacted Monica to ask if she knew where I would be.

“You won’t believe what happened today because of him. I was outside the class this morning which I didn’t know got postponed. I texted you to ask if you wanted to go anywhere but you didn't bother to reply,” I narrowed my eyes at her and her only reaction was to scratch her head with an oopsie.

“And then out of nowhere he texted me saying, he’ll be there. Can you believe that? Look,” I showed her the texts sent by him before I narrated the whole incident with that morning guy as if it was no big deal. In fact, it is a big deal but I'd like her to tell me that it's normal for a person to collide with another in a hallway, almost kissing and then stepping on their hand as they try to help you. Normalcy is all I need to hear.

“So what did you do?” She asked with excitement in her eyes. Why is she so excited? At Least she's not mad anymore.

“After I unknowingly stepped on his hand when I spotted Hiten?” I asked to make sure that she listened to that part. She nodded in confirmation.

“What do you expect? I apologized in a hurry, didn’t even take a look at his face, and ran away at the speed of light. I did the right thing, didn't I?” I asked hopefully.

“WHAT? How can you just say something so ridiculous and run away like that? Why didn't you check him out or at least his injury in case he got any? What if he was some handsome guy? Or worst maybe your soulmate? Have you ever heard about fate? There is a theory of the red thread of fate, with what you just said, you might as well step on the poor thread as well.” She kept talking dramatically and I rolled my eyes at her silliness with a chuckle.

“Stop being dramatic. My fate is already decided. I don't need anyone tearing that fate up and getting hurt in the process.” I declared. To be honest, I don't want to think about my future husband right now but if Kathy gets any ideas she might as well search for the said guy to send me on a date with him.

I checked the time and my eyes almost popped out of their sockets. It’s quarter past eleven. We are late for class. When I looked up, Kathy was staring at me as if I am an imbecile but when I shoved my watch in her face, her reaction was the same.

We ran down the stairs. Since Mr. Reynolds was absent yesterday, we were late on the first day of class. When we reached the ground floor of the library, we quickly packed up our bags and pulled open the time table to check the room number of the class. It's room number twenty-one meaning we need to take the stairs.

We managed to reach the classroom in under two minutes. I panted like I have been running a marathon for hours while Kathy didn't look fazed by it at all.

“Why didn't you go to the class?” I questioned while trying to catch my breath so I wouldn’t look like a fish out of water on the first day of class.

“I was looking for you like a treasure hunt. It was fun.” She said excitedly and lent me her water bottle. I took a big gulp.

“Do you think he will allow us to enter his class?” I wondered out loud as I tried to take a look at the hot-topic standing in front of the classroom.

“No idea.” She said nonchalantly. Sometimes it feels like she doesn’t care about classes at all but somehow she performs exceptionally well in exams.

“Let's just try once. If he doesn't let us in. Then we'll go to the canteen.” I suggested.

“And have pizza.” Kathy beamed with a smile. I chuckled while nodding.

Kathy knocked prior to opening the door to ask for permission to enter the class.

“Sir, can we come in?” She requested politely then added, “We lost track of time.”

“We're sorry that we are late. It won't happen again.” I apologized looking down.

“Sure, come in.” A deep and husky voice answered. We spotted Monica who's sitting in the front row with literally every stationary item in existence sprawled out on the table.

Apparently, Monica saved up two seats beside her, she does that and people agree mostly because they are scared to end up on her vendetta list. When we settled down, we quickly pulled out our notebook and pen from our bags. Maybe I am delusional but I have a strong feeling that someone is watching my every move.

A/N: Who do you think Jennifer bumped into?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!