Mine

Chapter 2

Blake looked at Beatrice Morris standing proudly over at the doorway; hands placed firmly on her hips in an attempt to look intimidating. Well, it worked alright. He was still frozen to the spot, trying to calculate how exactly had he gone from getting hot and heavy with Claire against a wall to being stared down by the Dragon Lady herself. If looks could kill, Blake would have been buried cold with a patch of wild daisies already growing on his grave.

‘Get off!’, a frustrated whisper. He looked down at the girl who was not Claire in puzzlement. She shoved her fists against his chest and it snapped him out of his thoughts. He pushed off the floor in a swift move and then awkwardly offering a hand to Not-Claire. She ignored his hand as she scrambled to get up and pull down her shirt at the same time. Once she was finally up, she shot him a look that screamed bloody murder before turning her head towards the fire breathing dragon.

Blake mindlessly took in her appearance, wondering how he had confused Not-Claire for Claire. She was a few inches shorter that meant she was a good head shorter than him. Her dark hair was falling out of her messy bun in all directions, courtesy of the death match they had just engaged in. The baggy grey sweatshirt she wore did very unflattering things to her petite form. Blake shook his head. He couldn’t see how he had mistaken this cluttered girl for his ex. Maybe because it was dark, or because you’re a little buzzed. Or maybe because Claire told you this was her room! He screamed in his head.

Not-Claire took a step forward, her arms already preparing an explanation. But before she could say a word, Miss Morris interrupted her.

‘Mr. Cavanaugh, care to explain the purpose behind your late night visit?’, Dragon inquired, he voice dropping to a fake-sweet tone. Or as sweet as a dragon could manage anyway.

‘Miss Morris, this is a misunderstanding. Nothing-‘, he began in a placid tone.

‘Oh, if it had been anyone else I might have bought it, but with you…’, she trailed off in an accusatory tone.

Not-Clair shuffled awkwardly on her feet before attempting to soothe the monster again, ‘Miss Morris, this really isn’t what it looks like-‘

‘Enough. I will deal with you soon enough’, she boomed again, sending both the accused flinching back as her loud voice ripped through the otherwise quiet night.

Blake could’ve sworn the floor vibrated with her voice. How do people get sleep around this woman? He thought astounded. It was only then, that he heard snickering coming from the hallway.

The older woman turned her head around to the troublemakers, ‘Quiet!’. Ironic.

As the woman took another step into the room, two heads peeped inside the room. Clair. Blake narrowed his eyes at the smirk adorned by the redhead. And then it all fell into place. Oh, well played Clair, he congratulated mentally. He did not like to be made a fool of, and no one ever really did manage to get the better of him, but even from his position, he could respect her trick. A faint challenging smile pulled up at the corners of his mouth.

Miss Morris had halted right in front of him and Not-Clair, who was now pitifully trying to pull the hem of her sweatshirt to cover her exposed thighs Blake realized.

‘I think it’s time for you to leave Mr. Cavanaugh.’, the plump woman was shooting daggers at him. She barely reached his shoulder but she had enough bravdo to send an army of rugby players down on their knees. Blake wasn’t any different. And he needed to leave before she could smell the alcohol on him that would just land him in bigger trouble.

‘Gladly.’, he said curtly before stepping around the breathing spitfire towards the door. He crossed an oh-so-smug Claire and her giggling friend and gave her a look that said ‘this wasn’t over’ prior to walking down the quiet hallway as curious sleepy little heads peeking out of their rooms to observe the commotion.

The last thing Blake heard before descending downstairs was a critical ‘You!’ from the Dragon Lady, presumably directed towards Not-Clair.

Next morning, Aria stalked into the campus like a woman possessed. She was a man on a mission… Okay, a woman on a mission. And her first target or more likely her first victim was going to be a certain Blake Cavanaugh. The previous night had been the evening from hell. After Morris had ‘busted’ them, as she liked to put it, she had yelled at Aria. Aria obviously didn’t look forward to being yelled at but she was okay with it, having grown up with a rather boisterous mother. But then the Dragon started breathing fire. If people thought Jersey Shore was yelling, then Miss Morris sure won that title. By a mile.

She had gone on about how it was because of girls like Aria that her name was tarnished and how the present generation has no respect for order and rules. By the end, Aria had been a shaking corpse. But the main shocker came after the outburst. She had asked Aria to vacate her dorm! She practically kicked her out on the grounds of unorderly conduct. Aria would have been a weeping mess if Kate hadn’t come back at the most crucial time.

The two of them had spent a great deal of time trying to convince Miss Morris to change her decision. But the woman just wouldn’t budge! Even the infamous Kate Reese in all her law student glory hadn’t been able to persuade the adamant woman. She had granted Aria a meek period of forty-eight hours to find residence elsewhere. At that point Aria had begun sobbing. But her bestie hadn’t let her down. She had pulled Aria of the ground, quite literally, and laid facts in front of her.

Firstly Aria was made aware of the fact that this wasn’t the first case. Miss Morris was a stickler for discipline, no shocker there. But she had requested other girls to vacate over the years for offenses much less than what Aria was being blamed for. So whatever hopes Aria had had for a change of heart on Morris’ part were truly crushed. Later, Kate and Aria had stayed up most of the night looking through online vacancies for off campus residences as practically all the on campus ones were taken. And the ones that weren’t, were too expensive to fit Aria’s budget. The same problem popped up as they looked for apartments to rent and Aria didn’t want to call her parents for help. The rent was too high and they ones available were too far from campus anyway.

Around four in the morning the two best friends had finally decided to call it a night. This morning, they had practically begged Miss Morris to reconsider her decision but the practice very much similar to trying to convince a brick wall that had a permanent scowl plastered on it. In the end, Kate had left for class in the morning after giving Aria an assurance that she would try to figure it out. Without her friend to keep her in check, Aria turned her anger towards the one person who deserved it. Blake Cavanaugh.

As he was shoved out of her quaint dorm room, she had caught sight of Claire Redding in the doorway with a smug smile on her face. Aria knew something was up, and she had an inkling that she was just stuck in the cross fire. Well no more, she pledged. Blake Cavanaugh: business management student in his second year, as Kate had informed her last light, who had in turn inquired from another friend based on the shoddy description provided by Aria. A quintessential college senior, as she was told, he was supposedly one of the guys who was always in demand. Be it the football field, a party scene, a classroom discussion or girls’ bedrooms; the boy was indispensable. And he knew it. Aria gritted her teeth as she made her way to the building where the business school classes where situated.

There was still some time before the first class of the day begun and she wanted to make sure she caught up to the intruder, as she’d come to call him, before he started his day. Aria came to a halt in the little square before the building as students bustled about her. She looked around, desperately searching for the accused. What if he’s not here? Damn, I did not think this through, she thought. She groaned at the idea of having to go to the administration office and finding out his whereabouts. Her demands would hardly be intimidating if she had to first nervously confirm his identity before unleashing her wrath. It was a fact that it would be harder to recognize him owing to their brief meeting under some very unflattering lighting conditions.

She looked around once more before walking towards the steps of the university building, to get a better view. She was too busy scanning the crowd on her tip toes to see where she was walking when her shoulder collided with a wall of muscle.

‘Sorry.’, she murmured distractedly keeping her eyes glued to back of a head that looked suspiciously like that of her target.

‘Excuse me.’, a deep voice apologized as she started to move away; a slightly familiar deep voice. She knew that voice. Cavanaugh. She halted mid step and pivoted on the spot. Sure enough, she saw the intruder walking away with a bunch of his intruder-friends, she supposed. He stopped a near one of the small embankments that surrounded the courtyard. Oh sure, go on like it’s just another day at the office, she sneered. She stalked over at him and his happy little group leaning against the low wall.

Even in her anger she couldn’t help but admire his almost model like perfection. He was tall and not just tall for Aria, tall; not towering, just commanding. He stood with his back to her, oblivious the hell walking his way. His broad shoulders and narrow waist enunciated by the snug white T-shirt that fit him in all the right places; the long denim clad legs situated in a posture of casual elegance; his lean muscular arms that ran down to big capable hands that involuntarily found their way to his now more tamed, collar length midnight hair.

Aria swallowed the sudden urge to run her own hands through the mess atop his head. Focus, she took a calming breath before coming to a stop directly behind him. She impatiently tapped on his shoulder blade to get his attention. He turned and she found herself under the scrutiny of the most mesmerizing green eyes she’d every looked into. Frozen in her tracks for a moment, she helplessly stared into the beautiful orbs. He looked back impassively, waiting for her to continue.

Then she realized it: he didn’t recognize her.