The Blue Moon In Winter

Chapter Two

The ray of the sun struck her closed eyes, and made her squint. she turned to the other side of the bed as a form of unconscious negative phototaxis.

"Are you awake?" It was Sandra's voice, she mumbled in response. Sandra knelt by the side of the bed and shook Willow's shoulder softly to gain her full attention, then Willow opened her eyes.

"I'm really sorry about last night I heard what happened and I even saw the video, I shouldn't have forced you to come with me..." She pause to see Willow's expression and she didn't seem upset as she had expected. She continued, "I was outside with Chris when it happened and before I could get to the house you were already gone." She explained further.

"It's okay, I'm fine now" she gave a little smile.

"How did you get back home?" Sandra knew it was not possible for her to get home on her own, especially since she was drunk. Sandra had even ran outside in search of her, and there was no sign of her. She had been worried sick, she even left the party to find her at home sleeping, that was only when she was able to feel relieved. Willow looked up trying to search her memory for an answer.

"Someone...called an Uber for me...yes, I think it was a guy...but I can't quite remember."

"It's okay, what matters is that you're alright. I'm going to class now, you'd be late" Sandra stood up and gave a concerned look. Willow got up to a sitting position, that was when she felt what people meant when they say hangover. She place her left hand on her head and tried to force a beam even though her head was on fire.

"Is it your first hangover? I made some tea for you, it helps with hangovers."

"Thanks!" She tried to be loud since Sandra was already leaving for her classes.

After drinking what Sandra made which looked like regular tea but when she lifted it to her mouth the aroma of ginger filled her nose and when she drank there was a hint of lemon in the ginger tea. She sluggishly took a shower then got dressed, she wore a white tunic top with blue and green floral pattern, and a slim fit black jeans. She made her honey blonde hair into a messy bun with her favorite scrunchie, it was black with gold glitters. Her dad bought a pack of scrunchies when they went to vacation in The Bahamas but it was only one left out of the six so she cherished it. In front of the bathroom mirror, she used a mascara brush to comb out her long eyelashes then wet her lips with a lip gloss to make her already crimson lips glow. She signed, then a flash of memories from the previous night came to her mind, she was hearing deafening laughter in her head. She knew something bad must have happened since Sandra looked sorry earlier, she tried harder to remember but her memory was foggy. She went to her bed to put books into her brown shoulder bag which was lying on the bed. When she turned to leave she was startled by the person resting on the wall by the side of the door with his arms folded and legs crossed.

He had the kind of body that would make anyone gape at first sight, he was tall with broad shoulders, an angular face and a straight edged nose. He smirked in acknowledgement of her staring which exposed one of the deep dimple on his cheek.

"How long have you been standing there?" She gulped.

"Long enough to..." He used his hand to comb his dark brown hair back, then walked towards her. He moved closer to her, the closeness made her notice his blue eyes which look greenish due to the reflection of sunlight. She moved away from him by taking a step back but bumped into her bed which made her sit down on the bed. He moved closer then bent his head and looked into her hazel eyes that were staring up from her sitting position. She tried to move her face away from him but he lifted her chin to face him with two of his fingers.

"I'm sorry, bambina" He said with a very calm voice, she could smell his very masculine scent of lavender and cedar. She thought it would probably be his cologne, then snapped out of her trancelike state as her mind reminded her of the accent in the voice from the previous night was exactly the same as the one she just heard.

"Who are you?" She spoke with a commanding tone, moved far from him and stood at the other side of the bed.

"How could you have forgotten?" He raised one of his eyebrow, Her expression change from confusion to realization. He moved back as he saw the fury in her eyes, " I didn't mean to cause you such humiliation, I was really angry about you throwing up on my piano and I let my temper get the best of me. I spent all morning searching from your place just to tell you how regretful I feel about last night." He said with content like he was meant to forgive himself and not she.

"I'm not going to buy this fake apology of yours after everything you did last night." She hissed, collected her coat from the coat rack and walked out the door. He watched her leave, then followed her with his hands in his pockets walking lazily behind her through the hallway. She paused before looking back when she realized she was going towards the wrong side of the hallway, he chortle then cleared his throat,she frowned at him. When she was about to pass him, he faced her, with his hands on her shoulders then made a puppy dog eyes.

"I'll follow you to all your classes if you don't forgive me" He removed his hands from her shoulder, backed her, with his hands hold each other behind him then walked away, She walked quickly to ensure she was ahead of him.

"Feel free", she soon regretted walking in front of him as her mind imagined his eyes gazing at every part of her body with the look it had when he was in her room. She pretended to search for something in her bag to make him walk ahead of her, just as he got to her, he chuckled.

"You're waiting for me to catch up with you", He ended the chuckling with a grin.

"Humph!" She grunted, then walked away to prove him wrong. She tried her best to get her mind away from the thought of him staring from behind.

He kept his words and followed her to her philosophy class. She found it hard to believe that the sweet, attractive person that was being remorseful was the same arrogant person that had embarrassed her. She had also noticed people piercing look on them as he had tried talking to her on the way but she gave him a silent treatment. Some people laughed at her while watching videos from their phone, she knew it was because of what happened and tried her best to ignore. As he also noticed the laughing he assured her in would roll over but she acted as if she didn't hear him.

He sat next to her in the third row, the lecture had just started and only few students were already seated. She had already missed two classes so she decided to go for the one she'd be on time for rather than being late. On the whiteboard, the professor, Mr Humphrey wrote 'metaphysics' as topic and 'existence' as subtopic, he faced the class and start explaining the topic. Willow was jotting swiftly, as she was aware of the stare she was receiving from him beside her.

"Hey! you staring at the young lady," Mr Humphrey pointed at him and Willow gave a wicked smile as he stood up due to the professor's call. "An amazing question that always follow this topic is why is there something rather than nothing, that is, why does anything exist?" Mr Humphrey coughed softly, " young man I'll like you to elaborate on it and tell me what you think is the answer". Willow looked up at him with her chin on her palm that was resting on the table and smiled mockingly at him, he exhaled then smiled back at her.

"We don't have all day!", Mr Humphrey check his wrist watch then looked at him from the space above his eyes that wasn't covered with glasses.

"This question was initially mentioned by Leibniz, a lot of theoretical physicist and philosophers such as Spinoza, Laurence Krauss and even Albert Einstein had come up with a sort of quantum explanation to answer this greatest question of all time. Still I stand to disagree, and concur instead to the more traditional view that the universe exists because God chose to make it so". He was gesturing through out his explanation and winked at Willow when he was done as she looked astonished.

"Good boy, you know your philosophy and philosophers." Mr Humphrey beamed, " I can spend all day to argue with you on your answer but I'll save it for another day. Why don't you go behind the young lady so you won't be distracted by the captivating beauty?" Everyone in the class which was now half-full turned to look at Willow, he smiled then went to sit behind her.

After the two hours lecture had end, She found out he had already left and felt disappointed. She couldn't understand why she wish he hadn't, maybe she'd thought wrong of him.

When she got home, Sandra gave her a bouquet of flowers with a note that was addressed to her.

I'm sorry I hurt you

I'm sorry I made you cry

I'm sorry so I bought a shoe

I'm sorry so I'll make up, just comply

XOXO Javier

"Turn to the back," Sandra said as she flipped to another page of the book she was reading. Willow turned the piece of paper and saw that he invited her to dinner at a place called

Con la musica. On her bed was a shoe box, she opened it and saw a pair of black stilettos with red sole. It was the most sophisticated pair of shoes she had ever since, and it looked expensive. A shoe like this made her best pair, a silver ankle strap heels which she got for Christmas from her mom look clumsy. She couldn't accept such an expensive gift from a stranger, she thought, but damn! It was a fine pair. "I read it, you have to go... that's like the best restaurant on campus". Sandra interrupted her thought.

"He'll think I'm cheap if I accept his offer," she put the flowers in a vase and poured water into it from the tap.

"Trust me he's not interested in you in the way you think", she covered the book and looked at Willow.

"How do you know?" She didn't like Sandra opinion about him not being interested in her.

"He's name is Javier Romano , it was his house the party was held and he has a sport car. There's even rumour that he's like some sort of Italian prince"

"Well I usually don't believe rumours, is that why you think he can't be into me and how do you know so much?"

"He's the most popular guy on campus, a lot of girls are going after him and he doesn't give them any attention, he's probably betrothed to a beautiful princess in Italy. I've made a few friends who know a lot about the trending gossips." She opened the book and searched for the page she was reading, " If I were you I'll jump into this once in a lifetime opportunity, I'm sure he just wants to make it up to you and nothing else."

"I'll think about it"

"if you have a blonde wig and heels to make me as tall as you, I won't mind going for you." Willow giggled, then her laptop notified a video call, it was her mom, she sat on her bed and received the call.

"Hey!" It was Mia on the other side, she smiled and waved.

"Mom's asleep so I snuck to call you" she whispered, Willow grinned.

"Aww, I really miss you guys",

"I miss you more, it has been boring without you around here."

"In a few months I'll be there for Christmas."

"I can't wait to see you, I have tons of things to ask you and you'll have to tell me everything about college when you're back."

"Okay, make sure you take your drugs and take good care of mom," she said softly, " It's late, you should go to bed before mom notices."

"Bye, I love you" she dragged the words in a whisper and hung up. Willow felt a little sad, she has called home often since she left but seeing Mia through a video call felt different. Her mind soon forgot about missing home and diverted to the event that had taken place that day. After what Sandra had said, she decided she'd go just for formality sake, but still a part of her hoped it wouldn't be a mere apology dinner. She wished it could be something more, like the look in his eyes when he was in the room. She remembered his presence in the room, it made her shiver, no one has made her feel that way before.