How He Saved Her

Chapter Three

Oliver

I haven't gotten the best sleep after my impulse decision to ask a complete stranger to play my girlfriend. Word got out quick and soon enough people were talking about it online. Most of the guys were congratulating me on finding such a pretty girl, it infrutiated me seeing as nobody knew who she was before this. It dawns on me that I didn't know who she was either. Some of the girls congratulated me while others left not so nice comments.

I spent half an hour reporting all the mean comments about her and afterwards I felt guilty bringing her into this. As she said yesterday, she is not the type of girl to be in public. As I get ready for the day, I try to think of ways to make her feel comfortable around me. First, I make sure I smell good and that I dress nicely as opposed to the sweaty gym set yesterday.

I arrive in front of her house at 7 on the dot and wait for her to come out. Not knowing how her neighbors will respond, I decide against honking. She comes out three minutes later looking more self conscious than she did when I dropped her off. Her backpack is perched on one shoulder on the opposite side of her sprained leg. The thing I'm most worried about is the frown that is settled into her mouth and how she is rapidly blinking. The clothes she is wearing today drowns her more than it did yesterday.

"Are you okay?", I ask her as soon as she gets in, but she only buckles her seatbelt and looks out the window. I ask her the question again and this time she turns to me with a jerk of her head and I take notice of the tear slipping down her eye. My hand aches to remove it but she only says,"Drive."

"Are-"

"Drive, Oliver", she asks louder. This is the loudest I've heard her speak and yet it is not any louder than how I usually speak. Frowning, I pull out of her driveway and start driving to school in utter silence. The whole way I was worried about her but when I park, she turns to me with a small smile and the tears are gone. I blink at how fast her demeanor changed. She only gives me a look and then opens the door to my car and gets out. I get out of the car too and jog to her side and hold out my hand,"Bag."

She hands me the backpack this time rather than throwing it at my feet and then takes a huge step back from me. I frown but we start walking toward the building. Once we get in, all eyes are on us and I stop walking to let Aurora catch up to me. Once she does, I walk slower and hope that people don't ask anything about my new girlfriend walking a good 5 feet away from me. I glance at the way Aurora is looking into the crowd and she hugs her body with her arms.

"Rory?

"Yeah?", she asks looking up at me and I take a step closer to her. "Can you, I don't know, maybe grab my shirt sleeve. I won't reciprocate that, I promise."

She looks up at me and her lips purse up in thinking. I have the sudden urge to move away the hair that is blocking my view of her face but resist as I remember the way she had me promise to not touch her. She nods slowly and then takes a step closer to me and her hand makes it's way to the sleeve of my shirt. She fists it up and I grimace at the way this doesn't look like a couple scene but take the win anyways.

"What's your first class?", I ask her and sensing that people are listening I add,"Babe?"

"English Lit 3", she says in a whisper and I nod as we walk toward it. Once we get to her classroom door, I hand her the strap of her bag, making sure to not touch her, and say,"I'll see you at lunch."

"Okay", she asks looking uncertain but I only nod at her encouragely. The people around me start whispering so I call Aurora back and say,"I'll miss you." And then I give her my cheekiest smile and walk away. Right before though, I notice the blush appearing on her skin.

♡♡•♡•♡•♡•

"Man, are you excited for the game this Friday?", Austin asks as we walk into the lunchroom. I nod and my eyes search for Aurora and I find her waiting at the closest table to the door and I smile at her. She looks out of place so I stop by her and say,"We will eat in the back." I grab her backpack off the floor and she stands up walking by me but not any closer than how Austin is. He looks at me and then toward the girl beside me and he smiles.

"Rory, how are you?", he asks not knowing that she barely talks to me as it is.

"I'm good", she whispers and steps closer to me and grabs my shirt sleeve, stretching it out so she isn't touching me. Austin smirks at me and whispers,"Does she not talk?"

"She is shy", I answered back and he chuckles. I hit him on the shoulder for being an ass but he only laughs.

"She only likes you", he says and my heart stops for a second. I glance at Aurora who is clawing at my shirtsleeve trying to keep up while looking at the floor.

"She is my girlfriend", I shrug and we make it to our table. Aurora lets go of my shirtsleeve and I drop her backpack on the table and the guys and I head to the lunch line. I look back at Aurora who doesn't make an effort to walk with us while instead looking at her phone. I frown but make my way to the lunch line.

After I come back to the table, I have double of everything I'd usually eat. I sit by Aurora and she slides closer to me when she sees Austin sliding in next to her. It's packed here and her eyes are frantic as she tries to separate from us. Is she scared of us? I study her for a minute before whispering,"You're safe here."

"It's just", she starts and then moves closer to me, but not before dropping her backpack in between us. Now her backpack is digging into my torso but I only give her an encouraging smile. I pick off one of the salads off my plate and push it in front of her. She glances at me and then at the food before her eyes flash with panic and she shakes her head.

"Eat", I whisper trying to be encouraging but she shakes her head. I push it closer toward her and say,"Rory, come on." Her face pales but she opens it up and I watch as she plays with the fork the whole lunch period. Toward the end, the group gets loud and Austin finds his way toward Aurora and he accidently body slams into her.

I watch as she jumps up in panic and her face pales even more. "Stay", I whisper to her softly before reaching around her and pushing Austin off of her. He glances at me with a smile and then at Aurora who looks close to tears. My heart aches for her and I give him a punch for good measure.

"Holy s**t, you are possessive", Austin says smirking at the assumed possiveness.

I shake my head and say,"Or she doesn't want you touching her."

"Okay, dang", he says laughing.

"Don't touch her", I demand to him and then turn to the rest of them,"Don't."

"Got it", Austin says and then shoots her a smile. I retract my hand and Aurora grabs for my shirtsleeve. Her voice is barely a whisper when she says,"I made everything worse. I want to leave."

"It's fine. Lunch ends in three minutes okay?", I whisper back and she frowns. "Come one, tell me about the book you are reading on your phone."

"I just started it, it's called...", I watch as she gets lost in her book world and tried not to freeze at the way her hand has looped around my arm in a way she hasn't done before. The bell rings, cutting her off of telling the synopsis and she frowns.

"Continue", I tell her and she does. I smile at the way she can only talk to me when it is about her book. When she is done, I pick up her backpack and the both of us walk to her class where I drop her off with another cheeky smile.

♡•♡•♡•♡

"I feel like a burden", she admits to me when we are in my car after school before my practice. She informed me that she had to get home as soon as school was over so I jumped in the car.

I start driving toward her house,"What? Why?"

"All I do is hang off of your arm and say no words to your friends. Am I burdening you?", she asks and I let out a small chuckle.

"Anything but that, Rory. You stopped all the girls from wanting to bombard me with requests all day and it may not seem it, but I genuinely like hanging out with you", I say matching her tone and she draws her bottom lip into her mouth and I lift my eyes off of her lips so fast.

"Okay, Oliver", she says and I laugh.

"Nobody calls me Oliver. Just Oli", I say when she blinks at me in confusion.

"That's it?", she asks like it is kind of sad that I only have a shortened name as my own.

"My parents call me by my middle name: Nolan."

The light turns red and I feel her gaze on me and when I turn to her to find that she is openly staring at me. I can't say it doesn't make my body heat up especially my ears.

"You don't look like a Nolan", she says and now it is my turn to stare at her. Her eyes are so sharp that they are the first things I notice about her, her nose is long and thin it reminds of an ethnic nose, and her lips are so full it looks like she is pouting all the time. Her chin is so pointy I envy it a little as my own is a bit of a butt chin. Her cheekbones are lower than most but even then, she looks gorgeous.

"I don't look like a Nolan?", I ask her and she shrugs.

"You're Oli. The super popular and personable guy, not Nolan the serious guy", she says and I crack a smile and start driving again.

"I guess it depends on the environment. It also depends on the people", I say as I pull in to her driveway

.

"Can I call you Oliver though?", she whispers and I nod. "Thank you Oliver for your kindness."

"You're welcome, Aurora."

"No", she blurts out and I stop trying to remember what I did wrong.

"Don't call me that. My full name", she says and I nod.

"Sorry", I say and she shakes her head.

"I swear I'm making such a mess. Okay I'm leaving", I say.

"Wait", I say as she starts opening the door. She turns to me and I get a clear view of her face as the hair has finally moved away. "Tomorrow is game day. Do you think you can wear my Jersey?" I try to not sound so nervous when I say it.

"Sure", she says so I let her get out of the car before reaching back and grabbing the jersey from the backseat.

"Sorry it wasn't recently washed but you can", I say and hand it to her trying to not touch her.

"It's fine", she gives me a soft smile and I wonder if she looks pretty now, how much prettier she can look when she fully smiles. Or even laughs? It makes me want to get those reactions out of her.

"Be safe. Bye", I say and she closes the door and walks toward her house, her shoulders shrinking. She turns, gives me a wave, and I drive off.