The Bad Boys Angel

Wish For The Best

“I must say I must say I was baffled when I heard news from Zanthus that you agreed to sit with him at lunch.” I hear a voice say from behind me as I sat in my chair waiting for the next lecture to begin.

“Hey, you’re the one who told me to give him a second chance!” I defend myself in regards to his teasing and Xander raises his arms in fake surrender.

“I’m all for it. No need to get defensive.” He tells me and chuckles a bit, and I just smile at him as he takes a seat at the corner of the table I’m at. “Really though. Thank you for giving him another chance. I’m glad you did.” Xander says causing me to nod my head at his words.

“Yeah, me too.” I mumble, but I know he’s heard me once I feel a slight nudge to my shoulder by him.

“Now, I’d love to stay and chat, but it seems there is someone else who’d like to take up your attention for the time being,” he tells me as he casts a glance over my shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll have time to gossip and paint our nails later.” He exclaims as he flips an imaginary strand of hair over his shoulder before moving turning to sit in the row across the way behind me.

I smile at his frivolous comment before I remember his mentioning of someone else wanting to speak with me, yet shake it off when and decide I’ll just work on my paper until I’m interrupted. I open my laptop and am about to log in when I feel a tap on my shoulder, causing me to jump a bit and close it before turning to the side in order to match a profile to the person who’s interested in my attention.

I’m a bit surprised to Zanthus hovering over me, his eyes focused on his hands as he fidgets with the strap to his watch. I furrow my eyebrows in confusion, waiting for him to say something in order to break the silence which he created. My confusion is only met with more silence, causing me to be the one who breaks the awkward spell.

“Zanthus?” I ask quietly, and I see him tug a little harder on the material before he looks up at me through his eyelashes, keeping his head hung low.

He uses the hand that was playing with his watch to lift it up a bit and send me a small wave. I shy smile is painted across his face as he looks at me and I feel one pull at my lips. He points to the chair next to me, but I am a bit puzzled by his action unable to understand what his gesture means. He points to the chair again, yet I still sit stumped at what he’s trying to communicate through his charades. I hear him huff in frustration and can’t help but feel a little hurt that he’s mad at me for something I’m unaware of.

“Oh for god’s sake, he wants to know if he can sit with you!” I hear a voice exclaim from behind us, and turn to see Xander who’s rolling his eyes at the whole scene, yet a smile is still sat on his lips as he does so.

“Oh! Uh, yeah you can sit there.” I tell him, and he nods his head in a way of thanks as he pulls out the chair to sit, placing his bag to the side of him on the floor.

I am always one to come early to lectures, so it is no surprise that when I look up at the clock on the wall I’m informed that there are still about five or so minutes until the professor will arrive. I sigh, wondering what to say next to create a comfortable environment between me and the quiet boy next to me, as it holds stiff and awkward at the moment.

Do I talk? Does he even want to talk? I assume he would’ve done so already if he was interested in having a conversation, so I’m left debating whether or not I should just go for it and be the first to speak up, again.

“Hi?” I decide to say, but it comes out as more of a question in contradiction to my meaning for it to be a statement.

I’m not sure if Zanthus has heard me and am prepared to repeat myself, but with a small wave of his hand like he’d done a bit ago I understand he has. Does he really not want to talk to me? I know it shouldn’t affect me much, but I can’t help but feel a little disheartened at the fact that he might not want to talk to me. Though why’d he sit down next to me then? He doesn’t make any sense!

“How are you doing?” I try again, and mentally cringe at how formal I sound, definitely not easing up the odd aura around the two of us as I planned to do. He just gives me a thumbs up, causing me to frown a bit at the fact that he really doesn’t seem to be all too interested in this conversation, his eyes focused on his fingers that were drawing patterns on the table in front of him. “Long time no see yeah?” I try one last time to lighten things up by cracking a joke but feel like disappearing into the ground at my words.

I hear laughter soon following my statement, but it’s not coming from Zanthus which leaves me confused as to who’s found humor in my embarrassing commentary. I turn to the left but it proves useless, yet when I turn to my left and cast a look over my shoulder I witness Xander who’s leaning onto his table for support as he continues to laugh like a mad man.

Is he laughing at me?

“Long-” Xander cuts himself off with another fit of laughter, but soon sobers up enough to get his words out. “Long time no see?” He echoes my words, finding much more hilarity in this ordeal than I am.

I look over to Zanthus and see him still facing the table, but his body is slowly shaking with what I’m assuming is laughter, unless I’m wrong and he’s hysterically crying. I just sigh and pick at my nails, trying not to overthink the whole thing

“I’m sorry cherry, I couldn’t contain it. It was just too good.” He informs me, which I wave off as I continue to focus on my hands.

I’m quite embarrassed, to say the least, and I can’t help but feel mortified that I said such a thing. I’ve never been one that’s able to laugh at my mistakes no matter how much I’d like to be, and it’s obvious that still stands true with what’s just happened. I discreetly take a peek at Zanthus through my lashes and see that he’s now still, his eyes boring into my head, much like earlier this morning.

“My apologies, I got caught up in the copy room.” I hear my professor state as he makes his way into the room, waving a stack of papers in his hand before he dives into an explanation about what we’re going to be doing today while he has two students from the front begin to go around the class and pass out the handout that kept him.

About ten minutes into the into the class discourse, I feel a tap on my shoulder from Zanthus. I look at him in response, then look down when I feel a something nudging my arm. I eye the paper and see it reads ‘are you okay?’ in the top left corner. I can’t stop my smile from the kind gesture by him and when I look back up I see him smiling down at me with a barely noticeable pink tint to his cheeks.

I quickly turn back to the paper and scribble down ’I’m alright. Thank you.” and then push it back towards him, which he reads before he begins to write a response. I can’t help but feel as if I’m in grade eight with the way that we’re passing notes. The paper comes back to me with ‘of course. x’ written upon it. I feel red greet my cheeks when I spot the kiss and turn to look him only to find he’s playing with his watch like he was when he first walked in.

“We’re still on for lunch yeah?” I whisper softly, not wanting to get us caught or in any sort of trouble for being disrespectful. Zanthus looks up with a grin and nods softly and opens his mouth to say something it seems, but snaps it back shut after a second or so.

We both focus back on the lesson at hand, or well at least I do. I can’t help but ponder over how lunch will go. I decide to take notes in order to distract myself, knowing my unhealthy habit of overthinking things leads nowhere good. Soon enough I hear the bell wring taking me from my misery, and begin to collect my few items on the table and shovel them into my bag.

I turn to Zanthus and see him already ready to go with his bag over his shoulder, considering he never ended up taking anything out of it. I wait for him to say something, but he just keeps looking at me wordlessly causing me to inwardly groan at the recurring theme which involves me always being the one to start off the conversation.

“Set to go?” I ask him hesitantly worried he’s changed his mind last second, but he just gives me a curt nod as he steps aside and gives me room to head down the rows first to leave.

I walk towards the door and head out of the class with Zanthus following in pursuit, already feeling nervous over the time we’re going to be spending together. Having Xander and the other guys there will be a much-needed buffer for me, and I feel a little relief run through my veins at the reminder. I slow down just a bit in order to have Zanthus catch up to me so we’re walking side by side rather than one behind the other.

It’s silent for most of the time that we’re walking, and I turn to catch a quick glance Zanthus in hopes he won’t know I’m looking, but my plan is put to dust as I see he’s already looking at me. He smiles shyly and averts his eyes to look in the opposite direction once our eyes meet, stuffing his hands in his front pockets. I shake my head lightly and turn back to watch where I’m headed down the corridor, but let out a shriek when I’m met with a wall and instantly fall back and land on the ground, cringing at the harsh impact of my body hitting the cement. I squeeze my eyes shut, groaning when I realize how clumsy I’ve managed to make myself look.

I just can’t catch a break today, can I?

I see two arms being extended out to me by Zanthus and give him a grateful smile as I take his offer of help and feel him pull me up off the ground. Given he appears to be extremely strong, I yelp when I fall against his body at the abrupt lift from the floor. I almost go spiraling backward and land on the ground again, but I feel an arm wrap around my waist before that can happen. I look up at Zanthus and see were closer than ever, his breath fanning down on my face as he stares at me.

I soon realize our position and immediately become more flustered than I was already from falling the first time, and there’s no doubt my face is flushed. I squirm a bit in an attempt to indirectly tell Zanthus that I’d like for him to let go, the close proximity of our two bodies making me feel things I haven’t before. To my relief, he releases his grip on my waist and lets his hands fall back down to his sides.

I use this opportunity to check myself of any cuts or such, but also to avoid eye contact with the handsome man in front of me. I brush nonexistent dust off my clothes and am taken back when his feel a hand come up and brush a strand of my hair that had fallen across my face and place it softly behind my ear. His hand cups my face lightly at this action, and I look up to see him staring intently at the place where his hand is.

Zanthus brushes a few more loose strands from my face and tames them to his content, keeping his focus on his actions the whole time rather than actually looking at me. I feel his thumb naturally rest on my neck right behind my ear once he’s satisfied with his work, and the rest of his fingers lay against the back of my keeping neck in a soft grip on it. His eyes scan all around my face as if to make sure I haven’t gathered any damage there from my fall, which I quite frankly forgot all about just seconds ago.

His soft thumb runs delicately over my skin, and absently minded action I assume as he seems far away in his mind despite his eyes focused being focused on me. I feel my stomach erupt with butterflies at this, and can barely contain myself from even the smallest touch by him. I have no idea how to control my emotions, given I’ve never felt this way before, but just do my best not to collapse on spot. Too soon for my liking, he seems to come to his senses and instantly takes a step back from me, shaking his head a bit as if scolding himself, which I can’t deny looks quite adorable.

“S-sorry.” He mumbles out just loud enough for me to hear, a slight stutter accompanying his voice. I notice him cringe as he speaks but don’t think much of it, as my focus is elsewhere at the moment.

I bring my hands up to cover my cheeks as I did earlier this morning, not only to cover my blush but to also do best in regards to covering the wide smile that’s gracing my face at the moment. Zanthus eyes dart around the passageway as we stand quietly, both seeming to let the moment shared between us just seconds ago sink in.

“Uhm, you’re totally okay. I...I, uh,” I stumble over my words in search for a way to respond to the apology of which he just presented to me. “I like your hands!” I end up blurting out, immediately bringing my hands up to cover the god forbidden mouth of mine, completely humiliated at the words that just came out of my mouth.

What on earth is wrong with me? I truly wonder sometimes.

Zanthus looks at me in not disgust or anything of that sort like I had expected him to do when told such an eccentric comment like my own, but rather with a tiny little smirk resting on his lips as he observes my discombobulated self. I do my best to avoid eye contact with him, not wanting to make the situation even more awkward for myself than I already have.

“Shall we get going now? I mean we must be late for lunch considering my fall took up time. You know I wonder who even came up with the word lunch. Lunch. Doesn’t it just sound so odd when you really think about it? I mean it really is just a combination of random letters from the alphabet but still. Oh! Even better, I wonder who created the alphabet! Don’t you-” My rambling is cut short by Zanthus who brings a finger up to my lips as he rolls eyes playfully at me. Once he’s sure I’m done, he lets his finger fall from my lips, while I give him a sheepish smile. “Sorry.” I let out softly, and he just shakes his head as if telling me not to worry of it before he turns to look down the corridor.

He points towards the direction of the eating quarters which I give a slight nod to, and we began to silently continue on our previous path to lunch. The silence is more of a comfortable one, unlike it was just minutes ago when we first walked out of class together. There’s still a hint of uneasiness in it, but it’s barely noticeable. We arrive where we are meant to be soon enough, and Zanthus opens the door allowing me to walk in before him which I send him a quiet thank you for.

As we near his normal table I hear some shouting from somewhat familiar voices, though am not surprised when I run over the events of last lunch in my head. I can only hope this doesn’t turn out the same way.

Let’s wish for the best, yeah?