CHAPTER 3
957 Words
CHAPTER 3
When Eyes Start to Wander
The project defense was finally over. The entire campus felt lighter, as if the air itself had dropped its worries. Everyone looked free — free from the sleepless nights, the printer queues, the endless corrections that never seemed to end.
Tessa stood outside the department block, fanning herself with a file. The sun was blazing, but she didn’t care. For once, she felt good. Accomplished. The weight that had sat on her shoulders for weeks was finally gone.
Adrian appeared beside her, balancing a plate of jollof rice and a Coke.
“Mission accomplished,” he declared, handing her the Coke like a medal.
Tessa laughed. “You stole this, didn’t you?”
“Borrowed,” he corrected. “From a friend who doesn’t know yet.”
Louis joined them moments later, hands in his pockets, hair still a little damp — he’d probably washed his face to shake off the stress. His eyes found Tessa immediately. She was laughing, and for a moment he just stood there, quietly watching her. Something tugged at him — something he wasn’t ready to name.
“Who’s the thief?” Louis asked, walking up to them.
“Adrian,” Tessa said quickly. “He’s been caught red-handed.”
Adrian grinned. “At least I shared with her. What did you bring?”
Louis lifted his brow. “My charming presence.”
Tessa groaned. “Return it to sender.”
They all burst out laughing. The moment was easy, light — the kind of joy that came from surviving something hard together.
As the celebration continued, their classmates began to take pictures in clusters. Some hugged, others screamed with excitement. Someone pulled Tessa into a group photo, and she found herself standing beside another guy from her department — Caleb, one of the most outspoken students, known for always cracking jokes.
Louis was watching from a few feet away, pretending to scroll through his phone. But his eyes kept flicking up every few seconds.
Caleb said something that made Tessa laugh — a real laugh, the kind that crinkled her eyes and made her look radiant. And just like that, Louis felt something twist in his chest.
He didn’t like that.
He didn’t even know why he didn’t like that.
Adrian noticed it first. He leaned closer to Louis, whispering with a smirk,
“Relax, bro. She’s just laughing.”
Louis didn’t look up. “Who said I’m not relaxed?”
Adrian chuckled. “Your jaw is literally tightening.”
Louis glanced away, muttering, “She can talk to whoever she wants.”
“Sure,” Adrian said casually, “so why are you staring like you want to fight the guy?”
Louis glared at him. “You think too much.”
Adrian laughed quietly. “You feel too much.”
Tessa waved at them from across the lawn. Louis forced a smile and waved back, pretending nothing was wrong. When she walked over, cheeks flushed from the sun, she said, “You guys didn’t join the pictures. Why?”
Adrian shrugged. “Ask your boyfriend here.”
Tessa blinked. “Boyfriend?”
Louis shot Adrian a look sharp enough to kill. “Ignore him.”
But the word boyfriend hung in the air like smoke neither of them could wave away.
Later that evening, when most people had gone home, Tessa was still at the faculty building collecting her printed copy of the project. Louis found her there, crouched beside a bag of papers.
He didn’t say anything at first — just leaned against the wall, watching her struggle with the zipper.
“Need help?” he asked finally.
“No,” she said, still tugging.
He walked closer anyway, gently taking the bag from her hands. Their fingers brushed, and she froze.
Louis zipped the bag easily and handed it back. “There.”
Tessa exhaled softly. “Thank you.”
He nodded, but didn’t step back. “So... Caleb, huh?”
She frowned. “What about him?”
“Nothing,” he said quickly. “Just... you two seemed to be enjoying yourselves.”
Tessa’s eyes narrowed. “Are you... jealous?”
Louis laughed — a little too quickly. “Of Caleb? Please.”
She smiled faintly. “You sound defensive.”
He tried to shrug it off, looking away. “You’re free to talk to whoever you want.”
“I know,” she said quietly. “But you don’t have to act weird about it.”
Their eyes met, and for a heartbeat, the world slowed down. The tension between them wasn’t loud — it was quiet, simmering under the surface, in the way his hand brushed her shoulder lightly, in the way she didn’t move away this time.
“I’m not acting weird,” he said finally, his voice low.
Tessa smiled — small, teasing, but her chest was thudding. “You sure?”
Louis looked at her for a long second, then sighed. “Maybe a little.”
She laughed softly. “You’re impossible.”
He smiled. “And yet... you still talk to me.”
Before she could reply, Adrian’s voice echoed from the corridor, “Lovebirds, can we go now? Some of us are hungry!”
Tessa turned quickly, cheeks warm. Louis just chuckled, walking past her. As they left the building together, she realized something had shifted between them.
The teasing still lived there, but now it carried weight — the kind that made her heart flutter and her mind question what exactly they were becoming.
And Louis? He didn’t know what scared him more — the fact that he might actually like her... or that she might never feel the same way.
- Writer
