Fire & Snow

Chapter 11

I had gone over every instruction that Liav kept on giving me every day and I was exhausted. It had been three days since Faith left and Liav was a no show as well. I found it odd how he always seem to reappear when Faith was around.

“You look stressed out,” Aydan said.

I looked up at him and shrugged. He was leaning casually on Faith’s door while I grabbed some things that she need, which her aunt was going to be picking up soon. “What can I say, work calls and I have to pick up otherwise I will be jobless and back to square one,” I replied as I packed the last books in a bag.

“Why did not you just find a job during freshmen year? That’s the time when you can easily find a decent job that you can get to keep for the rest of your four years,” Aydan said and entered the room. He made himself comfortable on Faith’s bed, the bed I had just finished spreading. It would have been weird and awkward if Faith’s roommate was around but thankfully, she had gone to her boyfriend’s place because apparently she felt lonely and scared being in the room alone.

How was I going to tell him that the reason I now needed a job was that life had decided to throw a rock in my path and it was either I yield to it or find a way around it. I opted to find a around it and this was the price I had to pay.

“I need the money,” I simply said. I did not intend to say anything more than that. The only other people who knew why I needed a job were Alex, Chance and Kylie and I planned to keep it like that.

I looked up and Aydan and he was already studying me. Ever since we had our tutoring session and talked a bit, Aydan seemed to be spending an awful lot of time with me, something that confused me because he was the same one who said he had no time to be babysitting a sophomore. The guy was an enigma, he was so hard to read and I hated that.

Aydan seemed to be analysing me, trying to dissect me but I was not an open book that everyone could easily read. He tilted his head to the side, which made his hair fall in his left eye. “You intrigue me Neva Summers,” he finally said after what felt like hours but was only a few minutes.

“What do you mean?”

Aydan sighed. “You aren’t who I pegged you out to be the first time I meant you,” he said. “I thought you were like most girls, pretending to be something that you aren’t just to impress the masses and gain attention.”

His confession stunned me. I knew there was something wrong somewhere but I had no idea he had been comparing me to all the other girls that he knew and probably had s*x with them. I sat on the edge of Faith’s bed making sure to keep a safe distance between us.  

“Well I’m not like most girls,” I replied with a half shrug, “And frankly, I have no idea why you decided to compare me with everyone else. I am not them and they are not me. We are all our own person, it’s as simple as that.”

“I know that know,” Aydan said and raked a hand through his dark brown hair, which by the looks of it had a little blue stripes that were now almost fading. “I guess it was just hard meeting someone like you and I could not help but try to place you in a social group.”

It took courage to admit something like that. Most people would never admit they were wrong even if it killed them but here was Aydan admitting how wrong he was. “It’s okay,” I said. “Someone once that people make mistake all the time.”

A smile appeared on Aydan’s face. “Quoting me now I see,” he said then nudged my shoulder with his.

“Who said I was quoting you? A lot of people have used that phrase a lot,” I replied with a casual shrug as I stood up. I picked up the bag I had just packed and slung it over my shoulder. “Anyway, we have to leave now; Faith’s aunt will be here soon.”

Aydan sighed but stood up nevertheless. He moved closer to me and took the bag from my shoulder. I stared at him open mouthed. I did not understand what he was doing or why he was doing it in the first place.

“What?” he asked.

“Why?” was all I could say while my mouth still hung open? I was more than surprised at his actions.

Aydan slung his other hand over my shoulder and pulled me into his side. “You have got to learn not to question when people are doing something nice for you sophomore,” he said as we walked out of the room and I locked it behind us. “It’s the cycle of life and you don’t question life.”

I rolled my eyes. “Are you sure you are Computer Science major?” I asked.

“Why do you ask?”

“Because you seem to know more about psychology than I have seen or heard you talking about anything computer based.”

Aydan chuckled and pulled me even closer to him. “I am a man of many talents sophomore all of which you will get to know due time.”

“I highly doubt that.” Aydan’s hand was still on my shoulder and I felt lazy to remove it. After all, it was not as though we were doing something that we should not be doing.

Aydan placed a hand on his chest. “You wound me sophomore, you really do.”

I rolled my eyes but did not say anything as walked to the car park.

“This is where I leave you sophomore. I know you can manage from here,” Aydan said and passed me the bag that was on his shoulder. I took it back and it weighed a ton, which led me to wonder how he had lifted it so effortlessly on one shoulder. “I will see you around sophomore.” He turned back around but stopped when I called his name.

“Why do you like calling me sophomore? I do have a name you know,” I asked.

Aydan simply winked at me before he left. He did not even answer my question.

                                                                      ***********

I walked aimlessly around the school not knowing what to do. I was beyond exhausted and my body wanted to sleep but my brain had others things in mind. It wanted to think and that meant that my body was going to suffer as well.

My thoughts kept straying to Aydan and how all of a sudden he had changed and started treating me like I was actually worth his time. It was a lot for my brain to process and it needed time to cool off before he crashed.

“Boo.”

I nearly jumped out of my skin and almost had a heart attack. I spun around and looked at the person who had nearly given me a heart attack. Aydan was bent over laughing so hard.

He was still laughing, “You should have seen your face,” he said in between laughs.

My heart slowly went back to normal and I glared at him through my glasses. “That was not funny. You almost gave me a heart attack,” I said and resumed walking. It was surprising how I was just thinking about him and he suddenly shows up.

“Aw, don’t be like that sophomore,” Aydan said as he fell in step with me. “It was just a harmless joke.”

“You still scared me,” I replied. I was rather pissed off at him for playing such a trick on me.

Aydan slung his arm over my shoulder and stopped walking. He turned to face me and there a sincerity in his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said.’

I wanted to believe him, really, I did but what if he was just joking and was only giving me a half-arsed apology?

“I really am sorry, I had no idea you scare easily.”

I sighed and looked behind him where a group of girls were staring at us or more accurately, staring daggers at me. “I don’t scare easily but I was lost in my own thoughts, that’s why you scared me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Aydan seemed not to believe me but I shrugged out of his hold and resumed my walking. I wanted to be alone but that seemed it was not going to work as Aydan fell in step with me again.

“Are you okay though?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“Cool.”

We walked in silence after that and it was peace, I was so lost I my thoughts that I almost walked right in tree until Aydan pulled me away from it. He placed his hands on my shoulders and turned me around. There was a worried look on his face.

“Are you okay?” he asked softly.

I nodded my head because I was still in shock from what almost happened. How could I be so absorbed in my thoughts to the point that I lost touch with everything that was around.

“I don’t believe that,” Aydan said. “You need to rest and I will make sure that you do.” He grabbed my hand and led me back to the dorms. “What’s your room number?” he turned to look at me shortly before he looked back ahead.

“201,” I answered.

Aydan still had his hold on my hand as he led the way. He did not say anything the way we walked to my room. He only stopped to ask for the keys and then unlocked the door.

“Where is your roommate?” he asked as he looked around the room.

“At her boyfriend’s place.”

Aydan looked around the room once more. “Rest,” he said.

“But I have things to do,” I protested. “I can’t just leave everything half-way.”

Aydan sighed. “When was the last time that you had proper rest?”

I thought about it and I was not sure I remembered when. I had been so busy with doing everything said, classes and studying that I really had not been getting any sleep. I shrugged in response when Aydan arched an eyebrow in question.

“Seriously? Why don’t you take care of yourself?” he asked with the shake of the head. “You have to stop over-working yourself and remember that you are only human and as such you need the rest.”

I sat on the edge of my bed. “If I rest then that means that I won’t do everything I am supposed to do that day and everything will just keep piling up until it’s more than I handle,” I replied and took off my shoes. “I hardly have any time for myself as it is.” I had so much to do that resting was out of the equation. I had a Math test tomorrow and Liav had asked me to postpone all his and Faith’s tutoring session for when Faith returned on campus, all of which I had not yet gotten to.

“Then make some time for yourself,” Aydan said seriously. “Not resting will make you begin to lose touch with everything around you and that isn’t good for the brain. Look at what almost happened just a few minutes ago, if I wasn’t around then you would have walked straight into that tree.”

“I know, but what can I do?”

“Rest. Liav and Faith won’t be too happy when they find out that I let you over-work yourself.”

It explained why he was always around now. Liav must have told him to look after me before him and Faith returned, and here I was starting to think that he actually cared about me. Stupid me.  I laid back on my bed and my eyes began slowly shutting.

“Sleep my little innocent sophomore,” I thought I heard Aydan say but I was too sleepy to think anything more of it.