Changing With Autumn

Chapter 7

 I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. Not that I would want to even if I could. I thought I stood out in a crowd, but this guy, he was impossible not to look at. All eyes in the room shifted his way and it seemed as if he had the same effect on the room as I did. I barely registered that the room had suddenly gone quiet again. I couldn’t hear anything in the room anymore except for the pounding in my chest, but this time, the silence surrounding me was for a very different reason. When my hearing finally returned I noticed that the loud voices had dulled into low whispers. I smiled to myself. Well, at least we had something in common. 

He was dressed in a basic black T-shirt, jeans, and boots. He wore a chain around his neck and he had his hair shaved down low; not enough to be bald though, I could still see the dark hair peeking through. He looked dressed down, almost as if he just put on whatever clothes he found first but he was still nowhere near ordinary. He was tall, like really tall, and he just radiated strength and confidence. 

There was an unseen power that surrounded him and it was almost as if it was tangible. Everyone in the room noticed it also and they all seemed to shy away from him, even if it was unintentional. It was almost like they were too intimidated to be near him, but at the same time everyone wanted to know more about him. The guys in the room all started shooting him dirty looks like they were ready to fight if the situation came up, but the girls were all eyeing him up and down like they had some other forms of physical scenarios in mind.

He stood there surveying the room as if he was oblivious to all of the looks he was getting, and all the while I sat on the couch frozen to the spot, and very unable to control the looks I was giving him. If it wasn’t for the fact that Erika had started dabbing at the sides of my face I would have stayed like that for the rest of the night.

“Erika what are you doing?” I tried to push her hand away from me as she continued trying to dab at my face.

“Hang on Willow don’t move you still have a little bit of drool hanging out of your mouth.” she teased and she started to laugh.

“Ha. Ha. Will you stop? Jeez woman.” I laughed, batting away her still probing hands.

“Seriously though, someone seems to be very interested in the party all of the sudden.” Erika mocked nudging me with her shoulder.

“Party? Hell no. I still hate you, but the hottie that just walked through the door? Definitely interested!” I said as my eyes started to drift his way again.

Erika started to giggle next to me but I barely noticed it because I had started to admire his face again. He had such strong features. His expression was hard and you could tell that he really didn’t want to be here either. He was completely disinterested in the people around him and that seemed to very much frustrate most of the girls that were all but making fools out of themselves to get his attention. As my eyes roamed over his face I got stuck on his eyes which were so dark they almost looked black. They were hard also and the only thing that softened them were his long eyelashes. 

I knew I needed to stop gawking at him. I probably looked even crazier than everyone at this party already thought I did, but the longer I sat and admired him the harder it was to focus on anything else. I couldn’t draw my eyes away from him and then got stuck focusing on his mouth. His lips. My God those lips. They were so full and looked so soft I couldn’t help but imagine what he could do with those lips. I could faintly hear the people around me and their whispers. The guys asking who he was and who he came with. The girls across from me giggled back and forth about how sexy he looked and what they would do to him if they could get him alone. 

I don’t know why but listening to these girls talk about him began to irritate me. Listening to them giggle and dare each other to go over to talk to him was seriously getting under my skin. I tried to tune them out, Hell I tried to drown out the whole party. Stalker moment? Sad to admit but yup; definitely. In my defense though there’s nothing wrong with taking a moment to admire some delicious goodness right? Yeah right, who was I kidding, I could easily become the drooling, mouth breathing weirdo following this sexiness around. Oh God, apparently I am the creep that everyone at this party thinks I am.

I finally pulled my gaze from his face to take him in further and was again stopped to admire his arms. His arms weren’t overly defined with “ripped muscles” (thank God because just ew. Steroid looking arms are just a no go), but you could see his strength. You could see the definition of the muscles where it looked like he didn’t try too hard to build them; it was just how he was built. It looked like he had earned those muscles from physical labor rather than roid rage or something. You could see that he could definitely take care of himself. Plus with arms like those I couldn’t stop my mind from wandering to images of them wrapped around me. 

It seemed like time stood still as I continued to very non discreetly check this guy out. I barely even noticed anyone else in the room anymore. I would have been embarrassed if I wasn’t in such a daze. When he made his way through the room, passing through the crowd of jealousy and lust, my eyes followed. He made his way over to the drinks table and grabbed a can of soda while avoiding the red cup that an obnoxiously flirty girl was trying to hand him. I smiled to myself and laughed at her shocked look at the rejection I’m sure she never had received before. When she didn’t fully get the hint and made a second attempt at failed flirting I felt my body tense. God I seriously wanted to hit her.  

Wait, what? What was I even thinking? Yeah, I really did want to hit her, but what? I shook my head to try to clear it. Seriously, what was going on with me? I had seen cute guys before, so why was this guy different? This guy, just standing there like some kind of intimidating God had awoken something inside of me. God, I really did sound like a creepy stalker. I internally cursed again tonight as I tried to pull it together before I totally made a fool of myself. 

As if he could feel my creepy stare on him he turned and looked directly at me. Not just in my direction as if his eyes were sweeping the crowd some more, but directly at me, and the intensity of his eyes as they bore into mine sent shivers down my spine. I knew I had been caught in the act but I didn’t want to look away just yet. Play it cool Willow I said to myself. Play it off like it was a coincidence that our eyes had just awkwardly met. I was trying my hardest to seem like I was casually scanning the room but when I saw his eyes begin to roam over me in return I felt the red begin to creep throughout my face. 

That was when I had to look away. I didn’t want to look any longer in fear that I would see the reaction I knew would come. He would look at me like everyone else here. Like I was some kind of freak that didn’t belong. I mean it wasn’t hard to pick the odd man out in this crowd. I didn’t think I could bear to see that look in his eyes, but I also couldn’t bear to see the inevitable disinterest and watch his eyes continue to pass over me and onto the next girl. I kept my eyes down and used everything in my power not to look back up into his. 

This was insane I thought to myself. Why was I acting like this? I never felt like someone else’s opinion about me mattered, but for some reason, I really, really cared what he thought of me. Even though I could still feel his eyes on me, and I have no idea how or why, I couldn’t bring myself to look back up at him. I knew how this situation would play out because there was no way that a guy like that would take any interest in a girl like me; especially when every girl in this room was dying to get even a second of his time. 

Keeping my head down and trying to avoid his eyes I noticed that Erika had been unusually quiet while I was lost in creepy mode. I looked up to where she was supposed to be sitting next to me and realized she was gone. What the Hell? When did she leave? I didn’t even feel her get up off of the couch. I looked around the room but she was no longer in here. Then the question popped into my head that had me nervous and angry at the same time. Did she seriously just ditch me?

I was in shock for a minute as my brain processed that Erika literally just slipped away and ditched me. Once the shock settled it quickly turned to straight fury. I jumped up from the couch determined to hunt this girl down with the intention to completely murder her as soon as I found her. I seriously couldn’t believe it. She left me sitting on a couch, in the middle of a party I was completely uncomfortable being at, in a crowd full of people who were still eyeing me with distaste. So off to murder Erika I went.

Unknown to me though, if I hadn’t been so preoccupied in my anger I might have noticed that a certain set of almost black eyes had followed me out of the room.