Lingering Denial

Chapter 4

~Sunday~

Aurora's P.O.V~

I woke up to the sun hitting my eyes, groaning a bit. Damn it. I should've closed the curtains properly yesterday. Given my tired state last night, it had slipped my mind and now they were lazily half open with the sun peeking in from behind.

Stretching for a while, I got up, washing up a bit before putting on a crop top and jogging bottoms. Soon, I was out of our apartment and jogging, for the first time since arriving here. Because of all our assignments, I had been continuously tired, and had lazied off on exercise while I was at it. Compared to the guy's apartment, ours wasn't much, but it was home.

We had moved closer to the university no less than two weeks ago. Unlike the hour walk from before, our university was only 20 minutes away now. And the place looked perfect and cosy. The street was made up of tall, house like apartments bunched together, with a lot of trees and several shops along the road. It was a bit historic, but mostly a pedestrian type area, close to the city. You would always hear the chatter, bicycles ringing and the busy streets nearby in the background but we loved it.

With my thoughts still on yesterday, and headphones in, I found myself distractedly jogging on the main route. Good thing I'd gotten my new memory card yesterday; It meant I had an offline GPS map, at my beck and call. I was pretty proud of myself, I have to admit.

That's until, I bumped into someone, unexpectedly dropping my phone. Aw, come on. I gasped, almost too scared to reach for my phone, praying repeatedly in my head for an undamaged screen. I got that only a month ago.

"Oh, sorry..." My zoned out gaze was interrupted, by someone picking it up for me. In spite of that, all of my concentration remained on repeating a mantra of safety in my head, as I moved closer and attended to watching him check the phone for any cracks. He lets out a chuckle, before adding "Oh, it's Nemo. Don't worry, your precious phone's alive and well." Yep, that comment snapped me out of my trance, as I let out a sigh of relief.

My head whipped up, as the nickname sunk in, and I found the smirking stranger from before, holding out my phone. "We really have to stop meeting like this..." His other hand ran through his hair, making me ogle at how attractive he looked before I finally connected the dots. My eyes widened in recognition as I snatched my phone away, "So it WAS you. That creep."

His eyes widened as he looked around, while I blushed, embarrassed and wanting to dig a grave, as strangers nearby looked over, eyeing us, and giving the guy in front of me weird looks; some even looked cautious, where others seemed like they were contemplating butting in. He nervously laughed it off until they looked away.

After that, his glare zeroed onto me, and I gulped. Dragging me to the side of the walkway, he crossed his arms at me glancing around, "You know a thank you would suffice?" I scoffed, my shyness drifting to oblivion as I watched him irritated, "For what? Nearly breaking my phone?"

His eyes narrowed at me, before he gritted out, "No. For saving you in the alley the other day. I'm sure you've noticed right? You can't be as stupid as you look..." He mocked, acting as he was actually thinking about it.

I had to admit, he still scared me, especially when I thought about that day but currently, his pompous attitude was seriously getting on my nerves. "Excuse me. That wasn't saving, that was called being a creep." I watched him in shock slightly afraid, while trying to figure out how someone so good looking could be such a dangerous guy.

Looking baffled, he grumbled, "Shouldn't have saved you in the first place..." He closed his eyes, looking irked, before glaring at me, "And it's Liam, not creep."

"It's Aurora. Not Nemo." I crossed my my arms, bluntly replying with the same tone. For a moment, we held our competitive gaze, until he sighed, rolling his eyes. "Whatever, I don't have time for this. See you later, Nemo." He added, putting his headphones in and emphasising the nickname with a smirk.

"Hope not." I glared a hole in his back as he casually jogged off, as my thoughts drifted off. Girls that were walking nearby were excitedly whispering, as he went by them. How annoying. Did he live near here? I hope not.

~

I was soon done with my jog and had decided to prepare breakfast for the two who would be groaning as soon as they woke up. However, my mood was still slightly disgruntled. Just like I thought, the smell of breakfast had pulled them out of slumber, despite the fact that they looked half dead.

I sighed as the complaining started, my thoughts going over to this morning. "What crawled up your butt, this morning?" Hazel laughed at me, while sitting down, along with a curious Ava. Handing them some aspirin with water to each one, I went back to finish frying the eggs. They had gotten over the hangover pretty quickly which always amazed me, seeing as I would normally always have a headache for the rest of the day.

"Nothing, just met a rude guy while running."That caught their interest. Ava perked up, excitedly asking, "Was he hot?" I rolled my eyes, hating the fact that I blushed ever so slightly before, glaring at them. Hazel smirked, and shared an amused look with Ava. "So, he was then..." I groaned at them, as they started asking questions. I just waved them off, but I knew they would ask later.

Finally deciding to sit down, I wasn't surprised to find them gossiping about last night, remembered events and gasping at some of the embarrassing things they did. I was pretty happy watching them in amusement, and teasing Ava about all her flirting. Hazel groaned at the mention of the topic, acting as if she would puke an time soon. "Ew, that's disgusting. Stop. My poor ears will bleed out." She covered her ears quickly, to which Ava went red and complained about me. "Well, at least I wasn't the one who sneaked off on a midnight liaison with a certain someone." I rolled my eyes at the comment, "Oh, be quiet. It wasn't a liaison."

Looking up, I found them raising their eyebrows suggestively, with annoying smirks on their faces. "So....where did you go then?" Hazel innocently asked, while Ava put her hands on her hands waiting. I sighed at their antics. "Tell us everything. We need descriptive details." Ava firmly spoke, with a serious expression.

I annoying pushed her away, before telling them the basics. There was no way I was going to admit that he seemed surprisingly nice, after I would always tell the two how no one would really catch her eye. Not since him. Even Noah, a friend of hers from college seemed the same as everyone. From the sounds of these two, he had shown interest in me but I doubted it. Why would he like me?

As the two in front of me heard my story, they were quite appalled at the incident first, looking as if they were going to go and plan a murder tonight, before calming down to make sure I was alright. After my reassurance, they had decided to just let it go in the past and move on. Nevertheless, despite the incident, even if I didn't say anything, their constant teasing wouldn't stop.

Deciding to use one of my best talents, ignoring them, I got up to put the dishes in the sink. "Oh, here's a deal... I'll cook for the two other days that you guys do breakfast, and take care of dinner or lunch whenever we're home, but-..." She trailed off, as she eyed their shocked but excited expressions. Hazel even looked over the moon, being the lazier one, as the two expectantly waited, "...If you two split laundry and cleaning everything between yourselves."

I crossed my arms, challengingly looking at them, but I didn't have to wait long before I heard the word being screamed out from Ava, "Deal." Although, Hazel was still contemplating the idea. Unlike the other two, I absolutely despised cleaning, but hated any type of messiness as well, so I would clean if I had to. Whereas, out of the others, I cooked best so it was the perfect plan. I pointed at the sink, looking at Ava with a smile, before she laughed and got up.

Sunday workshop had been cancelled so I had the whole day to myself. My mind drifted off, as they continued to talk until I heard my name. "Oh yeah. Aurora, don't you always say that you wanna learn self-defence? We heard last night that Axel does classes for them. You should ask him." Hazel chimed in, Ava nodding in agreement, "Yeah, ask him today actually. We might meet the guys later on." I was surprised at the revelation, although couldn't deny that I was interested in the offer. With the incident yesterday, I had become even more determined to learn how to protect myself. I didn't last night's accident repeating anytime soon.

I glanced up as Hazel's phone tinged. No longer than ten seconds later, she began smiling to herself while texting back. I shared an amused but knowing look with Ava before we heard Hazel's voice again. "Lucas said to just meet them at the class." She said jumping up and heading off to get ready, "You coming or what?" Well, there goes my plans to do nothing and sleep for the day. I thought tearfully.

~