Why Can't I Hate You?

CHAPTER 3

MICHELLE

I stopped to catch my breath. Embarrassment ran through my veins. Did we just run away from Judy? My subconscious questioned me. "Yes, what was supposed to do? Something was definitely going on. She wanted to give away her hard earned car to me. I mean, why would anybody do that?" I shouted, unable to control my frustration. An old man walking on the street turned to look at my outburst. I sucked a couple of deep breaths to pull myself together. Maybe she was just being nice to us, she says. I sighed heavily massaging my forehead. I'm not sure if what I did was right or wrong, but I will have to face Judy once I get back. You have some serious apologizing to do, she continued. I nodded slightly and pulled my phone out of my pocket to call an Uber.

Thunder roared at a distance. Gray clouds filled the once clean blue sky. As if the weather was trying to recreate my mood. In no time, droplets of water danced on the grass, thereby drenching me a little. I ran under a tree for shelter.

My Uber approached and I got inside musing about ways to elucidate my impulsive behavior to Judy. Like the 'other me' said if she was just trying to be nice to me — which I don't understand why she would be nice to me for no reason — then I ran off from there like a jackass. Conveniently enough, I have given her a reason to hate me. Judy might call dad and lament over my ill-mannered demeanor and that she cannot tolerate a rude a*s like I am.

"Great going, Michelle. Narrowing your list of close one's further down. Amazing!" I mumbled. Hey! That wasn't me. It's you. You never listen to me. "Ugh!" I groan clenching my fist. The driver glanced at me from the rear view mirror. "Sorry!" I said, gruffly. He quickly nodded and fixated his eyes back on the road.

The cab stalled in front of a gate with two brown bricked poles. The overhead and half of the right pole were completely covered in lush green climbers. On the right side, there's a stoned wall on which there's a rectangular red board that said, "Seattle University" in bold white letters. It was all green in here. Green, lovely and beautiful. A smile crept on my lips sidelining everything that happened. I paid for the cab and stood in front of the gate gawking at the view. It had stopped raining now. The sky was clear once again and the sun shone brightly. It almost felt as if the nature felicitated me for a new start. The weather in Seattle is funny. I scoffed at that remark and sucked in a long, deep breath before stepping into my new life.

I found Administration building quickly enough as it was the very first building from the entrance. Its a large cream colored building with a tall tower like something write in the middle of the structure. The insides were all white. A large desk in the middle of the room. There stood a woman, in her late thirties, behind the desk. She turned to me when I pushed the door open, and plastered a warm smile on her lips, with keen eyes waiting for me to say something.

"Hi, I am Michelle Lockwood. You must have received a call from Dominic Lockwood a couple of days back." I said, unsure if she's the same lady he spoke with.

"Oh! Yes, my dear." Her smile widened, "Welcome to SeattleU! You're here for Arts Major, is it?"

I cleared my throat before replying, "Yes."

"Well, here is your daily schedule," she said, delving in her desk drawers. "Ahh! Here it is." She handed me a piece of paper. I took a look at my schedule for a second and back at her. "All professors have been informed about your arrival." I half smiled and nodded. "Have a wonderful day, my dear." Yeah, we'll see about that.

"Thank you, you too." When I began walking towards the entrance from where I got to, the lady stopped me.

"You can go from the other door, dear. Casey will be in the short distance from there." She pointed her thumb towards the way behind her. I promptly nodded, even though I had no idea who Casey was. I followed her instruction and got out of Administration building from the other door. At the front the building, there was a large park where students were already relaxing under the shining sun. Though the lady said this was the nearest way to find some Casey, I still wasn't sure what to do or where to go.

History was the first on my schedule, and like a fool I wandered along the wide pavement holding my schedule in one hand and my college bag in the other.

"You look like a lost puppy," came a voice from behind me. I spun around swiftly. An adorable short girl with honey-colored skin, dark brown hair, gray eyes, and a wide grin on her pretty face, stood a few steps away from me. Maybe she is Casey. Closing the distance, she said, "Show me your schedule," and snatched the paper out of my hand. Okay, she definitely is Casey.

"Oh! History, so that's Casey. I'll walk you," she said with a pleasant smile before strolling against the pavement. What? Who the hell is Casey.

"Casey?" I walked behind her.

"Casey's the building for Art and Sciences." she replied. Oh! There was a laugh in my head.

"I'm Ashley Glen, by the way." she extended her hand in my direction.

"Michelle." I said, returning her gesture.

"What's your major?"

"Arts, and yours? I reciprocated.

"I'm an English major." Her lips twitched upwards.

We stopped in front of a colossal brown and gray bricked building which looked like two separate buildings are joined together with a cylindrical rod in the center. The cylinder was completely gray bricked unlink the two buildings. There are a couple of steps in front of the building which lead to the mouth of the building.

"This is Casey." Ashley said, protruding both her arms towards the building.

Casey is amazing on the inside as well. Initially, I tried to memorize the way to my classroom but, thereafter had to give up that thought, since there are a million of turns to get to the classroom.

"I'll need a map, I guess." I said, while I followed her. She giggled.

"At first, yeah!" she nodded, "Eventually, you'll get used to it."

"There you go! Your classroom." She pointed to a room on my left.

"Thank you, Ashley."

"Ahh! Don't even mention," She flickered her hand, "I'll see you around. Have a great day!" She said before walking away.

I secretly hoped that my History professor, Mr. Brant, wouldn't make me stand in front of the class and ask to introduce myself. But to my disgrace, that's exactly what he asks me to do. I stood in front of the class, and began reciting my introduction. I stuttered a lot as if I spoke about someone I don't know.

Everyone giggled at my failed attempt, except for a boy; the most handsome man I have ever seen. His sapphire blue eyes, curly reddish-brown hair, chiseled jawline, full plump lips, were all profoundly fascinating. He stared at me with a frown on this perfect pale face. Wow!

I walk gradually towards the seat which Mr. Brant has pointed at. A selcouth feeling creeping in my nerves when I look into his blue eyes. Not certain if it's fear, anger, attraction, or something else altogether, but I cannot look away from him. He stared back at me with the same expression. An urge to know what he is thinking arose in me. Maybe that you are a freak who can't even introduce herself without messing up, my conscience mocked me. I groaned internally while I sat on my desk.

"Hey!" said a boy sitting on the other side of my desk, pulling me back to the earth. "I'm Arthur Whitmore." he said with a charming smile.

I met his wide honey-brown eyes with a smile on my face which faded quickly. I had this unprecedented feeling, like we had something in common, like I already know him from somewhere, like family. My eyebrows drew closer. He might be our long lost brother, she interfered. "Oh, would you please shut up." I scolded her mentally. While I was busy contemplating my weird thoughts, he extended a hand for handshake which I had not noticed.

"You okay?" he asked. Confusion laced his voice.

"Oh, I'm really sorry." I apologize and shook his hand.

"Lost much?" he smirked.

"Yeah, first day jitters I guess." He chuckled and nodded in response and turned to his book.

I couldn't stop myself from looking at that unknown guy. It's not the first time I've seen someone so handsome. The doctors in Dominic's hospital were extremely handsome. I used to look at them, talk and forget. But this man is beautiful and different in some way. Probably, God like. I looked at him through my peripheral vision. He seemed to be really involved in the lecture. Well, at least someone is paying attention to the lecture. I roll my eyes at her snide remark, cognizant of the fact that she was right. I do need to concentrate on the lecture.

All the while I was tormented by my uncontrolled senses, especially my eyes, by constantly trying to look at him. The curiosity of knowing about him hits me like a tsunami. I decided to end this t*****e and called out Arthur.

"Huh?" He turned to look at me.

"Who's that boy over there?" I asked, gesturing towards the boy with my thumb and forcing my eyes to not look in that direction.

Arthur looked at the man and frowned slightly, "Um, that is Elijah Reed. Why?" His frown deepened. Elijah. I just shook my head and finally turned towards Elijah. To my surprise, he was looking right back at me. I immediately broke our eye contact and looked down at my book.

The rest of the lectures went by as awkward as the first. Mr. Rodriguez, my Literature professor, was the nicest of all as he didn't ask me to give another embarrassing introductory speech to the class. But my clumsy self didn't let go the chance of humiliation whatsoever. I tripped on my way to my seat and almost fell on a girl. Oh God! But to my luck, Ashley had literature with me, which helped lessen the mortification.

Soon, it was lunchtime. Ashley left to meet her friends for lunch and I forgot to ask her where exactly cafeteria is. I asked people outside Casey to direct me to the cafeteria. Apparently, there's a dining place in an the building known as a student center and that's where I need to head to for lunch. The student center is quite like the rest of the building; huge and beautiful. The cafeteria was suffocatingly filled with students. It had huge glasses on the right side, which made the large area brighter, and plenty round tables. A hint of cinnamon bread dashed into my nose, making my stomach growl. I stood in a long queue to get my lunch. While I was waiting in the line, I saw Ashley sprinting towards me.

"Michelle, why don't you sit with me today? I have my friends over there. It will be fun." She clapped her hands. I chuckled and nodded.

"Sure."

Once we got our food, she directed me towards the group of friends, she mentioned earlier. While I followed Ashley, I noticed six people, four boys and two girls, sitting at a round table. One of the boys, who had his back to me, was explaining something to others while they all just listened and laughed.

"Ahem!" Ashley cleared her throat and all of them turned towards us.

With a smile, she started, "This is Michelle. It's her first day here today." Everyone looked at me with a smile.

"So, Michelle, this is Rachel." Ashley pointed towards the girl on her right.

"This is Christina." she moved her finger toward the girl beside Rachel.

I was disturbed by the persistent gaze of a boy on my immediate left. I reluctantly looked towards the boy and was mesmerized, again. It was him. Elijah Reed. I promptly turned my head to the boy whom Ashley was introducing me to. I wasn't paying attention to their names, although I just nodded my head.

And finally, Ashley said, "And this here is Elijah." As I was standing this close to him, I could see his features clearly. He had hooded eyes with slightly bigger iris than usual. His pupils dilated. His sharp cheekbones had a hint of pink tint on them.

"Hi!" I murmured under my breath. He smiled at me giving me a perfect view of his deep and delicious dimples. Oh my Gosh! This is not going well. I am too much attracted to this person. I need to control myself. I sat down between Elijah and Ashley.

The boy beside Elijah asked, "It's your first day here? Why are you a month late?"

I didn't have an answer for that. "Coming to Seattle wasn't decided before." I replied, hoping they won't ask further about it.

"Where are you from?" said a beautiful, husky voice. He had a thick British accent, which made his voice soft and velvety. I looked at Elijah before answering him.

"I'm from Oklahoma." He flashed me the dazzling smile and I was lost again in his dimples. He was more beautiful up close. I had an urge to touch his face and run my fingers on his thick eyebrows. Oh Gosh! Stop staring at him like that. My heart was drumming against my chest. I reluctantly diverted my mind towards my cinnamon roll and other people's food. Elijah was having a pizza and Ashley was having chicken salad.

"So, how long you have been in Seattle?" Rachel asked chewing on her muffin.

"I landed here yesterday in the evening."

"Oh!" all of them said in unison. I chuckled.

"There is so much to—" Elijah stopped mid sentence and looked down. His expression turned into something unrecognizable. He threw a final glance at me before he got off the table, and rushed outside of the cafeteria. My already throbbing heart raced even more significantly that for a second I wondered if anybody else could hear it. We all stared after him in utter perplexity. What happened?

"Well, that's a first," someone commented. I didn't look who it was.

I turned to Ashley, who was looking back at me, worried.

"Maybe he forgot his assignments." Ashley said, with hope. I sighed and nodded. The remainder of lunch passed by in silence.

The rest of the day, to be frank, I don't know what happened. All I did was to think about Elijah. What could have gone wrong? Did he have an emergency of some kind? Did he recall some important chore or documents? Was Ashley right about assignments? I had hundreds of questions on my mind and not even one answer.

In Music class, one of the boys from the lunch who introduced himself as Paul, was continually blabbering about how badly Elijah left of the table and that he would never do such a thing. To summarize my first day, it was weird and not much fruitful. Although, I did get some notebooks from a few of my fellow classmate's to make notes from and catch up on the syllabus I'd missed.

After a long awful day, I was finally home. And to my satisfaction, I was alone as Aunt Judy was at work. This is exactly what I wanted, some me-time. I went to my room with a clear intention of napping. Lying on my bed, I stared at the ceiling thinking about my day. I closed my eyes. Elijah, Elijah, Elijah. His name running in my mind, continually.

Suddenly, I was in the middle of a lush forest. At a distance, there are six people, three boys and three girls, having a serious discussion. All of them were extremely pale with dark circles under their eyes. I recognized none except for one, Elijah. The blond girl beside Elijah, who was clinging to him, glanced in my direction and I quickly hid behind a tree. Out of the blue, they all started running excessively fast towards the north. Startled, I called out, "Elijah!" He ceased running at once and spun around, looking in every direction. A look of puzzlement crossed his face. I froze when his eyes met mine. However, he continued to look everywhere as if I was invisible.

I opened my eyes and sprang out of my bed. I was in my room. Was that a dream? That was so not something that I usually dream about, but that felt b****y real. It was as if I was really there, in the middle of that lush jungle with those people; with him. My body reacted the way it does around him. And those people, even though I have never seen them before, I could clearly remember their faces which is surprisingly unusual for a regular dream. What the hell was that?

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Long chapters I know. But I hope you guys are enjoying the story.