Moth to Her Flame

The Second Meeting

I woke up to my 12:30 drink water alarm. Oh God! Oh God! This is what I get for partying on a school day eve.. Thank God I hadn’t missed the test we were supposed to have but if I wasted anymore time I’d miss it because that professor was going to lock the doors by 2:30 sharp.

When I snoozed the alarm I saw that Karen had called 15 times. I’d bet anything she’d knocked and knocked, sometimes I slept like the dead. There was this time in high school when as a prank, my mattress was carried out into the garden with me on it. Yes, I slept through the lifting, down the stairs and even being thrown to the ground. Long story short, I woke up disoriented in the pouring rain. As I rushed through my morning routine of praying, stretching and even having my bath,I tried to revise everything I’d read. It was during times like this I was thankful that I always sorted my school outfits week by week, complete outfit on one hanger.

Today’s pick consisted of an oat colored chiffon top with dusty pink roses and sage green leaves and stalks all over it with a little sash at the throat which I tied into a bow, I tucked this in into pine colored slacks. I quickly scanned around the room for the shopping bag with the new Aldo bag in it, there it was ,perched on my shoe rack. I made a mental note as I was unboxing the bag to take some shoes home to my sister, the rack was getting quite clustered.

I couldn’t help the sigh when I brought out the beautiful salmon colored bag with gold plated details, what better shoe to pair with this exquisiteness than my chrome rose gold pumps.

As late as I was running, I still checked myself in the mirror, thankful that the outfit looked just as good in real life as it was in my head as I slipped on a pair of nude sunglasses with transparent pink lenses. It was opaque enough to shield my eyes from the harsh sunlight, the searing pain would be worse now that I was slightly hung over.Adding a few more sprits of my coco Chanel perfume and my collection of Victoria Secret’s Body Mists, I rushed out the door before rushing back in to grab my hangover fruit pack and water bottle.

A cab was dropping someone off when I got out, so I flagged him down and got in.I did some more revising, taking sips of the delicious hangover cure in my bottle, mentally kissing myself for adding more milk and honey than recommended into the banana milkshake. It tasted heavenly and worked fast, the pain ceasing almost immediately.

I looked and smelled and felt amazing, it was time to take over the world.

I looked up just as the car was pulling up to the front gate. I paid my fare, thanking the cab driver and began the long journey to my faculty building. I had to look up from my book a lot of times to say hello to people, some who I knew and some whose faces were only familiar, to smile at them and compliment something nice about them. Soon, I was beaming from the compliments on my outfit. A vain part of me was happy people didn’t get tired of how good I looked. I knew I always looked good but I liked to hear it.

I was at the entrance of the faculty building when I saw Karen clomping down the stairs, a scowl on her face. “You promised you were coming home last night”, I looked down at her sandals. These must be new. I’d never seen them before. “ I did”. “I was so worried about you, I kept calling you last night, even this morning and you cou..”

“I was drunk”, I cut in .

“I just got home and climbed into bed”, I continued before she could go on.

It seemed to be good enough because soon she slipped her hand around my elbow and we started walking up the stairs. “You look really nice today, do you want me to take pictures of you”, she asked smiling sweetly. “Let’s get this test done first”,I said as we joined the queue to enter the hall to write the test. “I hope you’ve been reading”, she whispered not looking at me. I knew what was coming before she even said it, “My exam is in your hands please, I really tried to read but I kept falling asleep”. I nodded and looked forward. We were arranged and she was behind me. The test was beautiful. I answered every question with ease before noticing it was answer 4 out of 5. I was about to turn to Karen to tell her when the invigilator called out, “5 more minutes” “Sss,sss, Cassie”, the girl next to me hissed. I turned to this girl who I had no idea existed until now. “4b”, she whisper yelled to me. “ The efficacy of a drug..”, I began mouthing to her hurriedly as Karen started poking me with her pen, urging me to go and submit so we could leave, no doubt to go and get lunch. If there was one thing I and this girl had in common, it was our love for food and eating.

On our way out, I caught wind of conversations of people who had opened their notebooks and were lamenting over their test answers. To me, it felt like crying over spilt milk.

I was on my phone replying messages and sending and viewing streaks when Karen giggled, “your butt looks like two basketballs”, “if basketballs were made of water”, added a rich feminine voice. I smiled before turning around to hug the almost third musketeer. I say almost because she was our friend but she was more close to Karen than she was to me and we had almost nothing in common but she was hella fun to be around. “Baby girl, how are you?”, I inquired throwing my hand on her shoulder. “I was calling your name when you and Karen were heading out but only Karen turned around”. I raised an eyebrow sensing that there was more she wanted to say. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were ignoring me”. I laughed throwing my head back. Betty’s banter always cracked me up. Anyone who didn’t know us would think we were arguing when we got into it but that was just how we played. I raised my eyes above her head then made eye contact with him. Kirk. He was leaning against one of the pillars at the entrance of the faculty building. I and the girls were loitering in the reception. I took a sharp breath and quickly looked away from him.

By the time I looked back, some girl was leaning into him, arms around his neck. My stomach grumbled. Karen looked at me and tittered “we better go and feed the snakes in your tummy”.

Immediately I stood up, someone used their hands to cover my eyes. I almost hissed with irritation. Who was this person? Then I caught a whiff of Sauvage Dior.

Oh , it was Dean.

Dean who I slept with and hadn’t spoken to since I snuck out of his room after riding him into oblivion, then cuddling him to sleep, he being the little spoon.

I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction tho. So I stood there, his palms over my eyes, until he laughed and slid to my front, hugging me. “Oh, heyyy”, I smiled awkwardly as he pulled me into his embrace. “You smell so good”, he purred,nuzzling my neck. “Yeah”, I replied curtly, lip curling in disgust before peeling him off. “How have you been?”, he inquired smiling in the way I found really cute until I slept with him,now it just looked dopey. “Look, I was going to have lunch with my friends”, “I’m like literally starving”, I said as Karen started tugging on my arm. “Yeah, I was going with my friend too”, he said gesturing towards his friend. His friend who id slept with and also ghosted. He gave a little wave which I acknowledged with a nod not missing a beat before turning around and walking off, my friends on either side of me.

When we got to the restaurant, Dean slipped in and sat beside me after tugging my cheek and going “you’re so cute”. I rolled my eyes before giving my order to the waitress. His friend pulled out a chair in front of me and sat down, perhaps attempting some sort of stare down because all he did was look at me and smile. I chuckled out loud unlocking my phone, like I was going to let some dude whose name I couldn’t even remember get me flustered. Right.

I ate my food in silence, only nodding and giving tight smiles everytime Dean tried to talk to me. Other times, I’d just give him a blank stare and bat my eyelashes before flicking my eyes back to the ebook I was reading. Like the time he asked why I had to read or watch something while I was eating.

“Deaannnn”, I heard this thick gravelly voice slur. I almost choked on my water. How did I sleep with three friends and didn’t know? Was I set up?

I kissed my teeth, they could open a f*******: group and tell the world about the best s*x they’d ever had for all I cared.

“Cassandra ”, he called rolling the R. “Hi Scott”, I smiled brightly, shaking his hand. “You guys know each other?”, Dean went swinging his gaze from him to me. “I don’t think so, I think they just called each other the first names that popped into their heads”, Karen retorted slowing unfolding her napkin so she could wipe her mouth as I stood up from the table signaling it was time to go. “Don’t worry, I’ll pay for the food”. I turned to him with a sigh “Thats really sweet of you, thank you”. He was still looking at me with that dopey smile when he handed the waitress his card. We walked out while he was inputting his pin.

On our way back to the faculty, Karen’s boyfriend called her that he’d seen us walk by, so we backtracked and decided to chill in his car until the next class. I knew then I’d probably made a mistake because his friend who had been on my case was in the backseat, drunk. “Cathyyyy”, he slurred, smiling, his eyes almost closed. “It’s Cassie”, Karen shot back. “I’m talking to your friend not you”, he said laughing. I wished he’d stop talking, the stench from his mouth was making my stomach turn. “Babe, please talk to your friend”, she pouted. Her man didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to because the guy shut his yap anyways and went to back to resting his head on the window.

A few moments later, I felt like peeing. I whispered to Betty, who said she’d like to relieve herself too.

As we clambered out the vehicle, I saw Kirk seated on of the many benches littered around campus. He was directly across the car, so we had to walk by him. I was about to walk over gutter when my heel got stuck in a hole. I’d already fallen forward with a loud yelp and my bare foot before I realized what happened. I and Betty started laughing just as people were exclaiming around us offering their condolences.

I was struggling with removing my heel from the grate because I was trying to be careful to not ruin it further, when I saw this shadow over me. I recognized his smell before I looked up at him squinting behind my sunglasses. He crouched in front of me, lighting brushing my hands away before pulling the shoe out. I looked at where his skin touched mine, it looked normal, why did it feel like there were little currents of electricity when he touched me. He started leading me to where he was seated, holding my shoulders as I sat down lightly, our eyes glued to each other.

We remained like this until he asked if my foot was swollen.

Oh no, he didn’t.

I snatched my foot and my shoes and slipped on my pumps. “No,no they’re just fat”, I stuttered, getting up and walking away.

I could feel his eyes on me, as we walked away. Before I turned into the bend that led to the cleanest bathroom on campus, the Co-Ed one.

I look back and there he was, turned around in his seat, watching me. It looked like he was about to wave before I turned towards where I was going, embarrassed that he caught me looking back at him.

I laughed to myself remembering the epic fail that happened earlier. “What’s funny?”, asked Betty. “Oh, I just remembered something”, I said dismissively as I entered a stall