AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter One
____________
Ariel
So my best friend is hitting it with a rock star and I am sitting in my third class of the day wondering when my misery is going to end. That's okay. It's alright that Ivy is hundreds of miles away living it up at parties with stars while I sit in a class I won't ever need anything from anyway. Designing clothes isn't going to have a lot to do with German Lit and how it influenced the modern era but this is the class I am stuck with.
I signed up late because I kept wanting to maybe go with Ivy and find out what was out in the world but I also chickened out in the end and couldn't see my life going anywhere if I moved with my best friend and followed her around all the time. I spent all of high school doing that. Ivy is beautiful and funny and can charm the pants off anyone -obviously if she has turned the head of Wes Marshel. He is reportedly not very friendly.
But she is clearly in love with him. You can hear it in her voice and from my conversation with him, he is equally smitten. So, she is going to move away and have rock star babies and I am still going to be in German Lit class with a professor that keeps trying to look up my skirt and making lewd gestures to me when he asks if I can stay over after class. I am going to have to report him to the dean but I just want things to run smoothly for just a little while.
I already had to report one of my high school teachers for trying to cop a feel but then I had Ivy to back me up and now all I have is myself. I stand and make my way to the front of the classroom to leave and sure enough, Mr. Kruit calls my name. Fear and revulsion course through me at the thought of having to spend any time with this man. I turn with my eyes downcast.
"Ariel, such a pretty little name for a pretty little girl." The way he says the word little makes me need a shower. "Can you stay over today or is this friend of yours going to need you to come home with them again?" he knows the excuse I keep giving him is shit but I don't even care anymore.
I want to vomit. Sometimes I wish I didn't have tits. Or an ass or whatever the hell it is that attracts these kinds of men to me. He is old enough to be my grandfather. This might have been one of the reasons I hesitated about going with Ivy. It's bad enough to have run-of-the-mill pervs hit on me and try to constantly harass me but if someone with money did it I don't know how I would be able to stop them from doing whatever they wanted to do.
I open my mouth to tell him to leave me alone when someone bumps into me from behind. I would have tipped forward into Mr. Perv but an arm around my waist keeps me upright and pushes me at the same time into the stream of students leaving for the day. I am not about to look this little bit of luck in the mouth but I do turn back to try to find out who helped me get away this time. All I can see is someone tall talking to the professor who isn't even looking at me anymore.
Thank God.
I don't wait around on campus either. Oh no, there is no way I am waiting around for him to get done with his meeting so he can try to come and find me and I have to run all over again. I pull my hair back and stuff it under a ball cap, throw my sweater on over my shirt, and hit the pavement until my feet take me to the cute little café I found about a year ago.
I've been coming here nearly every day to people watch. I used to come less but when Ivy left this is the only place I don't feel her presence. I know that sounds weird but every time I go to the places that we used to hang out together I just get sad. All the memories come flooding back and I miss her and then I’d end up calling her and I don't want to bother her or interrupt something good for her. She's out living her life while I'm just walking through mine.
A man comes in and takes a seat over by the bathrooms. Now there is a man no one’s going to miss. He has to be six-five if anything; and big. He looks big. Kind of like the muscle you see guarding the Hollywood stars. His face is also very familiar like I’ve seen him before. For someone who people watches as much as I do it's amazing how often I don't pay attention to the faces. I just remember the clothes. And he's wearing some expensive pants that have to be hand-tailored if I was guessing just by the look of them. Of course, his thighs wouldn't fit into normal jeans that you would find in a department store.
When I come to his face he is looking back at me with just as much intensity. I squirm in my seat. I don't do well with the opposite sex. I'm pretty sure all they want is sex and this guy looks like he wants to have it right now, on the tables with everyone watching. And for the first time in my life, I might want the same thing which can't be good. Right?
I shuffle through getting my crap together and leaving. This guy is way too hot for me to be comfortable with. A man like that could destroy a girl like me. He just looks like he could rip through my heart and not blink an eye. Before I start to leave I pick up the phone and start calculating the time zone difference wondering if I can call Vee yet.
Fuck it, I'm going to try her even if I don't get her maybe I can pretend to stay on the phone long enough for my crazy hormones to settle back down or until this guy leaves. It's either try to call Vee or go talk to tall, dark, and broody. Given my crippling shyness, I think I will stick with talking to the people I know. It rings a couple of times and I resign myself to having to call her a second time later in the day when she picks up.
"Hey girl, you finally up?"
"How did you know I took a nap?"
I laugh until a couple of people start looking over at me. "I called earlier and your hunk told me to call back, that you were napping and he didn't want you disturbed for a little while, which is hot by the way." We spend the next five minutes talking about how hot Wes is and how they are going to make me beautiful rock star/movie starlet babies to dote on. She tries to tell me that it isn't serious but I can hear it in her voice. If he hurts her I'll have to fly out there and neuter him. I may be shy but that doesn't stop me from messing someone up where my friends are concerned.
I interrupt Vee from making her denials and lying to herself, because I know the truth, "Hey quick question, is it normal for you to see the same person popping up everywhere you go?"
Vee pauses before she tries to answer me. I can almost hear what she is going to tell me before she opens her mouth. Vee says I am too pretty and that me not realizing how pretty I am just makes men want me all the more.
"Explain?"
"Okay, there is this guy that seems like he is popping up everywhere I turn. He's at school, in my class with me I think and the other day I was sitting in the courtyard trying to eat lunch without anyone bothering me and I saw him not too far away. And now he is at my café. Is it stalking? Do I have a stalker?" before she can answer I throw in the part I left out. Not on purpose I just forgot until right now. "Oh, and he was at the library two days ago too, which is kind of odd because the school has its own library but I didn't go there because Andy was trolling and I didn't want to get in a bad situation."
Andy is this guy that went to high school with me and Vee. He always used to give me the creeps but now it’s so much worse. He is going to the same college as me and I can't help but wonder if it is because he knew it was where I was going. When I made my list of pros and cons about going with Vee he was on the pro side because I would be so far away from him that he couldn't find me. At least that was my hope.
He also is one of the reasons I don't trust men in general and especially not men with money or power. His daddy is a deputy so getting any kind of help from them is pretty much not going to happen. I know, I tried. I didn't even get through the first process of getting a restraining order before they were telling me to be flattered and that I should be grateful someone like Andy would pick me to 'flirt' with.
Showing up at my house at all hours and getting me fired from the diner job I had isn't flirting. Neither is telling me all the shit he's going to do to me if he gets me alone. Pretty sure that just makes him sick - and dangerous.
"What's he look like?" Vee's voice pulls me out of the fog I was in and the funk I was sinking into thinking about Andy.
I launch into a description of him throwing in the fact that he is really cute. I can tell this doesn't really make Vee feel any better. I can hear her muttering to herself and suspect she's put me on speaker phone so she can find something she's lost. Vee has trouble keeping up with stuff like phones and shoes. I'm not judging, I lost a whole car one time in the parking lot of the grocery store. It took me two hours - and a trip to the art supply store right beside the food store - to find it.
The guy has been staring at me for a long time now and I realize he doesn't give off the same vibe Andy does. Yeah, Andy is creepy and slimy but this guy looks like he could kill you by flicking a toothpick at you. He's...a man where Andy is more of a spoiled boy throwing a tantrum. Tattoos run up and down his arms, or at least the part I can see before his shirt sleeves cover them.
