Yours

Chapter 6

Aurelia’s Point of View

It’s my first day of college! My alarm buzzes to life at 7:30am and I snooze it just to sleep for a good 8 minutes more. After what seems like 30 seconds my alarm clock buzzes again and I’m forced to get out of bed and head to the shower. I’m not a morning person.  I don’t think I ever will be.

I see my reflection in the mirror, “Ugly” I say. I pick up the toothbrush and brush my teeth. My hair is a mess and my eyes look tired as hell! I remove my clothes and have a quick shower. I like how the hot water feels against my skin and I could just sleep here, no kidding. My hands are so lazy to even lather the shampoo but I have to…

I get out of the shower, wrap myself with a towel and head to the room. The black plain dress that I decided to wear is hanging on the door handle and I slip into my bra then the dress. It’s tight till my waist and then flows till my knees. The sleeves are halved till my shoulders. I make my way to the dresser and pick up the blow dryer to dry my hair which is soaking, creating a pool on the floor. After I’m done blow drying, I use a liner and do a winged eye. My bangs cover half my forehead.

 I use a cloth to clean the mess I’ve created on the floor. I pick up my notebook from the table and put on my black pumps. Taking one last glance at my room, I close the door behind me and lock it. The lift seems to be taking longer than I’ve expected and it’s already 8:15am. I’m supposed to be in class by now so that I could get a seat…

I look at my golden Michael Kors watch one last time and decide to take the stairs. At least I’d reach faster than the lift. I reach a door labeled ‘stairs’ and make my way down the flight of stairs. Just as I was about to reach the first floor, I hear noises of two people, making out?

I walk further down only to see a guy in a black shirt pinning a girl in shorts and a white top, to the wall. Her hands are placed on either side of his shoulders and his hands are doing something to her down there, which I just can’t look at.

‘You’ve got to be kidding me’ my head speaks.

I make my way slowly down the stairs in order to not make a sound, but the guy turns. I take a sharp intake of breath because to my bad luck I see Justin.

‘Bloody hell!’ I curse to myself.

I give him a glance and make my way to the ground floor and exit the staircase.

***

My first class of the day was Maths followed by a gap of one hour and then I had Psychology. I enter my Maths class and take a seat in the front row. The professor enters the room at dot 8:30.

“Good Morning” he says and moves to the podium to set up his presentation on the projector. He has gray hair and looks about 45 or so. He’s wearing a black suit and he has glasses on. The projector comes to life and the presentation reads ‘Algebric expressions’.

“My name is Dr. Zachariah and I will be teaching you Basic Maths.” He says. For the next two hours he explains to us the different types of equations that exist and how to solve them. He ends the class by telling us what we are supposed to do in tutorials.

Our tutorials start from next week. Basically the system goes something like this, we have lectures and tutorials. The tutorials start from the second week, so the first week is usually introductory. After the class ends I head to a café that is situated in the same block on the top floor. I order a cold coffee and sit down to read Dan Brown on my phone.

I look up from my phone and the watch reads 11:10am, so I decide I might as well go to class which is in the other block. I make my way down to the ground floor of the block and head out to the other block. My lecture is being held in the theatre of this block so I walk towards the two big doors which say theater and enter.

The theatre is semi circle in shape and has so many rows of chairs. I take my seat in the third row of light brown chairs so that I can see the projector straight upfront. At around 11:25 the theatre fills up with students.

Two girls come and sit on the right side of me. The rest of the row is empty. A plum lady wearing a black skirt and formal button down blue shirt enters the room with a briefcase in her hand. She goes to the front of the room, scans it and gives us a warm smile.

Her presentation she just set up reads ‘Psychological behaviors’. I open my notebook to the section I’ve marked Psychology. I put in today’s date and write the heading.

“Good Morning class, it’s so nice to see so many faces” she says folding her hands. “Just a couple of things, I don’t like people coming in late and your tutorial timings have been posted so you can check them and select your preferred slot.” Just as she got done with her little talk, Justin enters the room, with his raybans and carefree attitude on; he takes a seat at the end of my row. A flash of what I saw on the staircase comes back to me.

“why” I say to myself.

“Now before we start, I’d like you’ll to form a group of two with the person sitting right next to you” my professor says and I can instantly feel my heartbeat rising superfast. I turn to my right to see the two girls already forming a group and I am left with no one but Justin. I turn around to see Justin sitting right next to me and I jerk.

“Hi.” He says not even looking at me.

“Hi” and I thought that won't be awkward....

“Now your activity basically is that both your partner and you have to write two things about yourself on a paper, one which is true and another which is a lie. You then exchange papers and your partner has to guess which one is true and which one is not. Simple?” I tear out a paper from my book; make it into two equal halves. I give one to Justin who looks at me for a few seconds before taking it.

“Thanks” he says and begins writing.

I scan the room to see that everyone around me is busy writing and I don’t know what to even write.

‘I have read 5 books in my whole life’

‘I have never been in a relationship’

I write down the worst two things that I could possibly think of. Justin has finished writing and he chooses to spend the rest of his time looking at me write which makes me very uncomfortable. I take his paper and he takes mine and gives me a sick smirk.

His paper reads ‘I don’t believe in relationships’ and ‘I have never gotten drunk’.

I turn myself to be facing him and our eyes meet. As if he knows me for my whole life he says, “I have read 5 books my whole life is a lie and you’ve never been in a relationship is the truth.” My mouth falls open and I’m surprised at how quick he got that.

“How’d you know?” I ask him and he just shrugs his shoulders and gives me the 'I know it all' look.

“You have never gotten drunk is a lie and you don’t believe in relationships is the truth.” I say.

“I’m impressed” he says and I laugh at how dumb this was and he joins me.

“So that’s what psychological behavior is all about” she says and talks about how we were able to judge our partner by their behavior and guess what is right and wrong. The rest of the lecture Justin sits right next to me and I can feel his warmth. We don’t talk but just stare at the screen with the presentation on.

“Your group project is basically with your partner. You are supposed to select any of the topics I’ve already posted and experiment on each other. You have to write your findings and conduct surveys as to whether the same thing happens to other people too. More details will be given by your tutorial teacher, please make sure you take tutorial classes with your partner. If you have any questions you can wait back, or you can leave.” She says and walks back to her seat.

I turn back to Justin. “So um which class should we take?” I say going through the list of classes on my phone. He inches so close to see the timings that his face is right next to mine.

He looks up at me after a few seconds, his eyes meeting mine and I can feel my heartbeat increase again.

“Wednesday one?” he says and I nod okay.

He immediately stands up, “cool” he says and leaves. “See you then.”

I pick up my book and exit out of the theatre behind him and head towards my dorm room.