The Girl with a Teacher's Heart

Chapter 17: My Eyes Adored You

February, 2020

It's been a week since I met the mysterious Dylan Russel. I was sitting in the cafeteria, hoping that I would see him again to talk about our next phone call. Turns out, he was not on campus so I was alone reading my novel instead. Reading is another escape from reality. I get to be the character in the past rather than be in a classroom full of students that don't care about their education. I tell you, reader, that I take academics seriously. Sure, I fail at certain topics, but I manage to pick myself up thanks to the professors that have helped me over the years. After about 15 minutes, Patrick came over to sit with me.

"Mind if I sit here?" Patrick asked.

"Yeah, sure." I looked up at him.

He sat down across from me as I kept looking at my phone.

"Is everything okay?" He looked at me concerned.

"Yeah, I was just hoping Dylan would text me to call him tonight." I replied as I kept staring at my phone. 

"Well, maybe he is busy." Patrick replied back. 

"Maybe." I looked up at him. 

Patrick looked as handsome as ever. His brunette eyes looked like the color of Hershey kisses and the way he looked at me with concern almost made my heart skip a beat. 

Phone vibrates

Dylan had sent me a text so I quickly picked my phone up and what I had read was not what I had expected. 

Hi Taylor. Look, I cannot do this. I cannot call you tonight. I am packing my belongings up to transfer over to ECU. 

Transfer? He never told me he was transferring. At least, not recently. I thought. 

I sent him a reply back. 

You can't call tonight? Not even for an hour? What about us? We could do long distance, right? 

No, Taylor. It would be impossible. I am sorry, but it's time that I let you go.

I slammed my phone onto the table. Patrick looked at me with a long face and his mouth went dry. Only a week ago, Dylan was all over me and his mother was constantly checking up on us. I broke down in tears, crying harder than ever before. 

"What a waste of time!" I cried out. Several other students were looking at me and murmured. I was embarrassed, devastated, and an absolute fool.  

Patrick sat across from me and said nothing. He didn't try to comfort me or anything. He just listened as I was crying out in agonizing pain. I felt my heart getting stabbed with a blade then twisting each of the four chambers. I wanted to scream and throw my phone across the cafeteria. Okay, that is an exaggeration, but still. I was devastated and lost trust from everyone. If you ever met someone that you truly liked then getting rejected after a short period of time, you know the pain. 

This idiot. What the hell was I thinking when I first met him? You're a damn fool, Taylor. I thought to myself. 

But then again, it was too late. I was already heartbroken and no one could fix this young woman's heart. I was shattered. I was lost. My eyes adored this redhead and I wanted to make memories with him. However, at the same time, my heart kept calling for Patrick. It was almost as if it was saying, "You were meant to be with this man for a long time". Could he possibly be the one? The one my heart has been calling out since day one? I was confused because I had liked two guys, one of which I had met prior to Patrick. Maybe my heart was trying to ignore those feelings. Still, I didn't know what to expect from him. One way to find out, right?