Gem in the Rough

Chapter 4

A few days have passed since the night at the club, but I'm still thinking about Kieran and the way he looked at me in that hallway. I'm also obsessing over the event that occurred after the kiss between me and the guy at the club, Taylor, or whatever his name was.

I was drunk and completely distracted by another guy, sue me for not remembering one hundred percent of the night.

But I do remember what happened after I was done dancing and went for another bathroom break.

I walk to the hallway with the bathrooms and, once again, do my business. As I'm looking in the mirror afterwards, I notice my makeup has smeared slightly around my lips. I touch up again and then leave the bathroom. Before I know what's going on, I'm pushed up against the wall, my hands lifted above my head. I almost scream until I see whose blue eyes are in front of mine.

He stares at me in silence, bending slightly to be on my level, looking all around my face as I squirm beneath him. Heat pools between my legs as Kieran licks his lips slowly. My thighs quench in anticipation, but I don't exactly know what I'm anticipating considering we're in a very public space.

His intense gaze turns soft when I whine in defeat. Being held against the wall isn't an issue whatsoever. If anything, it turns me on. What caused the sound is the fact that I want to touch him and for him to touch me, much more than he already was. Kieran suddenly drops my wrists and steps away, mumbling a "sorry" before taking quick strides away from me and through the dance floor.

"Gemma?" Anthony calls for me from our desk, "Are you almost done with those copies?"

I clear my throat and look at the printer in front of me, realizing the copies had printed already but I had been staring at the wall daydreaming.

"Uh yeah, coming." The irony of that statement is not lost on me.

I walk out to the desk and drop the copies in front of Anthony.

"Thank you. I'm getting sick of having to post these everywhere, especially doing it by myself. I need a break," he whines. "I just want to sit here and answer phones." He swivels in his chair and looks at me, puppy dog eyes on with full force.

"No, no. Not me, no sir. I don't want to go around campus putting these up by myself either." I shake my head and cross my arms, sitting across from Anthony at my own desk spot.

"Fine, take Kieran with you," Anthony compromises as Kieran walks through the tech room doors into the office area.

"Where am I going?" Kieran asks, looking at Anthony but refusing to look in my direction.

"With Gemma to put up these posters. This stupid tech fair will be the death of me. Please. I'll owe you one. Or I just won't fire you." Anthony laughs at his unfunny joke while Kieran looks at the floor. "Feel free to not come back after, it's slow right now."

Anthony knows something weird has been going on with Kieran and I, so I know that he did this on purpose. He asked me about it yesterday, but I refused to give anything up. Though, he did ask if I "have the hots" for Kieran and my face turned red, so I guess he got his answer.

I begin gathering the posters and grab other supplies to use to put them up, like staplers and tape. I don't have the energy to fight Anthony on this right now, so I comply with his request. I stand up, pulling my sun dress down a smidge, trying to adjust myself so I look presentable.

It's the last week or so of the warmer weather, so I have to take advantage of it while I can. Wearing pants all the time is the worst. Also, seeing how Kieran eyed me in the dress was well-worth it.

I pick up my bag and look up to see Kieran standing in front of me, ready to go. His eyes bore into me for a moment before he shakes his head, snapping out of it. He must have run to grab his things while I was packing up. He coughs slightly, trying to play off whatever just happened.

"Okay. Where to first, Gem?"

I stop in my tracks and raise my eyebrow.

Gem? What the fuck?

"Uh. We can go around this building and put a poster on each board, then we can head to the quad."

Kieran must have sensed my awkwardness and apologizes for the nickname. "Sorry, I guess I shouldn't be calling you something other than your full name. Especially since you know, I don't really know you."

I giggle nervously, "Um, no it's okay. Nobody has really called me 'Gem' before, which is a little surprising, but honestly that was a lot surprising coming from you. You can call me that if you want." Did I really just giggle? That's unfortunate.

Kieran mumbles a "cool" as we stop at our first board outside the office to put a poster up.

"Want to divide and conquer? Or stick together?" I ask him, attempting to get rid of the nervous energy around us. Turning around, I staple a poster to the board. This mix of energies from him is confusing to my body because all I can think of right now is him pushing me against the wall.

"Stick together," Kieran says quickly. I swivel back in his direction, meeting his eyes. He catches himself and looks at the floor again, brushing his hair to the side. "I don't really want to go around campus alone."

I reach out hesitantly, touching his arm. "Okay, that's fine. Let's go." I let go of his arm, unsure of where that even came from, and pick up my bag, moving along to the next spot.

I don't hear footsteps beside me, so I gaze behind me to find my companion. He's staring at his arm, where I had touched. I clear my throat to see if this would get him out of his frozen state. It works because he looks up at me, his eyes blinking rapidly as if he's fighting tears.

I wonder where he just went.

--

The rest of the time going around campus is normal, or as normal as it could be for us. Kieran cracks a few jokes, and I can tell that's his typical nature. He is really goofy but what I don't understand is why he doesn't show it more often. It seems like he's pretty quiet most of the time, not like he's shy, but he just doesn't want to share anything with anyone. Though, he did tell me he's been going to this campus since freshman year. He's a junior like me so I'm surprised I haven't seen him around before.

"Kieran, thanks for helping me out. I really didn't want to do this alone. I don't know how Anthony does it."

"Yeah, no problem. He's a nice guy, even if he did threaten to fire me." Kieran laughs and runs his hand through his hair, once again looking towards the ground and not making eye contact. His green tech shirt lifts slightly at his action, and I catch a glimpse of his toned stomach.

I laugh along with him as we walk back to the tech office to drop off the supplies we didn't use.

"Want to stop for a quick coffee?" I ask as we are about to pass the coffee shop in our building.

"Uh, sure. My treat."

"No, you don't have to do that," I argue. "You're the one who helped me out today."

"Yeah, I know. But I figured I owe you one since I've been so weird around you. And for the club incident." Kieran doesn't look at me as he whispers the last part of his explanation. Kieran requests an iced caramel mocha and gestures for me to order from the barista. I order my usual sugar-free caramel latte and then he pays.

I don't know what to say in response to him. After a few moments of us waiting for our drinks, I softly say, "For the record, I wasn't too sorry about the incident you're talking about..."

I look at Kieran from the corner of my eye, watching for a reaction. He is staring straight ahead, but I see a slight twitch of his mouth. He brings his eyes down to the floor and mumbles, "Yeah, I guess I'm not that sorry either."