Twice Upon A Time

Part 2- First Day

Aubrey's POV:

As mentioned earlier, Mom was dropping me off to college on my first day.

"Thank you so so so much, Mom. You're the only person I love in this world." I said quite involuntarily.

I pulled her for a tight embrace. Mom is the warmest creature in the galaxy.

Suddenly, she pulled away. "Hey, isn't that Pete?"

"Where?" I enquired and turned to where Mom was staring at.

"Wait. You shouldn't really see this..." Mom was about to say when I noticed Pete, kissing, sorry, smooching, sorry, eating the fuck out of the face of a pretty brunette. They were almost in the middle of a full-makeout session when a porterly gentleman, whom I assumed to be a professor, cleared his throat.

I blasted out of the car, with Mom trailing close behind. And confronted Pete.

"Hey babe, I was about to call you."

"And what? You thought her mouth was your phone?"

"Oh well, Aubrey, this is Jenny, one of the most popular seniors here. Say hi."

"Hi, slut." I spit out.

"So you must be the girlfriend?" She sneered in a pathologically irritating voice.

"Ex", I replied, before thundering in towards the building.

"Wait... Aubr... eey" Pete stammered, but I was way out of his reach by then.

"Shame on you, Pete. Not that she was head-over-heels for you. But still, what do you take girls for?" I heard Mom say.

"Flesh and meat," I heard Pete say.

Then I heard a couple of slaps, which can only imply that my Mom wasn't satisfied with just one slap. He deserved it. In fact, I should have slapped him. Not Mom. Still, she always has my back.

[Author: Pic at the top depicts Aubrey's mother slapping Pete]

See? This is the reason why I keep away from guys. Pathologically disgusting people. Give a guy a room full of skimpily-dressed girls, and 9999999 out of 10000000 guys can't keep his clothes on. That's the basic male nature.

I wonder though why I was complaining. I wasn't in love with him by the faintest of chances. In fact, I actually felt happy about the incident. It spared me the need to make a ridiculous-sounding excuse to break up with him and mollify my image further. Now I have a genuine reason. I smiled broadly. I actually felt very happy.

I reached my class and looked up my schedule. Wow. English literature. Right in the first period. What a great start to college. I was being partially sarcastic though. Because although, literature classes bore the shit out of me, I actually enjoy reading and writing. I'm a voracious reader.

One by one, students started pouring in till it was the start of the lecture. Pete came in, after waving goodbye to girlfriend #4075. I avoided eye contact with him.

"Good morning, class. My name is William Northington." A handsome-looking man, in his mid-forties perhaps, with a small moustache and greying hair, addressed us. He looked old for his age.

"Good morning, Mr.Northington." the class said, in unison.

"Very nice to meet you all. Let's begin with.." Mr. Northington was interrupted midway in his lecture. A well-dressed lady came in, whispered something in his ear and left. He seemed excited.

"Class, we are going to be joined by a new student. I assume he's a foreigner. But that's all I know really."

Somebody knocked at the door.

"Oh yes, come in please, Mr. Josh".

Alright, my jaws fell open. There wasn't really anyone, guy or girl, who wasn't gaping at him. Tall, about 185 cm I guess, with dusky complexion, and deeply dark and exotic looks. To top it off, his air of nonchalance and very subtle arrogance made everyone in the room look ordinary. He just kind of stormed into the room, after nodding politely to Mr.Northington. He was wearing a leather jacket on top of a plain shirt, and was wearing thick dark-shaded jeans. Oh, he didn't even bother taking off his sunglasses. Damn, he looked hot, with just the right amount of stubble.

"Is this seat taken?" I heard a deep, thundering voice, with a surprisingly British accent. Shit! It was him. But he looked Eastern. Totally. I was so busy drooling over him that I forgot to reply.

"Well, all yours." I said with a stupid, sheepish grin.

Shit. I was acting stupid.

I suddenly realised all the girls, even some of the guys, were staring at him, trying to get a glimpse of him.

He hadn't taken off his glasses yet.

Well now he did. Now that he did, I noticed his eyes were as dark as shadows. They were the ones that sort of pierced right through the heart.

"Hi, I'm Aubrey."

He didn't reply. Perhaps he hadn't heard me. Perhaps I was sounding too faint.

"Hey there, I'm Aubrey, nice to meet you." I held out my hand.

Alright, that was insulting. He didn't even bother to respond.

"So nice of you to join us, Mr.Josh." Mr.Northington said.

Josh nodded simply.

"Clearly you don't speak too much, do you?" enquired Mr. Northington.

"Ask me a question. You'll get the answers." He said, again in that goddamn sexy voice.

"Well, since this is the first day, I was thinking that maybe we could get to know each other by asking everyone to introduce themselves and tell us a bit about himself or herself." Mr. Northington declared, with a glint of excitement in his eyes.

"Well, I believe introductions are in order." Josh replied.

They are, indeed.