Atlas Black

Chapter 32

L L A N A M O R O Z O V A

Three hours of law with Professor Pierre, to my utmost delight, has ended and I've never been more hungry than I do now. My stomach grumbles for the lack of breakfast I had today since I woke up late. Luckily, I didn't miss any important parts of the lecture, maybe only 25 minutes but I got in all my notes for the day.

Sas takes fashion so we split ways in the morning, luckily having not encountered her so far as I'm trespassing down the gravel stone path down to the coffeehouse where I plan to stuff my face.

The bell above the door rings once I step foot and the sheer memory of this place nearly knocks me off my feet when I'm staring at the far back corner table, near the window where I had least been with my failed "date" with Dean.

Not to mention the embarrassment of what occurred here in these very four walls.. publicly. My face heats up and I quickly shake my head to rid myself of those thoughts. Not the time to be fraternising with the enemy.

I order myself a cappuccino with strawberry, Nutella waffles to which I have been craving for all morning. I seat myself at the back away from everyone when I dig into the delicious sight in front of me, savouring the taste on the tip of my tongue, moaning in gratitude.

From the corners of my eye, a familiar girl appears in my line of sight and stands in front of me, a muffin in hand and seats herself in front of me.

I realise it's none other than Tina Marchese, the girl who'd I first stumbled across, in unfortunate events, on my first day.

She picks at her muffin, chewing ever so slowly and deliberately. She then pipes up making small talk, "Hey. Remember me?"

"How could I forget?" I chomp the mouthful that's in my mouth.

"I'm sorry, it's just that it's been a while and thought you might not have remembered me. Llana right?" She tilts her head.

I nod whilst still having my gaze directed at my plate. I'm really not in the mood for small talk or company when all my attention is focused on the food in front of me. Im probably acting like a deprived pig, but I can't help myself.

"Well. I was here to basically inform you that there's someone staring at you from out the window." Now that gets my attention.

I snap my head up to her to which she nods her head to the glass windows, and she's right. Standing several feet away is Dean Ramos.

I haven't spoken to him since that awful day and he hasn't so much as uttered a few words to me. It was like at first the guy was all up in my face and the next he's avoiding me. Or so that's how I'm interpreting it.

Scraping my chair back, I leave some cash on the table and make my outside. Once I turn to see where he's at, we lock eyes with each other for a fleeting second before he begins to backtrack and walk away in the opposite direction. Odd.

I'm not sure I like the idea of him walking away from me. Definitely when things have been left unexplained and there's just thick tension hanging in the air between us. A sudden urge inside me is tugging at me to confront him about what happened at the coffeehouse the last time and deeply apologise for the provocative behaviour.

Jogging on the balls of my feet towards him, he flicks his head over his shoulder then turns back around again and begins quickening his pace. Okay now this is definitely odd.