𝑩𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔

10|🖤

Tess and Torah ended up getting me a whole new bed set. It just took one phone call to "daddy" and he had some people bring me a new bedroom set.

I've spent the majority of my day trying to arrange my class schedule. I had to choose elective courses which was somewhat easy for me. I chose art as one of them because I've always thought highly of its diverse range of human activity. The way it involves imaginative talent expressive of conceptual ideas, beauty, and emotional intelligence gives me resilience.

When I was younger I found solace in painting. It's the only thing my brother and I bonded over.  We have this mutual liking for art. We were two siblings when painting, everything felt natural, and the bond was not forced. Besides painting, we have no mutual grounds.

Bryann texted me to meet up with him for ice cream. I later found out through him that he also has art as an elective, so will get to see each other a lot.

***

I'm standing outside our apartment complex waiting for him. I don't really know my way around campus and he offered to pick me up.

I see his black jeep pull up and I walk over to it. He gets out of his car, he hugs me and I hug him back, he then walks to the passenger side of his car and opens the door for me.

"Quite the gentleman huh?" I say grinning.

"Ma Maman m'a bien élevé ." He winks at me, smiles, and then closes the door for me once I'm seated comfortably.

"You speak French?" I question him sounding astounded.

"I was born and bred in France. I transferred from Sorbonne University to here. So technically, le français est ma première language" I should have guessed it because he has an accent that's quite telling, the way words just roll off his tongue is seductive.

The ride to the ice cream polar isn't long. If he had given me the direction I would have walked to the place.  It's a 10 minutes drive and probably a 15-20 minutes walk.

"I'll make the order, you find us a seat" he lets me know.

His already done enough with showing me around and all, the least I can do is order us ice cream.

"No, you find us a seat I'll make the order." I let him know and he finally agrees after going back and forth. "Ice cream flavor?" I question him.

"Pistachio"

"Yikes!" I pretend to be disgusted " Why pistachio? It's nutty and unduly sweet."

"Why Vanilla? I'm assuming you're a vanilla type of girl."

"No, I'm not, well yeah. But that doesn't make pistachio better than vanilla." I give off a serious look and he just chuckles. "Comparing vanilla to some pictasio" I mutter audible enough for him to him and he just chuckles.

"Okay, let me find us a seat." He lets me know.

He then offers me money for our ice cream but I decline it and walk to the counter. He too walks off to one of the vacant booths at the back of the parlor.

Lucky me, there are only 3 people in line at the counter, and in no time it is my turn to make an order.

"Hello, welcome to P and S Cream land." The blonde Latino greets me. " What's your order?" She questions and smiles at me. I give her my order and pay the bill. I lean on the counter and wait for her to come back with my order.

I hear the door tinkle indicating that someone has walked in. I look to see the person or person(s) out of curiosity and it's a group of boys wearing black football jerseys. I'm assuming they're the school's football team because their jerseys have the inscription "TIGERS" on them. One of them stands out and I freeze. Like I literally stop breathing, all air is taken out of my system.

As if on Que the blonde Latino comes back with the ice cream. I quickly grab the cups from her hands a little actually slips onto the counter and she gives me the "What the fuck look". I walk over to where Bryann is seated hurriedly.

"Are you okay? You look like you have seen a ghos_."

"Uhm_ can we leave? I don't feel too good." I interrupt him before he even gets to finish his sentence.

"Yeah, sure." He gets up and removes the ice cream cups from my hands because they're shaking. Well, both the hands and cup are shaking.

"Are you sure you're good?"

"Yeah I'm sure, can we just lea_?" We get interrupted by one of the boys from the team calling Bryann. "Oh, crap!" I grit my teeth. "Pass me the car keys you'll find me in the car." I let him know and he does so hesitantly.

I look to where they're all seated and I spot him looking at me, on impulse,  I sprint to the car.

It doesn't take long before Bryan comes back, but his not alone, he has company.  I try to compose myself.

He opens his driver's side of the door and hops in and he whose name shall not be mentioned does the same and seats in the back.

"Zoey, Adrian. Adrian, Zoey." He makes the introduction and starts the car. We both nod our heads at each other to show acknowledgment  "Hope you don't mind me giving him a ride." Bryann lets out and Adrian looks at me.

"Your car, your rules." I laugh nervously.

The whole ride is weird because Adrian keeps on passing glances at me. I can feel his eyes on me. The ride that was 10 minutes earlier, now feels like forever.

Bryann tries to make conversation with the both of us and I pitch in were necessary just to avoid making the ride more uncomfortable, at least for me.

Adrian's demeanor is awkwardly adequate, I'm the only one exaggerating. He's acting as though I'm not here despite him passing glances at me from time to time and that's getting to me. If his feeling the way that I am then his hiding it pretty well.

  In no time, we're packed in front of my apartment complex. I say bye to Bryann and literally sprint out of the car as if it's on fire. "I needa take a wiss!" I yell whilst sprinting towards the apartment. I don't even look back to gauge their reactions because right now all that I'm thinking about is getting into my apartment and having a steaming hot shower.

"BECAUSE WTF JUST HAPPENED?" Also, why did I say " I needa take a wiss of all things."