𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐑𝐮𝐬𝐡 | 𝟏𝟖+

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞

I walk into class to see a smaller number of seats. There are six tables and four seats going with each of them. There are two other girls scrolling on their phones, sitting separately. Do I want to sit near any of them or should I just sit at a table by myself until others come? I entirely walk into the classroom and see a woman with red hair come into view.

"Hello, welcome in!" She greets.

I smile and take a seat at an empty table. 'Ms. Jill Rutherford - Mixed Media' is written in calligraphy on the whiteboard and it is decorated with drawings bordering the perimeter.

Students start filing in, one by one, as it gets closer to seven as our teacher makes her way to the whiteboard. There are two people who come in and sit across from me who are talking to one another. They seem to be friends already. One is a girl who has voluminous curly hair with cute cat eyeglasses. She has her eyeshadow and eyeliner artfully done with her skin a deep bronze.

The other person has their hair cut short and dyed jet black. They have silver rings embellishing their porcelain fingers and their nails are painted dark blue. Ms. Rutherford looks at her laptop and counts up the people that are in her class so far.

"We have two kids remaining, but I don't see why we shouldn't get started." One more person paces in and the instructor waves at him. He sits at the seat closest to him which leaves one more seat remaining next to mine. Damn, am I that unapproachable? I mean I did choose to sit at the table all the way in the corner, so maybe they chose not to sit next to me out of convenience.

"Alright, welcome everyone!" Ms. Rutherford starts. "I'm so glad you chose my mixed media course because I know we are going to have a lot of fun here. Do you know what's also great? We have a full class!"

Ms. Rutherford seems friendly and definitely is a safe person to talk to. Her red her is looped up into a bun with a pencil stabbed through it. She seems like she's in her fifties, but I can tell that she was definitely fun when she was younger.

I hear the door creak open, but I keep my eyes glued on Ms. Rutherford. Her face lights up, "Welcome! It looks like we have one more seat left next to that lovely lady in the back."

Finally, someone who's forced to sit next to me. I look up at the newcomer and freeze. I feel my heart sink and it's difficult to get it back up and running. The same thing happens to him, with a pause in his step. His brown eyes meet mine and I attempt to take a deep breath, but I can only take a short one.

Something like this would only happen to me. If I never went to the wedding, Alex and I could've gone without knowing our past. It would've made it so much easier for me to sit next to him during this class because we would simply not talk to one another.

I actually would've talked to him because if I didn't know who he was, I would've been unbearably attracted to him the same way I was during the wedding. We would've talked and we would've figured out each other's past. We would've figured it out either way and I would've been annoyed by his presence after.

I can see his eyes scan the room for other open seats, but he concludes that the only available one is next to me. He slowly walks over as Ms. Rutherford continues to talk. Alex's dark brown hair falls over his face as he sets his backpack down by his seat.

"Oh yeah, by the way, I know it says Ms. Rutherford on the board, but please call me Jill. I want to make this a comfortable, safe space and you can come to talk to me about anything." I was spot on about her which I'm glad about.

Ms. Rutherford, or should I say, Jill continues to explain the course, but eighty percent of my attention is directed toward Alex. I can smell his cologne, the same one he wore that night. He's wearing a loose, gray t-shirt and navy blue five-inch seam shorts.