In Love with a Jackal

18.

    See me in my office tomorrow at 9:00.
    Please inform Carlisle of the same.
    D.H. Parpapokulos'

My heart dropped as I stared down at the email on my phone.

Oh hell no.

"Hey Valentina, was it? are you even listening to me?"

I glanced back at the red haired girl standing across from me. With her hands on her hips, she looked a lot more angry than the other two girls in my project group, who mind you just like me, werent paying attention either.

I stuffed my phone into my pocket, deciding that email was definetly a problem for later and mustered an unsincere smile,

"I'm sorry I just got an important message, what were you saying?"

The girl scowled at me, her lightly freckled face turning bright red,

"I said lets just split the presentation into four parts and someone can put it together later."

I nodded, trying my best to pretend I was listening and not just staring at the large clock on the wall behind her. My neighbour had texted me an hour ago and I knew he should have made it here by now. Finally the wait was over.

I loudly clasped my hands together, conviniently grasping the attention of my other two project buddies whose glazed over eyes stared at me blankly. The things mandatory Greek lessons did to a person.

"Great, so thats decided then," I told her, "Just text me what I need to do, I'll get going then!"

"Hey- wait!"

Before she could stop me, I turned on the spot and escaped down the corridor, intent on avoiding any further dangers today, may it be deadly or academic.

Trying not to break into a run, I rushed past the ground floor lecture halls, already scanning the big courtyard through the ceiling high windows that surrounded it. I'd asked my neighbour, Christos, if he could check on Anubis next door and tell him to come find me at university, since he wasn't picking up his phone and it was urgent.

Obviously Anubis didn't have a phone nor did I know if he would still be at my apartment to begin with. I felt bad about lying to Christos too but I really didn't have any other options, going home alone just felt like a really dumb idea. And anyway, I was already arm deep in the honey pot of lies, a few more wouldn't tip the scale any further down than it already was.

To my luck, Christos had easily agreed. He wanted to hand over a package he'd accepted for me anyway, so dropping by wasn't a problem for him.

And from that moment forward, Christos would forever be immortalized in my heart.

Turning the corner and still not spotting him, I suddenly felt anxious at the thought that Anubis may not be here yet after all. I'd been basically counting the minutes ever since the presentation ended this morning, trying my best to stay among as many people as possible the whole time. Attending my classes, while always stealing fearful glances behind me, my nerves had been on a knife's edge the whole time.

As I stepped through the sliding glass doors of the courtyard, I finally set eyes on him. With both hands in the pockets of his beige linen pants, he stood alone at the side, eyes firmly trained on the set of doors opposite of me. As the light wind made his loose white shirt flutter along his shoulders I wasn't the only person whose attention he captured.

Incredibly glad to see him, possibly for the first time ever, I called out to him,
 
"George!"
 
Anubis didn't react.

"George!" I repeated, this time waving in his direction.