TOUCH

Chapter 5

AURELIA

Men are the most hateful creatures to have ever walked this earth. Thousands of times I have told Zander Stupid Bridgewood to stay away from me but he just doesn't get it. The ice thing was too far gone.

Aggghhhh...I hate him, so much right now. I should have thrown a few more punches when I had the chance.

From now on I'm not going to hold back. If he can't keep his hands to himself he will lose it. Period.

My war mode subsides when I reach  college and don't see Zander or any of his friends the whole day. Although I am yet to attend my literature class for which I am already late.

Haven't I said never say never?

As soon as I enter the class I see swarm of students and regret coming late. Noah signals me that all the seats are taken next to them and I can see there are no empty seat left anywhere else too.

Anywhere except the one next to Zander where he has kept his bag. I notice Theo sitting on his left.

Zander has probably seen me eyeing the last vacant seat because he moves his bag to his lap and raises his eyebrow at me. No, thanks. I will rather stand.

Where are all these students coming from anyway?

"Ms. Singh please be seated." Prof. Desai enters the class and motion towards the seat next to Zander.

I slowly make my way to that seat as if I have done outdoor labour on a field somewhere. I can feel my legs giving up. Practically dragging myself, I take the seat next to him.

Zander cuts me a glance and give me his signature one side devilish smile.

I sigh, slumping deeper into the seat."This day couldn't get any worse," I say to myself but loud enough for him to hear.

"Yeah. Would have been your best though if the class was all packed and you got a chance to sit on my lap instead," He whispers coming nearer on the pretense of bending to keep his bag below his seat.

I blink several times to shake away the irritation. "Go ahead. Make it more cringe, Bridgewood."

He chuckles but doesn't say another word.

This class is important to me and I need to pay attention.

After about half an hour of lesson in character portrayal and drafting narrative, the professor asked those of us who were taking notes to close it and keep it aside.

"Alright, now for the remaining of our class we will do an exercise . You have to pick three physical traits of a person sitting next to you that you would mention if you were the writer. I want you to give just a hint of how different minds see things differently, even when you lot attended the same class. And keep it respectful. Volunteers? "

My studious ass would have loved to shoot my hand up if it was Lydia, I was sitting next to. But unfortunately I was stuck between Zander and another guy with adult acne on his face who smiled creepily every time I inched closer to him to keep a good distance between me and Zander.

"Mr. Bridgewood ....Yes," called the professor and I was zoned back in to the reality.

I looked at Zander, who was raising his hand. The muscles on his arms flexed and something odd shone in his eyes.

"I would pick Ms. Singh as my muse." He winked at me.

This is it. This is the time I wish the ground beneath me would crack open and engulf me. I would like to peacefully get buried now, Thank you very much.