Why I Left You

Chapter 3

I sat in my dorm at one on Thursday. I had every intention to stand up Nathaniel. After how uncomfortable he made me I wasn't going near him again. He made me so anxious that I turned to self-harm again. My therapist emailed me back the next day telling me to use the techniques that we worked on when I was seeing her. I would find ways to distract myself. I made a list of things I could do

1. Talk to Kiara

2. Go for a walk

3. Paint, I would need to buy supplies for that one

4. study

6. call a family member

I got a text from Nathaniel right after jotted down my list in a notebook.

Have you stood me up?

That was all it said. I started to get that irritating feeling again so, since Kiara was in a class right now. I was going for a walk. I stood up, grabbed my phone, and headphones, and pulled my shoes on. The campus had a four-mile perimeter. Which included the sports department, faculty buildings, classrooms, a small park area, and the dorms. I was done with my classes for the day so I could take as long as I wanted walking the whole campus, hell, I could do it twice if I wanted to. In the elevator, I scrolled through Spotify and picked a playlist. I raised the volume so that it was just loud enough that I could only hear the music but I wouldn't go deaf. I started my walk by going from the dorms to the sports department. From there I walked behind the faculty buildings and towards the classrooms. One class must have gotten recently because the pavilion that some one the classrooms encircled seemed to be teeming with students. I was too wrapped up in my little world until I walked straight into someone. I knocked all their books out of their hands and watched them fall to the ground. I quickly pulled my headphones off my ears and lunged to help them with their books. I stood up holding three absurdly large books and finally glanced at who I ran into

He was about average height with messy blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He looked like someone who spent their whole summer at the pool.

"I am so sorry for walking into you, it was my fault. I should have been paying more attention to where I was going." I said, being quick to explain myself.

"No worries, I should have had my books in a backpack." He had a deep but happy-toned voice. I couldn't tell if he was just trying to be polite and not let me take all the blame or was being genuine. After a brief moment of hush, he asked,

"Where are you heading?"

"I'm just walking back to my dorm, why?"

Let me walk you back since you were gracious enough to help me pick my books after you made me drop them." He said plastering a smirk onto his face and mocked his sentence with mock formality.

"You don't have to." I didn't want to be a burden. First by walking into him and then making him feel as though he has to repay the favor of me picking up his books. It wasn't generosity it was more like common manners; if you knocked something out of someone's hands, you pick it up and apologize.

"But why would I let such a nice lady walk all by herself across the big scary campus? Plus, I'm going that way anyway." I wouldn't mind the company I just didn't wasn't to make him feel like he was obligated to.

"Well, if you're going that way anyway, we might as well."

" I'm Ben, by the way, Benedict." He introduced himself as we started walking.

" I'm Vivienne," I said returning the information.

"What nicknames you got? Since Vivienne is a long name and could have a few variations?"

" Most people call me Vi for short, my family calls me Viv, sometimes. Other than that I don't have nicknames that are directly related to my name." I confessed.

"Those are what every Vivienne has for a nickname. You need something better, something like," He paused for a moment to think."

"Something like Vivi! It's cute short but not what everyone else has!" He exclaimed looking as happy as a little kid, making me laugh out,

"Vivi doesn't sound too bad. Way better than being called Vivabelle."

"Who the hell came up with that?" His laugh was contagious and his smile was wide and went all the way to his eyes. He looked like a pure picture of happiness, it made you want to smile.

"My younger sister, she thought I looked like Princess Belle so she decided when she was five that she would call me Vivabelle, claiming I was both me and Belle. I thought she was merely doing it to piss me off." I told him, my smile slowly turning into a frown.

"You too sound like you were quite the duo." He laughed, again.

" Yeah, we were." I sighed sadly, remembering when me and my sister were each other's best friends. Before she got me cut off from the family because she was jealous. Trying to change the subject I asked,

"What are you studying?"

" I'm studying pharmaceutical science."

"Wow, what led you to that?" I asked trying to keep the conversation going.

"I wanted to do something in the medical field, but I didn't want to work directly with people. So when I finish school I'm going to go into new drug development. Helping find more efficient ways of medicating diseases. What about you."

" I'm in Forensic Psychology. Forensic Psychology uses the principles of psychology within the justice system. If you water it down enough, I would be interviewing everyone and seeing if they are mentally fit to be on the case, or if a suspect needs to be watched for any reason." I explained knowing not many people know what it is.

"Wow, sounds complicated." He said.

" Like pharmaceutical science isn't" I rolled my eyes. A moment later we both burst out laughing.

The rest of the walk we made small-ish talking. Asking each other personal but not deep questions. Like what our preferences are. Finally, we made it back to the dorms.

" It was nice talking to you, Vivienne. You know what, my friend is having a small party Saturday night. You want to come?" He invited. this time I would be more cautious.

"Maybe, I'll see if my roommate can come. What's the address?"

"98217 Willowbrook Street, be there at nine."

" Okay, I'll ask Kiara if she can come."

"Hope to see you there." With that, he left.

"Hey Kiara, you home?" I shouted into the dorm as I walked in setting my headphones down.

"Yeah! In here!" Her voice came from her room. I kicked off my shoes and walked over to her room. I came and sat next to her on her bed.

"So, I got invited to a party, Saturday night. It's at nine. You wanna come?" I asked.

" Sure! I have been dying for an excuse to wear this dress I got! It would be the perfect opportunity!" She exclaimed hugging me and then walking over to the clothes.

"Okay, I'm gonna take a shower real quick and then we can have dinner?"

"Yeah, I'll cook this time. Fair warning it won't be as good as yours.

"That's fine. I don't expect everyone I meet to be related to a private chef." I said as I walked out of her room to go take a hot shower and think about this party.

A/n: Thank you guys for being patient with the slow publishing!

(1265 words)