First of Two

First of Two - Chapter Two

First of Two – Chapter Two

R I L E Y

When a student opened the door for Riley, he didn’t notice the boy who was also late approaching behind her.

He shut it close, and Riley greeted the teacher shyly but with extra politeness, the quiet girl she’d always been. “I’m really, really sorry for being late, Miss.” Her voice was soft and shaky; the students who were seated in the back couldn’t even hear her.

As much as Riley hoped that her teacher would  at least be considerate since it was the first day after all, her teacher only frowned and showed no kindness through her eyes. A sigh followed this look of dismay as she told Riley, “You call me Glenda, not Miss.”

Glenda ran her eyes down the list of names and raised an eyebrow at the late girl who was anything but relaxed, still standing in front of the door, “You must be Riley Condor. Before you take your seat, do me a favor and toss this in the trash just outside the door.”

Riley walked with jelly legs toward Glenda, who was intently reading her planner, and took the disposable cup of coffee, her left hand clenching her backpack’s strap tightly. The cup was full, probably just a sip taken from it.  

Whatever was running inside Riley’s head, it surely had nothing to do with being calm. She had been looking forward to this day throughout her high school years: the first day of college where her teacher would definitely think how much of a good student Riley would be.

The situation, though, reflected anything but that. She felt like every glare and stare was focused right on her as she was taking the coffee from the obviously-not-happy teacher’s hand. But she tried hard to fight away that thought and concentrated on not slipping or dropping the coffee-filled cup.

Riley smoothly turned around, not expecting a boy to bump into her. She watched the cup she was trying so hard not to drop get squeezed in between her chest and the boy’s. Her ears rang as the class burst out in loud laughs and her legs, once had been jelly, were now totally frozen as her eyes popped, big and round. She knew she should move, do something or apologize. But the shock that overwhelmed her guts didn’t allow her to do any of those.

The only thing she could think of was that they—the boy and herself—were both covered in coffee.

A D R I A N

What was worse than being late for the first class? Getting his brand new, ironed Tommy Hilfiger white T-shirt drenched in cold coffee.

He knew that it wasn’t like high school, the way college worked. If you were late, to avoid disrupting the teacher’s lecture just in case she or he was in the middle of one, never should you bother knocking. Or the teacher would be pissed for sure.

Barging right it, he planned to make his way to the empty seat he had spotted in the back. But to get there, he would have had to walk across the front, of course, so that was what he was en route of doing. Adrian saw the girl standing in front of the teacher’s table, but didn’t put much thought into what if she turned around with a cup of coffee in hand the moment I would be standing right behind her?

But now he definitely wished he had.

Lucky for her, Adrian was used to switching bad situations into humorous ones. He looked at the hazel-haired girl whose brown eyes looked like they were about to burst into tears and gave her an encouraging smile. And then he turned to his laughing classmates, “Well, at least it wasn’t boiling hot, right? That would have been a little worse.” A small chuckle followed his statement as the class faded into murmurs.

The teacher sighed exasperatedly, “Go clean up after yourselves, you two. This is such a mess, I’m calling the janitor.”

“Will do,” Adrian responded enthusiastically, but when he looked back to the girl who didn’t move an inch and didn’t seem to have heard anything of what was going on, he saw how vulnerable she probably felt, as small tears were already forming in the edge of her eyes.

He gently put his hand on her arm, leaned in and whispered, “Come on. Relax, I’ll help you. Just take small steps forward.”

“A… I’m so-o so-orry,” she responded with a tiny, cracking voice as she let him slowly drag her out of the classroom, both of their shirts dripping wet. Adrian felt her body shaking as he put his arm around her back and simply smirked at how much she was extremely scared of a simple, unlikely but inevitable situation.

A few students were still strolling down the hallway as he led the girl who accidentally trashed his T-shirt toward the restrooms. They were surely getting second glances as if they were getting arrested or something. But he needed to get her to where she could clean herself up and the second glancers would just have to deal with their own stuff. It didn’t matter if that day wasn’t supposed to start out the way it did.

The only thing he could think of was that they—the girl and himself—were both covered in coffee.

Thank you for reading :) xx

-Daphne