Affliction

Chapter Three

Meredith's POV

I opened my eyes when I heard the annoying noise of my alarm clock going off. I groaned as I reached for my phone and slowly slid thumb across the lock screen so it would shut up. I have a feeling that today is going to be one of those days where I don't want to deal with anyone's nonsense.

I slid out from under the soft fortress of my bed and grabbed my toiletry bag before I made my way to the showers to get ready for the second day of classes. As I was walking towards the girls showers I ran into a familiar boy with a blonde quiff. Luke.

"Good morning Meredith, going somewhere?" Luke smirked at me while his eyes trailed up and down my body causing me to feel extremely uncomfortable.

"Umm, I was just going to have a shower before class."

He shuffled closer to me until we were only inches apart, and he placed his rough hand on the small of my back.

"Well you shouldn't be wandering these halls by yourself at such an early hour, you never know what kind of creeps lurk these hallways" he whispered into my ear sending shivers down my spine. I was frozen in place as he removed his hand and backed up a bit.

"So I'll see you tonight at the bonfire yeah?" he smiled as if hadn't just pulled that inappropriate stunt just moments ago. I raised my brow in confusion as he spun around on his feet and continued walking down the hallway.

I was still frozen with my toiletry bag trying to comprehend what just happened. Wow, Luke is a bit touchy, or maybe he's just a friendly person. Either way I certainly wasn't taking a shower while he was in the building.

I quickly walked back to my dorm and locked the door. I then found I snoring Paige curled up in her blankets still in the clothes she had worn yesterday. She must have had a rough night.

Since I was to scared to take a shower, I decided to wear a pair of my black Nike shorts, along with my black vans, and my favorite Jimi Hendrix t-shirt. I pulled my hair into a high pony tail and hesitantly made my way to the bathroom to wash my face. I peeked out of the door and the hallway was empty, I quickly made a run for it, but when I rounded the corner all I saw was a mop of brown curls before I hit the floor. I quickly forced myself up, and found it was the boy from my Arts and Technologies class.

"Watch where going Freshman" He growled at me and stormed off down the hall before I could apologize.

"Geez, Sorry" I mumbled as I entered the bathroom.

..........................

Today was going better than I thought. Paige and I had lunch at the same café we stop at in the mornings. Luke didn't show up of course. He was probably out creeping out other girls on campus. I didn't want to waste my time in telling Paige about my run in with him earlier because I didn't want it to cause any bumps in our blooming friendship, so I just kept my mouth shut.

The final class of the day was coming to an end, and I was seated in the same seat as the day before beside Paige. Luke was sat beside her as always, but I didn't glance in his direction I just faced forward and listened to the lecture about the importance of expressing yourself through art.

Occasionally I would glance over and the boy with the curly brown hair to see if he was looking at me. He caught me looking at him one time, but he soon retreated to scribbling notes or whatever he was doing in his journal.

After class was over we all filed out of the lecture room in a speedy fashion. I guess everyone was excited about the bonfire that Paige invited me to that was taking place tonight by the lake. I heard that most of the students on campus were going to be there, so I thought why not go?

"Hey Meredith you still up for tonight?" Paige smiled as she caught up to me in the huge mess of students scattered along the campus.

"You bet!" I said trying to sound all excited. In reality one half of me was excited for tonight, but the other half was almost trying to convince me to stay home and read one of my favorite books while munching on junk food.

"Super! So we have to be ready by 8, Luke is picking us up. Oh, and wear something sexy there isn't going to be any parent/teacher chaperone bullshit going on" she winked at me and quickly sped up to lock hands with Luke who had been walking just a couple of meters in front of us.

Great. Luke is picking us up. That kid creeps me the hell out, and being trapped in a car with him just sounds so uncomfortable to me. At least Paige would be there with me so hopefully he won't try anything.

I walked down the hall and made my way to my dorm room so I could catch up on some homework and have a snack before I had to get ready for the dreaded bonfire tonight.

When I had finished my homework for my art history class it was already 7:30, I got up and padded over to my closet to search for something 'sexy' to wear. I didn't really have anything that fit that description so I settled for a pair of cut off blue jean shorts that had holes ripped all up the sides, and a black and white Nirvana tank. Since I didn't feel like doing anything special to my hair, I pulled it out of its pony tail and let it settle in waves down my back.

I applied a layer of mascara over my eyelashes to make my gray eyes pop, and put a light shade of blush over my cheeks because my skin was quite pale and it needed more color.

When I glanced at the time on my phone it was 7:45, so while I waited I opened my Instagram app and immediately saw tons of posts of girls taking selfies in the outfits they were wearing to the bonfire. I chuckled to myself at how dumb that was when I heard a knock on the door. I raced over to see who it was.

I was expecting it to be Paige telling me it was time to go, but when I opened the door my smile disappeared. It wasn't Paige. It was him....

...............................

Sorry for the cliffhanger.

Jess