Proud

Chapter 4

~Three weeks later ~

The day had came. It’s the first day of university and I’m nervous as fuck. I don’t know anybody and I feel like a complete loner standing outside my first class. My eyes meet the gazes of a few passer byers, but nobody stops to say hello.

Every time another person walks by, the more self conscious I become. I wonder what I look like to them. Is my hair in place? Are my clothes to extravagant? A constant stream of fear just waves straight over me.

I take a peak in the window of my classroom and see nobody there. I must be the only early person that is early. To be honest, I don’t know why you’d rock up to your first class late. Like, it just doesn’t make sense to me. I absolutely hate it when my family makes me late, which is often, and ever since I was a kid, I made a promise to myself that I would be different.

I keep peaking in the window until I’m interrupted by the voice of another girl.

“You know you can go in the room” She points out.

I look at her confused, “But there’s nobody in it”.

She immediately laughs, “Oh jaffys! This is uni girl, not high school. You just walk in. Nobody cares!”

I look at her even more confused. Why would nobody care? Why wouldn’t you wait for the teacher first? And what the hell is a jaffy?

She laughs again and puts her hand on my shoulder. She opens the door behind me and leads me in. I nervously walk in. Should I be doing this?

“So, what’s your name?” She asks me.

“Ana” I tell her hesitantly. For some reason, I just don’t trust this girl.

“Cool, I’m Eliza, nice to meet you” She tells me confidently. I smile at her nicely and try to hide how I truly feel.

She notices and continues to talk to me, “So you’re a first year?”

“Ummm, yeah. What about you?” I ask to her.

“Nah, second year now. I failed this class so I gotta repeat it” She tells me. The word ‘fail’ sticks out and I immediately know that I have to keep as much distance as possible from this girl.

I try to hide my disgust as I turn around and face the door. The door opens and a few students stumble in. Someone walks to the front and dumps their stuff on the table. I assume he is the teacher but I’m shocked at how young he looks.

Students keep pouring in and eventually we are all ready to go.

The teacher finally pipes up, “Right guys, my name is Steve and I’ll be your tutor this semester. I’ll just lay done a few ground rules first. I’m pretty chill about everything but I have a few things that I just can’t stand”.

He is about to continue on when the door suddenly opens. He stops what he is saying and the whole class turns to face the boy who walks in.

We all seem pretty shocked because he is surprisingly late, but I think it’s fair to say that nobody is as shocked as me.

Because the boy who just walked in is one that I haven’t heard from since I experienced something I never want to re live. The boy who just walked in is the one who dragged me off the sinking plane when I had no motivation to move. The boy who just walked in is the one who held me through the rocky boat ride, never letting me go. The boy who just walked in is the one who helped me into the rescue helicopter when I couldn’t do it myself. He is the boy who saved my life. And the boy I never thought I’d see again in my life.

I look at him up and down in utter shock. He looks as good as ever. I mean, he never looks bad anyway. Even when I was certain that we were dying he still looked good. He looks around the class, his eyes scanning over all the students, but finally stopping when it reaches mine.

He stops and stares. That’s all he does. He just stares at me. I start to feel insecure and I move my hand up to my face to tuck a piece of hair behind my ear. He obviously recognises me immediately. And the feelings mutual. I didn’t even question whether it was Jack or Finn. I’d spent so much time practically sitting on him that I’d memorised his every facial feature. His eyes, his nose, those warm lips.... I start to day dream.

Our stare contest is interrupted by the teacher.

“Late. You are late. And that’s my first rule. Don’t be late! Take a seat please” He directs to Finn.

Finn nods and takes a seat. As soon as he sits down, his eyes divert back to me. We both seem to be as shocked as each other.

The tutor continues on but I don’t even hear what he is saying. I’m just too focused on Finn. I can’t believe he is here. I thought the moment that I was lifted away from him was the last time I’d ever see him. As soon as I hit ground I was rushed over to my parents. And even though I wanted to stay to make sure he was okay, I just couldn’t. I was hurried over to the paramedics where they told me I was suffering from shock, hyperthermia and dehydration. I’d never heard from Finn again from that moment. I didn’t know if he made it out alive, I didn’t know if he worried about me the way I worried about him. I just didn’t know.

And it killed me. But to see him alive and well, it made my heart content. The guy that had saved my life was now safe himself, and nothing could make me happier