Always You

Chapter 8

Sierra

Ezra held my gaze the entire journey from the other end of the cafeteria. As he walked closer, I tried to suppress the butterflies in my stomach to no avail.

"Hey Sierra," Ezra stopped a metre short of our cozy little table. Flashing a charming smile with his white teeth on full display, my heart skipped a beat as he ran his fingers through his already messy hair, "how did you sleep?"

If I was being honest, I would have mentioned that I spent a lot of time tossing and turning before finally falling asleep. I seemed to have trouble clearing my mind last night. "Oh um yeah good thanks," I began. "I had a pretty decent sleep in," I smiled. "What about you?"

"Not that great actually," he admitted, eyes fixated on mine. "Had a lot on my mind."

Harper made a point of clearing her throat unnecessarily loudly, snapping us out of our thoughts and bringing us back to the noisy chatter of the busy cafeteria.

"Oh sorry, how rude of me! I haven't introduced you guys. This is Harper," I gestured to the left, "and Jordan," I nodded to my right. "Two of my best friends here at college," I said with a smile.

Ezra nodded at each of my friends. "I'm Ezra. Nice to meet you girls," he grinned.

"Nice to meet you, Ezra!" Harper chirped. She raised her eyebrows at me, "soooo," she smirked, "did you guys meet last night?"

Before I had a chance to respond, Ezra laughed, "Sierra and I go way back." He winked, "we practically grew up together, right Sierra?"

"Yeah, he's pretty much like a brother!" I blurted out. "Always on my case and more protective than both my parents combined," I added with a dramatic roll of my eyes.

I caught a flash of hesitation in Ezra's eyes but his smile never faltered. "I guess so," he chuckled, "if siblings practiced kissing with each other."

I gasped, "it was just the one time!" Blushing, I swiped my arm at him to give him a small shove, which he dodged. Hearing the girls giggle on either side of me, I added, "we were so young back then too!"

"Whatever you say, Sierra," he shrugged. "Not young enough for me to ever forget," he added with a wink. "Anyway, listen. I was wondering if you'd like to catch up sometime? Are you up to much this afternoon?"

I thought back to this morning's encounter with Ezra's girlfriend and her intimidation tactics. I wasn't keen on starting off the school year with drama. "I'm busy," I said. "Have a few things to do here and there before classes start next week. Maybe another time," I forced a smile.

"Oh," his smiled faded. "That's okay. Maybe some time next week?"

"Maybe."

"Well, let me know. You know where to find me," he said as he turned to walk back to his table. "Nice to meet you girls. I'll see you around, Sierra."

As soon as he was out of hearing range, an explosion of questions came flying out of Harper's mouth. "You've kissed him?! You are so freaking lucky."

"We were only 14, I guess we were so young it didn't mean anything. It was a one-off thing, I was nervous about a date with a guy and I'd never kissed anyone before so he taught me, that's all," I shrugged. "Besides, we were neighbours and best friends, we knew each other super well and he'd always been interested in other girls, there was nothing more to it."

"So why did you say you were busy when you have literally nothing planned for the day?" Jordan challenged.

"Well, first off, he has a girlfriend who seems pretty protective and hostile. I wouldn't want to get on her bad side," and I continued to tell the story of my encounter earlier in the morning.

"Damn, that's a little presumptuous of her," Harper remarked when I had finished. "But I agree, best to keep your distance. I haven't met the girl but she seems intense."

"Too bad, he's such a cute guy and he seemed so interested in you, Sierra," Jordan added.

I sighed, "nah, there's no way he'd think of me that way." I thought back to the last time I saw Ezra. Back to the night before I packed up everything and left. He'd made it clear then that it would never happen. Sure, he wasn't the reason for my departure, but what he'd said that night made it easier to leave everything behind, to leave him behind. It was easier that way.