Hurricane

4: Where it starts

Age: 19
Status: A little poor
Level of Hope: Currently 45%

   "You sure you got this?" Ethan says, holding my shoulder tightly. Seems to me that he's more nervous than I am.
   "Ethan, you are acting like it's the first day of college and I thought we been through that already?"
   "I know but it feels like the first every time, okay!" He lets go of me and looms ahead the building of the college dramatically.
   "Okay, seriously, Ethan? The building is not haunted. Come on, let's go". I drag him to the school.

We go to the Ash Ville University. We decided to stay close so we don't go in debt. The college also gave me lots of financial aid and scholarship that it's basically free for me. I decided to take advantage of that. So, here I am, all ready for my 2nd year of college. Feels great to be 19 as well.

   "How are you always so energetic? I wish I was more carefree like you are" I smile at his genuine compliment.
   "I realized that you only live once. And thanks to you," I step closer to him, "I learned that I'm not alone. There are always people around me. I have a lot to thank you for." He smiles and slings his hand over my shoulder.
   "You give me too much credit." Even though he disagrees, I can tell that it's what he needs to hear.
                   
                     * * *
   
     "Welcome ladies and gentlemen to your second year of ART!" Ms. Winter says loudly. Everyone in the class seems enthusiastic because well... she made one thing clear that we are very much welcome to NOT back next year if we are not motivated.
    "Today, even though it's the first day of your classes, you're getting your first assignment." Everyone whines loudly. But then she continues, "Relax people, my assignment include doing arts from now and not historic reading!"
    "I suck at drawing, Miss!" Someone in the class yells. I turn around to see that it's Stevie.
   "Then why are you here?!" Ms. Winter says frustratingly.
    "'Cause I love drawing and totally not because I want to be with my friends. Yeap." Ms. Winter sighs and shakes her head.
   "I'll assign you your partners for this project because it's a huge canvas, I doubt you wanna do it alone" She pulls up the smart-board and list of bunch of groups come up. "You guys will surely thank me for this, so go in your group you see above" She points to the Smart-Board.

I looked at my name, which was next to someone named... Hayden Ferrari. That's interesting. He's new? I've never heard of him in my freshmen year classes.

   "Hayden... Ferrari?" I ask loudly in order to find him. Then, I see someone raise his hand and turned his head from the back of the huge classroom. With striking blond hair on top with lightest brown hair on the side, where his hair was a bit shorter. He walks in my direction, and that's when I take a good look at him.

He's wearing a black jacket that looks almost like a blazer with a white shirt underneath. When he comes up to me, I also realize that he's almost a head taller than me, and I'm not really a short woman.

   "Hi..." My voice had gone quiet as did my surrounding. I look around to see people are starring at me. Some with open mouth, admiring his beauty, while others with envious looks saying how I'm so 'lucky' to be partnered up with him. I turn back to him.
    "Abigail" He says, his voice sounded like... crunchy chocolate. Weird, huh?
    "Yea.." I sigh... then snap out of it. I clear my throat before saying, "Sooooo... what kind of art work do you have in mind?"

                    ~~*~~*~~*~~*~~
     "I work during days, I'm mostly available in the late evening. What about you?" I ask Hayden. We are currently sitting at Lunar.

     "Any days where you aren't working at all?" He asks.

     "Nope."

     "Wow." He nods slowly. "So, I guess we can meet at our houses-"

     "No!" He stares at me wide eyed for a second. I quickly add, "I-I mean... like... it's better to do it in a large area and-" I paused to see him smirk.

     "Uh huh," he nods while smirking. Good god, what is he thinking?

     "You KNOW what I mean!" I blush.

     "I know too much." he winks, and I wish it didn't make him look so manly and natural.

     "Anyyywayyyy... we should do it in the park-"

     "Nah, that's too risky." he laughs.

     "Stop thinking like that!" I cover my ear. "I mean that we should get inspired by nature and make a draft canvas first," I explained, feeling proud of myself.

     "Right. Park. Evening. Canvas. Gotcha." he sips his ice tea.

      "How big is the-"

      "Oh, I don't think you want to know." he cuts me off.

      "Hayden, ONE MORE INNUENDO will get you hurt." I point my fork at him.

"I wasn't the one who was thinking wrong". He murmurs while popping fries in his mouth. I sigh loudly as I drop my fork. This is going to be a looong project I'm going to have to bare.
                     
                     * * *

Next day, I met up with Hayden at Lunar to discuss about plans later on the evening after my work. However, I couldn't make it because I was running low on money so I needed to work extra hours. I didn't know how to contact Hayden to tell him that I won't make it to the park near the lake. I didn't have his phone number. Damn me! I talked to him about rubbish yet still didn't get his contact. So, when I saw him walking in the hallway the next day, I called him.
  "Hey! Hayden! Wait up!" he turned around to see me standing in front of him.
"What?" He said sternly.
"About yesterday... I couldn't make it because I didn't know I would be working so late-"
"You don't have to explain" he nodded and started to walk to class. Since we are walking the same direction, I followed him. Surprisingly, he started talking again, "I sketched something yesterday while I waited for you at the park" he looks at me then and that was the first time I got so close enough to see his eyes, a chocolate brown color with long light brown lashes. "You were right, nature is pretty inspiring" he smiled and when I stopped in front of my class, he waved good-bye. Just when I was about to go in class, I remembered something.
"HAYDEN!" I yelled at him and when he turned around, I yelled again, "CAN I GET YOUR NUMBER?"

Suddenly, everyone around me stopped to stare at me, like I was some weirdo, which I probably was. Talk about awkward.
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After next chapter, I'm going to do Hayden's point of view. 🤗🤗
So, look forward to that.
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