Almost Forever

Encounters

Nothing set her apart, except for her American accent, she was another number on a list of students packed into the room. There was nothing seemingly all that special about her. She had the same winged eyeliner and mascara that probably should have been thrown out ages ago, like 90% of the other senior class. She had the same popular brand sneakers, leggings, sweater, and that's how she wanted it. Unlike so many others who just wanted to stand out in a sea of the same people, Annie wanted to blend straight into the masses of the college campus that she found herself sat in. Annie's short dyed-blonde hair fell in waves but stopped short just above her shoulders. The roots of her hair were starting to show through, revealing her natural, raven colored hair, although she generally covered the roots with some sort of hat, because touching it up was annoying and sometimes expensive. She sat boredly in her Calculus lecture, watching the substitute TA write derivatives on the board and most of them Annie could solve in her head in a matter of seconds. Annie didn't really know why she had to take Calculus. She wanted to be a doctor, not a mathematician. To her, the class was a waste of time, nonetheless, one that she couldn't skip or she would fail, although attendance was not mandatory it should be.

She stared blankly at the blackboard the TA was writing on. Annie, in her bored state, started to look more intently. He wasn't the normal TA the class had. He was tall with blonde hair, thinner than she had probably ever been since she was 10, and he seemed way too intent on the derivative on the board. He was doing a problem, showing the 50 some students in the room something called the chain rule, before turning around and catching her staring at him with curiosity. The 21 year old girl quickly ducked her head and started looking with mock-interest at her notes. Although Annie was not the type of girl who would ever be embarrassed, her cheeks flushed red. She missed the smirk and slight giggle that crossed over his lips.

"Alright, that's all for today." His voice echoed through the lecture hall, it was not a typical over masculine voice, but it caught Annie off guard because it was still extremely attractive.

The blonde girl quickly stood up and rushed out of the hall, a tint of pink still holding its place on her cheeks. She was mentally cursing herself because she would normally never have been embarrassed about being caught staring, although maybe she should be, she was not, except this time, which, freaked her out.

Annie made it halfway down the hall before realizing she forgot her calculator back in the lecture hall. Swearing under her breath, she earned a scolding look from an older professor as she did a 180 and turned back to grab the ridiculously expensive piece of equipment that she really didn't want to have in the first place yet ironically, desperately needed.

She didn't look once at the TA while going back to her seat and avoided eye contact when looking around for the calculator. Annie become frustrated when the calculator was nowhere to be seen and instead found herself in an embarrassing state of sitting on the floor looking around aimlessly for the stupid contraption.

"Are you looking for this?" She heard the TA asks with amusement in his voice. Annie couldn't even blame him, she looked ridiculous sitting on the floor of a classroom staring at an empty space.

Annie shot up onto her feet, another hue of pink gracing her cheeks, almost hitting her head on the table on the way up, " Yeah, that would be mine." He seemed nice enough to Nadia, and she found her heart pounding a little harder in her chest. Somehow she couldn't keep herself from getting flustered, and she wanted to scold herself for even feeling remotely this way towards the man who she barely knew.

"I'm Weston Shepherd." He said, holding the calculator out to the relatively much shorter girl.

"Annie King." She said quietly while picking the calculator out of his hands.

"Annie, I don't mean to sound blunt, but would you like to grab a drink with me tonight?" Weston asked.

"Well, you're my TA. I don't think that would be completely appropriate. I actually think that it is written somewhere that, that would be a no-no." Anne replied to him, albeit slightly flirtatiously.

"Well, I'm only a substitute TA, so I don't think it would be that inappropriate." Weston countered, the small smirk she had missed from before making an appearance once more.

"Well, I'd say you've made a good argument, but I'm going to have to stick with a no." Anniemumbled. She couldn't help but be wary of him. He was nothing like what she ever knew, but her past was still was haunting her.

"Well, have a good night then." Weston mumbled awkwardly as he shuffled back toward the front of the lecture hall.

She chose not to reply and instead just shook her head and walked out of the classroom in a slight state of shock.