You're Mine

4: A Little Rumor

The day flew by rather quickly and I was pleasantly surprised by how my morning went thanks to Christian. He had me so distracted in every class so far. He set beside of me for our first couple of classes and then near me in the other. Every time I looked over at him, he was already looking at me. I would just laugh quietly because I was honestly stunned by the attention he was paying me and he would respond with something like, "you're so distracting," or, "I'm so sorry I can't help it." But other than his infatuation with me, he was very kind and helped me a lot with settling in on my first day. With each conversation we had or with each little joke or little touch, it seemed like we were growing fonder of each other.

Soon it would be time for lunch and I was dreading the concept of a social environment like that on my first day in the middle of the year. I tried not to let myself worry too much yet and I found myself in my least favorite class of all, economics. Christian encouraged me to sit right in front of him next to a girl named Alice and he encouraged her to show me the ropes. She had a bright face with beautiful complexion and long black hair. Alice seemed very approachable and kind so I was grateful that Christian gave me the opportunity to mingle with someone else for the first time since we sat down together this morning.

Our conversation truly started with my dislike for economics. "Wow, first day at a new school and I already hate economics as much as I did before," I mumbled to her.

"It's probably worse than you're thinking. this teacher is terrible," she said with a chuckle as I examined the teacher at the front of the room. He was young, maybe 26 or 27, and likely a newer teacher. But there was something off about him, apart from his short and muscular build, something in his eyes. As each student entered the room his eyes lingered over them before going to the next student.

"What's terrible about him?" I asked seriously.

"Well, for starters, he doesn't teach very much and he often makes a lot of us uncomfortable," she explained as she looked at me with her hazel eyes. "By the way, I'm Alice. Alice Dawson," she proclaimed, offering her hand for a handshake. "I'm assuming you're Rose Garner." she chuckled.

"Yes, how does everyone know?" I asked with a laugh.

"Well we don't get very many new students, especially in the beginning of the year. Not to mention, you've spent the morning with Christian, who everyone loves, so you've just had a lot of eyes on you. You're a pretty girl and you seem different than a lot of the people here," she said.

"Oh, well thank you."

"Not a problem, but I heard a little rumor about you that you should probably be aware is circulating," she started. Instantly I knew where this conversation was going. Christian had me so distracted I didn't even have time to be anxious about if people saw my reunion with James this morning. And it surprised me so much that it felt like my brain couldn't even process what had happened. "They are saying that you and James Connell kissed this morning in the hallway and it caught a lot of people off guard," she said, reminding me.

"Oh my gosh, that's true," I put my elbows on the desk and covered my face with my hands.

"What? What happened?"

"Well James is an old boyfriend of mine. My first love actually. He used to go to school with me and we were inseparable until he moved here. I didn't even know he lived here though, I just knew he lived somewhere in South Carolina," I defended myself. "He saw me this morning and we caught up for a moment then that happened just as I was about to walk into my first class."

"Wow, talk about small world."

"I mean seriously, what are the chances? That was crazy though, the way he kissed me like that," I said.