Book 1: Beyond Me and You

Follow Me

"Great. That means we're friends." he says with a smile plastered on his face. His green eyes are piercing right through mine, his stare is too intense to keep up so I look away. His presence is over powering, making it difficult not to notice him.

I've only ever seen him while he was in the driver's seat of his car but even then I couldn't get a good look at him except for his emerald green eyes. Looking at him now, he seems to be more intimidating than he was that night when he picked me up. Being caught up in thoughts I didn't notice that I was staring at him and he was staring right back once again. I feel the heat rush up to my cheeks and quickly turn on the heels of my feet walking fast as I can in the other direction. It's only us two in the hallway and I can hear his footsteps close behind me.

"Can you stop following me?" I say as I keep walking towards my class.

"Nope" Nathan says as he puts an emphasis on the 'p.' I stop walking and instantly feel his body collide with mine causing me to bounce forward but he manages to grab onto my arm. "Seriously you have to stop doing that."

"What's your first class?" I ask bluntly.

"Um.." he hums as he opens up a folded sheet of paper. "Spanish." Just my luck, we had to have the same class.

"Follow me" I say as I begin to walk again.

"Oh so now you want me to follow you?"

"Shut up." I say as I lead him to our first class.

After our first class is over I notice that Nathan is waiting for me by the door. He leans on the door frame leaving enough space for the other students to leave. I notice as girls walk by him and do that flirty laugh but his gaze remains fixed on me. His gaze is intense and once again I can feel my cheeks on fire. I quickly look away and pick up my stuff before I walk over to him.

"What's your next class?" I ask while I look out the door unable to look at him afraid that he'll see my red face.

"Film studies?" he says but it sounds more like a question.

"Let me see that" I say as I rip the paper out of his hands. Quickly looking it over I come to the realization that we have the exact same schedule...

"How?" I unconsciously say out loud. "How do we have the same schedule?" My eyes are wide in shock, with a bit of fear, and a tad very very small pinch of excitement?

"I guess you're just that lucky. Now let's go" he grabs a hold of my hand and begins to pull me down the hallway.

"You don't even know where that class is!" I yell as I try my best to pull my hand out of his grasp. His abrupt stop causes me to bump into his muscular back. He slowly turns around with a sheepish smile. "C'mon" I say as I grab a hold of his hand and pull him in the right direction of the class.

He willingly follows me until we reach our film studies class. Mr. Smith was on his phone but he noticed as Nathan and I walked in.

"Late aren't we Larkin. And who is this?" he asks as he directs his attention to Nathan.

"I'm the new student. Nathan Stone" Nathan says introducing himself to Mr. Smith and the rest of the class.

"Okay um you two can sit in that pair of desks in the back corner" Mr. Smith says as he lazily points to an empty pair of seats.

"Sorry but I already have a-" I don't even get to finish my sentence when Mr. Smith shoots me a glare. Too afraid to finish my sentence I quietly make my way to the pair of desks in the back with Nathan following closely behind. Once we're seated, Mr. Smith decides to finally address the class.

"Okay. I want you all to write up twenty reviews by the end of the semester with a partner" he says without looking up from his phone. The class groans in annoyance at the fact that we have less than a month to finish all of the reviews.

Nathan nudges my arm and gives me a soft smile. He wants to be partners. Before I can say anything Caleb approaches my desk.

"A deal is a deal" he says as he looks at me completely ignoring Nathan. I take out the review from yesterday and hand it to him without saying another word. He calmly walks up to the front and hands Mr. Smith the review, but instead of going back to his desk he comes back to where I'm sitting. "Twenty more Larkin" he says coldly. I open my mouth to say something but Nathan beats me to it.

"She doesn't have to do anything" he scoffs. Caleb looks at him confused.

"What?"

"She's my partner now" Nathan says as he stands, Caleb is tall but Nathan beats him with an inch or two. "Do you understand?" he says with a low voice. Caleb opens his eyes in shock and nods in agreement before he walks away leaving me and Nathan alone in the back.

"What was that?" I ask confused at Nathan's sudden change in behavior. He was just giving me the softest smile I had ever seen and the next second he had an intimidating demeanor scarring off Caleb. I've known Caleb for a while and he's not one to back down just like that.

"He won't bother you anymore. I promise" he says with a smile.

The rest of the class was spent in silence as Nathan was silently scrolling through his phone and Caleb kept his distance from our side of the room. I couldn't help but replay the way Nathan looked Caleb. He seemed like a completely different person from the one I had bumped into in the hallway. As I catch a quick glimpse of Nathan focused on his phone I remember something. The way Nathan looked at Caleb was a similar facial expression to the one he had when got the phone call that night. But what could that mean?

My train of thoughts is interrupted by the sound of the bell ringing. Nathan nudges my arm and I quickly gather my stuff. Our next class went by fast and before I knew it, I found myself sitting at an empty table with Nathan. People stare in our direction but to be more specific they're looking at him. Girls walk by and whisper while other try to catch his attention.

"Who's this?" Vivi asks as she takes a seat next to me.

"Vivian this is Nathan, Nathan this is Vivian" I say as I introduce them. "He's new and we happen to have identical schedules"

Nathan glances at Vivi but quickly returns his eyes towards me. He has a habit of making me seem powerless against his stare. At first his stares would make me flustered but they've become comforting in an odd way. Vivi must've noticed because she loudly clears her voice.

"Have you seen Dean?" she asks as she plays with her pudding. The way she casually asks about him makes me shift uncomfortably in my seat.

"Um no sorry" My thoughts were quickly replaced with the memory of what happened last night.

"Alright. Well I'll see you later Lark. And I guess I'll see you around Nathan" she grabs her tray and makes her way out of the lunchroom.

"You okay?" Nathan asks softly. I look up at him and make eye contact but instead of his eyes seeming intimidating they're too busy searching mine for answers.

"Yeah. Everything is fine." I lie right to his face. He nods signaling he won't push it but his eyes say something else. They know I'm lying.