Leading Her from the Darkness

CHAPTER 12

TW: Mild Violence

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The week passes rather slowly seeing as it's only Thursday and I constantly find myself counting down the days until Saturday. I'll admit that I am looking forward to my date with Dawson, but a part of me is also hesitant about committing to someone already. Back home, I had the habit of jumping from one shitty relationship to another, never really having time to myself and being single. I really wanted to experience the city on my own and the thought of having someone to answer to, no matter how charming he may be, scares the fucking shit out of me.

My classes today consisted of American Sign Language, Human Sexuality, Abnormal Psychology and The Science of Happiness. They are relatively easy classes for the most part. My goal for this semester is to explore different areas of subjects and try to find something that I am passionate about, since I had already taken the pre-requisite classes back at IUPUI my first year. What makes this even harder is that I have found a passion for everything I chose to enroll in this semester.

I get to work around 4:00 PM and it is relatively slow, so I go up front to introduce myself to the café employees up front. The two girls seem a little stand-offish, but they force small smiles and introduce themselves, anyway. I expected nothing less of their attitudes. It is part of the reason I moved here in the first place. It wasn't to go around making a bunch of friends, but I should at the very least know the names of my coworkers.

The girl with a short, black pixie-cut is the nicer of the two. Her name is Bobby. She is barely pushing 5 feet tall and sports a curvy figure. I notice quite a few facial piercings and a fair share of flowery tattoos that cover her arms and chest. I have a feeling she and I are more alike than she would like to think.

The second girl who I believe told me her name was Heather... I'm not quite sure because her snarky expression made me unintentionally block her out. She has stick-straight, medium length, platinum blonde hair. Right away I can tell she is one of those prissy, high-maintenance girls that I will not get along with.

As I am wrapping up this poor excuse of what some would call an introduction, a guy with messy light brown hair bursts through the door, clumsily slipping on his apron.

"Sorry, I'm late guys! My professor wouldn't shut the f-," his brown eyes land on me, halting his previous excuse. "You're new... Hey wait. Aren't you in my Psych class?" he asks, quickly looking me over.

I purse my lips, trying to think back to the class, but I honestly am the world's most oblivious human-being who has ever graced this planet. I avoid eye contact with people at all costs. I have always been that way for as long as I can remember. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's just because I hate connecting with another person long enough to be eventually let down by them.

"Uh... honestly, I'm not sure. I have a bad habit of blocking out my surroundings," I confess, feeling embarrassment work its way up my cheeks, but he just smiles at me warmly.

"I'm fairly positive you are. I'd remember your face anywhere. Not to sound weird or anything but most of the guys' attention in the class were focused on you," he chuckles under his breath, rubbing the back of his neck.

My eyes widen in shock. His admission causes my pink cheeks to redden further. He notices and allows his eyes to travel to my nametag that Charlie forced me to wear for the shop, against my many pleading protests.

"Well, it's nice to meet you officially, Austyn. I'm Graham. What position here do you work in?" he asks, reaching his hand out to meet my weak shake in return.