I should've known Brown Eyes would track me down eventually. He was persistent like that. I'd been trying to avoid him for the past five days and was, for the moment, quite successful in my endeavors. Until he appeared out of nowhere while I was heading for tutorial.
I mentally cursed my past self for letting him know I had Psych 101 at three-thirty on Tuesdays.
"God, you are one hard chick to track down. Where have you been for the past week?"
"I'm not a chick. I don't cheep," I mumbled lamely, trying to walk past him so that I could continue on my merry way. "Hey, can we have this conversation later?" Try never. "I have a class to get to."
"What's wrong?" Before I knew it, he had placed himself squarely in my path. And – dare I say it – he actually sounded a little angry and hurt. "Why are you not stalking me anymore?"
I was trying my hardest not to look up into his eyes. They would hypnotize me, I knew. I laughed, but it came out sounding a little false. "I'm not sure your girlfriend would be too pleased about that."
"What?" He sounded a little confused now, "I really don't think Irene would mind. She knows we're just friends."
Oh. "Con-congratulations," I managed to choke out in a fairly normal voice. "Guess you finally asked her, huh?"
"Yeah." His tone had lightened considerably. I could tell he was smiling. Just the thought of her made him smile. Man, this girl was good. "Thanks for that, by the way. You really kicked my ass into action." He laughed.
I bit my lip so hard I was sure there'd be teeth imprints by the time I was done. Here I was, head bowed and battling tears, and he had the nerve to thank me for his successful relationship?
In that moment, I hated him so damned much.
"You're welcome," I said, and tried to push past him again.
"Hey, what's the rush?" He grabbed me by the wrist, stopping my escape. "What's wrong? I just gave you the go-ahead for stalking me."
Gosh, why was he so persistent? Did my stalking give him an ego-boost or something? Was that why he wanted to keep me around? So that I could pump up his balloon of a male ego?
Thanks, but no thanks.
"Yeah, about that," I said, on a whim, "I've been meaning to tell you. I've found someone else to stalk, so I won't be bothering you anymore."
His grip on me fell away. "What?" His voice sounded odd all of a sudden.
"Yeah," I made to sound like I was giggling, even though I'd never felt less like it in my entire life. "You mean I forgot to tell you? He has the most amazing––" Oh, gosh, most amazing what? I could hardly talk about eyes again. I cast a panicked glance around and spotted some random guy with large white headphones... My savior. "––headphones. And he's a musician, isn't that cool?"
There was a small silence, and then, "Oh." The odd note in his voice had been replaced by sizzling anger. "So that's all I am to you? Some guy to entertain you for five, six weeks, until a cooler replacement comes along?"
"Out with the old, in with the new," I said loftily, knowing this would make him go away. And that was what I wanted. Right?
I could literally feel the disgust in his glare. Without another word, he turned and walked away, out of sight, out of my life.
I did an about-turn and went back the way I'd come from. I didn't feel like going to class anymore. I was a little sick from the heat, I supposed. The sun was shining particularly intensely today, after all. It had nothing to do with the crushing sensation in my heart. And the tears leaking down my cheeks were just an early symptom of some kind of heatstroke. I'd be fine after a few hours' rest.
Of course I would be.
