After too many hours had vanished and I’d wasted a sufficient amount of my time, I realized I had to gather up my pity and save face while no one knew what I’d done. I composed myself and stood from the grass, already realizing I had to let go of the hold he had on me, and slowly allowing it to fade away. I rose and began walking towards the library that enclosed the south side of the quad, detailing a mental checklist of the books I needed and trying with every ounce of my will to forget the mysterious man who'd been dropped into my perfectly boring life. Just as the shadow cast by the top of the building engulfed me and dropped the temperature at least ten degrees, I blinked for a moment and clumsily crashed into another student crossing my path.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” I said, reaching out for the person’s shoulder to balance us both.
“I’m not,” a deep, enveloping, almost feral voice rumbled out and wrapped around me. I could’ve sworn if I wasn’t as close as I was, his voice would’ve been inaudible to me. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and my heart began beating quickly. After a few moments of fear mixed with irrational desire spreading through my bones, I gradually lifted my head to scan this stranger’s face, only to be looking directly into the eyes of my mystery soul mate.
My breath instantly caught in my throat and any ideas I'd previously had of forgetting this man vanished as if I'd never even thought them. Almost involuntarily, my arm began to rise, my hand ready to touch this gorgeous creature. The urgency that washed over me, to touch him, get to know him, feel him… it was as if this opportunity would disappear if I didn’t grasp onto it right here and now. I tried reasoning with my reactions, using my uncanny internal wit and sarcasm against my own thoughts, trying to joke that this was some crazy dream that I'd been so engrossed in that it was like a spin-off of Inception. All I had to do was initiate a "kick" and wake myself up. However, as much as I tried convincing myself this wasn't real, I softly blurted out, "I've been waiting for you," completely stunned by my pointed honesty.
"I'm sorry it took me so long," he responded almost instantly, staring me down with so much intensity I felt as if I'd melt under his gaze.
When my hand made contact with his cheek, an instant pang of recognition burst through my body, like a violent déjà vu, and I instantly felt sad. It was an odd sensation and it seemed to be written all over his features as well. I tried to make sense of what was happening and the best I could come up with, though absurd, brought me back to the idea of soul mates. If he was mine, perhaps we'd been parted and this reunion, though joyous and overwhelming, was sad because who knows how long our souls had been searching for one another. I internally shook my head at this insanity and instead returned my attention back to the stranger. He scanned me with his dark eyes, searching for explanation and understanding. Up close, the previous assumptions I'd had of him, being a poser vintage-lover in a male-model's body wasn't all that off, but something about him made him unique and genuine in ways I didn't even know that I was able to decipher. He quickly reached up and gripped onto my wrist, the same urgency I was feeling evident in his movements. Without a word he yanked my hand down from his face, but instead of flinging my arm away, even though just the thought of that sickened me deeply, he turned with me still in his grasp and pulled me toward the library entrance.
“Wh-where are you taking me?” I managed to question in a whisper, because though I was overwhelmed with unfamiliar emotions, I wasn’t scared, just curious.
“Just… inside. Somewhere more private.”
“Okay.”
Once we got inside, he loosened his grip on my wrist and moved his fingers to intertwine with mine. As irrational as it sounded, his hand fit within mine perfectly, almost as if we were molded and broken apart from one another. I gripped onto him, desperate to comprehend his persistence and eager to absorb every drop of his sweat permeating my hand. Part of me was afraid for the reaction we were having to one another; this was anything but normal. But a deeper part of me, one that screamed at my rationality to shut the hell up, it was swelling inside me, urging me to consume him entirely. I realized how insane and utterly animalistic it sounded, but I was frenzied in the most overpoweringly amazing way.
Before I had a chance to even comprehend it, this man yanked me into the secluded men’s bathroom in the back of the first floor. Under normal circumstances, I would be screaming, biting, kicking, clawing, or doing whatever I could to get the heck away from him and to safety, but he felt so familiar to me, like home.
“Anybody in here?” he hollered, his deep baritone echoing off the tiled walls.
After a few moments of silence, he dropped my wrist, reached around me to lock the deadbolt into place and then stepped back to take me in entirely.
“Okay,” he swallowed hard, “now… who the fuck are you?”
Part three, the final installment will be up probably tomorrow =) Come back for more!!!
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