It was hard for me to sleep at night for the first few weeks of the semester.
I didn't even know why - maybe it was the constant anxiety of the heavy workload that came with being at one of the most elite universities in the world. Maybe it was homesickness. Maybe it was because I always felt trapped, and not as free as I did back home. Maybe the thought of Jacob kept pestering me.
But whenever I felt like I couldn't sleep, I would text Alana, who'd usually stay up later than me. Sometimes I even crept into her dorm, and sometimes she came to mine.
Alana soon became my best friend. We would go everywhere together, exploring the beautiful city in which Yale was situated, doing homework together, talking for hours on end. She probably kept me from several mental breakdowns that I otherwise would've had.
And Jacob, I couldn't stop thinking about him when I was left to my own thoughts. I had only seen him around the campus once after that incident in the music center. As I was walking on the grounds to get to my next class, I glimpsed the tall, muscular, hair-combed-back figure of my nightmares.
I gave him a hard glare as he walked toward me.
'Hey, hey, Liv—' I tried to dodge him, but he grabbed my arm, twisting me to face him in the process. His grip was iron-tight.
'Let go of me, Jacob,' I hissed, scared that other students would walk by and see this drama unfolding.
'Please, you need to hear me out. I'm sorry about the other day, in the auditorium,' He apologised, looking sheepish.
All my anger towards him, from all those sleepless nights, was rising, rising. I wanted to yell at him, at his audacity to tease and treat me like this.
'No,' I said forcefully, shaking him off and stumbling backward a few steps in the process. 'Don't be sorry. Can we just pretend we've never even met?' I choked down a sob, and, hugging my books to my chest, turned my back towards him.
My first tear fell just as I began to run away. If I had stayed, I might have seen his guilt-stricken and concerned face.
YOU ARE READING
A Crowded Place
RomanceI breathed in his sweet cinnamon and autumnal scent, relishing in the way his lips moved with mine, his sensual touch as his hand moved to the small of my back. A euphoric symphony seemed to crescendo from the silence as we kissed, complemented by...
