𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐎𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐭

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐱.

A U T U M N ' S  P O V

The teacher hands out art books to us and I again write my name, teachers name and the classroom number on it.

"Ok, class! You'll need to leave the first page blank because you'll be designing a grade 12 logo with a theme of your choice!" The teacher, who introduced herself as Mrs. Smith, says.

She then starts to take the register when the door slams open, causing a loud bang to echo off the wall, and in walks Grayson, ten minutes late.

"Mr. Miles, would you like to share with the class why you're ten minutes late?" Mrs. Smith questions.

"Yeah, I was busy," he says blankly.

"OI-OI!" Luke cheers to him.

Her face scrunches up in annoyance as she hands a book to him. "At the back next to, Autumn."
His head snaps to the back, to where I'm sitting.

He snatches the book off the teacher; strides over and sits himself on the stool. In the process, I get a wiff of his cologne and it's almost like a woody, cinnamon vanilla smell. I can't describe it, but holy shit, he smells so luscious.

"We'll be dammed, he doesn't complain about where he's sitting for the first time." The teacher mutters under her breath.

"Told ya he loves you," Maya whispers to me. My cheeks just heat up. Absolutely not.

I start to drift off and think about what happened last lesson, I can't believe I've been at this school for only an hour and I've been fucking touched. It's all my fault.

It's happened more than once to me, so it's definitely something to do with me which makes it my fault. Why does this always happen to me?

Is it because what I'm wearing? No, my outfit is covering up everything and not revealing. Did I give him the wrong idea?

Again, no. He came up to me and I kept telling him to stop. Even if I was giving him attention, that doesn't give him any right to touch me and carry on when I tell him to stop.

But it must be my fault, why else would he come to me?

Shit, I feel a panic attack coming.

I try to steady my breathing and not think about it. I nervously bounce my leg up and down and bite my nails, trying to stop the panic attack. I feel so disgusting and used.

Shut up, Autumn. People have had it way worse than you, and you're freaking out over this. You're pathetic.

I'm still bouncing my leg when I feel a warm hand come in contact with my thigh. I look down and see that Grayson has put his sexy ass hand on it and starts to rub his thumb back and forth in a soothing manner.

His hands are big and muscular, with some black and sliver rings on his fingers, and a silver chain bracelet on his wrist.

I turn to look at him but he's staring at the front of the class with the same cold, hard expression he usually has on his face. God, if looks could kill.

His feeling is somehow comforting, and it makes my panic attack go away and my leg stop bouncing. I look up to the teacher to pay attention, since I've been spaced out for the past 5 minutes.

Is this strange? Probably.

"So with that all said, turn to your next page and start painting!" Shit. Why is it when I don't pay attention for 5 minutes, I miss a whole essay?

Members of the class starts to get up and make their way to the back of the room to get paint, paint pots and equipment. I turn to Maya.

"Uh, what are we doing? I kinda spaced out, sorry."