Boundless

Life Imitates Art

The morning's encounter had not escaped my mind that entire day. I was especially displeased when "Chase Caulfield" walked into my sixth period Art class. His superior aura was as intact as it had been hours ago and his dammed sunglasses were still covering his eyes.

"Oh, my god," A girl named Tessa called out obnoxiously when she saw him. "I hope he's here to model for our next anatomy art project."

The whole class erupted into laughter, except for me and Chase. As if he hadn't even heard the outburst, he calmly walked over to the teacher's desk and handed him a note. The teacher motioned for him to sit down in an empty seat across the room from mine. He nodded, but instead of going to that side of the room, he walked straight over to me. I straightened in my seat, unsure of his intentions, but he didn't even look in my direction.

"What's your name?" He asked the girl that sat beside me.

"Leah," she said nervously, her cheeks heating.

"Leah, I'm going to need you to move to that seat, okay?" He asked, pointing to the seat the teacher had told him to sit. He was so calm, so... hypnotic. It was almost unsurprising when the girl obliged without objection.

I clenched my jaw as he sat beside me, a too-smug look on his handsome face.

"You haven't annoyed me enough for one day?" I asked between my teeth.

He looked at me, I couldn't see him do it, but I felt his eyes on my face, taking me in.

"Don't flatter yourself, Annabelle, the view's just better here." The way he stared so obviously at me made what he was implying clear.

I ignored his comment as well as his second "slip-up" with my name. Instead, I stared straight ahead, waiting for class to begin.

From the corner of my eyes, I saw Chase's lips quirk up and spotted something I certainly did not expect. I turned to him abruptly. "You have dimples?" I asked, incredulous.

His smirk vanished. "I don't know what you're talking about," he muttered.

I was going to challenge him on that, but the teacher, Mr. Peterson, decided to start talking right then. Unfortunately, I couldn't focus on whatever he was saying, not that I often did. Honestly, I tend to always have trouble focusing in class, but now that Chase was tapping his foot under his desk persistently, making me unable to concentrate, I felt the sudden intense need to be able to hear the lecture.

I glared at Chase, hoping he'd get the message, but he didn't even acknowledge me. He just lay back on his seat, looking bored. Growing more and more aggravated by the second, I started whispering his name. Something told me he could hear me even over the noise he was making, but he pretended he couldn't. I was considering throwing my notebook at his head when I realized something. He had come into the classroom wearing sunglasses- something that was strictly against the school's dress code and no one spoke up. Then, he sat where he wanted to, instead of obeying the teacher's orders, with no comment from Mr. Peterson. Now he was making a ridiculous amount of noise and I was the only one bothered by it?

I stared at him for a minute, trying to observe anything unusual about him. My most immediate and ridiculous suspicion was that he was some sort of supernatural creature with the power of hypnotism. Then I thought he may be a figment of my imagination, but remembered people had noticed when he walked in and were still staring at him now. I continued coming up with random, slightly insane explanations for why I thought he was so strange.

The sound of the school bell ringing knocked me out of my thought process and I looked around to see people rising and gathering their things. I didn't want to believe that I had spent the entire class period zoned out, thinking about Chase. I looked back at him to find him returning my stare through his dark shades.

"I guess I'll see you later," he said, standing. "Partner."

I was going to ask what he meant by that, but then he smiled. A huge, full out, dimpled smile that transformed his face entirely. He dropped it quickly, turned and walked away.

I stared after him, startled, dazzled, and slightly concerned he was insane.

He was planning something. And I wasn't going to like it.

A/N (Please Read):

As always, thanks to everyone who votes and comments! You guys are really helping motivate me to update and I very much appreciate it. If I'm making you impatient while you wait for an update, just send me a message to remind me and I'll try my best to get another chapter out. Next chapter coming soon—let's get the ball rolling on this one. To all my readers: please be aware that there are themes of sexuality in this story which will soon become more prevalent. The tags may contain spoilers but are indicative of what one can expect to see reading on. 

Also, my New Year's resolution is to update a chapter of one of three books every week. I'm anticipating that the weekly updates may take place on Friday afternoons, but I will let you know once I get into my semester and see what is most manageable. I am a full-time college student with two majors, a minor, and two jobs, but I'm dedicated to getting out at least a chapter a week! Thanks for all the support and if you're impatient waiting for an update, you may enjoy my other stories: The Devil's Plaything and Give in to Me. And, of course, a very happy New Year to you all!