Chapter 8

After yesterday the space between me and Damon changed. He had made it clear he liked me, at least that was what his words meant to me.

He had left immediately after that, saying that he had an urgent matter to tend to. I missed him immediately he was gone, my heart tugging painfully with the need to be around him.

I liked him too if I was being honest with myself, from the moment I saw him at Mrs. Adams office right up till when I saw him at the river, in all his naked glory.

That was all I could think of as I walked back to my room and had a cold shower hoping to relief myself of the tension that was gradually taking over my body and turning me into a gooey mess every time I thought about him.

I’ve never wanted to go to class as much as this morning, in all my excitement of seeing him in class I had skipped breakfast and jogged all the way to class, my joy almost cut short when I saw Annabel, but I was determined to not let her ruin what I had going on for me.

I turned slightly to look at Damon for the thousandth time since he came into class, only to see that he was already staring at me unapologetic about it. He didn’t even look away when our eyes met; instead, he winked at me, and my eyes almost dropped.

Only him had the ability to leave me in a mess of nerves from all the way across the classroom. I coughed slightly and went back to the equations Mr. Tim had given us to solve.

They were super easy as I had learned them already before coming to the academy but knowing that Damon was still staring at me made it impossible for me to focus. The numbers swam into one another until it became a red heart.

I shook my head and tried again, willing myself to forget that Damon was there, and he was still watching but the more I tried to not think of him the more his wink replayed in my head. I sighed loudly; I was doomed!

“You have five minutes left” Mr. Tim said and that was all I needed to get back on track. I scribbled the answers for as fast as I could, being sure to make no mistakes on my solving. In less than the time Mr. Tim gave I was already done, my fingers shivering slightly from the sprint.

I relaxed into my seat and went over my solution, making sure there was no mistake anyway because Damon or not, I couldn’t fail math class.

With more time to kill I picked up my pen again and started drawing at the back of my answer booklet. My pencil formed whatever was in my mind on the paper and soon enough the little hearts took form and I shaded it in.

Next I drew the word D, which of course meant Damon and designed it instead, it would be weird for Mr. Tim to be marking my booklet and see his name scribbled at the back with lots of love drawings beside it.

Damon told me he wanted me but that was all, I wasn’t even sure if he was going to pursue a relationship with me or we’ll just leave it at staring whenever we saw each other.

Imagine the embarrassment if Mr. Tim were to call him and asked why I wrote his name all over the place, I’m not sure I would be able to show my face to him after that.

“Stop writing!” Mr. Tim called out from where he sat behind the desk. There was a loud hum in class as everyone dropped their pen on their desk. I looked over at Damon and sure enough he looked like he finished a long time ago.

“Annabel” Mr. Tim called and said girl slowly stood up from her seat which was in front of Damon, making a show of wiggling her hips in the process. I already felt the bitter taste in my mouth as she stood in front of me.

“Collect their booklets and bring them forward” Mr. Tim instructed.

“Okay sir” she said and started the task at hand. She turned to Damon first and bent towards him, her elbow on his locker which gave him the perfect view of her breast.

She drummed her fingers quietly on his desk to get his attention, but his eyes remained on me and for that I was grateful. She turned to see what he was looking at, when her gaze landed on me I froze up.

The change in her expression was clear, seconds ago she had this flirty smile that would get any guy tripping but right now she looked like she could actually murder me.

She picked his booklet before taking others except mine. She passed my corner again but didn’t take the booklet which made me understand that she was ignoring me on purpose.

I raised my hand as she dropped the booklets she collected on the table, “Excuse me sir” I said when Mr. Tim turned to me, “She didn’t take my booklet with her”

“Well if you want to submit it then do it yourself” Annabel said, her eyes blazing with anger making me visibly flinch. I was about to stand up when Mr. Tim spoke.

“Get her booklet” was all he said and with the stern look on his face Annabel got the message. She marched towards me and snatched the booklet from my table, I just prayed she didn’t tear it in the process.

She dropped it on the desk along with others and Mr. Tim hummed in approval. His eyes swept through my booklet and by the tense of his jaw I could tell he had seen my little hearts beating close to the letter D.

The rest of the class went in blur but that just made me sad because I’ll have to wait till tomorrow to see Damon again in class or maybe I could just hang at the river and maybe he’ll be there—swimming naked.

I put all my writing materials in my bag with a smile, leaving his presence was inevitable and I didn’t have it in me to go to him and suggest we hang outside of class. I zip up my bag with more force than was necessary.

I swing the strap over my shoulder and risk one glance at him. I could tell he had been watching me as he stood up and walked in my direction.

My heart pounded with each step that brought him closer to me, when he was finally standing beside my seat I lost it.

“What are you doing here?” I stuttered like the idiot I was, unable to form a coherent sentence whenever he was within a close proximity.

He didn’t answer, instead his tall form bent towards me, so his mouth was directly close to me ear, his cold breath fanning my ear and sending goosebumps all over my body.

“Meet me in the courtyard” was all he said before leaving with a wink. I watched him till he was out of the class before the smile broke out on my face.

He wanted me. He wants to see me outside of the classroom, he definitely wanted to hang with me and he was making that pretty clear. Leaving the class didn’t seem much like a bad thing anymore.

I stood up to follow him only to pushed back into my seat with so much force it knocked the breath out of me.

I looked up to see a fuming Annabel with a dangerous smirk on her face making me panic. I knew her type, she was one to bully others when she didn’t have her way and at the moment I was the victim of her loss and anger.

“What do you want?” I asked and I almost facepalmed when I stuttered, I did nothing wrong and should have nothing to fear.

“What did you do?” she yelled in my face. Okay, I definitely did something wrong. I braced myself for the abuse that was bound to follow, I have been in situations like this probably more times than I’d like to count.

“Do you think Damon is interested in you?” she yelled again. Oh! So that was the problem. “He used to look at me like that too, all the time!” she said, her voice cracking at the end.

“Not anymore” I said quietly, needing to remind her and myself that I was the one he had his eyes on now and definitely not her, not even when she pulled her slut move while collecting his answer booklet.

“What did you just say to me?” she screeched and grabbed my hair pulling it tightly, so much that it hurt, and tears started to pool at the corner of my eyes.

To be fair I shouldn’t have said that, that was insensitive of me “I’m sorry” I whispered, the pain at the back of my skull with every pressure that she applied.

“You’re sorry? You think sorry can fix anything?” she asked, shaking my head and making the tears spill over, “Who the hell do you even think you are!”

I wanted to answer -nobody, that was how I have felt my entire life, but I kept quiet. The last thing I needed was her gripping my hair tighter than it already was.

“Damon is freaking mine and you’re going to stay away! If I see him looking at you again you’re going to be dealing with more than just an injured scalp” she said but at this point I could barely hear her my vision was already growing blurry.

“Leave her alone” I heard a deep voice say, I turned to the door to see multiple images of Damon there.

The pressure on my scalp released immediately making my head slump onto my desk in pain as I closed my eyes and counted to ten.

“Damon I was just…” Annabel started saying but he cut her off.

“Just what? Hurting her? Over what, Me?” anger dripped from his voice as he spoke, threatening to tear down the walls of the classroom.

There was a buzz, and I knew then that other students had gathered to watch what was going on. I put my hair up after everything had become steady and looked at Damon so he wouldn’t do anything rash.

“This would be the last time you or anybody will put a finger on her” he roared, meeting the eyes of everyone present in order to drive his point home.

“If you touch her then you will have to deal with me and earth knows that I will not show mercy” he said, glaring at Annabel that was shaken with fear. I mean even I was afraid, and I wasn’t even at the receiving end of his anger.

“Apologize to her” he told Annabel who turned to me with a hesitant look on her face, “Apologize to her” he repeated, this time his voice was low and dangerous.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that” Annabel said, the words rushing out of her mouth with difficulty. Damon raised his brow at her, and she continued.

“It will never happen again” she finished, and Damon nodded. He walked to the front of the class, all eyes trained on him.

“I want to make an announcement” he said with an air of arrogance, like he owned the entire world, and nobody was going to do anything about it, and I would be lying if I said that it didn’t make him look any sexier.

“From today, Elizabeth is my girlfriend” he said, looking at me with a teasing smile that made my poor heart stop. What did he just say?