Chapter 7-3

"I'm sorry." He paused. "But you won't have to worry about that here." With that, he spun around and began to exit the aisle, leaving me dumbfounded. What the heck did he mean by that? I ran to catch up to him. Man this guy was fast! "Wait. What do you mean?" My voice was breathless. Like I have said before, I am not at all an athletic type of girl. Never have been, never will. It would save me the trouble from paying any medical bills in the future. Suddenly, he stopped on his tracks and turned around to face me. I had not seen that coming so before my mind could even process his actions, I found myself slamming hard against his chest. Well this seems like déjà vu. He grabbed a hold of me, igniting sudden sparks that began to emanate between us. His eyes darkened in color, but I no longer felt intimidated by the sudden change. He pulled me closer against him, and I surprisingly found myself not fighting his grip. Instead, I took a small step forward to close any space that was still standing between us. My body molded perfectly against his as I gazed up at the face that seemed to haunt my mind since the second I met him. He leaned his head closer to mine, making it a little bit less difficult to stare at him due to his large size compared to mine. As he leaned closer, my breathing came out in heavy pants and I wouldn't be surprised if I was hyperventilating right about now. He tilted his head to the right, his lips brushing against my skin, igniting a fire that had me straining back a moan that was desperately fighting its way out of trembling lips. He stopped beside my ear, his breath making my skin tremble at the nape of my neck. Taking in a deep breath, his body relaxed against my own as he whispered softly against my ear, "just know that I'm here to protect you." I lifted up my eyebrow in question. This guy was just full of riddles today, wasn't he? Much to my disappointment, he pulled away just then, leaving an unwelcoming cold as he made his way to one of the nearby wooden tables. He sat down, placing the book I had given him earlier in front of him before looking up and motioning with his head for me to join him. Instead of obeying his command, I was left standing at the end of the aisle with a fast beating heart. I couldn't move. No matter how hard I tried to make myself walk towards him, my body wouldn't oblige. My mind was still racing about our heated encounter. Did he not feel the same sensation I did whenever we touched? After a few seconds of standing there, motionless, I found myself walking slowly to the seat in front of him. I sat down cautiously, avoiding making any eye contact once I felt his heavy gaze on me. It wasn't annoying, it was simply overbearing. Every time he looked at me that way, I felt self-conscious about myself, which is something I never cared about since I had entered the early stages of puberty. Why the sudden change? Of course, it was all because of him. I placed my hands on top of the table, intertwining my fingers as I stared down at them. There was a brief moment of silence before I asked quietly, "Why do you feel the need to protect me?" He didn't answer immediately, which made me look up at him. His face was expressionless, and much to my disappointment, so were his eyes. "I just feel the need to." "I can handle myself." My voice was a bit harsher than before. "It doesn't hurt knowing that someone wants to." "And just because they just 'feel the need to'?" I asked, making quotation marks in the air with my fingers. "I'm sorry Mr. Popular, but I have been doing pretty well on my own before you entered the picture." "What do you mean?" For some reason, his expression just made me snap. "Look, I know what you're doing. You may think I haven't seen it before, but I have been a victim countless of times. I don't know what the bet may be, but just tell your little buddies that you took me on a date or something; maybe even slept with me for all I care." I stood up, nearly making the chair behind me topple over. Turning around, I made my way back to my aisle to retrieve my backpack, hearing his footsteps close behind me. "Rocky, what are you even talking about?" His voice was laced with confusion and desperation, and I hated the way my body reacted as he said my nickname. I bit my bottom lip as I felt the tears begin to blur my vision. I didn't need this right now. The one guy I thought could possibly be different was just like the others. This is what I get for wishful thinking. I turned around, glaring at his large figure that was preventing me from exiting the aisle in peace. "I get it. Mess with the new girl who is a complete nerd, only to make her feel more humiliated than she's ever been." His eyes suddenly were filled with anguish. He reached out a hand towards me but I instinctively took a step back. "Rocky, I wasn't doing anything that-" "Of course you weren't! Mr. Popular is always the 'innocent' one and he never does anything wrong. For your information, I have enough humiliation and embarrassment from my previous schools to last me a lifetime. I don't need any more of this bull sh*t." Feeling a tear escape my eye, I took the chance to walk around him, relieved to find that he wasn't about to stop me. No matter how much it pained me to walk away from him now, I just couldn't face it anymore. Just the situation that I'm in made all the memories flood back into my mind. No matter how badly I tried to build a wall up that prevented any of these memories to come back to haunt me, here I was, my body shaking uncontrollably just because of this one guy I met only a week ago. For some reason, just the mere thought of him hurting me was a lot more painful than the others. As I reached the door, I felt the same electrical charge surge through my body as his hand gripped my arm. I tried to pull away, but I was no match for his strength. He pulled me back towards him as he reached out his other hand to turn my face so I could look at him; but I didn't dare allow him to do so. "Rocky....Rochelle look at me." Reluctantly, I turned back to him. The second my eyes met his own, his eyes seemed to mirror the same pain I was feeling inside. I shook my head, a sob escaping my throat. "Just leave me alone," I whispered. With that, he released his grip on me, allowing me to exit the library. As the doors shut closed behind me, the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch hour. As I made my way to my second English class, I couldn't help but fight the tear that escaped my left eye. This had to be the worst day of my life and I didn't even know why.