Page 38 of The Commons

“Go!” he says, and lets go of me.

Shaking, I instantly start walking toward the door.

Pesh begins to head back to his Patron group.

“What the fu… fork.” Suzandrick turns to Lenon in disbelief, grabbing a fork and putting something in her mouth as though to control her emotions.

“What in the Commons just happened?” the other Patron whispers to her, but she swallows hard, slamming the fork down and ignoring him. He turns away from her, shock plain on his face. “Who was that girl?” he murmurs, looking through his tablet.

Lenon’s eyes stay on Pesh in a dark flare as he returns. “Okay… Pesh with the heat. What was that note?”

“You don’t want to know,” Pesh responds in a mutter, returning back to his tablet.

The other Patrons react with a forced smile. Lenon strokes his hair back and leaves. Pesh’s eyes shoot up.

I continue walking, overwhelmed. I honestly don’t know what just happened. I don’t know what I thought would happen, but I didn’t expect it to be that intense.

Shaking, I start the three mile walk to the O Library. When I am out of their sight, I take the note out and read it. It says: Meet me at the back of the O Library – P.

I don’t know what to do.

There is something about Pesh that fascinates and terrifies me. I don’t know. Maybe it is just me. Maybe I can see something that others cannot. All of a sudden, it hits me. It is kindness—a different kind of kindness. The kind that hides behind a mask when it does something nice, the kind that does not let its right hand know what its left hand is doing. Is he hiding something or is something more hiding in him?

Am I fooling myself? Am I telling myself that I need the information he has, but my emotions are really seeking an affection within his heart? I can’t say. But don’t tell that to my mind. My mind and my emotions absolutely cannot agree on anything, especially when it comes to Pesh.

I go to the O Library—I mean I’m already heading that way anyway. I make my way through the shelves of books and leave through the back door.

I see an area with tall trees. I look around, hearing nothing but the sound of the wind and birds chirping. Just as I close my eyes to listen to the tranquil sound of the birds, I feel a hand barely touch mine and I see Pesh’s back walking behind a tree. I follow him, sensing the secrecy of our meeting.

He leads me down a narrow path lined with leaves, behind a wall of grass and flowers. That’s where we come to a stop. I look away, not knowing what manner of meeting he intends this to be. Should I be thankful or curious or doubtful? Quickly, I look down. That’s the one thing I know to do by now—show respect.

“You don’t have to do that. Not here anyway.”

Slowly, I look up. His eyes are so beautiful in natural light, brown and golden and light green… He isn’t imposing. He isn’t overbearing. He isn’t as aggressive as when he kissed me or as passive as he was with the Patrons. In fact, he smiles with an invested and interested look and this scares me a thousand times more. Shantavia, you cannot trust him, he probably kisses a hundred girls a day.

“You know I had to do that.” His words cut into my thoughts. The choice of words again, had to?

I turn to him with inquisitive eyes.

“Kiss you, that is.”

“Should I be saying thank you?”

“I guess that’s up to you.”

I want to ask him about The Seventh Zone. Or the study abroad again. If The Seventh Zone is really deadly and something that no one speaks of, I can’t just ask someone I don’t fully trust about it, especially someone who is as powerful as Pesh in The Commons.

I say, “So what? You have to put up this act that you’re mean in front of everyone?”

“No, I don’t do that. I’m in the hallway for one reason alone. To protect the students when I see fit.”

“And how many girls have you kissed in this protection?”

“No one.”

I turn to him with open eyes.

“Except you.” He draws near.