Page 28 of Shattered Saint
I moved my arm when his fingers brushed against it. Yet I still shivered despite myself, hating the effect he still had on me.
"Would you quit it?" I snapped, turning away from him to focus on anything else. I’d never wished so much for a class to start in my life.
"Why, when this is so much fun?"
"Seriously, can you just leave me alone?” My anger was dripping from every word. I could see the smile on his face growing wider, confirming how much he was enjoying this.
"I could, but now that I know that we share a class together, I can’t resist.”
I glared at him, wishing it was okay for me to slap the smile off his face.
Thankfully, my prayers were answered as Dr. Chen walked into the room. “We have a couple of minutes before we need to start, so settle down and then we’ll begin.”
Today we were supposed to be learning about the major schools of thought, including behaviorism, psychoanalysis, and humanism. I was excited to learn more about them, but with Easton distracting me, I wasn’t sure how much I would retain.
A light breeze came through the open window closest to me and I shivered involuntarily.
"Cold?" he leaned over and whispered. "All you needed to do was ask me to keep you warm."
"Do you ever shut up?" I asked as my cheeks became warm due to anger and embarrassment. I hated how easily he could cause me to feel this way.
He muttered something under his breath that I didn’t catch, and I didn’t bother to ask him to repeat what he said. Dr. Chen started her lesson and I forced myself to pay extra attention to what was going on because it meant I was ignoring Easton.
I made sure to take as many notes as possible, with as much detail as I could. Not only would it help me when I was studying, but it helped me focus on ignoring Easton.
Speaking of, he tried to get my attention several times and it made me wonder if I’d been transported back to high school. When I didn’t acknowledge him, he finally turned away. While I wasn’t sure what he was doing, I hoped he was paying attention to what Dr. Chen was teaching.
But I knew that was a lie.
I could feel his eyes on me, burning a hole through me. It reminded me of how I knew he was staring at me when I walked away from him in Nash’s apartment. His gaze scorched my soul then. Now he was setting a blaze within me, but it wasn’t driven by hurt.
Not this time.
I glanced at Easton and found him looking at me, obviously not paying attention to our lecture. It was then that I made a promise to myself.
This ended today.
I needed to stay calm right now because causing a scene wouldn’t work. It would only encourage Easton to act more like a dick. No, I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of realizing he was driving me over the edge and definitely not in a good way.
I did my best to focus on what was being taught even as the tension in my stomach grew. I didn’t want to have this confrontation, but if it would bring me peace in the end, it was well worth it.
I just needed to ignore him until the end of class.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that he was trying to get my attention, but I refused to give in.
When Dr. Chen dismissed us, I turned to Easton and asked, “Do you have a second to talk?”
“I do,” he replied as he was shoving his things into his bag.
I quickly hurried to do the same because I wanted to get this over and done with. I looked up as I was zippering my bag shut and saw him leaning on the desk he’d just occupied, with his arms crossed over his chest. He was pretending like he was looking out the window, but I knew his attention was completely focused on me.
I walked away from him and toward the exit without another word. I didn’t need to look behind me to know he was following because I could feel his presence. It took about a minute to find an empty classroom, but once I did, I opened the door and turned on the lights. Easton shut the door behind him and turned to face me.
The smug look on his face made me want to snap, but I took a deep breath to maintain my cool. “What do you want from me, Easton?”
“What do you mean, ‘what do I want?’”
I gritted my teeth with my lips closed before I loosened my jaw. “You know exactly what I mean. We haven’t had a real conversation in years, and now you want to pretend like it’s cool for you to be teasing and mocking me. I won’t stand for it.”
