Gentle (adj.) mild in temperament or behavior;
Looking at him, one would not think of the young man as anything but an intimidating brute. Standing well over six feet with a muscular build almost unnatural, the brunette could easily pass for a man double the age of his sixteen years.
He stared down at her silently with the one dark colored eye that was not shielded behind his shaggy brown hair. She felt her throat tighten in nervousness as he took in the scene around him.
She could only imagine what was going through his mind as his eye shifted from one scattered piece of paper to the next. If only she had been paying attention, none of this would have happened! If she would have only slowed down as she rounded the corner she never would have bumped into the towering upperclassman. She silently cursed herself for being less aware of her surroundings.
She opened and closed her mouth a few times in an attempt to stutter out an apology. "I - I'm s-s-sorry Chad! I-I wasn't looking where I was going and -." Her eyes grew wide with surprise as the young man silently shook off her apology and stooped to gather her things.
"Y-y-you don't have to do that!" she shrieked. She reached out to grab the papers from his grasp but he moved away from her reach and finished collecting the heap of books and papers from the floor.
He only muttered one word as he straightened the papers in his grasp and handed them back to her in a neat pile, "Sorry." He stepped around her without another word and continued around the corner toward she could only assume was his classroom. She watched him go with wide eyes and a light pink hue darkening her face.
Before today she never would have thought of the young man as anything other than intimidating, someone she would not want to bother for even a spare pencil. However, during her brief run-in with the dark-skinned youth she saw something within him she had failed to see before: a certain gentleness behind the giant.
Smiling softly, the girl clutched her books and papers to her chest tight and spun on her heels to continue her journey to the library.
Kind or tender