Chapter 3
7:30 came too early for Garfield, but once he remembered he had class with Raven, he hopped out of bed and got into his shower. Scrubbing extra good and putting on enough deodorant to make sure he never smelled bad. With a dab of cologne as well, he smelled delicious. Dressed to casually impress, he was ready to go.
"Okay. Don't be stupid. Pay attention to the lessons. She of all students should understand. You want to impress her, not push her away with your bad grades because you can't pay attention and keep her off your mind." He gave himself a pep talk in the bathroom mirror before going out the door to the car.
Arriving first again, he ran to his seat and prayed that she came in before someone else had taken her seat. Megan came in a few moments later and took her same seat as yesterday.
"You know," she began, "I bet she'd like it if you asked her to lunch one day."
Her comment threw Garfield off guard.
"Huh?"
Megan smiled and shook her head.
"Raven. I can tell you're crazy about her."
"Oh... Is it obvious?" He asked nervously.
"Yupp," she chuckled, "Clear as day."
Garfield rolled his eyes, "Fantastic."
As if on cue, Raven walked in the classroom and immediately gave Garfield a warming smile.
"Oh hey, funny seeing you here," he spoke as she walked behind his chair. Megan gave him a look as if she was saying, "Don't ever say that again."
He looked innocent and glanced away from her glare.
The professor entered the classroom and started going over the first lesson.
"So, I want you guys to answer all the Chapter 1 Questions and complete them with your table partner. This class is never solo, you'll always have a partner. You can either split the questions 50/50 and copy them down on one piece of paper and put both your names on it, or turn in two separate ones individually. I don't care, as long as you all know the material and do good on your tests. Bring those questions to class tomorrow and we'll go over them."
He dismissed the class and each student talked to their table partner. Garfield turned to Raven.
"So how would you want to do this? Would you like to meet up later?" He asked.
"Yeah, is there a certain place?"
Garfield heard Megan clear her throat, taking her hint.
"We could grab some lunch or something?" He offered. "I'll buy."
She smiled, "That sounds great. I get out of my last class of the day at 12:30, would that be okay to meet on the sundeck?"
"Absolutely! I guess I'll see you then?"
She nodded and stood up, "See you in a couple hours."
He watched her walk away and turned to Megan.
"Good job," she congratulated, "Now just don't fuck it up."
12:30 came and Garfield was already waiting on the sundeck at a table. He figured she'd be a little late since her class had just gotten out. He was goofing around on his phone until he smelled her come out the door. Standing up and being a gentleman, he pulled her chair out for her and then sat back down.
"How was your class?" He asked.
"It was pretty good. Apparently we're jumping right into spell casting," she replied.
"Wow, they're not going to have you study up first?"
She shrugged, "Guess not."
"I'm sure you'll do fine!" He reassured. "What would you like to eat?" He asked.
She grabbed one of the menus from the side of the table and looked it over.
"I guess I'll take the 4-Cheese Mac and Crispy Chicken with a water."
"Yes ma'am. I'll be right back." He had gotten up to place their order and came back a few minutes later with the food.
She noticed that he'd only gotten a salad.
"Are you one of those health nuts?" She teased.
"No," he chuckled, "I'm every animal in the kingdom. I'm not trying to become a cannibal."
She remembered back to yesterday when everyone in the class shared their super powers. He was a shape-shifter. Her eyes grew wide and she covered her gasp with her hands.
"I am so sorry, if it would've registered, I would've gotten something without meat."
He laughed, "Raven, it's perfectly fine. It doesn't bother me. Go ahead and eat. I want you to have a good time."
She gave in and began eating her food.
Once they finished their lunch, they tried to work on their questions, but the wind picked up and made it impossible to read out of the book.
"Do you know of another place we could go?" She asked, aggravated. He could already tell that she wasn't very pleasant whenever she got pissed off. He spoke to her very calmly.
"We can go anywhere you want. There's the library, the lobby, the student area, or hell we could even go back to my place. I'm just right down the road."
"Are you at the Heights?" She asked. He nodded.
"I am too," she smiled. "Let's go there."
They packed up their stuff and Raven followed Garfield to his apartment building.
Raven parked beside Garfield in the lot and he waited for her to get her bags out and come up to the side walk.
"So, I got lucky and am on the ground floor," he chuckled.
"I'm on the second floor, so it's not too bad," she replied. They walked up to his door and he unlocked the apartment.
Raven was astonished as to how clean he kept his place. The typical college male student's apartment was messy and disorganized, but not Garfield Logan. Spotless and very well kept.
"You have an amazing apartment," she awed.
"What do you mean?" He chuckled, "You live in the same complex."
"I know, but it's so... clean. I'm very impressed."
"Well, mom always said to keep a clean space to impress a woman."
"She sounds like a very intelligent woman," Raven commented.
Garfield nodded, "She was."
Raven had realized what "was" meant.
"Garfield, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to," she placed a hand on his shoulder.
He shrugged, "It's cool. It happened so long ago."
She nodded, "I know the feeling of losing a parent."
He looked down to her face.
"My mother passed away a few years ago and my father- well, we'll just say that he's dead to me."
"Sounds like a rough childhood," he said.
"You have no idea."
"Well c'mon," he said leading her to the couch, "Let's get a start on these questions."
They sat down and took out their books.
Raven grabbed her pencil, "So, would you like to do 1-15 and I'll do 16-30?"
"Yeah, and then we can just staple them together."
Half an hour passed and they had finished their questions.
"Well, that was easy," Garfield noted, "Criminal Justice just seems like a lot of common sense."
"Yeah. Well, so far at least," she agreed.
"Do you have anything else going on today?" He questioned.
She took a moment to think, "No, I don't think so, why?"
"Well, if you wanted we could do something else? You know, something fun this time," he joked.
"We can do whatever, but I'm not a very spontaneous and out-there kind of person. If we could just do something kinda low-key?"
"Absolutely, Raven! Whatever you want to do!"
"Would you just want to watch a movie?" She suggested.
"Sure! Go pick out one," he pointed in the direction of his collection.
She grabbed one and gave it to him to pop in the Blu-Ray player.
"'Deadpool'?" He grinned, "I didn't know you liked this stuff."
"Yeah... I'm an 'in the closet comic nerd'. I'm actually pretty into all the superhero stuff, ironically."
"I think that's awesome," he replied coming back to the couch and sitting close to her.
"You want anything to drink?" He offered.
"Uhm, what do you have?"
He walked over to the fridge and opened it up, "Let's see, we got beer, soda, water, juice, and liquor. But I don't think you want that," he laughed.
"Actually, a screwdriver sounds pretty good right now," she blushed.
"Alright," he shrugged, "I can do that."
He made her drink and took a beer for himself.
"Thank you," she sweetly said.
"No problem. Just hope I made it okay. Not too much of one thing?"
She took a sip to try, "No, it's perfect."
"Good, good."
About 30 minutes into the movie he leaned up from his spot and took a sip of his beer. When he sat back, he placed on hand on her knee and began caressing it. She leaned her head onto his shoulder. He looked over to her.
"You good, homie?"
She chuckled, "Yes I'm fine."
She took a quiet, deep breath, "Hey, can I tell you something?"
He turned his body and attention to her, "Of course. What's up?"
"Well, it's just that you know I'm an empath, right?"
He nodded.
"And, it means that I can feel others and even enter their minds. I'm still learning how to control the whole 'other people's emotions' thing and well, I kinda picked up yesterday, that you were nervous and anxious around me."
He sighed, "I figured you'd probably figure it out."
"Figure what out?" She hesitantly asked.
"Raven, when a guy is nervous around a very beautiful girl, it means that they like them."
She smiled and blushed, "But you barely know me."
"And that's why I keep trying to talk to you. I want to know more about you."
"I have a question," she began, "How can you say you like me just by looking at me? I could've been the bitchiest girl out there and you had already had a crush on me."
"You're right," he admitted, "And that has happened before, but I could just tell that you were as beautiful on the inside as you are on the outside."
"But how?" She asked.
He reclined back in the couch, "There's a whole lot of animal instincts that mankind doesn't know about.
She grinned, "So you can be any animal you want?"
"Mhm." He morphed into a cute little puppy dog and jumped in her lap attacking her face with kisses.
She laughed away as he licked her face all over.
"Stop it," she got out between laughs, "I don't know where your tongue has been."
He morphed back and sat next to her again, "I'll tell you this, absolutely nowhere," he chuckled.
"You haven't been kissing all these girls around here that want you?"
"Nope," he quickly pecked her cheek, "Just you."
The kiss caught her off guard and she was shocked.
She blushed, "You know, that was probably the smoothest way I have ever gotten a kiss."
"Pfft. That's nothing, but you have to kiss me next," he asserted.
She cocked an eyebrow, "Uh huh. Well, maybe when you've earned it," she teased as she stood up.
"Where are you going?" He eagerly asked.
"I should probably get back to my kitten."
"Okay, well as long as I didn't scare you away," he said.
"No," she chuckled, "But I guess I'll see you tomorrow."
He stood up and went for a hug.
She gave him what he wanted, "And thank you for the drink. I had a good time."
"Sure thing, Raven." He picked up her bag walked her to the door letting her out, following her behind.
She unlocked her car and he placed the bag on the passenger side.
"Well, thank you for being a gentleman and helping me to my car," she smiled.
"It's just common courtesy."
He opened the driver's door for her as she popped him a quick kiss on the cheek.
"You earned that one. And now you have to kiss me next," she winked.