*Patch
I smiled to myself and sat back into my chair. Just seeing the way she tensed at my words brought a smile to myself. She was rigid the rest of class, and rushed out after the bell, so I couldn't talk to her again. At lunch, I found a seat directly in her line of vision and let the fun begin again.
*Nora
I got my lunch and sat down next to Darren. He kissed me on the cheek and began talking to Tom about some upcoming concert.
"Babe, are you okay? You look like you just saw a ghost," Vee said, sitting down.
"What - Oh, I'm fine. Actually...That guy? The one from the diner Sunday?"
"Ooohh, Mr. Dark and Twisted? What about him?" Vee smirked and I regretted, not for the first time, telling her anything about him.
"He - never mind." I don't know why I didn't tell Vee that he knew our nickname for him, but I held back. I picked at my lunch, meeting dark eyes everytime I looked up. At this rate, I would never eat lunch again.
"Are you okay?" Darren whispered in my ear.
I felt tears prick in my eyes and was momentarily stunned. Why was I crying? What was happening to me?
"Yeah, I'm just gonna go to the bathroom real quick." I threw my uneaten lunch away and got a pass to the bathroom. Darren's emerald eyes were on me the whole way, matched by a pair the color of coal.
My breathing became shallow and tears were streaming down my face, blurring the white tiles of the floor. I stopped a moment to collect myself and leaned my head against the cool painted brick of the hallway. Why was I crying? There was no logical explanation; nothing happened that would elicit this response from me. Black eyes kept flashing across my mind and I felt my breath catch. I heard hesitant footsteps approaching behind me and straightened myself, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand.
"Nora?" I whipped around to meet smoldering, dark eyes that seemed to me memorizing my face.
"What do you want?" I didn't understand anything about Jev. We had never met, and yet he looked at me as if we had known each other all our lives. What was it about him that made me feel so unraveled? He just stared at me; studying my face for what seemed like an eternity.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he finally said, barely above a whisper.
"What?" I nearly shouted. "I don't think you're going to hurt me. That's-"
"But you do, don't you?" He said, cutting me off. I just stared at him, my mouth partly open from the shock of his words, and the shock that he was right. I was afraid of him, and a little part of me did think he might hurt me. But that didn't even make sense; I didn't know anything about him except his name. Looking into his eyes, I felt my breath catch again. The emotions passed through them so quickly, I couldn't be sure I read them correctly; uncertainty followed by sadness and a little bit of shame, finally landing on a look of desire.
"Nora, I-"
"Nora, is everything okay here?" I peeled my eyes off of Jev and saw Darren standing a few feet behind him. He was looking from me to Jev, tightening his hands into fists. I felt my cheeks turn to roses and glanced back at Jev; he was still staring at me with smoky eyes burning with desire. How had over conversation changed so drastically?
"I'm - I'm fine." I stuttered to Darren. He tightened his hands even more and glared at Jev before turning to me. "We should get back, lunch is almost over." I nodded and skirted around Jev, not daring to look back. We made our way back to our table. When I sat down, Vee gave me a look and I shook my head. How could I explain to her what happened if I didn't even know myself?
The rest of the day was a blur and I happily went to study hall, sitting in the corner away from everyone. I needed to figure out what was going on in my head, and being around people wouldn't help.
Who was Jev? He never went here, that much was clear. If he had gone to school with me before, I definitely would have noticed him. Where had he come from? And better yet, what did he want with me? I wasn't someone special; an average student who had a knack for drawing. So, why did he seem to be everywhere I was? I started getting a headache and it was clear I wasn't getting anywhere with all the questions and the few answers I possessed.
I sighed and pulled my sketch pad from my tattered bookbag. I put my pencil to the paper and felt all the anger and tension poor out of me as I began drawing. It took me a moment, but then it was obvious what I was drawing.
Dark eyes with eyelashes so long they casted shadows over his strong cheek bones stared back at me; the rest of his face angular except for his lips, which were plump, but set in a solid line; strong arms and what I could only imagine to be a solid stomach under a black tshirt. The clearing of a throat pulled me out of my drawing and I jumped a little. I looked up and Jev was standing in front of me, uncertainty in his eyes.
"Nora, I...I just wanted to apologize earlier, about the hallway. I didn't mean to make you upset." He looked a little sheepish when he was done talking. I gave him a slight nod. He sighed a little to himself and looked at his hands. "What are you drawing?" He asked me. My face flushed and I quickly shut my sketch pad.
"None of your business." I shot back, and instantly regretted the sharpness in my tone. His smirk made me feel less regrettful immediately.
"Understandable. I gotta say, I really like it when you're mad; you don't hold back."
"You don't know me well enough to know what I'm like when I'm angry."
"Maybe so, but-"
"Let me guess. We'll know all about each other soon, right?" It amazed me that not even five minutes ago the thought of Jev made my face flush. Now he made it flush with anger.
He let out a soft chuckle and looked up at my face. "Nora, this isn't-" The bell rang, cutting him off. I shoved my sketch pad in my bag and stood up, heading to the door.
"Nora." I stopped and looked back at Jev, raising my eyebrows in a question. He walked up to me, standing so close his breath tickled my face when he said, "You forgot your pencil." He said it in such a hushed whisper I had to strain my ears to hear him. He handed me my pencil, his fingertips brushing mine as he did it. He smiled a crooked smile and began walking away, stopping only to look back and say "See you tomorrow" at me. I stood there for at least five minutes, staring at the pencil in my hand. I was confused as to why my fingers weren't red from the shock they received when Jev's touched them.
