It was the sound of her laughter that told him she was truly there. This wasn't just another phantom reminder of the woman he still loved so dearly haunting him in his waking hours, as much as she did in his dreams. In the moments just prior to this he would've told you that he had completely forgotten what it sounded like. But as he turned towards that tenulating cheer that tickled his senses,his entire being on high alert; he knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was her. It was a fact that ricoheted through his form and took up residence with a deep seated ache he had thought was long forgotten.
Standing there at the threshold of the classroom, a bag thrown over her shoulder, long brown hair cascading down her back, and her face lit up with a radiant glow. The smile on her lips made his heart stutter, faulting and falling right into the clutches of a crippling jealousy he hadn't known in years.
She was with another guy, and he was receiving her full undivided attention.
'What did he say that made her so amused?' He thought, his eyes darkening with an anger he had not known he was capable of anymore as the man she was with lent in for a hug that she happily reciprocated. The glower only simmered higher: boiling, as they separated and went in opposite directions. Even as she moved towards him, it seemed she only had eyes for this other man; and his jaw clenched with words left unsaid while he watched her watch him.
It wasn't until she reached the only other empty chair in the classroom: the one sitting directly behind him, that their eyes met.
The sparkle of happiness in her honey brown eyes, dimmed as an old pain: the kind you feel from an old wound that never healed properly, grew more apparent the longer that they stared at each other. Her brilliant smile succumbing to bewilderment.
"Oh." That one syllable fell from her plump lips, like her tan canvas bag slipped from her shoulder: unexpected, and quick; but his heart caught the word like her hand caught the strap as it descended: with a painful tug and a sudden sinking weight.
'Oh.' Of all the things he had fantasized about her saying to him the next time they met face to face. That one word struck him dead more suddenly than anything he could have imagined.
The taste of iron ran rampant on his taste buds as he swallowed his words of wonder back down a choking throat. "Oh." He offered in return, his tongue heavy with emotions that had nowhere left to go.
Her eyes flickered away briefly before returning with a burning wall of fire that charred him to his very core. He knew those eyes too well, he had brought them out of her so many times before. They were a harsh heat that seared anything in its wake like lava bubbling over from a volcano on the edge of eruption. This time it wasn't her wrath that scared him, but the way her eyes darkened and the fires cooled, her shoulders drooping in defeat as she finally sat down behind him.
"Hi." She offered quitely instead tucking some of her hair behind her ear; then she turned to her momentarily forgotten bag and began pulling her notes out for the lecture. How was she so good at disarming him with one syllable words, he wondered as she managed both greeting and dismissing him all at once.
He couldn't tear his greedy eyes away from the view of her before him as she went about setting her things up on the long desk in between them. They drank and devoured their full of her taking in her full bust hidden behind a deep green t-shirt, and the round of her hips tucked snuggly in her blue jeans. Insatiable as ever till her phone buzzed and his eyes only just caught the name on her screen before she snatched it up.
'Liam with a silly face emoji and hearts...'
She took a moment to read the message, before she looked once more over at the man she had walked in with. Flashing him another one of her breath taking smiles, and rolled her eyes.
He knew then that making the decision to return to this school was going to be a mistake he'd carry with him all the way to hell. Because while his heart was still hers he was certain her heart was no longer his.