I stared at him, my mouth agape. What was he doing here? English class, you idiot, I retorted back at myself.
"Ahem." The sound from the front of the classroom brought me out of my little freak out. I snickered to myself. Little, HAH. Bella, you're so funny. From the corner of my eye I saw Green Eyes turn to my direction. I quickly glanced at him and saw him chuckling. God, damn. So much for not embarrassing myself. I turned my attention back to the front of the room.
"My name is Professor Perry. Welcome to English 125. In this class, you all will be given the opportunity to dissect, analyze, hypothesize, and infer meaningful pieces of literature. I will tell you know that in this class, think-pair-share will be frequently utilized. This means that you will often be discussing and sharing your thoughts with another person next to you. With that said, please turn to said person. You will be getting to know your partners today—how they think, converse, etc. So if you find that you guys are not compatible, there will be time to switch partners, giving you no excuses in the future for 'internal conflicts.' Your conversation starters will be a very well-known work in academia, particularly in high school: Romeo and Juliet. You may now begin."
So typical, Romeo and Juliet. I groaned and laid my head on the desk. Could this day get any worse?
"What's wrong?" I heard Green Eyes asked. "You seemed like the type of girl who would thrive with this kind of book."
I turned to him, narrowing my eyes. "Don't even get me started."
He chuckled. "What's so bad about this story? Star-crossed lovers, forbidden love, forbidden fruit, angst, drama, comedy; the list can go on!"
"Yeah, it's entertaining if you enjoy a story about two spoiled kids who couldn't get what they wanted so they committed suicide," I scoffed. "I can think of so many better works with all of these elements."
He cocked an eyebrow and a smirk appeared. I'm not going to lie; he looked pretty good. "Oh, really? Try me."
I smiled. "The Awakening."
He laughed. The fucker laughed. "What? What's wrong with that?"
"Nothing, you're just amusing. But continue." I glared at him. 'Amusing?' What did he mean by that?
"The star-crossed lovers: Edna and freedom. They were never meant to be in that time period. No matter how many times she tried to grasp it—through swimming, rebelling, the affair—it always slipped away. And it wasn't until the ambiguous ending, that very last sentence, did she finally reach it. This story showed readers that even against the odds, you can reach your dreams." I paused before continuing, contemplating over what was about to come out next, and the full identity and the meaning of the word "dream." And then I breathed out, "That your dream can be one that is worth fighting for."
Almost immediately, he asked me one of the most confusing and hardest questions. "And what is your dream?"
I looked at him and pondered a bit. "To be honest, I have no idea."
He stared at me with what I can only describe to be awe. It was odd and unsettling being the reason for his unfaltering gaze, looking through me, at me, in me. That in itself was unnerving. "Well, what about you?" I asked, wanting the attention off of me. "What's your dream?"
He gave what seemed to be a relieved laugh. "After talking to you, I don't know anymore." He sighed and slumped a bit on his chair.
My eyes widened. What the hell was that supposed to mean? I tried wrapping my head around it but couldn't figure out what he meant.
"Should I feel insulted or complimented?" I asked, warily.
"It's a compliment," he smiled.
I waited for him to continue. When he didn't, I asked him to. "Can you elaborate?"
He shook his head. "Not now."
Truly enigmatic, this guy. "So after one meeting with a complete stranger, your dream is no longer vivid? How is that even possible?"
He gave me the lopsided smile. That dream did him no justice. "It is." He glanced at his phone and looked back up to me. "Lecture's over; time to go." He made a move to stand up.
Really? I glanced at my own. Surely enough it was 11:53. The one hour lecture was over and other students were already slithering through the auditorium and out the door. I began packing my belongings. "I really don't believe that in 50 minutes, a person can change what is supposed to be one of the most important aspects of who you are," I said as I stood up.
"Whether you believe it now doesn't matter; what does is when you look back in time and realize where that pivotal moment is when your perspective on life had broadened and deepened," he replied as we walked out of the hall. "In this case, as long as you realize the extent of how much you've grown, that's all there is to believe."
He left me speechless. I didn't expect him to say something so… insightful, especially to someone he had just met (well, formally).
"Very deep for a guy who was sleeping right before class," I snickered. "But in all seriousness, I never bothered to see it that way. I mean, we've done it before: reminisce about the things we've done in the past and realize how stupid we were. But pinpointing where the exact moment was, that was something I've never thought to do."
He laughed. "I know how you feel. It wasn't until recently that I realized this. But in all fairness, it's one of the things most of us have taken for granted. Well, for me, it was."
I shrugged. "What can I say? We have and are taking things for granted, whether we like to or not."
"Speaking of taking things for granted, we've been talking for over an hour and I still haven't asked your name," he smiled and stopped walking.
I laughed. "True, and we're walking to who knows where. Where are we?" I looked and saw in front of me a large field of grass embedded with large green trees. With the wind blowing, the rustling of leaves was the clearest sound in the area. Not many others were in sight. This was probably the closest I've been to nature, and it was peaceful.
"I think we're behind the School of Law building," he said. It makes sense. Being an English major, I've never ventured to this side of campus. I nodded to myself before realizing I forgot about his statement.
"You know, you still haven't asked."
"Huh?" He looked at me like I had two heads.
"Really, two minutes and you've already forgotten. Typical boys," I said, snickering.
He laughed. "Oh right! So may I have your name, future partner? That is if you find me worthy of being in your presence for the rest of the semester," he said, exaggeratedly I might add.
I placed my finger on my lips and pretended to think about it for a while. "I don't know, man… The first time I saw you today, you were sleeping right before class started. You might ruin my good streak AND my rep."
"Okay, okay. If you make me your partner, I promise I'll sleep early the night before class," he compromised.
"Deal! The name's Bella." I extended my hand. He looked at it and gave a lopsided chuckle. Have I mention that the dream did no justice? Because, God damn…
He took my hand into his. "Edward."