I sat frozen, surprised that he had spoken and wondering if he had addressed me or somebody else. "Hello" he repeated slowly as if talking to an imbecile. I turned my head warily to face him and uttered my reply.

"Hey"

"I don't think I've introduced myself. Maybe now is the time for it." His silky voice echoed through my ears and imprinted itself on my brain. "I'm Dylan, it's a pleasure to meet you Emily."

Too shocked to speak I simply nodded my head. I flushed red with embarrassment, there was no reason for me to be so shy all of a sudden, however, he appeared to have that effect on me.

"You know my name?" It was the only thing that came to my mind and I wanted to hear his voice again.

"Everybody knows who you are" he stated matter-of-factly.

"Small school" I sighed.

I was about to ask about his family when our conversation was cut short as the teacher started off yet another lesson of Shakespeare and the rest of the hour consisted of silence between the two of us.

The next two months involved the same amount of small talk as the first day Dylan had spoken to me. He would greet me, ask how I was doing and talk about unimportant subjects - such as the weather, before shrinking into a deafly silence. I was becoming more and more interested in him and his life. He dressed in designer clothing and spoke using a large variety of old fashioned vocabulary. During our classes together he would stare at me through the corner of his eye and I would find myself staring back only I wouldn't be able to steel myself away from his penetrating gaze. Lunch consisted of me constantly looking across the room at a table where he sat alone; he didn't speak to anybody in school - except for the brief conversations we would have. He didn't eat very much if anything at all. Jake became increasingly upset with me because I'd stopped giving him my full attention and would often be found day dreaming.

Walking to class alone was a lot more peaceful. Jake had argued with me because of my daydreaming, I couldn't help it. He'd stormed off along with his friends in the dinner hall and so I was left to eat my food alone and now I had to walk alone too. I didn't mind too much, however I knew I needed to apologise to Jake. I wasn't being a very good friend lately. I turned the corner outside of the lunch room and bumped into something cold and hard. I stumbled backwards and would've landed on the floor if it wasn't for the strong arms that wrapped around my waist and pulled me up against a rock-like surface. I looked up to see Dylan. Worry was printed clear on his face only to be quickly replaced with wonder. We stood embraced for what felt like an eternity, his eyes didn't leave mine and my breath was caught in my lungs. The feel of his arms around me caused an electric current to pass through us until he muttered"you should be more careful" and unwilling released me.

I stood there open-mouthed, staring at him in shock. He waited patiently for me to compose myself as I took a deep breath.

"S-s-sorry" I whispered unintelligibly.

"Use your eyes next time." He grunted.

Anger rose through me "Why are you so damn rude?" I stared him straight in the eyes and he left. He sped away from where I was stood, causing me to gasp in surprise. The vanilla and lavender scent that he held had spilt from his clothes and lingered on my own. I was intoxicated by his presence.

Astonishingly Jake was forgotten for the rest of the day, he didn't meet me at the gates as he so often would and he didn't speak to me during chemistry. I couldn't get rid of the encounter I'd had with Dylan earlier that day.

Finally, when the bell rang announcing the end of a long surprising day, I rushed outside and sped to the gates to see if Jake would offer me a ride home like everyday. I couldn't see him anywhere but I decided to wait, after an hour of waiting it started thunder and rain. Rather than rush inside in an attempt to reach shelter, I pressed my back against the side of the gates and lifted my face into the storm. It felt nice, refreshing. An ice cold hand brushed my cheek causing me to jump and hit my head on the back of the fence which released an embarrassing reply from me "Fuck!" I rubbed my head and squinted my eyes in order to see who had touched me so closely. Dylan stared at me apologetically and quickly span me away from the gate.

"Sorry I should not have done that. I'm sorry" He took my hand and kisses the back of it softly. I couldn't grasp the rate of his mood swings and it was beginning to annoy me enormously.

"Why would you do that? Don't you know how weird that is?"

"I am truly sorry, I wasn't thinking. If you did not look so perfect I would not feel the need to touch you in order to make sure your not a figment of my imagination." He said the words at a normal pace. No trace of sarcasm or embarrassment in his voice. I immediately felt bad for lashing out at him.

"Just be careful next time. Usually people don't come up to me and touch me like that." He nodded sadly and stood staring at me for a few moments. I dropped my gaze to the floor; I didn't want to be trapped by his eyes again.

"Would you like me to drive you to your home?" The way his voice sounded so delicate and yet so masculine grabbed my attention.

"Sure" was the only word I could manage without having a heart attack. He lead the way, gesturing for me to follow.