Chapter Eight

Unfortunately, I didn't bail like I wanted to, I stayed for ninety minutes and watched boys pass a ball around and occasionally put it in a net while people cheered and yelled. And throughput the game, nothing triggered my gag reflex more than watching number eight playing well and being all friendly with number six.

My personal brand of hell.

After the most excruciating ninety minutes of my life, the game finally ended and I was all but out of here, even as the cheers went on because the white and blue team won with Jason scoring two out of three goals. It was a team I suspected wasn't the Business and Accounting team if the looks of disappointment on some of mates' faces was any indication, that meant that Jason belonged to the STEM department.

I was out of my seat and far from the cheering fans before long, and I knew deep down that I should at least wait for Jason, or let him know I made it, but with how friendly he was being with number eight, I could tell that they were good friends, and I wanted no part of that. I was almost off the field when someone held my hand, stopping me. I turned around to see Jason with a disapproving look on his face. I sighed and turned to fully face him.

"Not even gonna say goodbye, or tell me that I played well, cus I say you sitting there from start to finish." He was right.

"I'm sorry." If there was one expression that bled from my face to my voice, it was shame. "That was wrong, I'm sorry."

He nodded at me, his eyes soft with understanding.

"You didn't like the game?" Even though it sounded somewhat like a question, it actually wasn't, but I answered anyway.

"No, I didn't. The same way I didn't like your friend." I added truthfully. "Number eight." I added just to specify.

He cocked a brow at me.

"Matt?" I didn't know his name, but I nodded either way.

"Why? Do you know him?" I felt like telling him the truth, so I did.

"Remember how you saw me this morning? Oh and thank you for the coffee, it helped..." He waved my thanks away like it was a fly disrupting his story. I chuckled at that.

"It was because of him, him and my roommate Sienna." At first he was confused until the pieces seemed to fall into place before his eyes.

"Oh! Oh my God! Wow!" He pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head.

"I'm sorry you had to witness that Rosette, Matt is dating Sienna...I didn't even know she was your roomie."

I scoffed.

"I didn't just witness that, I had to endure it till daybreak. And the worst part it, I know she did it on purpose. I just know it." I fumed.

"I'm so sorry about that. You know what, next time they do that, just come over to my place. You can spend the night there or even just hang out till it's safe to go back." Now it was my turn to cock a brow.

"I may not know much, but even I know that that is a no-no. You don't spend the night in a boy's room and expect nothing bad to happen." I folded my arms over my chest, criticizing him with my eyes. He wasn't even bothered.

"Relax, I'm not that kind of guy, and even if I was, I'd be too afraid of dear old Felix to want to try anything funny with you." He visibly shuddered at the mention of Felix and I couldn't help but laugh. Felix might be scary especially to most,but to me, he was mostly just a big teddy bear to me. I didn't say that to Jason though, I needed to keep his fear alive. Instead I hit a different wall.

"How can I be at your place when you're having your own roommate. I'm not going to..." He held a hand up, stopping me.

"You don't need to worry about that, because my roomie will not be in put room unless he can be at two places at once." Confusion is the only thing I felt.

"What?" He smiled knowingly but didn't answer, like he was waiting for me to realize how his roommate would always be away when Matt and Sienna were together.

"Can you just tell me, please?" I begged

"No please, you're gonna have to figure it out." I frowned

"I don't know, okay?! I don't know how he won't be around unless... "I trailed off, blinking.

"Is Matt your roommate?" He didn't answer, just laughed. And that was all the answer I needed. I facepalmed. "Unbelievable." I muttered. He just laughed harder. "Oh shut it, it wouldn't have killed you to just tell me in the beginning."

"I could have told you, but the look on your face..." He trailed off in laughter that had tears spilling from his eyes. I smiled at that, his laugh was infectious.

"I'm going to leave now, since you're too busy laughing." I said with false annoyance. Funny enough, even that didn't stop his laughter. And when he was finally done, he looked at me with a huge smile on his face, one that was near mine.

"The look on your face, it was worth it. Anyway, you wanna hang out later? There's an after party since we won."

"You planned an after party before you won the match? Does that even make sense?"

"Sometimes, you've just gotta have a little faith, and other times, we just need an excuse to party...like tonight. So, are you gonna come?" I thought about it for a moment, and even though I'd made it to the game despite my dislike for it, a party was way out of my comfort zone, so...

"Not this time, I've done one 'unlike me' thing, and that's enough for the day. I'm gonna study and then sleep. Hopefully without any moaning and groaning to ruin my night."

" Understandable. But thank you for coming to the game, especially since you're not a fan. It means a lot to me that you came."

"it wasn't so bad though, and you played really well, so that's something. "

"Why thank you, pretty lady. That's a really nice thing to say." He said bowing slightly. I laughed at that.

"Okay, I need to go now. So I guess I'll see you around then Jason." I smiled at him, but just as he was about to talk, a heavy hand rested on his shoulders. Cutting him off, bringing a frown to his face, as well as mine.

"Hey Jace, come on let's go! It's party time bro." Annoyance flared in Jason's features, and that was my cue to leave. I shot him a small smile and hastily left, because I caught sight of the face attached to arm, and Matt was no one I wanted to be around.

~~~

I'd had a long day at work, we had a few orders and I had to take care of them as well as the occasional person who dropped by to look for a book or place an order for the next book in a series.

Long story short, it was late and I was tired by the time I closed the shop at seven in the evening. I knew I shouldn't have stayed that late,but I found customers even came around at that time just because they didn't expect to find the shop open, and I made a sale or five before finally leaving. And if my rumbling stomach had anything to say about it, I wasn't going to get to the dorm without eating.

I went to a diner on the street to get my food, and just as I sat down, familiar black hair caught my attention. Dr. Alexander Wood who wanted to be called Alexander. As to what he was doing there and at that time, I had no clue. But he was standing there outside the window of the diner, and soon sat at one of the tables they had outside. I was curious and so sat watching him. Soon a waiter came to me and I gave him my order, then my eyes which had briefly strayed from Alexander to the waiter went back to Alexander only to find his seat empty. I craned my neck and looked around as far as I could from my seat but didn't find him anywhere.

For a moment,I wondered if my hunger had made me hallucinate and he hadn't even been there at all, but I decided not to go with that approach, so just sat assumed he must have left when I turned. There was no need for the dramatics.

My food came and I promptly dug in. Stuffing my mouth with food because it tasted absolutely splendid and I couldn't eat it fast enough.

"I see you really love your food." I almost choked from surprise, recognizing Alexander's voice immediately. I lifted my head up and took in his chocolatey eyes. Before I could string words together to form a coherent sentence, he sat before me.

"Fancy meeting you here, pretty flower. It's been a while." I swallowed the food in my mouth, drank some water and cleared my throat.

"My name is Rose, Dr. Alexander, and while it hasn't been so long since we'd last seen each other, it's nice seeing you here." I was proud of my voice for coming out all confident even though I didn't feel like that at the moment, not when my head has been buried in my food.

"You're determined not to call me Alexander, just Alexander." Precisely, at least not outside of my head.

I looked up and he had an amused smile on his face.

"Outside of your head, huh?" I'm pretty sure I paled.

"That was not supposed to come out of my mouth, and I don't know how it escaped." I pouted.

"Of course. If you'd locked the doors well enough, it wouldn't have escaped." I nodded in agreement muttering a yes.

"Why are you here though?"

"You mean besides stalking you?" I laughed.

"Yes, yes besides stalking me. Why are you here?" His smile faded slowly.

"I came looking for someone, but their not around today, so I had to leave, but as I was leaving, I saw you in the masses and just came to say hello."

"Oh okay, hello." I said. Now that made him laugh.

"Hello Rose." He smiled.

"Tell you what, I have to leave, I've got a meeting in the morning, so let's do this again later, is that possible, would you like that?" I didn't even hesitate.

"Yes please."