Trepidation [Book 1]

Chapter 4: his eyes

"Francesca Salatino, if you don't get up this second, I will smother you with a pillow!" Matt threatens, and I whine, turning over in bed, only to be blinded by the flash from his phone.

"You did not!" I jump up to retrieve his phone.

"You get my phone when you are ready," he says and I pout, lying back down in my bed.

How has it already been a week since I arrived here? I don't want to attend classes yet.

"Get up," he slaps my legs and I kick him back.

"This isn't fair," I mutter.

"Early classes suck, I know, but you'll get through it."

After five minutes of procrastinating in the comforts of my own bed, I finally get up. With my hair brushed into a slicked-back ponytail and some basic makeup on, I walk out of the hall wearing a pair of black leggings and a cute, light blue top.

I take a seat at the island in our kitchen and lean on my elbows as I watch, "So chef, what's cooking?"

After breakfast, I set off and arrived for my class just in time, but the professor wasn't here yet. I climb the stairs, taking a seat in the middle row, and while I wait, I stick my earbuds in, keeping my music down low before I grab my sketch pad out from my bag.

I begin to doodle number eights, zoning out, entranced in what I'm drawing, something I'm not even sure on yet.

∞

The sudden noise of the door opening knocks me from my concentration, our professor finally making his appearance. I go to put my sketch pad away, but what stares back at me makes my heart jump. Immediately, I rip the page from my book before stuffing it to the bottom of my tote bag, an uneasy feeling left sitting with me.

His eyes. I drew his eyes.

My mind is a deeply confusing place and the more I think about this, the more I will spiral and receive a headache, so I leave the mystery of why I drew Ethan's eyes in the air for now and prepare to learn. As of right now, I know I love art, but I still don't know what I want to do as a career when college is over, so for my elective, I'm studying psychology, a fallback option, but something I also enjoy.

"Is this seat taken, damsel?" his voice asks and I quickly look up to be greeted by Ethan wearing a smile on his face. I briefly look at his whole appearance, white tee, black jeans, and a jacket over his right arm. I was correct, after all, he does in fact have a full left arm of tattoos.

"Not if you keep calling me that, no."

Ethan chuckles, taking the seat two spaces to my left, my bag on the seat separating us. Before grabbing a pen, I put my phone and earbuds away. I lean back, getting comfortable in these seats as our professor introduces himself to the class.

"So, you're taking psychology?" he whispers and I nod, biting on the lid of my pen, "Are you always this quiet?"

"In lectures, yes," I nod, before looking over at him, "So, are you taking this class because you don't know what else to do?"

"No, God, I know what I want to do, I've known what I've wanted to do for the majority of my life and I don't exactly need college to do it, but I guess a degree will come in handy if that all goes wrong," he says in a hushed tone, and I hum. Understandable.

Our conversation dies down from there, us both listening to our professor, getting on with what we needed to do and before I know it, he's dismissing us. I pack my stuff away and I'm out of there, on my way to have a quick power nap before my second class.

"Wait, Francesca," Ethan calls, jogging up from behind me.

I turn around, "Yeah?"

"What are you doing right now?"

"Talking to you," I answer smartly and he deadpans, "I'm going to go nap before I have my next class at eleven, I didn't sleep great last night."

"Okay, then... so, uh, I guess I'll see you around."

"Maybe," I smile; a genuine one.

~~~~~

A/N

Short chapter because it's rewritten and edited, just keep scrolling onto the next!

I really appreciate the support I'm getting on this book because I was very apprehensive about writing it to be quite honest with you. I really didn't know if people would read it nevertheless like it, and I'm so glad people are.

Question of the chapter:

What's your star sign? I'm a Capricorn :)

Thank you for reading! Please comment your thoughts, and vote by pressing the little star, and if you want, you can like follow me too. Xx

~B