Convincing Amy (Amy, #1)

Chapter 21: Loved

Chapter Twenty-One 
LOVED

"Yes, yes, yes, I'm sure all your holidays were wonderful, but we have a lecture to get on with," Mr Moraan - Amy's least favourite lecturer - addressed the fifty students, his voice echoing throughout the lecture hall. Amy's smile faded and she opened her books, following along with Mr Moraan's explanations.

The surrounding voices hushed to a vague whisper, and soon enough, there were no sounds apart from Mr Moraan's booming voice, the scratching of pens and tapping of computer keys. There were a few coughs, sneezes and buzzing of phones, but nothing out of the ordinary - the lecture was just as monotonous as ever. Amy sighed.

She began doodling on her notepad whilst Mr Moraan repeated much information that Amy already knew. She felt her mind wandering - to Pippa, to Nick, to Allie, to Jackson, to her mum, to her family, to Donna, to Spencer, to Yani, and to Matthew. Only three days after New Year and Amy was still thinking about the events of that night. The memory of her first kiss with Oscar, the memories of her and TJ, and the things that her body felt when Matthew had kissed her. Her body had tingled, especially her lips, and she'd felt elated and joyous - much like she had when she was dating TJ.

Amy could now finally admit to herself that she'd been in love with Tyson Jenkins. Although she had thought it during the months of her relationship with him, the aftermath had caused her to forget anything she'd ever believed in and lock herself into a long, painful trance of denial. "I was never in love with him, it was just a high school fling," Amy had often told herself. But she could think differently now; she knew she'd been in love with TJ and felt proud of herself that she could admit that now. Amy had Matthew's kiss to thank for that seeing as it brought back feelings and emotions that she could clearly remember having felt with TJ.

On New Year's Day, Amy had felt emotions that she'd thought had been locked up years and years ago. Matthew's kiss had bubbled emotions of love, freedom, elation and beauty back into Amy's much-abused heart. It was these emotions that led Amy to believe, once again, that she had been in love with TJ. She no longer denied it, and it no longer hurt to admit and realise it. Amy felt that it was quite a step forward in a complete recovery from such horrific events in her teens.

The lecture dragged. Mr Moraan's voice was so deep, distant and boring that Amy could have fallen asleep. She didn't, though, but another student in Amy's row did fall asleep and was snoring quite loudly. It was strange that the people sitting beside him didn't wake him, but then again, those people probably wanted to sleep also.

When the hour was up, so was the lecture. People collected their books and filed out of the lecture hall whilst others stayed behind to talk with Mr Moraan. Amy would usually have been one to talk to her lecturers and ask them about specific things, but didn't anymore for some reason that was completely unknown to her. Maybe it was being at Yale in America instead of Monash in Australia. That didn't seem like a good enough reason to Amy, though, so the mystery remained unsolved.

Amy filed out of the hall and into the crowded halls before walking to her next lecture. This lecture would be with Ms Sprague and it was the only lecture Amy shared with Pippa. This greatly excited Amy as she had had hardly any time to talk to Pippa after her arrival on Saturday. The flight from Australia had obviously lagged her body clock and so Pippa had slept all of Sunday.

Dodging the people in the corridors, Amy arrived at her lext lecture five minutes early. She entered the hall to find many other people already seated. She spotted Pippa sitting in one of the front rows, a spare seat beside her. Pippa looked exhausted still, but she had a large take away coffee at her lips. Amy walked up the steps and along the row until she came to the empty seat beside Pippa.