As kids, Leah and Tanner hated each other. To this day, they still do. Tanner Cole is tall, dark, tattooed, and insanely attractive, though his ugly heart drowns all of this out to Leah. At eighteen years old, all Leah wants is to go off to college...
Tanner has tried calling me three times since I last saw him on Saturday, but I've ignored all of them. My new physical attraction towards him has taken me by surprise, and I have no idea what to make of it. But instead of facing it head-on, I've decided to take the easier option of burying my head in the sand. So far, I've managed to dodge him, but now that it's Monday morning, I have to be on campus to attend my classes, which runs the risk of running into him.
The rain is coming down heavily outside, and I can hear the raindrops pound on the roof like tiny beats on a drum. Fortunately, I knew about the forecast and wore my blue raincoat, but poor Ben is soaked to the skin and has water trickling off the ends of his hair, which drips onto his seat. I notice that the water has caused his curls to go flat and make his light hair much darker.
As I watch the other students gradually enter the room, I soon realize that a lot of them didn't know about the weather report either, as the majority of them walk into the class soaking wet with nothing but a T-shirt on. I hear a few of them grumble while they take their seats, knowing they'll have to spend the hour sitting in damp clothes.
"How was the party at the fraternity?" Ben asks while he wipes the water away from his forehead again.
I snort. "Um, I guess you could say it was eventful."
"How come?" Ben turns into his seat, giving me his full attention.
As I recount what happened at the frat house Friday night, Ben's face quickly changes from shock to concern.
"... The worst thing is there are still parts of the night that are a blur, but thankfully Zara and Tanner looked after me through the night," I finish.
"Sounds like you had an eventful evening," he tells me with raised eyebrows.
"But this Tanner sounds like he's a good guy. He must have liked you to go out of his way to help you," he surmises, winking.
My mouth goes slack. "No, no, he's just someone I know from home."
"Wait, you know him? What a small world," he muses.
"You can say that again," I respond wryly. "What about you, how was your weekend with Toby? Did he like the gig?" I ask to take the attention off me.
Ben instantly beams at the mention of his name. "He loved it. We got right to the front and sang to every song."
I chuckle at his comment before he carries on talking about the remainder of the weekend at his parents' house.
"Good morning class," Professor Williams announces as he walks into the room.
The room instantly hushes, and the teacher pulls up the PowerPoint for the lesson and dives in.
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When the lesson draws to a close, the sound of laptops snapping shut and students shuffling out of their seats spreads across the room. Ben lingers at the edge of the desk, waiting for me to put my books in my backpack. My phone buzzes on the table and I lift it up and see that I have an email from my next teacher. I open the email and see that Professor Lewis has canceled the class due to sickness. I'm gutted as we were going to start learning about how to diagnose mental disorders today.
