He Drove Her To It

The second time I saw him was a few days later. I had already sat through two extremely boring lectures and stayed up until the early hours of the morning working on my first essay that was due to be submitted the next day. You may be wondering why I was putting so much effort into something I hated with a passion. Well, you see, so many people do not have the opportunity to have an education and I was extremely lucky, so I worked my ass off. The late nights were proving to be difficult leaving me drained and surviving off of coffee. A lot of coffee. Everyday I made my way down to the local coffee shop to make use of their free wifi and constant supply of the liquid drug. The place was really welcoming with comfortable chairs and a relaxed ambiance, which probably wasn't the best aura to get me to work productively. The buzz from the coffee, however, certainly was.

I entered the building after my lecture, as I had been doing for the past few days, and ordered my coffee.
I ordered my usual, black with two sugars, and as soon as the coffee was in my hands I made my way over to the chair in the back of the room and got comfortable. Determined to finish the essay that day, I set up my computer and got straight down to business. I could feel somebody's eyes watching my every move but was too absorbed in my work to pay any real attention. It wasn't until they started to move towards me that I looked up from the dim computer screen.

It was him.

"That coffee is rather strong, I guess whatever you're working on is rather important." he spoke softly with a hint of laughter in his voice. I smiled back warily and unsure. "I imagined you to be a pumpkin spice latte type of girl..."

"What? No. If I'm gonna drink anything even remotely Christmassy it's going to be the candy cane coffee. You should try it... Maybe get it to go too," I needed to get rid of him, he was distracting me and he gave off an eerie, unnerving aura. There was something off about him, I just didn't know what.

"Nah, it's fine, I'll just sit with you... Don't worry, I won't disturb you, keep typing, I'll wait until you have finished." Raising an eyebrow I continued with my work. I was close to the end but writing the conclusion was incredibly difficult and it didn't help with his eyes following my every move.

After what must have been an hour, I finally finished my paper. He was still sat there too. I have to applaud him for that, he had determination, the least I could do was have a conversation with him.

"So," I spoke up, closing my laptop, "are you studying at the university?"

"No, I actually graduated last year, I own a bunch of businesses at the moment" he smirked at me, knowing that he had my attention for a while.

"Oh wow, that's impressive for someone that's only been out of university for a few months"

"Yeah, I guess, it's a family thing though so it was easier for me to get into it all..." he faded out, obviously not wishing to talk any more about it all, "how about you? What are you studying?"

"English."

"Not music? You were amazing when I saw you play, I thought you'd be into all that music and bands stuff."

"I wanted to join a band but my parents thought I should have a backup plan, so here I am. I need to focus on my studies first and then see what happens."

"Is it not your choi-"

"No... And it doesn't matter, it's getting late and I need to go..." I nodded to him and stood up, packing my stuff away. As I made my way out of the cafe he shouted a small 'bye'.

The walk to my second lecture was a bit of a blur. I hadn't eaten since breakfast but I didn't feel hungry. My mind was focused on him. On his eyes that were deep and mystifying, drawing you in until you got lost in them and yet there was a hardness behind this softness that stopped you from viewing his soul. His mouth and the way it tilted up more on one side than the other, creating the illusion of a constant smirk. His posture and how he was able to look commanding and intimidating, yet welcoming. His voice, smooth and soft but always interested, his words penetrated the soul. All of this caught me off guard, my heart was beating at an erratic rate and my mind was all over the place, I had to get him out of my head.

There was almost certainly something off with him but I couldn't put my finger on what it was. He had me exactly where he wanted and that terrified me to the bone. I couldn't fall for him and especially not this quickly, I had to hold back, keep my priorities in check and stay away from him. He was dangerous.

I reached the lecture hall faster than I expected, with about 10 minutes to spare. I must've been walking at a faster pace than usual with my thoughts being elsewhere. Being on him. Choosing my seat carefully in one of the centre rows (in order to not be noticed as much as I may do in the back and front) and started to unpack my stuff. It didn't take me long to realise that, in my haste when leaving the cafe, I had forgotten to pick up my laptop.

'Shit,' I muttered under my breath as I turned to run out of the room. I had ten minutes to get back to the cafe, pray my laptop hadn't been stolen, pick it up and return. Practically impossible, but I was going to try anyway. As I ran out of the building I ran straight into something, well someone, the force sending me flying onto the floor. 'Shit!' I muttered again, this time a little louder, as I tried to examine any possible damage the sudden contact with the floor may have caused.

"Mind your language," the soft voice of the person I collided with flowed through my ears, sending chills down my spine.

It was him.

I looked up at him, trying to avoid eye contact out of fear of becoming lost in them again. A smirk plastered his face as he offered a hand to help me up. "You left this behind at the cafe," laughter filled his voice as he handed me the laptop.

"Cheers," I replied, relief washing over me. That laptop was my life, it contained pictures, papers, demos and lyrics. If I had lost it, all of that work would've gone to waste.

I turned quickly to leave but he grabbed my arm. "Be careful next time or you might end up falling for me again," he laughed, winking, his eyes sparkled slightly as he did so. I threw two fingers up at him and ran inside, his laughter fading as our distance increased. He was right though, I was falling for him, more and more every time I saw him. My heart skipped a beat every time our eyes made contact. I knew right there and then what was going on, I just had to admit it to myself.

I was in love.