CHAPTER 2 #3
He smiled and looked over at her. She seemed so gentle, poised and elegant. There was something about her that was almost regal, her femininity just radiated from her. He agreed that she did not belong in a gross, old dorm surrounded by a bunch of rowdy and horny dudes.
“I live with my brother,” Tristan said, his eyes scanning the very dark road as he drove slowly through the neighborhood streets. “He said he wanted to keep an eye on me. He really doesn’t want me to get in any trouble here. He knows with one mistake and I’m out.”
“That’s really nice of him to do that,” she said with a smile. “Oh, it’s this one right here.”
She pointed out the window, and he slowly drove into the driveway.
The house was small but well kept. He could tell immediately that there were no men in this house.
The exterior decorations were nothing but flowers and wind chimes, and the curtains that hung in the large window were delicate lace with a floral pattern.
There was a soft amber light glowing inside, indicating that someone was home.
“Thanks for driving me,” Tessa said, bringing the strap of her bag over her shoulder.
“Let me walk you to the -”
“No, it’s okay,” she said quickly. “Really, my roommates are home, I’ll be fine.”
He sighed dejectedly and nodded his head.
“I had fun though,” she said immediately when she noticed his mood shift. She reached a gentle hand out and squeezed his. His eyes met hers and he smiled at her, squeezing her hand back.
“I’ll see you next week,” she said softly.
“Yeah, next week.”
He watched her heavenly figure slip out of his truck and walk towards her front door.
He kept his eyes fixed on her as she reached into her bag to find her house keys, and waited patiently until she found her way inside, and closed the door securely behind her.
He sighed and ran his hand over his face.
This was getting more difficult by the day.
Much to Tessa’s dismay, she found herself thinking about Tristan every day leading up to their next study session. She had fought with her own conscience multiple times, telling herself it would be the most idiotic thing she could ever do to fall for a football player. He was so not her type.
She went for artsy, brooding, mysterious guys.
And there was nothing artsy or mysterious or brooding about Tristan.
He was rough around the edges, loud, and annoyingly confident.
He was also the physical embodiment of an attractive man.
He was tall, unbelievably tall. He walked with a stride that would make any girl swoon.
He was talented at almost anything he tried, naturally athletic and physically commanding.
His jaw was sharp, his eyes a shade of green that was hypnotic and she swears they change color in the sunlight.
She shook her head to get out of her thoughts and looked back at herself in the mirror.
Each day that she spent more time with him, the more she felt her resolve slipping away.
And now here she was, sitting in the mirror attempting to make herself look pretty before they met up to study.
She decided to leave her hair curly, since he hadn’t seen the natural state of her blonde locks yet and she usually got rave compliments on it from guys.
She kept her make up light and natural but did decide to emphasize her eyes with a bit more mascara than she usually used and put a little bit of a dark brown shadow on the outer corner of her eyes.
It accentuated their foxlike shape and made the blue color of her irises pop.
She kept her clothing casual, but feminine.
Finally deciding to wear her favorite pair of jeans and a light blue top with a wedged sandal.
“What the fuck,” she whispered to herself as she stood alone in her room. “I am such an idiot.”
She chastised herself for spending even one second thinking any of this was a good idea or for even caring for one second about if he thought she was pretty.
She knew a guy like him would never want a girl like her.
She viewed herself as awkward, silly, and naive.
She knew she was pretty but also knew that the star football player for such a successful school could have literally any girl he wanted.
The fact that she let her mind even go there for one second made her feel ridiculous.
She looked at the time and realized that she was running late and did not have time to back out of whatever look she was trying to present to him, and she made her way towards campus and to the library.
Tristan began to get nervous as he sat in their usual study room waiting for Tessa.
It was now 6:15, and she was never late.
He bobbed his leg nervously up and down, mentally telling himself he would give her two more minutes before he starts to really worry and call her.
Thankfully, she burst through the door not even 30 seconds later, her blonde curls falling in a perfect mess down her back.
He stood at the sight of her, not even realizing it. He was just so relieved that she was okay, and goddamn she looked beautiful.
“Hi,” she said breathlessly, “Sorry I was running late from um, my last session ran long,” she said, lying straight through her teeth.
“It’s fine, I was just worried if you were okay,” he said gently, his hand reaching out to touch her forearm.
Her skin was so soft and warm under his rough fingers, and he pulled back immediately when he realized he was touching her.
“Sorry, um...you look like…really pretty,” he said, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck.
She realized immediately that he was nervous, which surprised her. He didn’t seem like the nervous type, especially regarding giving compliments.
“Oh thanks, yeah I uh, my hair,” she averted her gaze from him, pointing shyly to her hair.
“It’s so curly. Is that natural or do you..?”
“No this is my natural hair. I usually straighten it.”
“Wow,” he said, his green eyes growing dark with something she didn’t recognize and watched as they lingered on her golden locks before stopping to hold an intense gaze with her.
“You should wear it like that more often. It...it’s beautiful.
” What he really wanted to say was it’s sexy as fuck, hot, gorgeous, breathtaking, you’re so fucking pretty- but he obviously decided against it and took a seat at the table.
They carried on with their usual dance; discussing what the subject matter was in class that week, reading the assigned books together, and outlining his weekly essay on his laptop.
Everything was routine until Tristan looked up to see a figure looming on the other side of the large window that looked into the study room.
“Shit,” he said under his breath.
“What is it?” She looked up into his eyes and then followed his gaze, turning her body behind her, and seeing a very beautiful woman with short black hair and brown eyes standing there, shooting absolute daggers at her with her eyes.
Her arms were crossed, and her foot was tapping the ground angrily.
“Uh, do you know her?” Tessa asked, bringing her eyes back to Tristan who rolled his eyes and let out a long sigh.
“Unfortunately.”
The door swung open and the dark-haired siren stomped into the room.
“What the fuck?” she asked, throwing her hands on her hips.
“Are you following me or something?” Tristan asked, not event attempting to hide his annoyance.
“You keep conveniently showing up to where ever I am.”
“Who is this?” She asked, her eyes deep with anger scanning over Tessa’s angelic and confused face.
“We’re studying, and its none of your business anyway. Please leave.”
“Why haven’t you returned any of my calls?”
“Jesus Christ Veronica, please go away!”
Veronica. Tessa heard that name when his teammates had caught them at the diner together a few weeks ago. She looked at the beautiful woman in front of her and didn’t exactly feel intimidated, but definitely uncomfortable as well as a little annoyed.
“I’m uh...gonna go...” Tessa stood from her seat slowly, as not to draw too much attention to herself, and began packing her things away.
“Yeah, I think you should,” Veronica spat, her arms crossed aggressively over her chest.
“Fucking hell Veronica, enough!” Tristan stood suddenly, his large frame towering over Tessa. She had only ever seen happy and goofy Tristan. This was her first time seeing him upset or angry. She awkwardly looked between the two of them and took a few steps backwards towards the door.
“Yeah, I’m definitely leaving.” She quickly turned and walked out of the door.
She walked quickly, keeping her head down, trying to be as quiet as possible so she didn’t attract any attention from the other students in the library.
She thought she was in the clear once she ran through the library doors, but she heard his voice faintly behind her, calling her name.
Her brain was telling her to keep walking, whatever is going on in there is none of your business and doesn’t involve you, he’s not yours.
“Tessa wait!”
Her heart told her to stop, and her feet became frozen in place. She clutched the strap of her bag on her shoulder and took a deep breath before turning around slowly to see Tristan jogging towards her. He reached her and stopped in front of her, searching her eyes nervously.
“I’m sorry about that,” he said, his eyes dropping to the ground.
“It’s whatever. It’s really none of my business, I just really don’t want to be there while you and your girlfriend fight.”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” he said sternly. “She was but we’re not together anymore. I swear. She just can’t let it go and I don’t know what to do about it. I’ve tried to be nice and it’s just not working. I’m sorry I yelled at her in front of you. I’m just at my wits end.”
Tessa stood in the heavy silence, contemplating his words, wondering why he felt it necessary to explain any of this to her.
“Well, I hope she comes to her senses I guess,” she said after a few quiet moments, not really knowing what to say to him. “I’ll see you next week. We were pretty much at the end of the assignments you had anyway so. It’s really not a big deal. I’ll see you later.”
She turned on her heel to leave but was stopped by his very large hand gently grabbing her elbow.
She froze and looked down at his hand that held onto her, his thumb slowly caressing her soft skin.
He wanted to continue touching her; continue exploring her skin, her hair.
..her lips. He was somehow able to restrain himself and cleared his throat, the sound bringing her eyes up to his.
“Have you attended any of the football games?”
“Me?” She said with a sarcastic laugh. “No.”
“We’re playing LSU on Saturday. It’s a huge game.”
“Yeah, I heard. Goodluck,” she said with a smile.
“I want you to come.”
“You want me to come to the football game?” She couldn’t hide the surprised and slightly offended look on her face. “I don’t know one thing about football.”
“That’s okay,” he said, his smile sweet and understanding. “I bet you’d think it’s fun. There’s a section specifically for friends and family of players. I could get you and your roommates tickets.”
She thought for a few seconds and knew her roommates and best friends, Abigail and Amber, would absolutely kill her if they knew she turned down free football tickets. She looked up into his eyes and was surprised to see how eager he looked...almost desperate.
“Please?” He said, a small laugh escaping.
She took a deep breath and then stammered out her answer.
“Fuck, yeah, okay.”
“Hell yeah!” He said loudly, grabbing her small body and crashing it into his in an enthusiastic hug.
She couldn’t help but laugh at his energetic and infectious aura.
She also couldn’t help but notice how large, solid, and warm his body was against hers.
He pulled back from the hug and held her at arm’s length, his hands on her tiny shoulders.
“When I get home, I’ll send you the tickets to your email. You’re gonna love it Tess.”
“We’ll see,” she said giggling. She was very apprehensive and unsure about why he wanted her there so badly, or how out of place she’d feel in the stands of the huge stadium of Vanderbilt, cheering about a football game that she didn’t understand.
But she was willing to take a chance. She was willing to do anything to see him smile like that.