Chapter 3 Bouquet of grass
NAVIRA
I squeeze through the railing, ignoring the security guards shouting behind me as I sprint straight for him. My heart pounds so hard it almost drowns out the roaring crowd. Five steps away, I deliberately catch the toe of my sneaker against the rubber mat bordering the ice.
"Oh, shit."
I pitch forward with a dramatic gasp, throwing my arms out as if I'm desperately trying to stop myself from face-planting. It works.
Strong hands catch me before I hit the ice, and before he can realize what he's done, I hook my arms around his neck, jump, and lock my legs around his waist like a koala claiming its favorite tree.
I feel his whole body go stiff around me and the entire crowd that was just so loud turned entirely silent. Except for Bellamy, who was squealing holding his phone up recording the whole thing.
“Holy shit—”he started
“Don't” El cut him off before turning his attention to me.
And fuck me, this man’s grey eyes lock with mine and I literally forget what I intended to say as I take in his beauty. His sharp jawline, his messy black hair almost covering his eyes and his plump red lips. Oh fuck.
I've seen Elian Caldwell so many times than I can remember, stalked him, watched him from afar but never once gotten this close. Getting this close to him feels like staring into a stadium floodlight. Beautiful. Blinding. The kind of thing my eyes hated but refused to look away from.
“No fucking way” Bellamy's voice snap me out of my trance.
And it's like my brain goes through a short frenzy and I forget what I wanted to say, again.
“Do penguins have knees?” I rasp breathlessly still clinging to him like a koala to a tree.
His jaw tightness and he rolls his eyes and gives me a look like I'm clearly insane, because maybe I am.
“Get. Off.” he grit through his teeth.
“Oh” I squeak like a little mouse and drop down from him.
I don't even wait to see anything or say any more shit as I turn on my heel and head towards the exit as fast as I could.
I practiced this, I knew what to do when I had his attention, flirt a bit and try to convince him I'm totally head over heels for him. Only I lost myself and this stupid brain of mine fucked me up real bad.
The walk back to the dorm was one long excruciating one. Every phone pointed in my direction made me wonder if Bellamy had already uploaded the video, and every whisper sounded suspiciously like "Isn't that the girl who climbed Elian Caldwell?” But fuck if I care….my plan was already set in motion. He noticed me and that's just the beginning.
“Navi, are you alright?” Julie, my over caring roommate asked immediately a walked into my room.
“I'm fine” I lied as I walked to my bed and flung myself on it, landing face first, ignoring the judgemental look from my other roommate across the room.
“We warned you about him” Winnie finally said, not even allowing me to breathe first.
“I know” I groan from the mattress, but it comes out as a muffled sound a zombie would make.
“Seriously Navi, he's part of Alpha sigma, you should know not to mess with that guy” she adds seriously.
I scoff and lift myself from the bed, keeping my phone and bag aside, pulling the puck bunny sweatshirt over my head, then the shirk and throw on a large t-shirt, then I sit cross-legged and face the both of them.
They're sitting on Winnie's bed eating noodles with chopsticks like weirdos. The effect of watching too much Korean dramas I guess. They always do that and I've joined them maybe twice or more times than I can recall but I'm not a weirdo.
Julie sighs. "Alpha Sigma rules state that any member has the right to reject unwanted attention, and once they do, pursuing them any further is considered harassment."
I rub my temples before finishing the sentence with her, having heard it more times than I could count.
"...and Alpha Sigma doesn't tolerate harassment against its members."
"Exactly!" Julie points her chopstick at me.
“I know, I just…. I'm in love with him” I repeat for the hundredth time.
It's always the answer I give them when they bring it up, and they always do. It's our routine now, but today is more serious after the stunt I pulled at the rink.
Winnie sighs and drop her chopsticks neatly beside the bowl of noodles on her bedside table and look at me like a disappointed mother ready to lecture her kid. “Look at you, you look fucking ethereal. Guys are falling at your feet, you could bag anyone….anyone, but you choose to go for him” she scolds.
“No one is falling at my feet” I say defensively.
“What? Ben literally slipped the third pink note under our door today along with some creepy grass collection because he couldn't find the green flowers that you liked and thought grass or leaves could make a fine substitute” Julie joins.
Fucking Ben, I made it clear I wasn't interested in him and to push him away, I told him about the green flowers which I know he can't find but he brought a bouquet of grass, great.
“It's just him I want” I insist.
“Have you seen the video Bell posted on his IG?” Winnie snaps.
“What video?”
“The one of you jumping on El and clinging to him like your life depends on it” she says with her brow arched.
Oh, I almost forgot about that.
“He told you to get off him” Julie chirps in.
“No, he only said that because he didn't want me to get hurt, the ice is dangerous” I shot back.
“For fucks sake!” Winnie pinches the bridge of her nose and grabs her chopsticks aggressively going back to eating her noodles. Clearly giving up on me.
“Look, we can help you get over El, it's okay, I've been in love once” Julie says reassuringly.
“She's not in love, it's a crush”
“What would you possibly know about love?” Julie snaps at her slightly offended.
“I don't need to experience love, to have a say in it” Winnie defends.
“You do!”
I quietly head to the restroom leaving them to argue. Because when Julie and Winnie argues there's no stopping them, and trying to get in the middle of it gets you in trouble.
I reach for the serum bottle from the counter in front of the mirror and stare at it a second to long before uncapping it and putting a drop in each of my eyes quickly before dropping it and gripping the edge of the counter tightly as my eyes burn.
A whimper escapes my lips before I could stop it. I shut my eyes tight waiting for the torture to be over. After some excruciatingly long seconds, I open them and look in the mirror.
The light green almond eyes stare back at me through the mirror. I quickly cover the serum and keep it back in it place. I had to use a different bottle to avoid suspicion and not worry Winnie and Julie.
“Navi!” I hear Winnie call from the other side of the door.
“Coming!” I shout back.
“Be quick, another note just slipped past the door for you”
I almost groan but the next words that comes out from her mouth stops me.
“It's from Alpha sigma.”
