deux

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Elise," Rebekah heard herself mumbling although she couldn't be sure it was her. "Elise, turn your alarm off."

"Mmph," came the response.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Elise."

"Asdfjnrgoi."

Beep. Be-

Silence reigned for a few moments after the snooze button was hit. Far away, Rebekah could hear the sounds of other students waking up and shuffling around in the corridors. When she finally managed to open her eyes, she saw sunlight streaming through the blinds, creating a striped pattern on the floor.

"Elise?"

"Hm?"

"What time is our first class?"

"Nine." There was a brief pause before Elise added, "I think."

"What time is it now?" The words were hardly out of her mouth when Rebekah heard a shriek. She turned her head and realized that Elise had leapt out of bed and was currently scrambling to change out of her pyjamas. Her glasses were sitting on the edge of her nose and in critical danger of falling off, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Shit, Beck, we're gonna be late," Elise garbled. Rebekah watched her with mild amazement; that girl had gone from zero to hundred in about half a second. It was a wonder how she could find so much energy when she was still half-asleep. Slowly, Rebekah eased herself out of bed and rubbed her eyes. It felt too early to be panicking.

"Beck! I'm serious. It's five minutes to nine!" Elise was like a whirlwind, grabbing books and files and shoving them into a backpack whilst simultaneously trying to pull on some socks. She hopped past Rebekah, knocking over her bedside lamp as she went. "C'mon!"

Sighing, Rebekah picked up her pre-packed bag and a pair of sneakers. By the time she caught up to Elise, Elise was already halfway down the stairs. Her hair had been shoved into a messy bun atop her head and even though her jeans were crumpled and she was in a state of utter chaos, she still managed to look presentable. Rebekah grimaced at how unfair it was. Her black hair was still tangled and she was pretty sure that it looked like a rat's nest on her head.

"Oh good, you're here," Elise said absent-mindedly. "We need to run if we even hope to make it to class on time. I heard Professor McIntyre is a real ass about being on time." The words were hardly out of her mouth before she had taken off across the compound. Caught by surprise, Rebekah broke into a run in an attempt to catch up.

The air was cold as Rebekah darted around other students. Her fingers felt numb and she couldn't feel her toes within her shoes, but she kept running. She could see the glint of golden hair a few metres ahead as Elise sped along. Once or twice, Elise had looked back to make sure that Rebekah hadn't gotten lost but she hadn't bothered to slow down to let her friend catch up.

"Elise! Are you su-" Before she could get any further, Rebekah found her body clashing with another. The impact threw her off balance and she stumbled backwards onto the concrete, her elbows taking the brunt of the fall. The shock of the collision had temporarily winded her, but she managed to clamber to her feet. The other person, however, had not been so fortunate.

He was sitting on the ground, wincing as he massaged his arm. His books were scattered across the ground in a kaleidoscope of colours, amplified by the early morning sunshine. His eyes were shaded by a pair of sunglasses and lying in the grass a couple of metres away was a black and white stick.

"I-I am s-so sorry!" Rebekah heard a voice like hers stutter. "I didn't see where I was going. Are you okay?"

The stranger made a face. "I'm fine," he replied, his voice low and gravelly. "Could you help me find my walking stick please?"

As Rebekah picked up the stick and brought it back to him, she felt her heart sink as she put two and two together. This was a nightmare. How could she have been so careless?

"Thanks," the stranger mumbled when his fingers closed around the stick. While he slowly began to climb to his feet, Rebekah darted around, picking up all his fallen books and putting them back into his bag. When he was upright, she reached out gently- carefully- and touched his hand. He flinched at her touch but didn't pull away.

"I- uh- have the rest of your stuff." Rebekah could see her own chagrined expression in the reflection of his sunglasses. "I'm so sorry for that. I really am."

The stranger held one of his hands out. "Could I have my stuff then please? Unless you were planning on running away with my stuff. I mean, I would be the perfect victim. I wouldn't ever be able to identify you."

"No! No, I would never..." Rebekah stopped short when she saw one of the corners of his lips pulling upwards. "Oh, that was joke. Right. Of course." She felt her face heat up as she slowly put the strap of the messenger bag over the stranger's head and ignored his outstretched arm.

"You sound like my sister," he said, his smile widening as he let his arm fall back to his side. "She doesn't get my humour either."

Rebekah didn't respond. She didn't know what to say. .

"Hello? Are you still here?" The stranger looked concerned. When Rebekah still didn't say anything, he snorted. "Good job, Sebastian. Talking to the air again. I swear, one of these days, mum and dad are gonna take you to the shrink for talking to yourself so much." He sighed. "Maybe I am going crazy." Running a hand through his dark brown hair, he began to move gingerly away.

That was when Rebekah finally unfroze. Her tongue, which had refused to work up to now, began to move again and she quickly used it. "Wait." She hurried forward. "Is there a place I could help you get to? A class? The cafeteria, maybe?"

The stranger smiled. "At last, she speaks." Amusement laced his words. "And here I was thinking that I was finally going nuts. In response to your question, yes actually. I have an Economics 101 lecture that I have to get to."

"Really? That's my lecture too." Rebekah pulled out her phone and checked the time. "But we're already late."

"I'm sure we'll get some reprieve. I like to call them 'blind perks'." The stranger was tapping his stick on the ground again, moving in the wrong direction from the classroom. "I'm pretty sure I was on the right track until someone knocked me over. Now, I've lost all sense of where I'm supposed to be."

Rebekah felt her face heat up with guilt. "I can lead you to the lecture hall."

"Sweet. That's what I was hoping to hear." The smirk that curled up the corners of the stranger's lips made Rebekah stare. It screamed of cheekiness and reminded her that he could not be trusted. Before he could say  anything, however, he seemed to trip over a rock at the edge of the pavement. He stumbled for a couple of steps before Rebekah quickly reached up to grab his arm and steady him.

"You smell nice. Like vanilla. I wonder if you taste like vanilla too."

A dark red hue began spreading from Rebekah's cheeks to her ears. She had no idea what he meant exactly, but she had a feeling that it had unsavoury undertones. Gingerly, she unlooped her arm from his, ignoring the curious glances being thrown their way.

"Blind perks," he said when she had finished untangling herself from him. "I bet I would never have gotten you to hold my arm if I wasn't blind."

Rebekah made a sound somewhere in between snorting in derision and choking with laughter, but quickly fell silent. He wasn't not right.

"You know, you can say what you're thinking," he said. "I'm blind, not sensitive. Well, that's not exactly true. My hearing and touch and basically every other sense but sight are really sensitive. My feelings aren't."

Rebekah heard herself laugh. "You're such a strange boy."

"Correction: I'm not strange, I'm unique."

"You know, I could leave you right here and you wouldn't know how to find your way back," Rebekah responded, trying to sound strict. The stranger looked appalled.

"But I'm blind. You can't- no, shouldn't- do that to a blind person." When Rebekah didn't say anything in reply, he grinned in triumph. "Looks like I win the argument... although, to be honest, you didn't really have much of a chance against my pure awesomeness."

Rebekah snorted. "Aren't you modest."

"Modesty? I have never heard of such a word."

Rebekah made a face, then remembering that he couldn't see her, resorted to pulling harder on his arm than was necessary. When he stumbled and swore, she grinned.

"Hey, no bullying the blind guy," he grumbled. "I think I should at least know the name of the person dragging me around."

Rebekah frowned. There was no way she was going to tell him her real name. "Elise," she said quickly.

"Bullshit. There's no way you're my sister."

"Elise is your sister?!"

"That's right. Blonde hair, blue eyes, thick-rimmed glasses. I'm going off on a hunch here but I highly doubt that you look like that."

Rebekah's mind was spinning. If Elise was his sister then he must be...

"You're Seb?"

He beamed. "That's right. Sebastian Crawley at your service."

He had an expectant look on his face but before Rebekah could respond, a tiny cannonball launched itself against her back and she found her face becoming very intimately acquainted with the ground for the third time in less than twelve hours.

Well, fuck my life.

A/N Hello fellow Wattpadians!

So I have decided to enter this story into the Wattys2016!

I am absolutely terrified and this is such a scary competition, but you guys were absolutely right. What harm would it do to enter the competition? It would be majorly cool if I could win but even if I don't, I love writing stories and I love entertaining people with my writing so I don't really lose anything by entering.

Also, I don't really know how the Wattys for this year is going to work so I hope you guys can help me out. I don't know how people win and stuff,  but please vote and comment on this story if you like it. I'm sure every little thing counts!

Stay awesome, everyone.

Percy