Chapter 2

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us to this party? I think you had fun at the last one." Callie smirks at me and nudges my shoulder.

We are currently walking side by side, with me to her right and Lorena to her left. It is the first day of school. The same frat house is hosting another party, to kick off the school year. It's been a month since we've all been living on campus, and a month since the party. I definitely did not want to go to another. I was so embarrassed about what Lorena said in front of Ethan, I grabbed my clothes and ran into the house as fast as I could to find the bathroom, despite hearing protests from everyone. I changed and wrung out Ethans shirt, going back to the backyard where I had left everyone, but by then he was gone. I laid his t shirt on a chair they had outside, and we all went home. That's it. I kind of regretted not getting any of his socials before I left, but oh well.

"Nova?" I hear Lorena call my name. "How about it?"

"No." I say simply as we walk into the science college.

"But dude, you met a hot guy at the last one. What if you see him again? What if you marry him?" She wiggles her eyes at me and I stick my finger in my mouth, pretending to gag.

"Ew, gross. I would never marry him. He's white." I scrunch up my face, Callie and Lorena both erupting in a fit of laughter.

"What's wrong with a white boy?" A deep voice suddenly says and Cameron comes into view. Callie greets him with a warm smile and a kiss. He wraps an arm around her and we continue walking. "I'm a white boy." He grins at me.

"White guys beat their wives." I respond, laughing. "I don't want to get beat. And they have no rhythm or flavor. What am I supposed to do with that?"

"Hey." Cameron frowns. Then starts suddenly moving his body around. I stare at him as he's laughing. Callie quickly grabs him, making him stop.

"If white guys have no rhythm, then what was that? Hmm?" Cameron laughs.

"It was scary, I'll tell you that." I look at him. That was dancing? Lord please protect me from that.

We hear the sound of a bell flow throughout school, signaling that our first lectures start in 10 minutes. We all bid our goodbyes, giving hugs. I make my way through the corridors, looking for my class. S14.

S10...S11...S12...S13... Ah, S14.

The door was already open so I walked in, half of the class was already filled up. I walk up the steps and take a seat towards the back. I hated the attention sitting in the front gave you. I look around, the professor isn't even hear yet.

Hmm.

Slowly, within the next few minutes, students trickled in, until the bell rang again, signaling the beginning of class. No professor, still.

"I heard that if the professor isn't here within 15 minutes, we can leave." A guy who's 2 seats down from me says in my direction.

I look around, making sure he was talking to me. There was nobody in the seats on either side of me, so he must have been talking about me.

"Oh really?" I ask, not knowing what to say. "Cool." I nod.

"Okay class!" A mans voice sings, in walking a guy wearing a suit. Our professor. He's kind of hot.

Wait, no. That's Ethan. I audibly gasp and some students turn around to look at me. This isn't happening. This isn't happening. Ethan is the professor? What kind of professor goes to college parties? What kind of professor kisses students?? He makes eye contact with me, suddenly looking amused. I duck my head down and feel like I want to cry. This is so embarrassing. How didn't I know? Now that I think about it, I never even asked if he was a student here. Or how old he was. He didn't look old enough to be a professor though. He looks my age. I must have done something horrible so God is punishing me.

"How are you all doing? I am professor James," he stands up straight and fixes his tie. I look up again, and he's still looking at me. A small smirk plays on his lips. What a creep.

"and welcome to Biology!" He finishes. "Now, I'm going to need a volunteer." He says, though nobody raises their hands.

"Ah, thank you for volunteering." He points at someone who wasn't even raising their hand. More specifically, me.

"I didn't-" I start but he cuts me off.

"Please come down here to the front of the class." I suck in a breath, letting it out shakily. I am going to kill him, I think to myself.

I slowly stand from my seat. Everyone's eyes are on me, I feel so self conscious. I wrap my arms around my stomach and descend the stairs, towards Ethan- Professor James- whatever. He watches my every move, his gaze burning holes through my body. I stand a few feet in front of him.

"What do I do?" I whisper to him. He grins.

"We are going to demonstrate a popular bird dance. You know- this is the study of life. I want to inform the students on all customs and traditions of living things." I stare at him, mouth open a little.

What the actual hell is going on? He cannot be serious. I can't help but to think about what sin I've committed so horrible that would cause my entire college reputation to be tainted by a stupid bird dance.

"Professor I-I can't do that." I whisper to him, my face falling. Though he doesn't seem to care about the fact that I was visibly uncomfortable.

"Just follow my lead." He nods and then goes behind the computer, he does something and then the chicken song comes on. The damn chicken song.

"Okay, ready?" He says, I look out at my classmates and they're all laughing. How embarrassing. I hate Ethan. Why would he do this to me?

"Have some fun." Ethan leans in and whispers to me, before breaking out into the chicken dance everyone learned in freaking kindergarten. The students laugh harder, starting to record.

His comment pisses me off. Have fun? Have fun???? I know he said that only because he thought I couldn't have fun. But this isn't fun. It is extremely embarrassing.

"What is going on here?" A voice booms over the chicken music, and Ethan stops. He quickly turns the music off and we both look in the direction of the voice.

It is a middle aged man, dressed nicely, holding a brief case in one hand. He's frowning at the both of us.

"Why are you making a fool out of yourselves in my classroom?"

My classroom. My classroom.

The words play over and over in my head.

"Your...classroom?" I look between him and Ethan, extremely confused.

"Uncle," Ethan whines. "Why couldn't you have let it go on longer? I was about to make this girl dance." My eyes widen and I turn to Ethan, seething.

"Excuse me?" I scoff at him. I can't believe he tried to play me.

"You leave this poor girl alone. Both of you, take your seats. And you better call me Professor." He directs at Ethan.

I immediately turn on my heels and go to my seat as fast as I can. This is so embarrassing. I'm going to kill him. I repeat this in my head over and over, then I feel someone brush against my side where previously nobody was sitting. I look up at the intruder of personal space and it's Ethan. I can't even bother with him right now. I put my face in my hands and I feel the tears start to form. I shouldn't cry, not here. I don't know what would be more embarrassing. I close my eyes then feel a hand on my back. It's coming from my right so it must be Ethan. His touch sends new waves of anger through my body.

"I am so sorry everyone. My nephew always does this on the first day of my classes, even though he is a first year, he always begged me to let him come. And he never failed to pull some kind of prank." I drown out the teacher.

"Hey." I hear his voice close to my ear. "Are you okay?" Now, at this point I am no longer trying to suppress my tears. My embarrassment is replaced with anger.

I snap my head in his direction, then freeze. All words leaving my thoughts because of how close we are. I didn't realize that he had leaned in so close to me to speak, so when I turned my head we are only mere centimeters apart.

"This position seems familiar." Ethan whispers, breaking out into a grin. That does it for me. I put my hand on his chest and push him away from me.

"Do not ever talk to me again." I seethe. "You are a horrible person. Why would you do that to me? You're so incredibly oblivious to other people's feelings. I'm going to be the laughing stock of the school." I whisper angrily at him, feeling the tears coming back to my eyes.

"Ugh." I quickly wipe them away before they fall so nobody sees.

"Hey, don't cry. I'm sorry. I didn't think you would react like this. You seemed so down to earth at the party, so when I saw you were in my class I just thought-"

"No," I interrupt him. "you didn't think. If you did have any type of thoughts up there, you wouldn't have embarrassed me in front of the class." I retort and then move away from him into the next seat.

Ethan just scoots over into my previous seat, obviously not getting the hint. The guy who talked to me before Ethan came in, is in the seat to my left now, and Ethan to my right.

"Do you mind if we switch seats? I look at the guy to my left. "I don't want to sit next to this stupid boy."

"Ouch." Ethan grabs his chest where his heart is supposed to be and pouts.

"I'm Nova by the way." I give the guy a pleading smile.

"Hey, I don't want to be involved in your two's little argument." He puts his hands up in surrender. He's not going to move? "But I'm Dylan." He introduces himself quietly.

"Thank you brother." Ethan grins at him and puts his hand out for a fist bump. Dylan takes it.

Unbelievable! He wasn't even going to help me. I hate boys. Yeah, I really hate boys now.

"For what it's worth Nova," Dylan pulls me from my thoughts. "I don't think it was embarrassing. It was funny. You were just staring at him like he was crazy the whole time. If anything, it would be more embarrassing for this guy." He points his thumb in Ethan's direction.

"Yeah, see? You're totally fine." Ethan nudges my shoulder. "But if you're that upset, let me make it up to you after school? Are you going to the party?"

"No, I'm not going to the party. And I don't want you making anything up to me! I want you to leave me alone. Don't talk to me again, ever." I grit out my teeth, and start taking notes from what the professor has written on the board already.

~~

I was kidnapped. And I mean that quite literally. When I got back to my dorm after my classes for the day, Callie and Lorena set me up. They both grabbed my arms, holding me still, and in came Cameron. He picked me up, throwing me over his shoulder, and ran out. My two "friends" giggled as they ran out after him. I had yelled at him to put me down but he didn't, not until I was in his car and we were all driving away.

And now, I'm here. In this stupid frat house, at this stupid party. I cross my arms and stare at three people in front of me.

"What do you guys have to say for yourselves?" I question them, glaring.

"We just want to have fun, and we want you to have fun with us." Lorena pouts and crosses her own arms. I crack a small smile, at least they're thinking of me.

"Whatever." I suck my teeth, and they all grin.

"Let's dance!" Callie grabs Cameron and Lorena grabs me.

They all start to dance but I just stand there awkwardly. What was I supposed to do?

"Cmon Nova, dance! Feel the music!" Lorena grins at me. I sway side to side awkwardly, Lorena giving me smiles of encouragement.

"Excuse me." Someone taps on Lorenas shoulder and she looks back, moving so she stands beside me now so we can both see who it is.

"Do you mind if I steal your partner away from you? I'd like to have a dance." Ethan says. I cross my arms and look away from him.

I don't want to see him. After that stunt he pulled in Bio, I don't think I was ever planning to forgive him. He spent all day trying to "make things up to me". He said to meet him outside the bio room after school so he can 'prove his worth' or something stupid like that. I didn't agree to going, but he said he'd wait there anyways. I feel bad thinking about how he must have been waiting there, alone. But I don't care! I had to spend all day listening to his stupid apologies. It was just my luck that we had the majority of our classes together because we share the same major. The one and only class we didn't have together was Communications.

"Sure." I hear Lorena say, a wide smile playing on her lips. "You're the guy who fucked her in the pool right?" I hit Lorena on the arm. Ethan's face goes red.

"Yeah." He said sheepishly and I hit his chest lightly.

"Don't agree! We didn't do anything. We just kissed! Why would you agree?" I say, shocked and now embarrassed.

"I just meant that I am that guy, not that we had sex or anything!" Ethan quickly says, his cheeks turning a deeper shade of red.

"Guilty. You two are guiltyyyy." Lorena sings. "You can have her for the rest of the night. But make sure you bring her back when I text her okay? No funny business." She points to Ethan.

"What? No, he's a horrible person Lorena. Don't encourage him to talk to me." I grab her hands, forcing her to look into my eyes and tell her about what happened this morning.

"Oh my god." She bursts out laughing. "You're amazing." She looks at Ethan.

"I'm Lorena by the way." She extends a hand out to him which he shakes.

"Ethan." He smiles back.

"Oh, trust me. I know." Lorena smirks at me and Ethan laughs.

"Now go! Go have fun!" Lorena pushes me towards Ethan, causing me to crash into the guy, then disappears in the crowd.

"Looks like you're all mine for the night." Ethan grins, slipping his arms around my torso to steady me.

"You're a creep." I frown at him and he laughs, keeping me in his embrace.

"Dance with me." Ethan says and pulls me closer to him, starting to move his body. He moves fast, I have no choice but to move with him. I put my hands on his shoulders to steady myself from the sudden movement.

"Ethan, no. Stop." I say, hating dancing. I don't want to dance.

"Why? Don't think we should dance together?" He chuckles.

I look around, noticing people were actually starting to look at us. Not everyone, but enough to make that sickly feeling crawl up my skin. I get anxiety about certain things, and this was definitely one of those things.

"Ethan- please. People are looking at us." I say in a small voice, it feels like the walls are closing in on me and I'm getting claustrophobic

"Of course people are gonna look at us. We're the only two not twerking or grinding on random strangers." He laughs, not noticing how it's getting harder for me to breathe.

I forcefully push him away from me, looking around. People are whispering and laughing. Although they have no idea who I am, or even noticed me in the room, it feels like they are laughing at me. Deep down I know I'm not the cause of their amusement, but my mind can't help but trick me into thinking I am. Tears form at the brim of my eyes and I quickly make my way to the staircase leading up to the rooms. I don't notice Ethan following me until I run into the very last room and try closing the door, but he holds it open and slips inside. Closing and locking the door, he looks at me.

I sit on the bed and put my head into my hands, trying to push away the tears that threaten to spill from my eyes. Why can't this dude just leave me alone? I want to cry. This is his fault anyways.

I feel my throat closing in on itself so I try my best to take deep breaths. I feel Ethan's hands pulling mine away from my face.

"Hey hey hey, it's okay. Okay? It's okay." He cups my face in his hands and wipes the tears that betrayed me and started to fall down my checks.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know you hated dancing that much. I'm sorry. Just breathe." He whispers gently to me. I'm in the middle of a damn panic attack and this man tells me to just breathe!? I want nothing more than to just hit him.

"Breathe?" I manage to say in between breaths. "Just breathe?!" I yell at him.

"Why don't you just leave me alone! Stop trying to force yourself into my life! Why do you people feel so entitled to everything?" I push him off of me and stand up.

I walk to the other side of the bed and wipe my face. I don't care if what I said was harsh. Ever since I met this guy it feels like his life mission is to ruin mine.

We fall into a shared silence and I am finally able to catch my breath. I lay on the left side of the bed, just needing a break. I don't even look at Ethan, but he leaves the room. Finally. I think to myself. However, I felt kind of bad. I don't really want him to leave. I want to apologize for going off on him.

My regrets are short lived though, because a few minutes later he comes back into the room, and locks the door so nobody else can come in.

I sigh, not sitting up from the bed. He has two red plastic cups in his hands. He comes over to the bed and sits at the very edge, away from me. He silently extends his hand to me, offering a cup. I think about it for a moment, then sit up and take it.

"Thank you." I mutter to him and he just nods before we look away from each other.

I look down into the cup and can smell the alcohol before I even taste it.

"I don't drink." I say flatly, looking at the back of his head since he's facing away from me.

"I thought you could use it to take your mind off of some things." He responds, not looking at me.

I feel like I hurt his feelings. Guilt runs through my body, even though I do feel like it's his fault. I asked him to stop. He didn't. That's another thing I didn't like about white people. It feels like every single white person I ever met over stepped their boundaries. Like they had no home training.

I shake my head, pushing my thoughts away and take a sip of whatever is in my cup. It burns my throat, but it's sweet. You can't taste much of the alcohol except for the burning and a slight aftertaste. We sit in silence for a few more minutes. I drink my drink slowly, not really liking the aura that has been created between the two of us. Once I finish the rest of the alcohol, I reach over and put my cup on the nightstand next to the bed. I slide over to Ethan, sitting at his side then feel his muscles tense before relaxing almost immediately. He downs the rest of his drink and then puts his cup on the nightstand as well. We don't talk still. Just sit in silence, our legs touching and both of us fiddling with our fingers.

"I'm sorry." I break the silence. He looks down at me. "Sorry for freaking out downstairs, and sorry for saying those things to you." I feel bad, I really do.

"Don't apologize," he sighs. "It's my fault. You said no to dancing and I didn't listen. Same thing with this morning. I'm sorry I keep causing you pain. It was never my intention to hurt you." He looks off again. I lay my head on his shoulder while he leans into my touch.

"I get anxiety when I get unwanted attention." I whisper. "I feel like people are talking about me and making fun of me. I hate it. And you...you're so....out there. You know what I mean? Not in a bad way or anything, but you're just so confident and you try to force me to be confident too and I just can't. It's hard for me to just open up like that. I wish I could. I admire that about you. You don't seem to care about what other people have to say." I don't know why I'm telling him this.

"I do care what people think." He says "But I'm not going to let that change who I am. I want a lot of friends and I want people to like me, but I'm not going to change for them." He says then stands up from the bed. He offers a hand out to me.

"Dance with me." He smiles.

"Ethan." I warn, narrowing my eyes at him. Did he not listen to what I just said?

"Not downstairs. Here. Nobody else around, just me and you. I won't make fun of you, I just want to help you take a peek out of your shell. Do you trust me?" He offers an encouraging smile. I don't know why- maybe I'm not thinking. But I take his hand and he pulls me up and to the middle of the room.

"Okay, we're not going to dance like the people downstairs because they're twerking on each other. And I know I'm just so hot that you wouldn't be able to control yourself..." he trails off and I smack his arm lightly.

"As if." I roll my eyes and he laughs.

"Okay, put your arms here-" he grabs my arms and puts them around his shoulders, making me step closer to him. "and I'll put my arms here." As he wraps his arms around my lower back, shivers run through my body.

"You don't have to be all up on each other to dance." He looks down at me. "Follow my lead." He says and starts to move his feet, taking small steps around the place we are standing in.

I bite my lip and after a second, I move my feet as well. I try to move the way he's moving, and try to keep up with his footwork and the music, but it just feels awkward. I stop, feeling embarrassed.

"You're doing fine." Ethan smiles at me. "Try to loosen up. You're so tense." He tilts his head at me. My face heats up and I look away from his gaze.

"Let's try again." I say quietly and he pulls me closer to him this time.

We start to dance and with every movement, our bodies touch. It sends shivers down my spine and I silently hope he doesn't notice the goosebumps that appear on my skin. I try to take his advice and loosen my muscles, he was right. I was really tense. I feel like I'm starting to get used to it and I don't feel as uncomfortable anymore.

We dance for the next 20 minutes or so, laughing and him giving me tips. 20 minutes feels like 2 seconds with Ethan. And for some reason, I find myself wishing we had more than 24 hours in a day. As if he is reading my mind, he pulls my body to his, closing any gap that was previously between us. I lay my head on his chest, at this point we are basically just holding each other.

I don't mind. I close my eyes and let myself get lost in my thoughts. Who knows how much time goes by before he speaks again.

"Nova." Ethan whispers into my ear.

"Hm?" I hum, eyes still closed.

"I think you owe me a kiss." He says. My face heats up and I bury it into his chest.

"What makes you think that?" I mumble against his chest, my words coming out barely audible.

"At the last party I asked you to be my second kiss. I'm pretty sure you agreed, and it would have happened if your friends didn't come outside."

"I..." I trail off. Not knowing what to say, I bite my lip nervously.

"So?" He tilts my head up to look at him. He is smiling, an unknown glint in his eye.

"So what?" I blush, but I doubt he could tell.

"So can I kiss you?" I search his eyes for a moment, not responding. I was never like this before. Myself from 3 months ago would have never been kissing on a stranger she barely knew. But for some reason, I just can't say no.

"Yes." I barely make it out, my voice small and in a whisper.

He wastes no time and connects our lips together.

I wish we can stay in this moment. For as long as we wanted to. One of his hands flies up to cup my cheek and he tilts his head, deepening the kiss.

God, this is so nice. I think to myself. I wish we could do this everyday. I put my hands on his chest and kiss him back with the same energy he's kissing me with. It's passionate, yet gentle. As if he's afraid that I'll break at any moment. I don't mind, I enjoy it like this.