Chapter 6

Thirty minutes into the class…

"I didn't get your name," I said to him, not looking up to meet his gaze while still scribbling notes in my notepad at the end of the class. "Would you care to share?"

“Cassiel.” He didn’t break the word into syllables. "What about yours?"

I took a long breath. I needed to extend this conversation. From the corner of my eye, I observed him. “Cassiel, what is that you are scribbling? Is it detailed class notes on Dryden?"

“It’s your name, of course. You should look at this.” He quickly took up his notebook and flung it up in the air for me to view. He retrieved it immediately. "What do you think?"

“Well, that was fast.” I was speechless. "Your penmanship is beautiful."

“It was, not so much anymore.” His long hands formed a protective circle on the piece of paper he was protecting from my eye’s glance. I caught a peep but both of his shoulders moved too quickly and shielded again whatever he was working on. I sighed because he was so fucking agile and handsome. The kind of handsome that makes it difficult to breathe around him unless you were making a conscious effort to make your body function and work properly. "But since you gave me a compliment, I'll take it."

I snatched the piece of paper from his fingers playfully, but then I saw that it really had my name on it. But it was not what you would expect at the very moment. I was surprised like someone had pulled the rug from beneath my feet. Good thing I was already safely seated on a metallic chair.

It said, “An angel from the clashing winds above a tide, with folded wings waiting to fly in those unabated skies.”

“Woah, do you write poetry? That’s-that’s beautiful!” I choked on the beauty of this perfect sentence which sounded a lot like poetry. I haven’t met a guy before who writes poetry or anything creative, so this was really baffling to me. "Have you written more poems?"

“Yeah, sometimes I just write random things. They actually make zero sense whatsoever.” He laughed awkwardly, rubbing the nape of his freckled neck with long fingers. "I am not a poet by any means. It's cute of you to assume that anything I write could be considered poetry or anything resembling it, though."

“By the way, I think I forgot to ask your name?” He raised his eyebrows, crinkling his long, pointed nose, but there was a playful note in his light voice and everything fell easy, whichever way he was going around me. "What was it again?"

“My friends call me Lee. It’s actually Angelique. But yeah, my parents are weird. They chose to name me as a god's messenger, aka an angel.”

“Haha, you got me on that one.” He chuckled. “Because you are one. . .special girl. Angelique. It's such a beautiful name.” He started laughing nervously, rubbing the nape of his neck as Mr. Freyer walked out of the class, trying to attend to a call that had been ringing and interrupting the class a second time.

I nudged him on the shoulder and threw him a crooked smile of my own. “No, really, it’s actually similar and simplifies to being some befallen god’s messenger. But who the hell cares, right?"

“Cool. Yeah. Your parents are the ones who care. That's such a pretty name unless you’re screwing with me here.” He smirked at me with his cool confident persona. "If this is a joke, I'll be bummed out. I like your name."

“I don’t just screw with guys the first moment I see them.” Sassy. Yes. "Especially after they spill hot coffee all over my shoulder and try to give me third-degree burns. I'm not a masochist, ya know?”

“Well, that’s good to know.” His bemused face was on the edge of giving us away as we silently whispered back and forth. "It's a pleasure to know that you don't derive pleasure from pain."

“Why is that?” I bit my lip slowly and evasively. "Why is it such a pleasure?"

“Uh, nothing.” He was trying to be aloof like every other guy I’ve ever met. "It's just good general information. I didn't peg you as someone who was a part of the BDSM community, so you clarifying that fact really cleared all suspicions for me."

There was a sudden wall that built itself between us, and it was as if no matter how hard I would budge it with my sassiness, I won’t be able to get through. I suddenly felt my cheeks get hot so I decided it's better to be sassy than sorry.

“Well, if that’s how you get into girls’ pants by analysing facts like aforesaid, then it must be a long journey down there.” 

Get it girl.

“The journey matters, not the destination.” 

Wow. I wasn’t expecting this. What do I come back with?

“You’re such a dork.” Lame. I started laughing and he joined me. "I wasn't expecting you to be so witty."

His blue eyes were crinkling at the edges, and they were clearer than when I saw them an hour ago. I was at a loss of words for the first time in my life.

“I just had to throw it out there. Sorry, I had to.” He was wiping the tears from the corner of his eyes. "It was right there, you know?"

“I’m glad. Now I know I’m not the only weird one around my friends, and also, I have gotten enough helpful stuff from this conversation that will give me constant nightmares. Especially, about you trying to find the said destination.”

“At least they will be of a good kind, angel?” He curved his right eyebrow, smirking. "Since I like finding my way to the said destination."

My face turned red.

“I guess so.” I tried to bite away the small smile from spilling on my lips like a waterfall.

“I know so.” He smiled and threw a wink casually at me before going back to his notes as if this kind of shit happens every day. 

The Greek God, smoking hot asshole, just winked at me. 

Hallelujah!

Mr. Freyer walked back in, tucking his phone in the back pocket of his corduroy pants, while grasping the blue marker as he strolled to the whiteboard. We found ourselves getting back to scribbling notes in our notebooks as our teacher gave another long and monotonous lecture. Mr. Freyer kept circling Dryden on the whiteboard to indicate the importance of the subject for our next surprise quiz. We kept mum for the rest of the class because Cassiel just took my breath away and he had no idea about it.