Chapter Four

ONE MONTH LATER

Maya's POV

"Watch it!" My heart raced as my art supplies scattered across the hallway, causing a few heads to turn to my direction. "Don't you have eyes?" The tall brunette I had crashed into glared at me before trying to get her things which were also spread across the floor.

"Sorry." I mumbled an apology, my cheeks flushed with embarrassment. "It's my first day and it's just so...."

"I don't care." She replied flatly, then picked up her colored pencils and walked away with a loud hiss. I managed to pick up the rest of my things before scurrying away to my locker in shame.

College was supposed to be a place I could finally feel free, make friends and even fall in love. But within the first thirty minutes on campus, I realized I didn't fit in.

Emerald college wasn't a place for people like me; poor, lonely, and misunderstood. I was completely out of my element and I felt naked, exposed. It felt like everyone could see through me, like they knew that I didn’t belong there. When I got accepted, I had already decided that most of my problems were solved, gone forever. But they were just starting.

It was the first day of the new semester and my mind should have been on the lecture ahead. Normally, I would have been optimistic that I would meet brilliant students like me. But as I collected my schedule from the counselor, and read through my first lecture, I couldn’t help but think about him.

“Introduction to art by Mr. Damon Griffin. Room 12.” I couldn’t stomach the possibility that it could be him, that Damon was somehow a professor at my new school. My heart was pounding out of my chest as I read the schedule over and over again.

Ever since he abandoned me at the motel, a knot had been cranking tighter and tighter around my skull. Everything around me reminded me of him and it was driving me crazy. I had even tried to get his information from Madam Julia but no amount of money or bargaining could get her to spill any word about him.

Madam Julia had told me to forget about him, warned me even to stop looking for him. But how could I do that when I could still see him in my dreams every night, whispering and running his hands all over me? I knew I didn’t have to get attached to him because he took my virginity but I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t.

“You can’t let him ruin your first day.” I mumbled to myself as I tucked my schedule into my bag, dismissing the crazy thought that he could be my professor. I had always dreamed of the day I would be walking down the hallways of Emerald college. Every goal I had set in my life would be shaped by my decisions and I couldn’t let a man I met for an hour change them.

I gathered enough enthusiasm to push open the door of the lecture room and walked inside, clutching my supplies tightly.

I could feel a lot of eyes settle on me as I took my seat in the front row, which happened to be the only empty row. I could hear everyone settle in their seats around me, my hair shielding me from their view, but I could still feel their stares and hear their whispers.

“Do you happen to have an extra pair of brushes?” The boy next to me asked, his lips carved into a small smile. “It’s embarrassing but I forgot mine. By the way, I’m Jasper and you are?” His gray eyes were scanning me intently, in a way that made me blush.

“I’m Maya and I should definitely have an extra pair of brushes.” I answered, pulling my eyes away from his jaw and cheekbones that looked like they were carved. I was searching through my bag, digging deep for any pair of extra brushes when my professor walked in.

I could tell because the chatter in the room suddenly stopped but I was too focused on getting the brushes from my bag that I didn’t lift my head.

“Hello class.” My professor’s deep, imposing voice filled the room and I froze instantly, goosebumps pricking my skin.

I knew that voice, it was almost like it was at the back of my head constantly. That voice had tormented me in my dreams for a month. That voice had coldly warned me to forget about him after the most intense night of my life. A sudden coldness overwhelmed me as I slowly lifted my gaze to the front of the room.

There, standing in the center of the lecture room, was the man I had been dying to see for a month, and he was staring back at me. His mouth had fallen open, his eyes widened with shock but there was relief in them. From his eyes, I knew I wasn’t the only one tormented by the memories of that night for a month.

If there weren’t eyes glued on him and me, I would have rushed over to him, demanding to know why he hurt me. Why he called me his little girl but broke my heart.

“Ahem!” Someone in the lecture room cleared his throat and I realized we had been staring at each other for over a minute. I turned my gaze away from him, still burdened with the thought that he was my professor. What the hell was I going to do?

“As it is your first day, an introduction is necessary.” His tone was clipped and abrupt. “Can we start with…..” his eyes darted around the class and landed on a petite redhead. “You.”

“Yes?” She chipped, in a hesitant feminine voice.

“Care to tell us a little about yourself?”

“I’m, uh, I’m Ashley Lafair.” Her voice was small. “I’m 19 from San Francisco and my hobbies are painting and bowling.”

“Thank you.” He said when she finished. “And you? Tell us about yourself.” He pointed to the boy next to Ashley, who reluctantly introduced himself. He got the entire class to introduce themselves one after the other, well, everyone except me.

“Our lesson for today is art and personality.” Damon started, ignoring me completely.

“Excuse me, Mr….Damon.” Jasper interrupted loudly. “I think you forgot to ask her to introduce herself. Or is there any particular reason why she was skipped?” Some students snickered around me and I lowered my head in shame.

Damon threw Jasper a glare without words, his jaw twitching visibly. “I must have skipped her unknowingly.” I knew he was lying but I was too embarrassed to question him. “Miss, care to tell us about yourself?” He threw me a warning look, which clearly meant that I had to behave myself. But to hell with him.

He couldn’t treat me like an irrelevant person and expect respect from me. He deserved to be called what he was, a jerk.

“I’m Maya Brooke.” I started, my fingers trembling as I squeezed the hem of my skirt. “I’m 18 and I’m from Australia. I, uh, love to—”

“That’s enough.” Damon cut me off. “We don’t have all day.” He turned around immediately and began his lecture in a hoarse voice. I was dazed, completely confused and offended by his cold attitude toward me. But I closed off my emotions, refusing to let him see he was hurting me.

Throughout the sixty-minute class, he never tried to take a glance at me. He avoided my face like a plague, though I noticed him attempting to pay attention to me secretly.

At the end of the class, I learned nothing new except that Damon wanted nothing to do with me. And in my anger, I swore to forget all about him, even though I knew it would crush me to do so. It was the best for both of us, I couldn’t risk my admission and he couldn’t lose his job. I had to shut him out of my life.

“Remember to go through page 7 of your textbooks.” He announced, signaling the end of the class. Without waiting for him to finish, I gathered my shit and tried to make my way out of the lecture room.

“Miss Brooke,” he called out and I halted abruptly, shocked that he finally acknowledged me. I knew that I couldn’t be happy but I desperately craved his attention, like a lost child. “Please, wait behind.”

I turned to him slowly and nodded. “Yes, Sir.” But I met Jasper’s gaze and he didn’t seem particularly pleased. Why was he so interested in me when I just met him?

Grabbing his things, Jasper paved his way amongst other students to me. I thought he was trying to return the brushes I gave to him but he lowered his lips to my ear when he reached me. “I know your secret, Maya.” He said in a quiet whisper and disappeared before I could stop him.