SIX

      

    The next morning, Rachel's first point of call was the library. She had come to full consciousness at exactly three am the last night. She had just jolted bolt upright from a deep dreamless sleep to remember... 

       "The National Canadian Masters scholarship program examinations is in exactly four weeks.." She was ranting to Zoey, who was busy picking from, and nibbling on a blueberry muffin. "What the hell have I been thinking? What the hell have I been doing?"

       " -Going out on dates with Winchester's Casanova.." Zoey piped. Rachel hit her over and over while Zoey giggled loudly, trying to ward off the textbook.

     "I won't blame you at all asshat, you're the worst and that's the conclusion. I need to sit up, its my only chance to gain a scholarship in Stanford. My whole life depends on this.."

       " Calm your horses dulcazza.. I'll leave you to your progress." 

      She reached forward and dropped a shadowy kiss on her forehead. "Catch you later mi amor.. Science has always been your shit." She murmured as she walked away.

       Rachel's smile followed behind her. She loved the girl. Zoey's mom was Mexican, where she spent most of her childhood. She was the wildest, but sweetest person she knew. Zoey had been there for her all through that phase of freshman year, where ill luck had found her taking form of Allison Petrazelli. 

     The mere thought of her sent a cold, uncomfortable feeling in Rachel's guts. 

     Wiping her thoughts with a free hand, Rachel strolled in to the library with a mind clear of thoughts. 

      "Good morning Mrs Wickham!" She called out to the librarian. A chubby Irish woman who was always grumpy during the day. The woman had become fond of her since her first year, which came as a surprise to Rachel. Mrs Wickham was naturally rude.

       "A little late today Rachel!" She didn't look up from the book she was reading. The librarian was a lover of books. That must have been the reason she was friendly to Rachel.

      Rachel grinned as she got her library pass from her. "Morning sleeps are the worst kind of career annihilators." She could hear Mrs Wickham laugh softly as she walked past, scanning the large, beautiful library for her favorite spot to slide into. The library was spacious and well equipped with books upon books. Illuminated with florescent lights, cooled by air conditioners, and monitored by CCTV's.

        She zoomed past a few students into the hallway of bookshelves. Running her hands unconsciously on the well stacked books, she walked through the spaces between the giant bookshelves.

  

     Anatomy, Physiology, Chemistry, Physics... One by one, she picked from each shelf, humming absentmindedly. In less than a minute, she slid into her favourite spot between two huge book shelves.

    An hour passed and then another, headphones in ear, brain on hyper speed, eyes fixed wholly on the material.. Rachel was lost to the world.

   

      Until someone snatched the headphones from her head, and dropped into the seat opposite hers. Rachel's focus snapped back to the mischievous Norbert. Except, her vision had created a few geometry lines running across his face. Her brain must have fed on the entire glucose in her system, because she was almost seeing a triple vision. She flushed with anger and sudden excitement. A funny contrast of emotions that made her bite her lower lip in confusion at herself.

      But Norbert was quick to notice how weak she was. She must have really been hungry.

      "You've been reading for like five hours.. Your brains must be overheating." Rachel started confused.. time ran so quickly. She took time to study him for the first time that morning.

      His hair was tardy, making him look like some hitman. 

     "Are you stalking me?!" She spoke up.

     "Are I stalking you? Yes!" That got her. She broke into a grin. But smiling did something to her inside, her stomach reeled and groaned. 

      Again, Norbert noticed. "I'm not gonna sit here and watch your belly worms eat up your intestines." He reached out and packed all her belongings to himself, her books, headphones and all.

     Rachel was too weak to protest, but when he snatched her arm and began pulling her out of her seat, the grace for protest found its way to her.

    "What the hell are you doing?"

  She squeaked as he dragged her nonchalantly out of the library, to where she figured was the cafeteria.

    When they got there, she couldn't care less about what people would think when they saw her with him.  

    In fact, she couldn't even play the shy girl.. she ate her chicken sharwama like her life depended on it.

       

      "Whoa.. easy, easy!! What's up with the caveman attitude?" 

    

       He held her hand to stop her from forcing the food down her throat. She moaned, shutting her eyes with cream all over her lips.

      She licked the corners of her lips, causing him to shift in his seat. "The way you're forcing that down, and making that sound and licking those lips makes me think of what else you could put in there.. "

       Rachel turned pink. " You are disgusting, for real!" 

      "You're sitting right here with me. Disgusting or not, that's all that really matters."

         "I didn't eat much last night, and I didn't have breakfast this morning either.." She bit into the junk food.

      

         "Speaking about last night.. I did a lot of thinking last night. I have a preposition for you.?"

       

     "No!" Rachel barked with a mouthful of chicken bits.

       

      "You didn't even let me finish.." He laughed at her defiance. But giving up, was not for today.

     

       Rachel gulped half the contents of her bottled water, belched softly, and excused herself. Before she spoke up, she closed her eyes as though allowing the food settle in her.

      

      "I don't want whatever you bring to the table Karter. "

     

          " Do you trust me?" 

       

         She blinked at him. "No!"

   

     He exhaled heavily. "I'll go ahead anyways. I did a lot of thinking, and I came up with the best plan for both of us." He paused, smiling at her rapt attention.

      

       At that second, her voice of reason sprang to life. 

     

    "You don't seem to get the point. I've been nice, I've tried to move on. But whenever I think about what she did to me, what you did. I don't want people seeing you around me. No... I won't let it repeat itself.."

          He took her left hand that was on the table and held it in his. "Allison is gone. I think I'm correct when I say you're thinking it. In fact, with due respect, I think you're over thinking. Allison..."

      "-Is gone, but has imprinted that in the sands of time." She cut in stubbornly, snatching her hand from his as if he were fire.

       Redheads were defiant! Norbert sighed, it didn't take much to ignite her ire, so he had to tread carefully.

      "Maybe you've forgotten what happened." She urged on. "Well, hello there Norbert Karter, I'd love to take you back to a year ago when I found myself in Winchester college, and whatever the hell made you start looking at me in a strange way, that got your girlfriend clucking around me like a mother hen.

     "It's all my fault because I couldn't stand up to both of you. I ran and hid like a coward, let her scandalize my innocent name, and was too weak to even stand up to her. Have you forgotten? Well, I haven't.. I'll remind you- She bullied me. This is college for crying out really loud. She preyed on me.. in sports, class, chapel, dorm, everywhere. Called me a whore and convinced everyone I was one of your Side chicks, those girls you slept around with. The ones she would tag, ridicule and call stalkers."

       She rapped without a single break, shocking Norbert to his very core.

      "She was the queen bee.. more like queen Bee-otch. Everybody were afraid of her, looked up to her and believed her. If other girls were fine by it, I was not. It broke me, and tarnished my name. I'm not your regular college black book girl, so don't act like you don't know why I want to be as far as possible from you."

       She bit her upper lips to stop the tears bubbling in her throat. She didn't want to tell him what hurt her the most. How he denied that he even liked her, and did absolutely nothing to defend her from the Queen Bee-otch.

      

     "Every girl knows what they're up for as soon as they are involved with me. Okay, okay. I get it. You're mad, I get it." He remained silent for a while, studying her. "But the past is gone, and trust me...you'll have to move on."

        He was finding it very hard to do the motivational speaking. Girls had it his way, or they could drive a bike to hell. So why in the world was he trying as hard as possible to convince her?? 

       "When people see you moving on, the past will stay behind you."

       She laughed bitterly. "And since when did you become a motivational speaker?!"

       " Listen.. you're weak when you let people see that they get to you." He smirked. 

       "I have a deal for you! The surest way to clear everyone's mindset about you and I, is to go into a relationship.." 

    

  "-Norbert! Are you asking me out?" She cut in, staring at him as though he fell from a parallel universe.

  

   "Hear me out- shh. We fake date for like a week, convincing everyone that you're not what Allison said you are. This is my other chance to make it up to you."

      

  Rachel shook her head. " And what do you get in return?"

  

     He sat back in his chair. "I'll be plain and I won't lie to you. My part of the deal is to get you in my bed."

       

      It didn't register yet. She stared confused, until a light bulb went off in her head. Her palms connected with his face before she realized herself.

      

        "How dare you?" Her voice rang in the hall, attracting eyes to them. She lowered her voice. "You're looking for a way to get in my pants? You said you never liked me."

       

     

      "Because I was trying to defend you and keep you out of Allison's trouble. Allison has her issues okay..." He paused. "I won't deny that. I've always wanted you and I'm being blunt about it. Look, this benefits you more than it does me. And I won't be the only one gaining pleasure on that bed." He was still rubbing his sore cheeks.

She gasped. He said that!

God! The confidence! The cockiness! The arrogance!! The unrepentant, proud, puta de madre!! 

     Without a second thought, she rose up quickly and stormed out of the cafeteria but Norbert followed, trudging behind her.

      "Wait, Rachel!"

     But she kept on, without even a glance back. He grabbed her wrist, spun her around to face him, and pressed her to the wall. She was too shocked to move. "What are you doing? People are watching." She was doing the whisper-scolding thing.

      "That's your problem. You care too much about what other people think." He ran his thumb over her bottom lips. " The deal is simple. I want you in my bed, I won't lie. And you need me to clear the past. What's the worst that could happen?! You're attracted to me, there's no denying that. But you're hiding our compatibility and it's not good, not healthy at all."

     She lowered her gaze to avoid his probing eyes that was searching her face, but his thumb was now fondling her cheek lifted her chin so she was staring right into his eyes.

       Rachel! Keep your white flag up high. "What makes you think I'd let you sleep with me?"

      " I guess we'll never know if we don't find out.." He smirked lazily. "It's a fair play. You get what you want, I get what I want. How's that?!"

      Her heart melted, she couldn't stand it. "Go to hell, Norbert. Go to hell! What do you want me to say? Maybe before you chose to be in Allison's side, you should have foreseen that you'll want me in your bed like every other innocent girl you've managed to get there."

      " Innocent you say! Like I already said, Every girl know what they're up for when getting involved with me. It's just the way it is. Rachel, I don't want to make this any harder for us than it already is. Allison's no longer... here, and I'm sorry that you were one of her victims and that I had not realized my mistake on time. But moving on is the goal, it's the main point."

        He dropped a shadowy kiss on her forehead that liquefied her bones. How did he do that? How did he know what to do at the right time?

       "Think about it!"