Chapter 2

Leigh froze while she watched Regina walk towards them. 

Then She looked at Rocky who was unfazed by the mention of Regina’s name.  He still held her close, but not as tight as before. 

There was total silence around, and like in a trance Leigh wasn’t able to move her feet away, her eyes fixed in horror at Regina Clark coming towards them.

Then, she was pulled abruptly out of Rocky’s arm, breaking her off from her catatonic state.   

Leigh looked up and saw Sam looking annoyed. 

“We’re going to be late for class!”  Sam intoned and grabbed her by the hand. Together, they dashed out of the hallway. 

Leigh took one last look at Rocky Bolton, surprised he did not move an inch from where she had left him.  Their eyes met.  

He was watching her!

She turned her head around, embarrassed while she let Sam drag her away. 

“What are you doing with that girl?’ She heard Regina confronted Rocky. She wanted to stop to hear what Rocky would say, but Sam was dragging her.  They were too far out to hear what Rocky’s response was. They got out and ran towards another building all the way to the second floor. 

They barely made it.  Thankfully, when they reached their class, their professor was just coming in from the front entrance. They used the back entrance and slid inside their chairs panting for air. 

“Do you know Rocky Bolton?”  Sam inquired just before Leigh’s butt landed on her seat.  She froze, butt in mid-air, turning her head sideways to face Sam’s concerned ones. 

“Let me warn you, Leigh.  That guy may be every girl’s dream, but he’s a playboy and his occupation is to make a girl cry.”  

Leigh almost laughed out loud.  “You don’t have to warn me.  I know what type of guy Rocky Bolton is.  He is a heartbreaker.”  

Sam looked at her quizzically, studying her reaction. 

“What?” She asked before turning her book to the page where their professor instructed. 

“Did he break your heart?” Confusion laced Sam’s voice.  It was like she could not believe Leigh, who protects her privacy so much, would have anything to do with a guy like Rocky Bolton.  

“Ha. Ha.”  Leigh said sarcastically, dispelling any thoughts running around on Sam’s mind.

“Well, it would be unlikely for us girls to meet someone like him on a regular basis since he’s not among our crowd.”  Sam mumbled to herself, but it was loud enough for Leigh to hear. 

“We don’t have a crowd, Sam.” She reminded her friend and that ended their conversation about Rocky Bolton. 

In truth, the likes of Leigh do not play any significant role in Baybridge University’s population.  Her presence or lack thereof does not affect anyone. She is too ordinary for the student body to bother with which makes it impossible for her to run around Rocky Bolton’s circle and they were unlikely to meet in any given circumstance. 

Leigh shook her head.  Her run-in with Rocky Bolton today had her in a loop and she did not understand why. 

She reached inside her bag to get a pen to answer their seatwork and as she did so, she felt her phone vibrate inside her bag. Without thinking, she took the phone and swiped the screen to check the notification for a new message. 

It came from an unregistered number, but she knew the number like the back of her hand - memorized it from so many years ago. 

It came from Rocky Bolton and it says, “Let’s meet after your class.”

She threw the phone back in her bag and pretended like it did not bother her. 

But it did.  

It was the first time he sent her a message and she wondered why.

“What’s wrong?” Sam asked when she saw Leigh fidget in her seat. 

Leigh froze. 

How will she come clean to Sam and tell her college best friend that she lied to her?

“It’s nothing.”

She shook her head and pretended to be concentrating on their activity as an excuse. 

When the bell rang signaling the end of the class, Leigh casually slung her bag over her shoulder and faced Sam. 

“I’ll go ahead.” Leigh said before Sam invited her to lunch. 

“Where are you going?” 

“The library.”  She told her friend. 

They usually have lunch together, but today, she would pass in favor of meeting Rocky.

Sam nodded and she was off. 

While she walked the hallway, she tried to keep her head down, not wanting to catch any attention to herself.  From time to time, she would look up to check where she’s going, stopping abruptly when she reached the library entrance to get her student ID to show to the guard.

Upon getting the clear-go, Leigh went to the third floor straight to the archives section.  It was on the upper floor of the library building visited only by a few people. Rocky told her to go to the viewing room used for viewing microforms. 

Immediately, her eyes became vigilant as she looked through her left, right and back to check if there was anyone around.  Leigh heaved a relieved sigh when she found the place empty and quickly slid inside.

She strode to an empty chair, dumping her bag on the nearby table before dusting the chair off to sit down carefully.

Not long after, Rocky comes in. He was whistling, hands in pocket, appearing with a casual air like he does not have a care in the world.

“What is the problem?”  Leigh demanded. She was too edgy to wait for him to tell her. 

To her annoyance, Rocky brushed off her question.  He plopped down  on the seat beside her, put both arms on the table to rest his head. 

Speechless, Leigh watched him, her patience quickly slipping. 

When she could not take the suspense anymore, she marched up to him and nudged him by the shoulders. 

“Rocky!”  Leigh hissed.

She did not come here just so she could watch him sleep. 

Rocky did not respond. She tried nudging him again. This time, she added more pressure to  inflict pain. 

The trick worked.  Rocky lifted his head, a look of irritation crossing his face before he went back to sleeping. 

Frustrated that she was being ignored when he was the one who called this meeting, Leigh snapped. 

“Don’t you dare sleep on me. Why did you want to see me?”  She demanded. 

Again, she got no response. 

So before she could pull his hair in frustration, Liegh decided to just up and leave. 

She pulled her chair back, ready to march out of there.  But before she could lift her butt from her seat, Rocky clamped on her wrist, stopping her. She plopped back down on the seat with a thud. 

“Ouch!’ 

Rocky ignored her.  He abandoned his cozy position to face her. Then, he told her.

“Our moms are here.”  

When the implication of his message sank in, Leigh started to panic.  

“Why didn’t somebody tell me?”  She demanded, her face growing pale at the news. 

She directed her attention back to Rocky who did not seem to look flustered like she was. 

“Your mom sent a message to your inbox,  didn’t you read it?”  Sarcasm laced Rocky’s voice, causing Leigh to look at him sharply. 

“So now you’re blaming me?”  She accused. 

Rocky ignored her barb.  He threw his hands in the air as if to surrender before he dropped another bomb. 

“They were in the house, waiting for us.  You need to pack up.” 

The news was enough to put Leigh in a frenzy.  She could feel her head throb as she tried to assess the situation. 

“How am I going to haul off all my things from my dormitory and back to your house  without alerting anyone, especially my roommate?”  Leigh was presented with a dilemma.

How will she explain this to her roommate and best friend Sam?

More importantly, how could she tell their moms that she left the home she was supposed to share with Rocky?

“Did you tell them where I live?” She asked in a panicked state. 

Rocky shook his head, a bored look on his face. 

“Why would I? That is your problem, Leigh. It was your choice.  You tell them.”  He commanded arrogantly, making Leigh bite her lip to stop herself from spewing an angry retort.  

She could not understand him.  Rocky seemed to insinuate by his words that this was all her fault when she knew for a fact that he also did not want her around.  

Why can’t he be grateful that she took the initiative to stay away since he would be reaping the benefits in the end?

Leigh thought that if she was around, she would only cramp his lifestyle and prevent him from pursuing any girl he liked.  

Leigh’s nose could not help scrunching up when she remembered his current choice of girl. She was curious what it is about Regina that attracted him, but she kept her mouth shut. 

Silence is bliss.  Less words they say to each other, less chance of annoying each other. 

For a long time, Leigh stared morosely off into space.  How could she tell their parents that she lied to them? All this time, they thought that she had been staying in the house they bought for her and Rocky.

How would they react if they knew that she had never stepped foot on it?

“Did you tell them we broke up?’  She asked him. 

“Did we?”