That's a Promise (2 page)

I was lost in my thoughts when she started snapping her manicured fingers in front of my face. “Earth to Josie! You’re gonna be late if you don’t start heading out!”

“Shit!” I exclaimed when I looked at the clock on my desk that was in front of my bed.

One of my worst fears was that I would be late to one of my classes. I seriously had nightmares where I was the only one in class who did not turn in my homework, or was the last person to enter the room. Talk about embarrassing! A couple days earlier I had timed my walk to class as twelve minutes, so I rushed out of the room with a quick goodbye to Brooke, and hurried to class.

My first class of the day was an English class; I always loved English because of how broad the interpretations of the written language can be. It was a comfort zone to me, and I knew that it would be my best class. I also knew that I would see a familiar face when I got there, so I wasn’t as nervous about that class as I was my other classes. I got to the classroom with five minutes to spare, and I searched for an empty seat. I found my friend turned around backwards in his seat, talking to two blondes that were seated behind him. They were giggling at something he said, when I walked up to the seat next to him.

“Hey, Pussy Cat, I was worried you were gonna be late, since you weren’t the first person here. Thought your worst nightmares may have come true.” He spared me a glance when he spoke, but he turned back to the girls behind him and winked at them.

I rolled my eyes at his typical behavior, and responded in my typical snarky fashion.

“Hey Seth, I talked to your mom last night; she said you need to call her back.” I leaned in closer to him and said in a loud whisper, “She said the doctor called back about the STD results… it’s important.” I smirked at him and started taking out my laptop and textbooks for the start of class.

I heard him chuckle and turn around in his seat as the professor walked into the classroom to start the class lecture. We were given the course syllabus and list of required readings for the semester, and other than that, the class was uneventful. I looked over at my friend slouched in his chair, barely paying attention, and I smiled. He was doodling on his binder, a binder that no one could tell was brand new because he had already drawn all over it.

Seth had been my best friend since we were six years old, when we met on the playground during recess. I fell half-way across the monkey bars, and he called me a ‘sissy’. I straightened up and looked him in the eyes and punched him in the face as hard as my scrawny arms could muster. He cried out, and I then proceeded to call him a ‘pussy’ and walked away. We were both sentenced to a week of being on the sideline while everyone else played, and that’s when we became best friends.

Seth had sandy blonde hair that was a little long, but he sprayed it so that it was a sexy mess on top of his head. He had gorgeous blue green eyes that made every girl melt when he looked their way. He was extremely handsome, and he rocked the alternative kind of style. He was always casual in some worn out jeans and black t-shirts. He really didn’t need anything extra, because he was so attractive. He was an artist, and he expressed it by having a lot of art tattooed all over his body and some body piercings.  

Seth always had a sexy tan coating his smooth skin, and I loved how his tattoos looked even sexier against his skin like that. He was fit and muscular, because his parents owned a farm and he always helped them with the workload, but he wasn’t overly muscular. His passion and desire in life was to be a photographer, and I knew he would succeed because he was amazing with a camera.

While Seth was extremely flirtatious and was handsome enough to pick up women every time we went out, he was also a really good person and friend. I wouldn’t trade our friendship for anything. He, like Brooke, had helped me out a lot, not only in the past year, but also for the past fourteen years of our friendship. I owed him my life.

He caught me staring at him, and he gave me a big smile that made most women puddle at his feet, but right then, made me extremely happy.

When class was dismissed, we got up and walked out of the classroom. He walked next to me as we headed towards our next classes.

“You know, Josie, you are really going to kill my swag if you keep spreading rumors about me like that,” he said to me in mock seriousness.

“I couldn’t kill your swag if I tried,” I huffed out a laugh. “You could tell a girl that you were gay, and they
still
would want a chance with you.” It was most certainly true.

While walking down the halls, I was abruptly pushed to the side by a big brawny football player who was rushing down the hall after someone. He knocked the books out of my hands, and my temper started to rise at the unwanted touch and rude intruder. I may have come a long way, but I still had issues with most men touching me. I didn’t understand why the kid couldn’t just watch where he was going.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going, asshole!” I yelled after him. My deadly glare to the back of his head went unnoticed, but I liked to think I made his karma just a little bit worse with that look.

I bent over to grab my books, but there was already a guy bent over picking them up for me. His hands brushed mine, and I immediately pulled back. I never let a man initiate touching, and even though it felt like a spark traveled up my arm, I recoiled at his touch. Not only did I not have control over how he touched me, but I couldn’t control the pleasant feeling it gave me. After he picked up the books, he rose and handed them over to me. I was struck by how handsome he was. My surroundings were literally lost around me, and the focus of the world seemed to rest solely on this man.

He was dressed in nice dark jeans, and a black button down shirt over a fitted red t-shirt. He had dark brown hair that was cropped close to his head, but just enough to get a slight tug on it. He had broad shoulders in a dominant and confident kind of way, and you could see the definition of his muscles under his shirt; I knew he could pick me up easily if I let him. When he came to full height, I noticed he had gorgeous deep dark, coke-brown eyes and a nose that was slightly crooked. He had a strong jaw and a square chin, which screamed intense and sexy to me.

A layer of a five o’clock shadow rested against his jaw perfectly. That little bit of scruff made him look even more handsome and masculine. He was also extremely tall; he towered over my 5’2” frame at about 6’2”. He was so handsome he almost took my breath away.

Almost.

He was just a guy. Nothing to suffocate over. He smirked at me as I tried to shake myself from the embarrassing blatant act of checking him out.

“Here you go,” he said. With a slight shake of his head, he added, “Some people have no respect.”

I looked up at him and said, “Yeah. Asshole just knocked right into me and didn’t even acknowledge me.”

Seth looks over at me from where he was standing not doing anything to help and chuckled. “He looked like he could have killed you if he was any closer to you. You could have died!” he teased. I rolled my eyes at him and slipped my books into my backpack. I slipped the backpack onto my shoulder, and gave a slight raise of my hand to say goodbye to the stranger who helped me.

“See you around, Josie,” he called out to me as I started walking past him. I turned slightly and furrowed my brows in confusion as to how he knew my name, but he was already walking away.

“Did you tell him your name?” Seth asked.

“No… that’s strange,” I said. We continued to walk down the halls of the building until we came to the door that led to my next class. “Anyway, this is me. I will see you after classes later.”

“Ok. See ya later, Pussy Cat.”

I rolled my eyes at the stupid nickname he had been calling me for years and walked into the classroom, away from the sound of him chuckling at my expense.

The next class was Life Science for Elementary Students, which was taught by none other than Dr. Smith (allegedly the most boring professor on campus). Luckily, Brooke was enduring the class with me, so I wasn’t too worried about falling asleep at my desk. She was already sitting in her seat when I walked in, so I sat in the seat next to hers.

She leaned over and whispered (well, her version of whispering), “So, I was talking to this guy at the coffee shop before class, and he said that there is this house party going on tonight at one of the senior soccer player’s house. He said we should come, but that it wasn’t supposed to be a big party so we need to keep it quiet.”

“Why didn’t Seth say anything? He’s on the soccer team too.”

She swiveled back around, and shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know. Maybe he forgot. Or maybe…” She turned abruptly to look at me, eyes wide. She continued, “…they are brainwashing him into thinking that he can’t trust his friends anymore. I read about that somewhere on the internet once. This girl was on the cheerleading squad, and they found out that the team was brainwashing her, and that’s why she stopped hanging out with her old friends and started drinking all the time.” And that statement was exactly why I wondered where she came up with half the things that spilled out of her mouth.

“Hmmm, that’s an interesting theory.
However,
I am going to have to say that that is probably not what happened,” I replied, and chuckled under my breath.

She shrugged her shoulders again, and turned back towards the front of the class. She said, “Oh well, just a hypotenuse.”

“Hypothesis,” I said lightly, trying to hold in a laugh. I swear this girl was going to kill me. In addition to her conspiracy theories, she also had problems with how to correctly say things. She was always changing the words to songs and getting different phrases wrong. She was smart, but she obviously made some silly mistakes.

The professor started the lecture, and I suddenly understood why everyone said that he was the most boring teacher on campus. I sunk deeper into my seat, and prepared myself for the monotonous lecture. I looked around the classroom at the other students who were also half asleep. My eyes caught with someone else who was looking in my direction. I gave a small smile to him, and he winked at me. Winked at me! He had really blonde hair and looked like a slimy preppy boy who plays tennis as a hobby, so all I could do was glare at him. I had an immense, albeit strange, aversion to guys with super blonde hair. I didn’t look around the class again after that.

I only had two classes on Monday and Wednesday, so I was done for the rest of the day. I told Brooke I would see her later once the class ended, and started to walk back to my room. I decided to take a longer route to my dorm so I could enjoy the weather, and texted Seth.

Me:
Why didn’t you tell me there was a party tonight?

Seth: How did you find out about it? We were all supposed to only invite like one person. I was gonna invite you later

Me: k. Well, Brooke thinks that they may be brainwashing your team, so you may want to keep an eye out for that ;)

Seth: Ahh… thanks for the warning. I’ll ttyl

Me: k

I am usually really good about texting and walking, but it seemed that my luck that day was wearing thin. I was knocked into, yet again, by a blonde bitch who just kept walking. She didn’t turn around and apologize for rudely walking into me, or for knocking the phone out of my hands. It’s not that hard to apologize for knocking into someone, why couldn’t she just say sorry?

“You have
got
to be fucking kidding me!” I bent down to pick up the pieces, and when I came up, I found a familiar face in my bubble of personal space. I backed away from his handsome face which held a small amused grin. The grin turned into a smile, and it warmed my insides seeing such a genuine happiness in his expression.

“We should really stop meeting like this. Are you always like this?” He asked, humor lacing his beautiful deep voice. There was a slight southern drawl in his voice, which wasn’t uncommon for the people who lived around here. It wasn’t overbearing, though, which made it even sexier.

“Yeah, it seems like the people around here are inconsiderate assholes who seem to think I have a desire to be knocked around.”

He smiled at me again. “Well, if you need any lessons in how to walk, I like to consider myself an expert.” It took me aback a little that he was teasing me, but it felt good. A lot of people I came in contact with usually kept their distance.

He was being sarcastic, and that was always a trait I really admired in people. The best way to get through life is to have a sense of humor about it. Of course, there were some exceptions. Some things can never be funny.

“Ah funny guy. I don’t need lessons, thank you very much. I just need people to pay attention.” I glared at the girl who knocked into me. She seemed to be waiting for the stranger who kept witnessing my clumsy hands. I glared some bad karma in her direction while I stared at her.

I turned my attention back to the handsome specimen, and took him in again. He seemed to make my insides squirm just by looking at him. There was something wrong with me; it was like I was having difficulty getting a good breath around him. I stepped back a little, positive being close to him was making me worse… or stupid.

Is it just me or did he get hotter since the last time I saw him?
I thought.

Over the past summer, I had gone to a couple of parties and met other people, but I hadn’t ever really felt an attraction to anyone other than Seth. I hadn’t been able to feel attracted to
any
guys since the incident two years ago. This sexy stranger had a handsome smile, and I knew that if he ever pursued me, there would be no way that I could just ignore him. He would be a hard one to shrug off, mostly because I didn’t think I would even want to.