They carried on with their usual dance; discussing what the subject matter was in class that week, reading the assigned books together, and outlining his weekly essay on his laptop.
Everything was routine until Tristan looked up to see a figure looming on the other side of the large window that looked into the study room.
“Shit,” he said under his breath.
“What is it?” She looked up into his eyes and then followed his gaze, turning her body behind her, and seeing a very beautiful woman with short black hair and brown eyes standing there, shooting absolute daggers at her with her eyes. Her arms were crossed, and her foot was tapping the ground angrily.
“Uh, do you know her?” Tessa asked, bringing her eyes back to Tristan who rolled his eyes and let out a long sigh.
“Unfortunately.”
The door swung open and the dark-haired siren stomped into the room.
“What the fuck?” she asked, throwing her hands on her hips.
“Are you following me or something?” Tristan asked, not event attempting to hide his annoyance.
“You keep conveniently showing up to where ever I am.”
“Who is this?” She asked, her eyes deep with anger scanning over Tessa’s angelic and confused face.
“We’re studying, and its none of your business anyway. Please leave.”
“Why haven’t you returned any of my calls?”
“Jesus Christ Veronica, please go away!”
Veronica. Tessa heard that name when his teammates had caught them at the diner together a few weeks ago. She looked at the beautiful woman in front of her and didn’t exactly feel intimidated, but definitely uncomfortable as well as a little annoyed.
“I’m uh...gonna go...” Tessa stood from her seat slowly, as not to draw too much attention to herself, and began packing her things away.
“Yeah, I think you should,” Veronica spat, her arms crossed aggressively over her chest.
“Fucking hell Veronica, enough!” Tristan stood suddenly, his large frame towering over Tessa. She had only ever seen happy and goofy Tristan. This was her first time seeing him upset or angry. She awkwardly looked between the two of them and took a few steps backwards towards the door.
“Yeah, I’m definitely leaving.” She quickly turned and walked out of the door.
She walked quickly, keeping her head down, trying to be as quiet as possible so she didn’t attract any attention from the other students in the library. She thought she was in the clear once she ran through the library doors, but she heard his voice faintly behind her, calling her name. Her brain was telling her to keep walking,whatever is going on in there is none of your business and doesn’t involve you, he’s not yours.
“Tessa wait!”
Her heart told her to stop, and her feet became frozen in place. She clutched the strap of her bag on her shoulder and took a deep breath before turning around slowly to see Tristan jogging towards her. He reached her and stopped in front of her, searching her eyes nervously.
“I’m sorry about that,” he said, his eyes dropping to the ground.
“It’s whatever. It’s really none of my business, I just really don’t want to be there while you and your girlfriend fight.”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” he said sternly. “She was but we’re not together anymore. I swear. She just can’t let it go and I don’t know what to do about it. I’ve tried to be nice and it’s just notworking. I’m sorry I yelled at her in front of you. I’m just at my wits end.”
Tessa stood in the heavy silence, contemplating his words, wondering why he felt it necessary to explain any of this to her.
“Well, I hope she comes to her senses I guess,” she said after a few quiet moments, not really knowing what to say to him. “I’ll see you next week. We were pretty much at the end of the assignments you had anyway so. It’s really not a big deal. I’ll see you later.”
She turned on her heel to leave but was stopped by his very large hand gently grabbing her elbow. She froze and looked down at his hand that held onto her, his thumb slowly caressing her soft skin. He wanted to continue touching her; continue exploring her skin, her hair...her lips. He was somehow able to restrain himself and cleared his throat, the sound bringing her eyes up to his.
“Have you attended any of the football games?”
“Me?” She said with a sarcastic laugh. “No.”
