Chapter 7

• LYRA
• I sat quietly at the backseat, chewing gum as pink as my lips. Like everyone else I was waiting for the Anatomy professor to come in. He was late, not that anyone cared though.
• I slipped a mirror from my purse and stared at the smudges of lipstick on my face. It looked just like it did last night after he licked my lips.
• A gentle sensation rippled through my body, reminding me of the way it felt to be touched by a man. He is fingers treated me like I was so delicate; his little art work which he wanted to savour one delicious piece at a time.
• I huffed. Why did he have to be a bad guy? And why do I have to be so young?
• I put the mirror into my purse and leaned back on my seat, shutting my eyes. I tried to remember what happened last night but all that came to mind was his caress and his tongue.
• I gulped, squeezing my legs. Even though it was a memory, it still made me feel like I could get wet.
• “WOW”
• “Oh my god.”
• “Damn.”
• Several other words like that filled my ears as murmurs erupted in the lecture hall, breaking into my reverie. I leaned forward and opened my eyes.
• I stared at the crowd like a sleep deprived maniac looking for whom to snap their neck.
• I squeezed my face, clearly pissed off by the fact that they broke into my beautiful dream and for good reason, surely.
• I stood up to see what the whole commotion was about. At the same time, he turned around and looked right in my direction. Our eyes crossed and locked.
• I frowned.
• ‘What are you doing here?’ I told him with my eyes.
• He hugged an anatomy textbook closer to him. I got the message immediately.
• I scoffed. ‘You are following me around now? How petty.’
• He flashed me a warm smile and mouthed. ‘This isn’t about you.’ Then he looked away, turning to the white board.
• “Settle down boys and girls, let’s do something before that bell rings. You are all already behind on course topic schedules.” The students sat down slowly, murmurs still lay on their lips.
• “Isn’t he hot?” a girl beside me shrieked.
• I rolled my eyes. ‘Oh boy, here we go again’.
• Part of the problems, I remember, he and mother had while they were married was the fact that random women did everything they could to get close to him. Mother received plenty of death threats back then.
• Come to think of it, it’s been almost half a decade since then and still he looked the same. ‘Talk about vampire alert’. I chuckled at the thought.
• “Alright, I will start with the very first topic. I don’t know how your previous teacher taught you but I like to go with mine.”
• He wrote the topic out on the board. “Let’s start with this.” He flipped though his textbooks and began. While he spoke, the girls just ogled at him and the boys snorted claiming he wasn’t that handsome.
• But even though they were paying so much attention, they didn’t notice that he looked my way a few dozen times and we made eye contact.
• I don’t know why he did that but each time he did; my heart skipped a beat, it wasn’t just about the gaze. It was the possessive, almost daredevil way he did it.
• Like he was saying, ‘You don’t have the right to look at anyone but me.’
• The AC was on full blast but I was getting hotter by the second. It wasn’t the kind of heat that made you sweat. It was the type that made you crave sex.
• I packed my books and ran. The longer I stayed there, the more likely I was to sell myself off. I stayed in the corridor, my body leaned against the railing, the wind blasting on my face and scattering my hair. I rested leisurely in the iron bars. ‘I could get use to this.’
• I looked down at the moving figures on the lawn. They looked like dolls.
• I spotted a woman, slender and tall, cat-walking towards the school building. She wore black with golden sequins decorating it. Her stride, her energy, her fashion choice; everything seemed so familiar.
• I narrowed my eyes on her face and peered closer: that’s when it hit.
• “Mom.”
• I squeezed my purse under my armpit and bolted, flying down the stairs.
• My heart was raising, my tension levels were tipping and my anger was boiling over.
• ‘All I could think of was; she can’t get into this building, no matter what.”
• She was almost at the entrance when I burst through. I swept past the crowd and stopped right in front of her grabbing her arm. I was so fast; it seems as if no one saw me run past them.
• “Turn around and follow me.” I told her, my hand firmly holding her arm.
• “Lyra let me go.” She struggled to break free but she did it with so much poise, no one could tell what was going on.
• “Don’t you dare call my name.” I snapped, warning her with my teeth clenched in anger.
• She looked at me in shock. Like she couldn’t believe her daughter could do something like this.
• “Don’t stare at me. Everything is your fault.”
• “Lyra-” her voice sounded betrayed.
• “Don’t call my fucking name.” I told her to her face, trying not to yell at the same time.
• “Look, I don’t give an F why you are here, all I know is that you cannot come anywhere near that building. Why are you even here? Haven’t you ruined my life enough, now you want to show up here and let everyone know that I’m the girl who killed her brother?”
• “Why the hell would I do that?” she used that tone she always did when she wanted me to believe her. Well I was done buying that.
• “Do you think you need to say anything? They will recognise your face like they always do. I told you to stop with your caring act but you won’t listen.” My grip tightened. She lips parted but the pain was too intense to let her gasp.
• “Leave this place or I won’t let go. You know how my strength can be.” Mother turned to stare at my cold dead eyes. If she didn’t believe me then, she definitely did now.
• “Lyra, when did you become like this?”
• “Leave. Now.”
• “She is my guest. She won’t be leaving, Lyra.”
• I spun around immediately. My gaze fell on his daredevil eyes. He reached out and pried my hand open effortlessly. He pointed mum to towards the direction of his office.
• She walked off.
• “You will be coming along too.” He grabbed my arm. “Don’t bother. You can’t talk your way out of this one.”