Love's Beat

Chapter 2

     Thump, thump, thump.

Ember could feel her heart beating about a hundred miles per second and she wondered if that was normal.

     Whaddaheck, Ember. Your heart is being shot to the sky because of a guy. Shame on you!

     Oh, cut me some slack. It's not like I've ever felt this way before.

Ember pinched herself to stop the blabbering in her brain. Boy, if this was what a small smile from him caused, she had better stay far, far away from him.

Once the bell rang, she had wanted to dash right out of class but unfortunately, her escape was hindered when she knocked her books over. She groaned inwardly and bent over to gather up her books. Just as she was about to stand, a hand popped into view.

She froze and stared at it. She didn't do anything, she just stared at that hand like it was a snake.

If anyone ever asked her about that moment, she would deny it ever happened.

     "Um, hello there. I'm Jaden" a voice said.

And she still stared.

Then that hand waved in front of her face and she finally snapped out of it.

She jerked up straight which sadly caused her books to fall. Again.

She could feel the heat blazing in her cheeks as she picked them up. She was about to reach for the last one when he caught her to it.

     "Here, I'm sorry I startled you." He handed her back the book.

     She looked at him warily and took the book. "Thank you." She stood up carefully this time and realised that she had to tilt her head up slightly to get a good look at his face. She was tall and most guys were shorter than her which made her seem a little bit more intimidating. Which also made dating difficult. It was nice to know there were at least some guys who still fit the bill.

     "My pleasure." He smiled that smile again and she felt her heart soar.

     She cleared her throat. "I'm Ember. I'm sorry that I can't shake your hand as you can see, they're a little occupied."

His smile got a little wider and her heart stared beating faster. Cool it, Em.

     "It's okay. I'm sorry for the confusion about the seat thing though. I honestly didn't know it was yours."

     "It's cool." She shrugged as casually as possible when she felt anything but. Stupid heart.

     "Listen, I'm really sorry, but I can't show you around campus right now. I have a bunch of errands to take care of which are really important." She tried to look sorry when she was really just itching to get out of there.

     "Hey, no sweat. I can always get someone else to show me around. How big can a school be, right?"

She looked at him as if he was some alien from Mars.

     "Did you by any chance check out this school before you enrolled in here?" she asked.

     "No. I just thought that it had a good music course and they accepted me immediately," he said with the most adorable confused look on his face.

She let out a breathless laugh because she was honestly pretty shocked he didn't do his research before entering here. This place was a labyrinth if you didn't know your way around.

     "You know what, even the people around here couldn't show you the whole place in a day. Heck, I don't think they even know some of the places exist. So, here." She handed him the map she'd drawn a while back when she decided to go exploring around the school. She realised she had a lot of time when one didn't have friends to hang out with.