Settling Slowly

Prologue

September 2014

"Dad, I've got to go!"

"Hang on, hang on," he sighed as he took his own sweet time in the bathroom.

All I wanted to do was run a tooth brush over my teeth more for the minty smell than because they needed a clean.

"Dad!" I banged on the door.

"Anyone would think your boyfriend is going to be there."

I rolled my eyes even though he couldn't see. "I don't have a boyfriend, Dad. I have a Russian class to get to though and you're making me late."

Finally the door opened. I stepped back so that he could come out, but he just stood there.

"Well?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, fine. Thanks for asking," he smiled at me.

"I meant," I said gritting my teeth, "Well are you going to move or what?"

"I'm not exactly statuesque," he said.

I could have argued and said for all intents and purposes he was statuesque, but he used to be a paramedic and he'd only regale me with a massive list of things that were always in motion if I went down that path.

"Please move," I said striving for that blessed gift called patience.

"Since you asked," he smiled and strolled out of the bathroom.

I growled in incredulous frustration and stomped in there not bothering to lock or even shut the door. I brushed my teeth in record time and then stomped down the stairs. My shoes were gone. I'd left them on the stairs ready to be put on and now they were god knows where.

"Dad! What have you done with my shoes?"

"Put them away," he said oh so reasonably. To be fair when he did lean on the door frame he did look confused.

I ran back up the stairs, grabbed my converse from the floor and shoved them on my feet. Had I been anyone else I would have just stuffed the laces down the side of the shoe, but I was Zoey Jones and I still whacked my head on the top bunk ten years after we first got the thing. I went for double knots and zipped down the stairs, grabbed my school bag from by the door and stepped out into the unseasonably warm night.

"Hi, Zoey," Mum said as she came up the path. "You ok?"

"I'm running late," I said as I hurried passed her. "That husband of yours. Ugh."

"Have fun," she called as I got into the car I shared with my brother Dan. It was a VW Beatle in red and was beginning to rust underneath.

I crunched the gears a little as I set off going far too fast for the gear I was in, but I did make it to the right campus of OxfordUniversity in the end and in a reasonably timely manor.

As soon as I had the key out of the ignition I threw my door open and hurried out only just remembering to lock it behind me. The car park was only half full and it was only a little one lined by old trees and even older buildings. I had no idea which door I was supposed to be heading in, but it didn't matter because once I saw the guy in jeans and a t-shirt opening a door I decided that would do and I'd have to hope he was a student or a member of staff who could point me in the right direction.

"Hey, wait!" I called out to him and waved my arm as little as I made a dash for the door.

The guy turned to me, silhouetted by the light spilling from within. I nearly tripped up the bottom step – but of course – and he came down to help me as a couple of notebooks had spilled out of my rucksack. I actually had everything gathered up before he made it down the short flight of steps because this happened literally all the freaking time and it was a dance I was well versed in.

"Are you ok?" the man asked, his accent vaguely eastern European sounding and the timbre of his voice a soft baritone that rumbled a little as he spoke.

"Fine," I said and began stuffing the notebooks and pieces of paper into my bag. I had banged my knee a little too, but I was used to that as well. I began walking up the stairs as I spoke. "I'm late for a Russian class with this dude called Gregory Ivanov –" I caught sight of my watch. I was five minutes late. "Oh, goddamn it, Dad!" I growled. Then I realised I'd just cursed in front of a stranger. "Sorry. Do you happen to know where it is?"

He opened the door allowing me to step through before him.

"I'm your teacher," he said. 

I managed to bang my shoulder into the other door and it rattled in its hinges echoing through the corridor before us. The thing I took more note of was how my blood pressure had just spiked and the world seemed to freeze for a moment as I caught sight of his face. Half lit up and half in shadow the soft contours of his cheekbones were thrown into stark relief making them look stronger. A strong, but not proud nose gave way to three day old stubble forming a moustache which met up with a stubbly beard that surrounded tempting lips and stretched out across his jaw line. Dark hair had been ruffled and then smoothed a few times, but was short so he didn't look unkempt. Eyes the colour of rich coffee assessed me too.

Compared to him I felt pretty plain and ordinary. I was just a final year A level student, still in uniform might I add. He swept over my light brown hair, my pale skin and focused on my eyes for a few moments. Behind my glasses they looked larger than they really were, but I didn't actually mind that. Of all my features my eyes were the ones I liked best. Yes, they were only grey but they were darker than most, like storm clouds. He probably didn't think anything of what I looked like and I hadn't expected him to. He was my teacher after all. Yes, he was a young teacher, about twenty four, but my teacher nonetheless. Probably all he saw was my expression which was made of wide eyes and a slack jaw.

"You're my, er, our teacher?" I asked.

"Da," he said not looking away from my eyes.

I took a breath in before breathing became difficult and got a whiff of his aftershave. It was sandalwood mixed with some other spice that I didn't care to guess at right now because it was tinged with a little sweat and oh boy what dangerous intoxication that was.

And he just looked at me. He just looked me right in the eye.

So of course I said the first thing that came to mind which was, "You look like crap."

To be fair it was true enough, he looked tired enough to fall asleep where he stood and there were traces of other emotions playing in his eyes – sadness, trepidation, a little fear perhaps – but did I really have to go and tell the bloke he looked like crap? Really?

He smiled showing perfect teeth and small dimples. "My plane was delayed."

I blinked at him for a few moments. "Your plane?"

"I have only just arrived from Russia."

"Oh," I said.

"We should both get to the classroom."

"Yes," I said and stepped out of the doorway. Suddenly able to breathe I sucked some much needed air in. "We probably should."

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Here's the first installment of the sequel to Falling Fast - Settling Slowly is here!!!!! Mwhahahahaha!!! The first chapter will be up on Saturday. Yes Saturday! I wanted to get my butt into a higher gear with getting this finished and the answer was start putting it on Wattpad. I'm excited already!

A word of warning - Settling Slowly is in a much more rough condition (hereby meanign not yet finished, but getting there and spelling mistakes still included etc.) than Falling Fast ever was. I'm going to have to look at chapters as I put them up but hopefully there won't be any huge order fo events changes between now and completion. All I ask is that you bare with me! Oh, and enjoy! Please, please, please enjoy this story! 

The picture is our leading couple Zoey Deutch as Zoey Jones and Danila Kozlovsky as Grigory Ivanov. Again, you're going to have to imagine glasses on Zoey. 

Song is Taylor Swift "Everything Has Changed" which inspired me to write this scene the first time I heard it.

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