It All Started with a Lie

Chapter 1

Do I mind if he what? Rips the door off it's hinges with his sheer upper body strength? Please do. He approached the door and I almost wonder if he really is about to kick the door open. He is not, but now that he is closer I can see the outline of every muscle on his body, threatening to rip open the fabric of his ribbied black button up. Who the hell works out that much? It was like looking at The Rock, though he had more hair than the rock. Thick-curly locks that curled around his ears and kissed the back of his neck. He took a step in front of me to take a look at the door handle, giving me a view of his back. I did not recognize him, surely he would be hard to miss. A man of his size should be easily noticed, and yet there was not a thing familiar about him. He jiggled the lock a few times, struggling against my bobby-pin before a loud click rang out and the knob twisted open. My jaw fell. "How did you do that?"

He handed my bobby pin back, ignoring my questions and walking in. He was ignoring me entirely actually. "Excuse me?" I followed after him, shoving his shoulder to make my presence undeniably known.

He laughed, a deep, soft laugh. "Did you just shove me?"

I rested my hands on my hips. "Yes I did. Now is there a reason you are breaking into the professor's office with me?"

His brow rose. "With you?"

With me? Who does this guy think he is? Like he would have gotten in without my hair pin. "Yes, with me. That is my Bobby pin, therefore we are accomplices."

He smiled, and it was the first familiar thing about him, so incredibly familiar and yet I could not place it. Surely we must have met, but I couldn't not remember him—how could I forget someone like him. He slid his hand into his pockets, leaning against the wall. The shadow masked my view of him, preventing me from getting a better look. "I need to turn in my essay from last week. I was at the soccer game and wasn't able to turn it in."

Suddenly the fixed lock made perfect sense. I was sure he wasn't the only person to break into the professor's office to turn in a late assignment. I nodded in understanding, another fellow athlete tormented by Hammon's wrath. "He keeps our assignments locked up, but I might be able to get to them." I had done this a time or two, granted it was usually in broad daylight and with the help of some light flirting with the teachers assistant, but surly its the same process alone in the dark, might be easier.

The stranger began searching the papers on Hammon's desk, as if he did not belive me. "And why would you do that?" He made no attempt to meet my eyes.

I smirked. "Because, you're gonna help me. I need to find his golden pen." The only thing he kept more hidden than the test scores. It was his prize possession. A second pair of eyes is probably the only way I'd manage to find it before the night ends.

The stranger's eyebrow shot up. "His golden pen? Are you crazy? He probably doesn't even keep that thing in his office."

"He does." He must. If he doesn't, I'm not sure what I'll do. I can't exactly run to his house in the middle of the night.

The stranger sighed and in his movement the gentle light of the moon beams across his cheekbones and down his face to his neck where a black cord wrapped around it, decorated in blue and purple beads, holding up what I assume to be a shark tooth. Probably some aquarium souvenir. "Alright, you got yourself a deal. But only because I'm desperate."

He's desperate? I'm desperate. I must be to be asking for help from someone as rude as him.

I grinned, walking over to the painting on the far wall. I removed it from its hinges to reveal a small built-in safe, the kind you'd see in the old, black and white movies. I turned the dial, entering the passcode I'd seduced out of Dr. Hammon's TA: 08-16-23. The safe clicked open, revealing a stack of the lastest assignment. "Got it!"