The Quest for Epic

Chapter Forty Six

She nodded at me. "Anytime", she mouthed back and then gave me a hug before she departed with Marley.

With that, I was all alone. I heaved out a not entirely weary sigh and made the short walk to my Sedan. I got in and started my car up, and in a few minutes I was on the road, driving down to our shared apartment. It was nice and trendy enough for Maya's tastes, and cosy enough for mine. What made it even more perfect was the fact that it was ten minutes away from campus and wasn't nearly as noisy as the dorms. Finding that apartment with Maya had been one of the bright spots in my otherwise bleak return to college. It gave me a sense of relief at least that Noah didn't know where I was staying anymore. Well, I shouldn't have been worried about that, seeing as he was thousands of miles away.

Like anytime my thoughts betrayed me and strayed to Noah, my mood immediately darkened. It had been two months and I thought I would get over him, stop thinking about him... but for the life of me, I just couldn't. I tried to keep myself extremely busy to get my mind off him, but whenever I had a few quiet moments to myself, like clockwork my mind always strayed back to him. His beautiful hazel eyes, his frighteningly gorgeous smile, those blonde locks I longed to feel between my fingers once again, the way his eyes lit up when he looked at me like I was the most important thing in the world...

I didn't know I was so far gone until I felt the cold splash of a tear on my thigh exposed by the shorts I had been wearing. I immediately chided myself, shaking my head at how pathetic I must look... But then again, nobody was there to look at me.

I cleared my throat and tried to get myself in check, focusing on the road in front of me instead. I had to be stronger than this.

I made it to my apartment in a few minutes and wasted no time in popping last night's pasta dish into the microwave to get heated up. It had been a long day and I was starving. Our new apartment had a lovely flat screen TV and I collapsed on the sofa, propping my feet up on the coffee table and decided to catch something on Netflix before I got to work on today's assignments.

I was two episodes into Fuller House, my dinner gobbled down and dishes put away when I heard a slight knocking on the door. I sat upright and turned off the TV, my brow wrinkling... We weren't expecting anyone. When I didn't answer immediately, the knocking became more insistent.

I got up and rolled my eyes as a thought came to mind, it had to be Frank our neighbour in 3B down the hall. He had developed quite the crush (obsession) with Maya and always found an excuse to pop by unwanted. One day, he even came by asking for a 'cup of sugar'. Like seriously Frank... would a little originality kill you?

I dusted off my shorts as I stood up, made my way to the door and without bothering to check the peephole, yanked open the door to tell Frank oh so sweetly that Maya was not around.

However once the door flew open, the words froze on my lips.

In fact, my entire body froze.

How long could your heart stay not beating without you dying? Mine had certainly passed that limit by a mile.

Beautiful hazel eyes met mine, his scent invaded my being all at once and everything rushed back and swept me up like a tornado... like it was just yesterday, and not two months ago when Noah, looking broken and tormented, had exited my life completely.

"Wha... How? What?" I stuttered stupidly like my brain had just made a grand exit from my body.

"Sorry to show up out of the blue like this", Noah's voice still did crazy, wicked things to me. How could he be here right now?

I just stood there gaping at him for about ten seconds. I was stunned. Shocked. Stupefied. And a whole host of other adjectives that weren't adequate enough to describe my emotions right now.