Merely Human

Chapter 2

The next morning when I woke up, I had a slight headache but it wasn't as bad as I anticipated. Trish must have drank more of the bottle then I had. I groaned slightly as I stretched before pulling myself off of the couch, trying to maneuver in a way that I didn't wake her up. I checked the time and found I still had an hour left until my class so I went to the kitchen and began to cook some breakfast, burning myself slightly as a bit of hot bacon grease spluttered up from the pan and burned my wrist. I hissed slightly but ignored the pain as I put the food on a plate and began to eat, leaving some for Trish. After I washed my dishes, I went to took a shower and get ready and by the time I made my way back into the main room I found Trish at the table eating.

"How you doing?" I asked.

"Not as bad as I thought." She said. "Thanks for breakfast."

"No problem, I'm heading off. You good here?"

"Yeah Andrés will pick me up for class."

I nodded at her and grabbed the car keys and my bag then shouted a good bye at her before leaving.

Class was mainly a review of things before our midterm and I was glad I had studied the night before even if it made the class a bit boring. When finally our two hours were up, I left class to meet up with Trish as she walked out of the room across from mine.

"Where's Andrés?" I asked.

"He's already heading over to our next class, he needed to talk to the teacher. Hey so I was thinking you should bring a date to the party. You know, some guy in my western lit class was interested and asked if you were single."

"Trish, you know I'm not really interested in dating right now." I told her.

"Yeah, but you don't need to be looking for anything serious to have a little fun, right?"

"I just don't want to create any problems by going out with a guy and leading him on or something."

"You could tell him straight up you just want something casual, just go with this guy to the party. It could be fun!"

"No!" I told her firmly.

I turned around with the full intent of stomping away from her but ended up hitting something solid and fleshy. I grunted at the sudden pain in my nose and reached a hand up to rub my face in the hopes they had some special power to take the pain away. I peered through my fingers up at the human wall and found my eyes looking into a pair of pale green irises. Instantly the pain seemed nonexistent and I subconsciously lowered my hands as I gaped at the guy.

Logically I knew this was a large university with a huge campus, but how had I never come across this man before? It almost didn't seem fair that I had been deprived of such eye candy for this long. His dark brown hair hung messily, not too long but long enough to run your fingers through. His eyes were almond shaped and his slight scruff made him seem rugged rather then sloppy. He was also tall, I'd estimate around 6'5". I wasn't used to looking up to guys, I was 5'9" and most of the people I talked to were either the same height as me or shorter.

I don't know if it was my imagination, but it also looked like he was checking me out as heavily as I was him. His eyes were wide as he looked me over and he shook his head slightly as if he had thought something that confused him.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to run into you." I finally managed to say, inwardly applauding myself for sounding so casual.

"No problem, it was an accident." He shrugged off and grinned at me, making my insides clench and my heart skip a beat. "I'm Caden."

"Andromeda, though most people call me Andy."

"Nice to meet you." He held a hand out for me to shake, but the second my hand made contact with him I felt a shock that made us both jolt our hands back. Caden stared at me with wide eyes and I'm sure my face mirrored his.