Her Strange Love

4. The Commencement

Commencement-
the act of something starting.

“Ah!” The boxes full of clothes that are piled up so high in my arms I can’t see over them fly out of my grip, landing with most of their contents spilled out on the grass as I stumble and fall right on my tailbone.

“Rune!” William comes running out the worn, brown front door of the house. His features panicked. When he sees me sitting on the ground with clothes strewn all around me, he lets out an adorable laugh. I want to be mad at him for laughing at me, but I can’t because his laugh is – I know this is cheesy – like music to my ears.

I stick out my bottom lip, and he reaches down and scoops me up in his strong arms. He bites his lip and reaches out to pick something off my head. A bra. My cheeks redden as he looks at me with a raised eyebrow.

“This isn’t how I imagined I would be seeing your bra for the first time.” My eyes widen at the implication, and I open my mouth to say something, I’m not sure what.

Will cuts me off from probably embarrassing myself further by setting my on my feet. “I have to go out to get some groceries. Remember that you have to be at registration in thirty minutes.” He absentmindedly rubs the side of my cheek, forcing my gaze to his. “And you still haven’t taken your pills.”

“Oh, shoot. I guess, I f-forgot,” I stammer, embarrassed. He’s always reminding me to do silly stuff normal people remember; I hate it, hate this.

He seems to know my thoughts, because he smiles down at me, his brown eyes locked on mine, “I’ll see you tonight. If you need me, please call.” That’s the last thing I hear from him as he starts walking down the cracked sidewalk.

We don’t have money for a car, we barely had money for this house - if you could call it that. It’s an old house I assume many broke college students have lived in since it’s so close to the campus. One bedroom, one bathroom, a small kitchen, and a cramped living room filled with a worn, ripped couch and a bookshelf. William volunteered to take the couch while we search for another mattress, leaving me the bedroom occupied by a dust filled mattress and a torn blanket. We have nothing. William tries to hide the extent of our poverty from me, but he seems to forget I have brain damage, and I'm not blind.

I begin to pick up my meager things from the ground and stuff them back in the box. It feels like someone’s watching me. I look up and see a tall man with piercing blue eyes stopped on the sidewalk. He’s looking directly at me. When our eyes meet, mine widen from fear. This is a dangerous neighbourhood, it’s dusk, and I’m standing outside alone; how smart. I quickly re-stack the boxes back in my arms and rush to the door. Crap. I have to sit the boxes down to open the door. I try to lodge the boxes between my hip and the door and grab for the handle.

“Would you like some help?” I gasp and jerk back when I hear the voice from directly behind me, which makes all the boxes fall, once again.

“W-what do you want?” I ask. I find myself entrance by his stunning, blue eyes. A small smile graces his plush lips.

“I want to know if you would like some help.” British, he’s British. It’s amazing that this strange man could mean to harm me and I’m focusing on the fact that he’s British. Wow.

“What the heck! You don’t just randomly come to a stranger’s door and ask if they want help.”

“Well, you do if said stranger was molesting you with their eyes earlier,” his eyes dance with mischief as he bends down to help with the boxes.

I sputter, and try to come up with an excuse for staring at him earlier. “You know, any time would be good for that comeback, sweet.”

“Sweet? I’m not your sweet,” I say as I bend down to grab my black bra from his hands and stuff it far down in the box. What is it with guys and this bra?

He takes the boxes I was struggling to lift, and carries them with ease to the door. “Can you get the door?”

Even though I know its not exactly the smartest thing to do - if William was here he would kill me - but I open the door and gesture for the stranger to go in. He gives me a startled look, as if he was expecting me to tell him to leave.

As he walks in, it crosses my mind that he'll find the sparse place lacking; I shove that insecurity from my mind. It’s not my fault I have nothing, it’s Rick’s.

I want to ask his name. He could’ve already told me, which would be incredibly awkward, but I risk it.

“Who are you?” I ask as I shut the door behind me, which I know, I know, it’s not smart, but for some reason, I trust him.

“Sebastian Green.” He puts the boxes on the floor and turns to stick out his hand. I reach my hand out to shake his, but he turns my palm down, and brings the back of my hand up for a scorching kiss against it. I gasp, and Sebastian looks up, his eyes immediately going to my lips.

“I-I’m Rune Hargrove.” He makes me feel off balance, like I may fall; I like it. 

“You’re the late enrolment?” He asks.

“Yes. How did you know?” I didn’t realize it was common knowledge that I would be enrolling late.

“I help out with registration.”

“Oh, shoot!” I turn towards the kitchen table and start to look for my phone. “I was supposed to be at registration like five minutes ago.” When I don’t find my phone on the table, I bend and start looking on the ground, thinking it may have fallen with the boxes.

“What are you looking for?” I feel Sebastian right behind and don’t even bother looking at him as I keep searching for it.

“My phone. I just had it.”

I feel a warm hand against my backside and I flash back to the fingers between my thighs and the hands everywhere, but I bury the stifling thoughts deep within my mind.

“Found it.” I straighten and turn at Sebastian’s gruff voice to find him grinning victoriously with my phone held loosely between his fingers.

“Hey!” I slap his chest and grab my phone from his hand.

I wait for him to make a comment about me forgetting my phone being in my pocket, but it never comes.

“Well, I better go,” I open the door and usher him outside. “I’ll see you around, I guess?”

“Yes, you will,” Sebastian promises.

~~~
Song- Wolves/ Selena Gomez