Tough Love (ManXMan)

Chapter 46.

  Jalil

The first thing I was quick to realize when school started, is the sheer size and capacity of the lecture halls and the large population of students made it seem very daunting at first as could be seen from the new piercing I was sporting, I felt overwhelmed on the very first day of lectures everything seemed to muddle up and the air conditioned room felt too hot for me. I'd actually left to go back home and mentally prepare myself for the next day of lectures and ever since then it's been manageable.

Enzo and I had slightly different schedules with him opting for Philosophy and I went for Ancient and Medieval History to satisfy Humanities and also with the different minors we had there was a little difference in our schedules but other than that we had three classes together.

The American grading system is also very different from the one adopted in New Zealand, an A is strictly between 90-100 whereas in NZ an A is between 84-100 so I have to get used to that too.

We have actually set up a pretty good schedule for ourselves, majorly picking the early morning classes so we have time off in the afternoons to study and go to work before finally going home, eating dinner, maybe a little more studying and then calling it a day. However, with Romy's calls being unplanned I tend to be with my phone most of the time to answer it and talk with him, those moments are the highlights of my day because I miss him so much.

Right now I was heading out of History class to meet up with Enzo at the Turner circle before heading to Sociology which is the last class of the day. I'm about to go down the stairs when a hand taps my shoulder since I have my earpiece in. The suddenness of the action halts my movement abruptly and I turn in the same manner to view the source of the touch.

A tall brown haired guy with a swimmer body build dressed in black ripped jeans and a blue polo shirt with a sling bag across his shoulders to the left side stands before me. His hair is swept to the side and he's really good looking with a little stubble going on. My eyes move from my assessment to my shoulder where his hand still rests and he gets the memo to remove his hand which he does instantly before giving me a small smile.

"Hi I'm Brent." He raps out confidently and although I envy that, I'm running late for my next class, my fault for making both classes back-to-back. It's at this moment I realize that we have the same History class and he actually sits a couple of chairs away from me on the right. His outstretched hand stay there waiting for me to reciprocate the gesture and although I feel wary around pretty much everyone bigger and clearly stronger than I am except my family and boyfriend, I still shake his hand back for like a split second before dropping my hand back to my side. "We have the same History class and Sociology actually." I never noticed him in my Sociology class but the class is a pretty large one anyways.

"Uhm cool." I reply back awkwardly trying to gauge if this is going somewhere, if we have the same Sociology class then he should know we're a little bit behind time to get to the other building.

A little chuckle escapes his lips before continuing "Can I walk with you?" I just give him a light shrug and he takes that as his cue to step next to me and we walk silently at first towards the Turner Circle where I'll meet up with my brother. "Can I ask you a question?"

"You just did, but shoot anyways."

He chuckles before replying "Alright Smartass, uhm.. you're the guy from the livestream from those terrorists, right?" Uh I try not to remember that awful experience, it's still fresh and I just don't want to relive that memory.

"Yeah" I reply curtly.

"Woah, that's sick." I halt my steps to glance at him, does he mean sick as in awesome or sick as in cruel, barbaric, and outright wicked. Memories of being kicked in the stomach flash through my mind and it takes all in me to not develop a headache. "What they did I mean, it's just brutal." He says quickly.