Heiress in Distress

•Chapter 19: Part 1•

I'm first to break eye contact, realising how unfair my inability to decipher his emotions is, compared to his buying a one-way ticket to my thoughts with just the look of his eyes.

How long has he been here, I'm not quite certain but I do know now he's been long enough to have seen my exchange with the man.

I flip through the journal, pretending to be consumed in the contents of the book, "Where did you get this ?"

My words seem to have snapped him out of a daze, because he lets a whoosh of breath before looking down at the book between my hands -I notice that from the corner of my eyes.

He opens his mouth to answer, but his phone rings from the cupholder, forcing him to swallow his words back.
I will my eyes to remain focused on the open journal in front of me when he turns his phone over to check the caller ID.

I don't exactly see him stiffen but rather sense his change of demeanour, if the shift in the once light atmosphere makes for a reliable indicator.

"I have to get this" He says, tone giving nothing away, with a marble hard jaw, he opens his door, probably wanting to take the call in privacy.

"No, wait. My class has probably started," I lie, swinging my bag over my shoulder and hugging the journal to my chest, ready to leave.

His tongue pokes from the inside of his cheek, creating a mound of skin in the place of his dimple, as if contemplating the importance of the call.

Smiling, I tell him "It's fine, really. I'm already late for class"

"Alright" He concedes, pressing his lips together.

I'm trying to translate his gestures here but I'm clearly lacking in the skill, so I just sit there and look at him, none of us making a move.

Lips pursed, he motions with his head to the journal weighing my arms down,

"Keep the journal" He says before leaving the car and accepting the call, the sound of his door slamming mingling with the sound of mine.

After crossing the street back to the school's gates, I only jog two steps before decelerating back to a steady walk, with the fear of tripping in my beautiful wedgies shaking its finger no at me.

I round the corner to the back of the campus, towards the parking lots in hopes to catch Joe's fiancé, but because it has been destined that bad luck and I are constant companions, I stop in my tracks at the sight of the brown haired-guy climbing into the driver's seat of the car Joe is currently standing near. My shoulders slump in disappointment when the car zooms off.

I really wanted to meet that guy.

With a sigh, I reach Joe in a few more strides to stand next to her as she waves her hands in the direction of the speeding car.

Joe turns to me with an apologetic look in her eyes, shrugging her shoulders in 'it wasn't anyone's fault' way, before swinging her arm over my shoulder.

"Isn't it funny ? Our men coming to visit us in school to- hey what have you got there?" She asks, motioning to the journal in my hand.

I internally laugh at her unconfirmed referral to Elias as my man.

We continue to walk back to school, her arm still around my shoulder, "It's a historical journal,"

She wrinkles her nose in disgust, disinterest in history all too clear, "Sorry for asking"

•••

Clara has left early this morning, offering nothing of an explanation that implies where she's going or when she'll be back.
And if my observational sense isn't mistaken, she was distractedly fuelled by an undercover urgency -I think I even spotted her wiping at her eyes while headed for the door.