He was there again.
Staring at her across the other side of an opening in the forest. She recognised the place, it was somewhere she'd always ran to when she needed to breathe. Breathe in air that wasn't congested with nicotine, or weed smoke, or the stench of alcohol. Truly breathe in fresh air (well as fresh as city air could get) and clear her head.
She knew the place and she knew him. She'd been dreaming of him for a while now. Him, with his olive skin and his piercing green eyes. She found them so unusual. One day they'd be as green as the leaves on the big oak tree that she was so fond of sitting under. Another day, they'd take on the discoloured green of the elm tree leaves in the autumn. Today, she could've sworn that they had a warm hint of hazel in them. The hazel was her favourite.
Like other days, she called out to him. Asked him who he was, what he wanted, why he stared at her. But he never replied to her, or even acknowledged that he'd heard her, he'd just continue looking.
"You know, in the real world, I think you're what they would call a stalker." She yelled over to him. "Why do you come here all the time?"
As expected, he gave no response and she sighed.
"Fine! Don't answer me, but can you stop showing up here? You're starting to creep me out a little." She said hopping down off the rock she'd been sat on. "Even if you are incredibly handsome."
Like usual, she walked away from him until she was out of the enclosed area and back onto the forest path. She hadn't counted on him following her, let alone speaking.
"Wait." His voice boomed through the trees and it was almost like she couldn't help but turn around to face him.
She swallowed, trying to control her shaky voice. "Y-Yes?"
"I'm coming."
She blinked at him. "W-what? What do you-"
But she didn't get to finish her sentence.
The scene around her was darkening. Trees were blurring, the clouds blackened consuming the rest of the blue sky, and he was slowly disappearing the way he always did when she was about to wake up.
"Goddamnit! Really? Right now??"
Her eyes opened and she cursed. This was the first development she'd had in about of a month. Do you know what a relief it was not to have the same recurring dream?
She lay there for god knows how long, trying to decipher what this little advancement had meant. It was only when she had racked her brain to the point of frustration that she decided to get up.
5.45 am
Nobody else in the house would be awake. Her mother would probably be sleeping off a hangover with her latest man friend. This one had stuck around long enough for Justice to actually know his name.
Stephan.
Just saying it gave her chills. He made her extremely uncomfortable. He was a thug and every bit proud of it. She wasn't exactly sure what it was that he did, but she knew damn well it was something illegal. She'd tried to tell her mother just that only to be told that he was "looking after them". That was the end of that subject.
She didn't need anyone to look after her. On top of school, she worked two jobs to make sure she never had to ask anyone for anything. It wasn't like she was surrounded by people who would jump at the chance to help her anyway, nor did she like the idea of asking for help. She was very private.
Yawning, she slid off her bed and padded across the room to her calendar.
"Not long now. Not long and I'll be free." She sighed crossing off the day. "Free and out of this hell hole."
By the time she had gotten ready and made her way to school, she'd forgotten all about her little dream. She had bigger fish to fry, like how to get through the day without committing murder.
She'd never been a social girl. She'd much rather spend quality time with herself that socialise with the morons that comprised the rest of the student body. However she did have one person that she could tolerate and it was all thanks to him that she'd managed to get through 4 years of high school without committing any serious crimes.
"Please tell me you took notes in Kraken's history lesson last week. Please tell me that this time you took notes instead of memorizing the shit with your freaky little photographic memory. PLEASE."
"Max, let go of my arm. You're cutting off my circulation." She pushed her best friend off her ignoring the looks they were getting from on lookers. Max was one of the best looking guys at her college; well in her opinion anyway. He had the whole hipster look down to a T, the ponytail with the shaven sides, the quirky glasses, the A-Grade facial hair. He was the envy of most of the boys because he'd managed to grow a beard at the mere age of 18. People always shot them looks when they were together because they were convinced that Justice and Max were a thing. They couldn't have been more wrong.
"I don't have a photographic memory, for the last time." She chuckled. "And yes, I took notes. But give me one good reason why I should give them to you?"
"I'll give you free shots at The Den for a month." He said raising his perfectly shaped eyebrows. She'd always been super jealous of his eyebrow. He never had to touch them whereas for her, it felt like she had to pluck them every other day.
"Like I'd ever set foot in The Den!" She smirked back at him as she pushed her way through the crowded hallways. "Try again."
"Ugh don't do this to me." He groaned. "Ah! Ah okay! I'll give you the spare ticket to The Internet's gig!!"
She stopped at her locker and turned around to him with a pondering look.
"The Internet, you say?"
"Yes. The concert you damn near cried about not going to? Ring any bells?"
".... Hand it over." She said holding out her hand. He shook his head and exhaled but opened his rucksack anyway. Taking the ticket out of the envelope, he handed it to her slowly as if it pained him. When her fingers enclosed around it, she held it up to the light grinning from ear to ear and kissed it.
"I can't believe you thought you could go without me." She said shoving it in her locker and grabbing her books.
"I had someone I wanted to take." He said feigning discontent.
Justice wrapped her arm around his waist. "Who could be better to go with than your best friend? I mean who else will catch you when you pass out from fan-boying?"
"Mmm, that's true." He shrugged. "So? The notes??"
She whipped them out and handed them to him before they turned to go their separate ways.
"Oh, Max?" She yelled to him.
"Yeah?"
"I wrote the notes for you, so I would've given them to you anyway. But thanks for the ticket!" She blew him a kiss before running to her class.
Her first class on a Thursday was always double art and she loved it. She was good at most subjects having been blessed with an academic brain but she was also extremely creative and loved to express herself on a canvas. It helped that Lara, the art teacher took an extreme liking to her. From the very first day of class they'd gotten on like a house on fire and after two years of being in her class, Justice realised that she was the teacher she would miss the most. She'd even go as far as considering her a friend.
She walked in and took her usual seat, at the back in the middle. It was what she considered to be the best seat in the house. Good lighting due to the huge window in the ceiling that shone the sunlight into the room and it gave her a pretty good view of the classroom. Sometimes they'd have to draw objects or people, if it was a life drawing class.
Yep, it was her favourite class. It just happened to be home to some of the worst students at the college. There was Sephora and her crew. Sephora was a beautiful young woman. Tall and slender, yet still curvaceous in all the desired areas. She had bright red hair and toffee toned skin that made it impossible not to notice her. With a perfectly proportioned face and body, she had the potential to be a 10/10 but her personality cut that figure in half. She wasn't exactly what you would call friendly and if you crossed her she could quickly become a nightmare.
Justice wasn't particularly scared of her but she knew that for some reason Sephora didn't like her, so she steered clear. When she'd first started college, she'd admitted that she wondered why Sephora didn't like her. Compared to her, Justice was nothing. In the looks department they were completely the opposite. Sephora had soft luscious waves for hair, Justice's hair looked like a blonde bush of untamed curls on her head. Her mother had always told her that she'd inherited her dad's kinky curly hair; completely uncontrollable unless you used water and some type of product. Sephora had skin that Justice would die for. She looked like she'd constantly been soaking up the sun whereas Justice was pale and freckled. Sometimes she would get complimented on it but she could never understand why. She hated her freckles and her skin was so pale that even the slightest emotion caused her to turn a bright red. She hated it.
As for their personalities, although Sephora could be scary, she had the kind of bubbly and outgoing personality that seemed to make people gravitate to her. Justice was quiet and a little awkward. She'd tried the whole striking up conversation and making friends thing, but it never seemed to work out in her favour so she just stopped trying. She'd learned to embrace her awkwardness. One thing she did have was a wicked tongue and a knack for sarcasm. God, she loved sarcasm.
Sephora's crew consisted of 3 girls. Michelle, a dark skinned girl with a pretty face, a banging body and a loud mouth. She was nice to almost everybody though so she was well liked. Rachel was a petite mixed raced girl who was known to be Sephora's right hand man. Justice liked to refer to her as Sephora's pet because she took orders from her and did whatever Sephora wanted. She had long brown hair that flowed down her back and she loved to remind people that it was on account of her being half Native American. She was the epitome of the bad classroom child, always revelling in causing some type of disruption with the class clowns aka the twins Kwame and Kane. Vanessa was the one that Justice liked the most. She was pretty too. With her mocha skin and her ever changing hairstyles, Justice envied her. She was a no nonsense type of girl, definitely not a pushover, but nevertheless she was warm and never hesitated to throw a smile her way. Justice liked to think they were on civil terms, even exchanging small hello's when they saw each other.
Sighing at the mess that was her class, Justice went to take her seat, dodging the rolled up clay ball that Kwame had decided to throw at her on the way. She wasn't sure what they were doing today but she made sure to get her easel ready anyway, she liked to be prepared.
"Awww look at the little teacher's pet. Setting up your equipment isn't gonna get you extra UCAS points you know." Sephora sniggered and Rachel giggled along right on queue.
She pursed her lips fighting back the comeback that was literally on the tip of her tongue. They both knew that even if being a teacher's pet did get you extra UCAS points, it wouldn't help Sephora's case. Justice had seen her walk out of the AS exam an hour early and it's not like she was in any position to be doing that. She chose against voicing her opinion and rolled her eyes instead, sitting down on her stool with her back slightly turned to her. Luckily Lara walked in indicating for the class to be quiet.
"Kwame, sit down. Kane! Leave the acrylic paint alone!" She gave him a look before sitting down at her desk. "Now, this year won't be as fun as last year, we're going to be going into a lot more of the theory behind art."
The whole class erupted in united groans and protests and Lara rolled her eyes before continuing. "HOWEVER," she yelled over them as they quietened down. "I will allow you to have some fun. Like today! I'm going to finally let you rowdy lot do portrait drawings. Of each other!" She said clasping her hands excitedly. Everyone in the class started buzzing about who they wanted to draw and who they wanted to partner with but Lara quickly threw any hopes they had out of the window.
"And I will be picking your partners." She smiled as the class erupted in moaning again and Justice stifled a laugh. She loved winding the class up.
"OH YES. AND, we have a new student joining us. A transfer from a school all the way in Italy," She glanced down at her watch. "He should be arriving any minute now ..."
Like clockwork there was a knock on the door and in he walked. He wore a simple black t-shirt with a dark pair of jeans. The type of jeans that seemed to hang just right. On his feet, were a pair of black Timbs that looked like they were fresh out of the box. His dark hair was so perfectly messy, as if he just rolled out of bed and yet still managed to look good. When he ran his hand through it as he pushed it back, every female in the room either gasped or had their mouth open in awe. Justice had her mouth open for a different reason.
That face.
Those eyes.
She knew him. It was ... but it couldn't be. Could it?
"Oh hello there," Lara smiled sweetly. "Class, this is Angel. Angel, these are your classmates."
"Hey." He smiled coolly.
As soon as she heard his voice she knew it was him. She felt herself rising from her seat. She felt herself moving around her easel and she felt her feet moving her towards him, all completely against her will of course. When she'd gotten up, his eyes went straight to her and stayed on her until she stopped in front of him.
"Justice?" She heard Lara calling her. "Are you alright?"
"Erm, Yes." She said not taking her eyes off the familiar stranger for a second. "I ... I uh, I just wanted to go to the toilet."
".... Well go then."
Justice blinked and turned to see her art teacher looking at her as if she'd grown 3 heads. She turned around to see the rest of her classmates looking at her in the same way and inwardly groaned. Great, she'd done something weird.
Feeling her face heating up from the embarrassment, she practically ran from the classroom. And she didn't stop running until she found a corridor void of students. She needed to have a serious conversation with herself and didn't want any prying ears.
"Ok. Ok. Calm down Justice. It's not what you think it is." She said pacing slowly. "It can't be. He's just someone who looks like him. EXACTLY like him."
She sat down on a nearby chair and then shot up again.
"NO! Because how the hell can he look exactly the same?! This is some weird shit. People don't just randomly appear out of a dream!!!" She paced again trying to figure out what was going on. Finally it hit her.
"Oh god. Oh GOD. I'm sick aren't I? I'm mentally ill, that's what this is."
Crouching down she held her head in her hands for a few seconds before harshly pinching herself on the arm. Realising that wasn't the best idea, she silently cursed at the pain.
"There's no point in pinching yourself."
She screamed out and then quickly covered her mouth whilst trying to regain her balance at the same time.
"Do you have a thing for popping up out of nowhere?" She hissed.
"I can't say I know what you mean." He smirked.
She clutched her chest and tried to slow her heart rate down. "You scared the life out of me."
Pushing himself off the wall he was so casually leaning on, he chuckled and came forward offering her his hand. Declining his offer, Justice got up brushing herself off before her eyes took him in.
He was a lot taller than she remembered. And now that she was up close, he was 100 times more handsome. She stood there staring at him and he returned the favour. It was his first time seeing her in the flesh too. He'd watched her from afar but this was his first time being up close to her. He found her to be... curious. Burning under his intensive gaze, she cowered and looked away.
"What?" He asked amusedly.
"I know you." She stated.
"And I know you."
"How? How are you here? How did you get here?"
"Shouldn't the more important question be, why?"
"How and why are both equally good questions. I don't mind which one you answer first." She said eyeing him.
He laughed again. "You'll know when it's time to tell you. But right now don't you think we should get back to the lesson?"
He started walking back in the direction of the art studio and when he didn't hear her following him, he threw her a look over his shoulder.
"Do you really want me to get marked for truancy? On my first day?"
He was a joker. She didn't like it.
Nevertheless, she followed him back to the classroom sneaking little glances at him when she thought he wasn't looking. She wasn't entirely sure she'd be able to concentrate in class. How often is it that your dream stalker shows up in your A2 art class?
"Oh good, you found her. You two are partnered for the day. One of you will be the model for the first 45 minutes and then you can swap. You can choose the order between you." Lara yelled as she ran about the classroom handing out equipment.
"I'll be the model then." He said plopping himself down on the nearest seat. It only took a second for the predators to surround their prey. Sephora was on him first, dragging her stool next to his and sitting down with her legs crossed sweetly.
"Hi. I'm Sephora."
"I'm Angel." He flashed her a grin and Justice was pretty sure that was the first time she'd seen Sephora blush in the year that she'd known her. It took everything she had in her not to gag.
Her cronies all took their turn introducing themselves to him and Justice was getting increasingly annoyed.
It's not that she was jealous or anything, no, in fact she wanted nothing more than to escape and get as far away from him as possible. She was annoyed because she wanted to get to work but he seemed more interested in playing 21 questions with Sephora and her musketeers.
"So where did you say you were from?" Rachel piped up.
"Italy. Venice, to be exact."
"Wowww." Michelle almost swooned. "So, like do you speak Italian and that?"
Justice rubbed her temples sighing while he simply laughed off her stupidity. She looked behind her at Lara and considered calling her over to get rid of them but she seemed to be otherwise engaged in a situation that involved Kane and some oil pastels.
"So why did you decide to move here? England must be pretty bland compared to Italy." Sephora asked twirling a strand of hair.
"There was someone very important I needed to see." Justice opened her eyes momentarily to see him staring at her with that smirk she'd seemed to grow to detest in such a short amount of time.
"Who? A girl?" Someone asked in the background. Justice wasn't sure who, she was too busy getting lost in his eyes...
"She's a female. Yes." He held her gaze for a little while longer before turning back to the girls. "It's kinda embarrassing to admit but, I missed my mum. That's why I came back."
Justice snorted whilst the 4 girls let out an 'AWWWW' in unison. This boy was really something else.
"Girls! I'm sure we'd all love to get to know the new student but there's work to be done!" Lara shrilled. "Get moving!"
The girls dragged their feet back to their desks, but not before Sephora made a promise to show Angel around at break. After giving Justice one of her signature dirty looks, she went to grab her equipment.
"Guessing you two aren't the best of friends then?"
Ignoring his question, she gestured towards him. "You might want to get into a more comfortable position. You're gonna have to sit still for a while."
He nodded comprehensively. "Would you prefer if I smiled or stayed straight faced? People like to tell me I'm twice as handsome when I'm flashing my pearly's."
"Straight faced is fine." She said grabbing her charcoal and raising it. "I'm starting."
Half an hour had passed and Justice was sweating. It wasn't going as she had planned at all. She liked doing portraits. She was good at portraits. But not today. No, today she was freaking out.
And why? Well because the guy she happened to be drawing just might have been the most beautiful guy she'd ever laid eyes on. And said beautiful guy would not. Stop. Staring.
Even when she looked up and caught him looking at her, he would STILL continue staring. And it wasn't just the staring that was throwing her off, it was the way he was doing it. He was staring at her like he wanted nothing more than to get inside her head. And she felt like if she was in his presence for any longer, he would.
Luckily, Lara called for them to switch partners. As she always did, she rushed over to see Justice's work with a grin, but that sort of faded once she got closer to the canvas.
"Oh. Umm, well Justice this is ... this is..."
"I know. I'm sorry. I'm just ... I'm a little out of it today." She said through gritted teeth.
"Well no matter." She shrugged. "It's not like it's a graded piece or anything. If you're not feeling well Justice, you should really go to the medical room." She gave Justice a concerned look before moving on to the next student.
More than annoyed, Justice threw herself down on the stool and purposely grimaced at Angel who seemed to be paying her no kind of attention. He flung her canvas on the floor by her feet much to her dismay and grabbed a fresh one placing it on the easel. Taking one look at her, he picked up his charcoal and started his work.
Justice watched him in detail for a while and found herself more and more baffled by him. Not once did he look up from the canvas, so what the heck was he drawing? She moved to get up and he held up his spare hand.
"Don't."
"I-Wh-You're not even looking at me. How are you even creating an accurate depiction of my face?"
"I've looked at you enough." He murmured, eyes still on the canvas.
"What, do you have a photographic memory or something?" She uttered.
"Something like that." He looked at her over the top of the easel. "Or maybe you just have a memorable face."
She physically recoiled at his statement, not sure whether it was a compliment or not. Either way it made her uncomfortable and she felt that familiar heat beneath the surface of her cheeks.
Goddamn it. She cursed silently.
"Are you blushing Justice? Did I say something that flattered you?" She watched as the corners of his lips turned up and scowled.
"I'm not flattered, I'm disgusted." She hissed.
"Funny," He tilted his head and examined his drawing. "Never met a girl who blushed when she was disgusted by something."
Sighing loudly she scooted closer to him so that only he could hear her. "And I've never met someone who could be in my dream one day and then appear in front of me, living and breathing the next day."
He looked up at this and she could've sworn she saw his eyes sparkle.
"I guess we're both experiencing new things today then aren't we?"
She vowed to stay silent for the remainder of the lesson after that. He stayed silent too, only taking his eyes off the canvas to steal glances at her as she glared at him. He found it highly amusing.
When his 45 minutes were up, he dropped his last piece of chalk and stepped back to admire his work. Justice just sniggered and rolled her eyes refusing to give him or his work the time of day but when people started to gather around it in admiration, curiosity got the better of her.
"Oh Angel!" Lara exclaimed. "This is ... amazing!" she said touching her fingers to her lips.
"Well ... it's the best I could do in such a short amount of time."
"The way you've captured the details of her face ... this, this is simply beautiful." Lara looked like she might burst into tears as she clasped her hands together.
Stomping over to the other side of the canvas, Justice was just about ready to give him some detailed criticisms but when she found herself in front of her portrait, she couldn't.
It was perfect. So perfect that she couldn't even believe it was her.
Everything was drawn in such raw detail, from the definition of her jaw, to each contour of her curls. It was truly breath taking and she found herself wondering how he'd managed to achieve it within 45 minutes...
She slowly raised her gaze from the portrait to the strange male who stood next to her smugly. What the hell was this guy?
"You made her look so pretty." Sephora said admiringly. "Who'd even think that was possible?"
"Shut up Seph." Vanessa retorted. She shot Justice a small smile and Justice tried to smile back but only managed to grimace.
"I think that this should definitely go up on the display wall!" Lara said excitedly.
"Oh god. Please no."
The last thing Justice wanted was her face plastered on the studio wall for e v e r y o n e to see.
"Okay, you brats can go for your break now. See you next week!" Ignoring her pleas, Lara picked up the portrait and started mumbling about where to place it.
Realising she'd lost the battle, Justice went over to the desk and started packing away her things. She thought again about trying to dissuade Lara from putting it up but got distracted by a irritating presence behind her.
When she turned around to investigate, Angel was standing there with his hands in his pockets.
After a few seconds of awkward silence, Justice cleared her throat.
"Oh, do you have a cold?"
"No. That was a "Why are you standing behind me" cough."
"I'm waiting for you." He said simply.
"I can see that. Why?"
He frowned slightly as if he hadn't understood the question. "I'm the new guy and you're the only person I know. Should I walk around by myself then?"
Rolling her eyes, she grabbed her bag and walked out of the classroom. Unfortunately, he followed.
"I'm pretty sure that I heard Sephora offer to show you around."
"Nah, I prefer a familiar face if I'm being honest." He said shrugging.
"Honest?" She repeated. Stamping her foot, she whipped around on him, causing him to almost bump into her.
"What exactly is it that you want?" She said peering up at him. Her being 5'5, she pretty much had to peer up at everyone.
He folded his arms as he looked down at her. "I told you I was coming. Or is your memory as short as your patience?"
Her mind flew back to her dream last night and her eyes narrowed as she looked back at him.
"I think now would be the perfect time to talk, don't you?" She asked stiffly.
"Hmm." He rubbed his stomach slightly. "Maybe after I eat. I'm starving."
Justice watched him descend down the steps and walk over to the cafeteria. She watched as heads turned as he passed. She watched as all the girls huddled and whispered about him. He was smug, and arrogant and had this aura of self confidence and assurance that really rubbed her the wrong way. It was then that she decided she didn't like him. Not even a little bit.
Sighing, she dragged her feet and went after him.
"I think I liked him better when he was a mute."