Adeline entered the classroom five minutes after it started huffing and puffing from having to run to get there even that early. All eyes turned to her as the door slammed shut, she shrunk back only wishing the floor would open up for her to jump into it.
"Take your seat Adeline. I understand your lateness given how this class wasn't originally now." The professor took the heat off of her. It didn't quell some of her classmates, Adeline rolled her eyes at how childish they acted when they turned to one another and whispered behind their hands.
Adeline took the aisle seat for convenience her head faced the floor she hazardously strew the contents onto the table. Her heart stopped dead in her chest until it resumed its normal rhythm, she caught Fayne stood at the front next to the professor. He gave her a satisfied grin as if he'd heard the break, on the right-side hidden half behind the front row Felix peeked out to let her know he was also there. Adeline took in a sharp breath her hand covered her mouth.
"What wrong?" The person next to her whispered curious to what she was doing.
Adeline shook her head; uncertain she could trust her voice would come out normally and tried to act like everything was perfectly normal. But it seemed to be anything but.
"These are two assistants that will be taking over the lectures for the next couple of months while I go on sabbatical. I trust you will all treat them as you do me." He gestured to the two men who took that as their turn to step forward.
Whispers broke out across the class about the two men while their eyes were only focussed solely on Adeline. Adeline looked away back down at her books, her only thought was how long it would take for the class to end, and she could talk to them, to ask them what they thought they were doing.
"We won't make this a long start." Fayne's voice droned on while Felix interrupted occasionally, eventually he went to hand out bits of paper to the end of the row to take one and pass it on.
"We need to talk." Adeline hissed out when he was close enough, she knew if she'd said I earlier he would have heard; but that gave him more of an excuse to avoid it. It was Fayne that replied as he stopped mid-sentence to give her a bemused smirk, Felix kept his features as stoic as usual. Not paying any attention to her the closer he got.
Felix's hand brushed up against hers when she took the stack from him. He withdrew a breath but didn't pull his hand back quickly. Instead let his hand linger there for a couple of seconds before he attempted to move to the last couple of rows.
Adeline's eyebrows knitted together in confusion, if he was going to avoid talking to her, then why would he do that?
"Study the case law surrounding medical negligence and write a three-thousand-word essay on what it is with its importance." Fayne dismissed all of them finally.
Unlike how the class would usually rush to the door, pushing and shoving each other to be the first ones out; the majority of the students took their time to exit. Some even going up to the front of the room to talk to Fayne only to turn away disappointed.
Adeline had waited until the classroom was extremely sparce to walk up to them. Fayne crossed his arms over his chest and Felix just looked at her guiltily before his walls were back up.
"You're taking over one of my classes. And didn't feel the need to tell me?" She asked holding in her anger as much as possible. Adeline's hands gripped the notebook so tightly in her hands they'd begun to turn white at her knuckles.
"I don't have to tell you much. You are just a student in the class." Fayne replied in flawlessly, it only highlighted his lack of his accent he had the first time she'd met him. Not having picked up on it during the class.
Adeline scrutinised him before she turned around sharply waltzing away with no plan to entertain either one in the near future.
She got a coffee on her way back to her dorm room after she sent a quick message to Laura and Darren she was finally heading back to her dorm.
When she got back, she put her back down and took her notes out going straight to working on the essay she'd been given to get as much of it out the way as possible. Only getting an hour in until there was a gentle knock on the door.
Adeline jumped up, she bounded to the door only expecting it to be her friends on the other side. When she opened the door she came face to face with Fayne. The last person she wanted to speak to at the moement. Scratch that, she thought to herself as she noted Felix stood to the right of him behind the doorframe. Adeline slammed the door on their faces no remorce coated her for once.
"I have food!" Fayne yelled through the door.
Adeline opened the door just enough to peek her head through it to see if he was telling the truth. He stood with a takeaway bag up in place of his face. Adeline let out a long disheartened sigh, opened the door wide and moved aside to let them enter as she kept an eye on the bag that had her stomach rumbling when the smell hit her nose. One of the first things she noticed as he emptied the bags was the shadows underneath his eyes. They ate their way all across to the side where a new shallow slash sat at the corner of his eye enteding all the way to his temple. Adeline didn't feel confident enough to ask him about it, so instead she sat down on the bed to leave the chair free for one of them to sit on.
Felix snatched one of the boxes from Fayne's hands as he went to put it down with the rest. Adeline assumed that it would be vampirey related instead of actual food. Much to her surprise he gently placed it onto her lap careful to make sure it didn't fall off. Adeline opened the box to find a chunk of lasagne stuffed inside. She didn't know how he knew, but gave him a greateful smile dispite her being upset with him. All her emotions flooded away the food now being at the forefront of her mind. Taking over any other issue in her life. She took a big mouthful unable to keep the moan from tumbling out as the pasta sheets hit her tastebuds to make them dance in delight. Her eyes lit up only wishing there was more of it, a pout set on her lips as she peered down at the empty container. Adeline didn't know which one it was, but one of them replaced it straight away with a new piece.
Now satisfied Adeline leant back onto her hands as she completely forgot about the two men in the room with her. Her eyes closed from the extasy that came with a full content stomach. She hadn't realised just how little she'd been eating over the past couple of weeks until then.
"Happy there?" Fayne asked. She snapped back into a more appropriate position her cheeks turned rosey from forgetting about them.
"This doesn't make up for the way you acted." She glared daringliny between them.
"After the phone call I had with you. I sat down with Felix as he was already there. I needed to come up with something to keep you safe after what you told me happened. Expecially with what the vampire said. Suspected originally you were the key when I saw the necklace. How you said Felix had saved you a couple of times. This way it's a way I can be in your daily life without it being suspicious to the otherside." Fayne blunty told her without hesitation.
Adelines fingers absentmindedly proded at the necklace.
"You still could have let me in the loop before it happened. You had time to." Adeline accused when she'd come out of her trance.
"I'm here to keep you safe and teach you. Not to let you in on my decisions or why I make them." He harshly replied.
"Plus, you cant trust anyone in this world. People and creatures alike will trick cheat and steal to get where they want." He commented bitterly.
Adeline was unsettled and dissatisfied with his last comment.
She didn't know what to believe about Fayne at this point. He was hot and cold on who he was too often, going from giving her so much information, to pretending he didn't know her, back to his original behaviour and accent. She didn't know which one, was him pretending to be someone else. But either way, Adeline didn't appreciate it. It didn't exactly scream for her to trust him nor Felix who had yet to say anything about it all. Instead he'd stood in the corner and expected Fayne to do all the work. No explanation on why he was going with Fayne's plan; Adeline had thought that they'd turned a corner, with him having comforted her the night before.
"Well we all know what thought did." She muttered out loud unbeknownst to herself.
Felix gave her a confused look but still didn't ask what she was on about. Fayne only looked mildly amused at her inside dialogue being spoken.
But they both respected it enough not to comment on it. For now.
"Well no matter how you decided to feel about us. It's done to protect you. Don't know what creatures could be in the uni with you after all." Fayne lightly nudged her.
Adeline hated that he had to be reasonable about all of it and wasn't letting her be mad at them for not telling them in the first place. She'd spoken to them earlier that day so had plenty of time to catch her up.
"Plus this way, I can help teach you stuff you'll need for your destiny. Help you into your powers when they come. Instead of just doing over the phone or if you come back. At least its all certain now who you are too." He added in from where he was sat on the esge of the chair, in an attempt to get her off the topic onto a more important one.
"That's true." Adeline deflated. Her shoulders slumped as she felt emotionally drained from the last couple of days.
"Can you both leave now?" She asked in the smallest of voices. Adeline felt awkward when neither one had offered and she'd had to ask them. Surely they could see how exhausted she felt. It looked like Fayne would fall soon if he didn't get rest too.
"Would be better if you didn't stay alone anymore. Can never be too careful after last night." Fayne told her apologetically.
Adeline scrambled to put into words how it was she felt. Her hands went up into the air before they collapsed back down onto her lap.
"I'll stay outside." Felix offered the solution.
Adeline nodded her head to it, she hoped it would appease Fayne enough to give her the space she despirately wanted.
Fayne didn't say anything more, he just went to the door; stopped before Felix to mumble near his ear and softly shut the door behind himself.
After Felix heard him disappear from the floor, he approached Adeline. She didn't bother to even glance up when his shadow fell across her, instead she fell back onto the bed and turned onto her side to curl her legs up against her chest. Adeline didn't expect he would leave the room. Or it wasn't what she wanted him to do but she no longer saw his aura in the room after the minutes ticked by. She lay in that position feeling sorry for herself more with the way Felix was treating her. She knew it wasn't rational, but it stung.
Adeline eventually shut her eyes to let the darkness fully surround her but not in her dreams.
****
It seems like Adeline is slowly coming out of her shell with more people other than Darren and Laura doesn't it? Do you think Faye went around it the right way? Do you think Adeline is just being immature with her reaction or that it's justified after not long finding out about the creatures in the world? Let me know in the comments below :)