Leila's POV
Unexpected occurrence
"Are you trying to torment me?" He inquired, his eyes flickering towards my outfit. I frowned deeply, my eyes assessing the outfit which I wore tonight. It was a simple silk tank top, though it had a low cut down the middle of my chest, showing off just a little cleavage.
I also had matching silk shorts to match up and it stopped just a little below my butt, but again, my body wasn't on full display and I found myself rolling my eyes as I adjusted my shirt, just a little bit self-conscious.
His laughter filled my ears as I rounded the counter to avoid him and made my way to the sink to fill a cup with water. I heard him shuffling behind me but I didn't think anything of it as I moved towards the cupboard to retrieve a teabag.
"Why not drink coffee?" He asked as he approached me slowly. "I want to be able to sleep tonight, I don't want to be up till one in the morning," I replied as I fished out a mug from the rack, pivoting on my heels to go fill it with water but I realized then that Blake had purposely trapped me, his hands placed flat down onto the counter, preventing me from leaving.
"Hmm, you don't want to be up until one in the morning huh?" He whispered, his face lowering down before mine as he towered over me, "usually when I'm up at one in the morning I'm f-"
"Blake!"
"What!?"
"I don't wanna hear it!" I sing sang as I shoved him away from me, ignoring the bubble of laughter that escaped his lips as I filled my mug with hot water from the kettle. I flickered my eyes towards him and he was currently leaned against the counter, his eyes following my every step.
"You need to learn how to grow up, you're gonna be 20 in a few months. Did you forget that?" He inquired, his brows arching upwards in question.
For a moment I kind of forgot I had a birthday coming up in five months. I mean it is pretty forgetful, for the past four years all I've done for my birthday is sit in my room with a bowl of popcorn and Reese. It's not an eventful day because it was also my brother's birthday.
We were born on the same day, years apart.
And I felt guilty celebrating it when he wasn't here to celebrate it with me.
"So you're saying you think I'm childish?" I asked, trying to divert the topic from my birthday. He raised his hands in surrender, "I did no such thing."
"Idiot," I grumbled under my breath as I lowered myself down onto the chair, turning away from him, "so Blake what's for breakfast?" I asked as I brought the piping hot tea to my lips and carefully took a sip.
"When we get married I won't be the only one making breakfast."
I fumbled with the hot cup of tea and gasped in pain as the hot liquid splashed onto my hand. I quickly set it down onto the table and snapped my head towards Blake, my eyes wide in shock as his words registered in my mind.
Our eyes interlocked and after a few seconds of silence, he suddenly burst into a fit of laughter, his head shaking in disbelief. "Leila, learn how to take a joke. You near done burnt your hand off." He said as he sauntered towards me with a table cloth in hand.
"Oh thank god, I thought you were being serious for a moment." I sighed in relief to which he responded with an eye roll, a ghost of a smile on his lips. He wiped up the spilled tea off the table and took my hand in his, gently wiping off the tea that burnt my skin.
"Do you wanna do something today?"
"No, I wanna stay in and relax," I replied, my eyes flickering away from his absentmindedly. He didn't reply but instead continued stroking the cloth against my hand and after a moment of complete silence, I turned my head back towards him, frowning as his eyes assessed me intently.
"Do I have something on my face?"
"As a matter of fact you do, it's right here." He said, motioning to my chin. I bent my head, my eyes flickering downwards, straining to see what was there until Blake's finger suddenly flicked my nose, sending my head flying back upright.
"You're so stupid," he guffawed, his eyes twinkling in amusement as I glared at him.
"Prude."
"Brat."
I flipped him off, my eyes narrowed in slits as I began to slide off the chair. He caught my hand in his and tugged me back down onto the chair, his eyes softening as he gazed down at me, "you're hurting my poor feelings, Leila."
"Blake stop you're annoying me!"
"And you're childish."
"And you're illiterate," I exclaimed and he suddenly gasped dramatically as he dropped my hand from his grasp and jutted his head backwards in astonishment. He scoffed playfully and stood upright before pivoting on his heels, "for that reason only I'm not making breakfast nor am I preparing lunch. You're gonna learn how to do it yourself."
"But I can't cook for shit!"
"Oh well, you're gonna learn today."
~~~
"You know sometimes I feel like society is manipulating us, you know? Like these stereotypes and unwritten rules that we follow just because some years ago a man said 'you can't do this and you can't do that because if you do this will happen to you' Society has developed over centuries and yet still people still follow these outdated rules."
"What?"
"I don't know–I'm just saying that I feel like we're being manipulated by the government with the certain laws that they install into our justice systems or again these unwritten rules, values and stereotypes that they riddle our minds with. For example, how can society be the ones dictating who we fall in love with?
What gender we fall in love with, age, ethnicity and so forth. It's frustrating you know? I just want to be able to do things without being looked down upon for my preference or for my feelings. It just-it pisses me off."
He turned towards me for a split second and smiled sadly, his head shaking as he turned it back towards the road, "Leila, despite society having all these certain principles, at the end of the day who gives a fuck? If anyone did no one would have the courage to fight for equality amongst races or fight for the LGBTQ community.
At the end of the day, as you said, society is developing and so are we. The more we grow, the fewer shits we should give because we don't like in the '90s where most things were seen as barbaric. And why is that? Because we have the ability to change it and we did.
If you have the ability to change certain norms, then you do it. Like falling in love with a certain someone, to society that love affair might not be the norm. But should you care? No, because love has no bounds."
I didn't know how the topic came to my mind, maybe it's the fact that I was angry that to society Blake and I being together was seen as barbaric and I just wanted to be able to walk down the streets holding his hands without students looking at us all weird.
I wanted to be with him without the fear that he would get fired.
It pissed me off because I can't help that I fell for him.
And I'm sure he could say the same.
"We're here, come on," Blake exclaimed as he parked the car beside the grocery store. I unlocked the passenger's door and slid out before falling in step beside Blake as we sauntered into the grocery store.
"Okay so here's a list of stuff I want you to get, we can cover more ground if we both go our separate ways. That way, we can get back faster and I can get to taste your horrible food."
"Prude," I muttered under my breath as I snatched the list of items from his hands. He smirked in response and grabbed a trolly from the row before shoving it into my hands. With that, he pivoted on his heels and disappeared down an aisle.
"Okay first on the list-" I trailed off as I peered down at the slip of paper in my hand- "pasta," I mumbled softly as I navigated my way through the aisle searching for where they kept the pasta. I've never gone grocery shopping before, it was always my father, Reese or Blake.
So today I was being independent. . .kind of, Blake was still here to supervise me.
When I made it into the right aisle my eyes flickered over the boxes that sat on the tray, taunting me. Taunting me why? Because I didn't know what pasta to get, he didn't specify! Does he want curly pasta, spaghetti, bows? With a heavy sigh, I grabbed the first box I could get and peered down at it, reading that it was actually mac and cheese craft dinner.
Well, that'll do.
I dumped the boxes into the trolly and rolled away, journeying onto my next item on the list. "Shit! Lady, can you watch where you're going." Someone exclaimed loudly, their hands shoving the trolly away from them.
I rose my head to the sound of their voice, not exactly expecting to see who was standing before me to be a familiar face, but when our eyes interlocked, I knew right there that air was not my best friend as I sucked in a harsh breath.
His eyes widened when he realized who I was and he staggered on his feet, blinking rapidly as his eyes assessed me. "Leila?" He exclaimed, his lips parting in shock. Then his eyes flickered towards the trolly and he chuckled, "since when did you go shopping?"
I couldn't find the strength in me to reply as I stared back at Reese, wondering to myself what the hell he was doing here. For some reason, I've seen him here more times than I could count and when we were dating he'd never have time to see me.
I suspected that he now lived here because it's a three-hour drive from our hometown but I doubt he would come to stay here. So his new girlfriend must live here or he has a friend who he stays by. He doesn't really have a good relationship with his parents and he would find ways to not sleep at his house.
When we dated, he practically lived with my dad and I to escape his parents, so it doesn't come as a shocker if I learnt he was staying here.
"Leila! Why are you just standing there?" Blake's voice filled my ears and as if I were a lightswitch I snapped back to reality, dragging myself out of my reverie as I turned to face him, my eyes wide. Then when he finally understood why I was standing there, he froze, his hardened gaze scrutinizing Reese who stood beside me.
"Of course you're here, professor Kingston." Reese spat as he glared at Blake, "I knew there was something going on between the two of you. Professor and student? Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that against the school's guidelines?"
"As a matter of fact, it isn't Mr bigshot. It's just a state of mind, an unwritten rule that we're expected to follow as professors. The same unwritten rules boyfriends are supposed to follow when they're in a relationship, i.e; not cheating on their girlfriend, lying, and generally being one of the biggest fucking losers I've ever come across."
I slapped a hand over my mouth, trying my hardest to maintain the snort that threatened to escape my lips. The colour from Reese's face had suddenly drained out and he shifted on his feet, his lips parting, words fighting to spill from his mouth but I knew he was tongue tied.
"Come on, Leila. This fool is wasting our time." Blake exclaimed, his arms sliding around my shoulder as he tugged me away from a motionless Reese.
Serves him right.
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