The Beautiful Monster

The next day flew by way faster than Monday. With only two classes on Tuesday, Alyssa had more free time to walk around campus or prepare herself for Wednesday and its three classes. At least she got to start her day off easy with psychology before diving into her harder courses.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, she took world literature and philosophy. At least she was getting her basic electives out of the way. For her last two years, she wanted to mainly focus on her major and preparing herself for medical school. It would arrive before she knew it.

Alyssa paused at the door to the classroom for her psychology class. She remembered what happened the other day with the sorority girls and winced. Maybe they forgot about her or laughed about it over the weekend. Maybe there was nothing to worry about.

She walked down the aisle toward the third row, catching a familiar sight of blonde and brown hair. Of course, her luck was rotten. They were already seated behind her, and they soon spotted her.

Kaleigh and her friend watched Alyssa sit down before whispering to each other again. All they seemed to know how to do was gossip and make fun of other people.

Alyssa felt her seat get kicked from behind, making her jostle a little. She clenched her jaw. Part of her wanted to say something. A bigger part of her told her to not engage them and just ignore them. All they wanted was attention. They wanted a funny story to tell their friends, and she wasn't going to give them that.

She straightened up in her seat and started grabbing her notebook and pen for the day. She would actually have to take detailed notes today since they were diving into the first chapter. Of course, she already read it last night to get brushed up. Deep down, maybe she just wanted to make sure she knew the answer to any question that was asked.

But she wasn't actually that petty. She could just internally act like it.

"Who is that?" Kaleigh asked her friend.

Alyssa was going to ignore them until she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head and felt her heart nearly drop into her stomach at the sight of the dark-haired boy from yesterday sitting down in the row in front of her. He was only a few seats away. So close.

What was he doing here? He hadn't been in class the other day. She surely would've noticed him like how she had noticed him in the cafeteria. Her heart started racing uncontrollably as she stared at the back of his head. Did he even know she was there?

As if he could hear her thoughts, the boy glanced over his shoulder toward her.

Alyssa actually looked away in time this time, shielding her face behind her notebook as she pretended to look in it. She wasn't about to act like a fool in front of even more people this time.

"I usually don't like dark haired and brooding, but damn," Kaleigh's friend muttered.

"Olivia!" Kaleigh laughed out.

The boy seemed to smirk before turning back forward. He draped his arm over the top of the seat next to him. He was far more relaxed and casual than Alyssa was, like nothing in the world could bother him.

Alyssa always wondered how people could be like that. How did they not wrestle with anxiety over the littlest thing? It amazed her, and she was a bit jealous. She lowered her notebook and tried to focus once Dr. Pierce strode into the lecture hall and dove into his lecture.

It was fascinating information. She learned way more in that lesson than her entire high school psychology course, but it was also so hard to concentrate with the boy being so close to her. She couldn't help but want to know his name and why he suddenly enrolled in this class. She wondered what someone like him would want to major in.

"Partner up with the person closest to you! Talk about the contemporary approaches to psychology," Dr. Pierce announced.

Alyssa's eyes shifted to the boy, but another guy sitting next to him already claimed him as a partner. She felt a slight pang of disappointment, but she shook it off. Why was she caught up with this guy? He smiled at her once. That was all.