He sat down behind his desk and sipped his coffee, which was his traditional signal to begin. I lowered my head, hiding behind my hair. There were twelve of us, which means there would be no group of three for me to force myself on. That meant I just needed to wait and eventually the last person without a partner would seek me out as the last resort.
There was movement next to me as a pair of expensive leather heels came into my view. Instantly, I knew who it was. I sighed as I waited to hear her sickeningly sweet voice. I knew it wasn’t me she’d deigned to come to the back of the room for.
“Excuse me, Aaron,” she said. “Do you want to be my partner? I’m one of the best students in this class.”
Her voice went from slightly timid to arrogant. For a moment there was no answer. I glanced up to see what was keeping Aaron from answering, expecting to see him undressing her with his eyes the way most guys did. Instead he was staring at me with a look of appraisal on his face.
He turned back to Madalynn, seeming to decide something.
“I’m sorry, but I already have a partner,” he said, motioning to me.
A look of disbelief crossed Madalynn’s face that was no doubt similar to the one that appeared on my own face.
“What? Her? You can’t be serious. I mean she’s…” her voice dropped of as she took in the anger that had spread across Aaron’s face. “Well if you two are already partners I…I can find someone else.”
She quickly walked away.
“I wasn’t aware that I’d agreed to be your partner,” I said.
Turning to me, all of the anger vanished from his face and was replaced with a mischievous smile.
“Come on,” he said. “We both know that no one else was going to be your partner willingly. I thought you would appreciate a volunteer.”
“I do appreciate it,” I told him. I really did appreciate it. “I just hope it wasn’t out of pity. I don’t want your pity. I just want to survive this place and get out.”
The bell rang and the class broke up to head to the Dining Hall.
“Lunch?” Aaron asked.
“You go ahead,” I replied, not wanting to walk to the Dining Hall with him. Being seen with him in the halls would cause even more problems than his conversation with Madalynn. “I think I’ll just go eat in my room.”
“I didn’t take you for someone who hides from her enemies,” he said in a low voice.
It seemed that he was talking more to himself than to me.
Then looking confident he added, “You must be hungry.”
“No. I’m fine,” I lied.
It was at that moment my traitorous stomach growled loudly. I silently cursed and regretted skipping breakfast.
Aaron’s confident expression morphed into a smile.
“No one will bother you today,” he said, trying to convince me.
I laughed, not so certain.
“Are you kidding? After what happened between you and Madalynn it will be worse than usual, no matter what dirt Jaden has on her. Madalynn will just send someone else to mess with me.”
Suddenly the smile was gone from Aaron’s face. His anger was almost overwhelming.
“If they want to get to you, they’ll have to go through me.”
I studied Aaron. His words both confused and disturbed me. His mood swings were wild, unexpected, and very concerning. He’d gone from silent and uninterested to the strangest conversationalist I’d ever met to vowing to protect me.
“Alright,” I said. “If you’re so certain of yourself, I guess I’ll go to lunch.”
It wasn’t really a challenge. It was more that I didn’t want to argue with him. Aaron seemed the type to not let things go easily and I didn’t feel like skipping lunch was worth the hassle.
He followed me out of the classroom and to the Dining Hall. We crossed the large room to where the serving line was. I kept my eyes straight ahead as we passed Madalynn and her friends.
“We made it,” I sighed with relief when we reached the serving line.
I grabbed my food and walked over to Jaden at our usual table. I didn’t wait for Aaron, assuming that he would eat with the others as he had since his first day. Just as I finished pulling in my heavy chair, the one beside me moved. I looked up to see Aaron sitting down next to me.
“What are you doing?” I asked, shocked.
“I’m sitting with you if that’s okay. You seem to have plenty of space at this table.”
He looked at our empty table. The Dining Hall was furnished with large round wooden tables and matching chairs that were made back before the telephone was invented. They were made of a dark wood that gave the room a medieval feel.
I glanced around the room and saw the angry looks from Madalynn and Kenneth’s table and the looks of disbelief from nearly everyone else.
“I can see that you’re sitting with us, but you are completely out of your mind. It’s social suicide to sit here,” I warned.
“You know? I don’t really care what people think, especially those people. If they want to banish me from their group they can go ahead,” he said, sounding unconcerned.
I could tell that he meant it.
“Don’t you get it? I would have given anything to be accepted like you when I first got here. How can you not care that you’re making yourself a social outcast?” I asked, trying to get a better understanding of him.
“I’ve got far more important things to worry about than whether or not they accept me. They should feel lucky to be my friends, not the other way around.”
Aaron began inspecting his Salisbury steak and mashed potatoes as though he wanted to drop the subject.
“Is this actually any good?” he asked, poking his steak with his fork.
“Good enough, for
