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“I-”

“I’m not that person anymore, Corey.”

She looks down at the floor and moves her feet in that nervous shuffle that she does and looks back up with tears in her eyes.

“A-”

“Is it so wrong to just want to be kissed? To want to be wanted?” She sniffs, wiping furiously at a tear that slips down her face.

My mouth opens and closes like a fish and I desperately want to wrap her in my arms and not let go. I can’t bear to see her this upset so I step forward but she flinches and walks past me and out into the hallway.

“Just go,” she hiccups holding her hands against her face.

I turn to go, trying to respect her wishes but when I hear her gut wrenching sob, I spin back around and take three big steps, wrapping my arms around her and leaning my face on the top of her head, holding her tight.

“I’m sorry, baby,” I say. “If you knew how much I wanted you, honestly, you’d probably run a hundred miles in the other direction.”

She shakes her head and I pull back, cupping her face in my hands and rubbing the tears away with my thumbs. Bending my knees, I bring my face down to hers and smile softly.

“I want you.” When she shakes her head again, I grit my teeth. “Baby, I want you so fuckin’ bad, it hurts.”

She sniffs, her sobs starting to subside as she stares into my eyes. “Really?”

“Really.” I smile, pressing my lips gently to hers. Her answering smile as I pull away lights up her whole face and it’s all I can do not to throw her over my shoulder and walk her into her bedroom.

We both jump at the ringing of her cell and she steps back to pull it out of her pocket, frowning at the screen and then answering it with a soft, “hello.”

I wait until she’s finished but when she pulls it away from her ear and ends the call without anything else said, I frown.

“Wrong number,” she says when she sees the confusion on my face.

Catching the time on her cell, I say. “I’ve got to go.”

“Okay,” she whispers, looking unsure.

“Pizza and a movie at mine tonight?” I ask, already thinking of when I’ll next be able to see her. “I’ll pick you up at seven?”

“Erm... yeah, okay.” I bend down, placing one last kiss on her lips and turn, walking straight out of her apartment and not looking back because if I do, I’ll never be able to leave.

I jog back to campus to my car and spot that slimy lecturer lurking around.

I’d sat here and waited for Ava to finish her class for over an hour earlier. I hadn’t been able to get her lips out of my head for days and I finally decided to bite the bullet and ask her out.

When he touched her, I couldn’t stop my reaction and I was half way to them before I even realized it. There was no stopping it and as soon as I touched her, my body buzzed with the same energy it had the other night.

I’d pushed it aside for too long, telling myself that the connection we had when we first met was because of the situation we were in. I was stupid, it was never that, it was just her. The way she was, the way her eyes caught me in her web and wouldn’t let me go.

Now though I couldn’t get the grin off my face, especially as I drove past him and winked.

That will teach the fucker to touch her.

Everybody seems to notice the smile on my face and the extra spring in my step over the next few days. I went to Corey’s for pizza and a movie on Monday night, full of nerves and excitement. I didn’t know what all this meant but it was feeling like the start of something really good.

Corey isn’t like anyone else I’ve ever met. He makes me laugh and makes me feel at ease all the time and we have this weird connection where he seems to know what I’m thinking most of the time without me even having to say anything. He said that I have an open face.

I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Corey says it’s good but I don’t want everyone to know what I’m thinking or feeling.

I ended up falling asleep in the early hours of the morning after we had talked about everything and anything that first night. It reminded me of when I first moved into Elena’s and Trevor’s and we stayed up most of the night then too.