-Corrine- “You’re daydreaming again.”I jumped at the sound of Gary’s, my classmate, voice. I blinked and turned towards him, then returned his smile. “Busted,” I murmured.“The lecture’s over.” Gary nodded towards the front, letting me know that the professor had left the classroom.“Oh...” It took me a few seconds to realize what I should do. Gather my books and stationery. “Oh!” I exclaimed.I bent down to grab my bag from under the desk and placed it on my lap. My movements paused when I saw what was inside.Andrew’s jacket.Yeah, call me a pervert. I have been carrying that jacket for the past week. Ever since I met him at Houghton Commons, I thought I would meet him again. Maybe he would show up at the same place, or he could suddenly appear in front of my dorm room.Who knows?“Nice jacket,” Gary said, peeking into my open bag.Reflexively, I closed the bag and grimaced at him. “Not mine,” I muttered.Gary withdrew and gazed at me. The gleam in his eyes radiated curiosity.“Boy
-Corrine- We stopped after leaving the department building. I turned around, slinging my bag over one shoulder, and pointed at him. “You made me skip class.”Andrew cracked a smile. “Between you and me, who dragged someone and took them out of the classroom?” After that, he perfectly arched one eyebrow.Hearing the word “drag” made me realize that I had still been holding onto his arm. I quickly let go and clasped my hands together.“What do you want?” I asked, turning my face away."Haven't I already told you?" Andrew tilted his head. That annoyingly sexy little smile appeared again. "You.""And what exactly do you want from me?" I pressed."I want to spend time with you.""First things first," I shot back. "If you're trying to seduce me, you’re really suck at it.""There's no harm in trying," he shrugged. His expression showed that he found my behavior amusing, and I felt like a helpless child in front of him.I glared at him, telling him to shut his mouth, and continued speaking. "
-Corrine-The rackety sound of a game center welcomed us as we entered that place.“First time?!” Andrew half shouted to overcome the surrounding noise.I looked up at him and shook my head. “No!”I didn’t want to go into details about my experience at the game center. First, because places like this brought unpleasant memories for me. Daniel used to take me to the game center in Wesgrove when we were still dating. Second, because I was a terrible player at games like these.Daniel would often mock and scold me every time I made a mistake and suffered defeat. Looking back, I should have realized how repulsive his attitude was. But love did make people blind sometimes.I was lost in my thoughts about Daniel, staring blankly at the row of games when Andrew bent down towards me and whispered in my ear.“Wanna get out of here?”His deep and sexy voice made me stumble. I turned and almost kissed his lips. Our faces were only about an inch apart.I lingered, gazing into his dark blue eyes.
-Corrine-I should have guessed where Andrew would take me. He was a bad boy; it was obvious. So, where else would a bad boy go if not to a place where troublemakers gather?There was no such place in Wesgrove, or maybe I didn’t know. Trevor had many friends back in our place, and he always got reports on where I went, so I never went to places on his forbidden list.If Trevor knew I went to a place like this, I’m sure he would pick me up right now and tell me to move out of Golden Leaf.The roar of the car engine made me shudder. My hands were tightly wrapped around Andrew’s waist while my eyes darted around, seeing girls in skimpy outfits, some seemingly underdressed, dancing on top of car roofs with beer bottles in their hands.The place looked like an abandoned luxury housing complex on the hillside. Surrounded by dense forest with no other settlements or life around, this area was indeed suitable as a gathering place for youngsters who wanted to party to their heart's contents.A
-Corrine-The nauseating sting hit my head on the first gulp, after which I didn’t know how to describe the various sensations assaulting my body. But one thing was sure; I screwed.The girl before me, the one who handed me the booze, split in two. Or maybe it was just my imagination.“Is the—,” I paused to burp, “—booze should be this strong?” I swirled the plastic cup in my hand, almost dropping it in the process, then looked at the girl’s face again. Her brown skin glistened as she tilted her head and smiled.“Is great, isn’t it?” she cheered. “You want more?”I shook my head. Wrong move. My vision immediately spun as I did so. I closed my eyes tightly, dropped the plastic cup from my hand, and tried to find something to hold onto to avoid falling.Someone caught my arm, and I fell backward. My head hit something, and as I looked up, I found a pair of eyes staring at me. Not Andrew.“Hey Lily, what did you give to her?” I heard his voice echo in his chest.Lily and the others laugh
CorrineI was pretty sure there was a sledgehammer slamming into my head repeatedly because, damn, an incredible pain welcomed me as I opened my eyes. I groped in the darkness and groaned as a sharp sting in my thigh fully woke me up.Where am I? What happened? Am I dead already?I tried to move my legs, but something restrained my knees from moving. I squinted in that direction and found Andrew sitting near my feet. His hands were on my bare knees.Wait a minute.I was wearing pants when I left. Why are my knees uncovered now?“Don’t move too much,” Andrew’s voice sounded like a low growl. “You’re injured.”The first thing I wanted to do was find something to cover my legs because, for fuck’s sake, I was half-naked in front of a boy I had only met three times. The only boy who had ever seen me in panties was Daniel, and I wasn’t the one-night-stand type of girl. So being in this situation made me incredibly uncomfortable.It seemed Andrew realized my discomfort. He moved, and I saw h
-Corrine-Was it wrong to miss someone you don’t have a relationship with?From our last meeting and the agreement between us, I thought there would be a second date with Andrew soon. But it’s been almost a month since the incident at Mythic Manor, and I haven’t heard anything from him.That night, I didn’t ask for his phone number. I was too excited about the idea that we would meet again and assumed it would happen soon. Turned out, I was wrong.On the other hand, Andrew’s absence brought back Eva’s cheerfulness and her kind attitude towards me. She no longer let me eat alone in Houghton Commons and always said goodbye whenever she left our room.A part of me was tempted to secretly take Eva’s phone and look for Andrew’s number, but the more sensible side of me prevented me from doing so and surrendered our next meeting to The Moon Goddess.We were walking towards the dorm after spending the afternoon at the library working on assignments.“Who is he?” Eva whispered to me. I, who was
-Corrine-His sudden presence paralyzed all my senses. I could only stand there at the doorway, my breath caught.“You?” My voice felt strange as if it didn’t come from me. “What are you doing here?”It was just a casual question to conceal the jumble of emotions in my heart. It felt like someone had just burst a balloon and poured a bucket of icy water over my head. I was paralyzed but felt relieved. My anger towards Jerome was extinguished as easily as a candle blown by the cool night wind. The night wind in the form of Andrew.“Are you crying?” He repeated his question, ignoring mine. The tension in his jaw and the sharpness in his eyes showed that the question had only one purpose: that he cared about what happened to me.Or maybe I hoped so.One second, that’s all I had to decide whether to lie or tell the truth.“Yes.”“Who made you cry? Your ex?”He gave me the idea to lie. Although I had been honest with my first answer, I didn’t want to explain about Jerome and his obsession