Then you came along

Chapter Six

Ella finally located the cafeteria which was on the first floor of the school, close to the main assembly hall. She had been to the four corners of the school looking for this particular place and she had finally found the light at the end of the tunnel. She didn't stop to ask anyone for help, she couldn't bring herself to do so. It was like she had completely lost her communication skills, the consequences of staying away from civilization for a long time. Ella walked into the already crowded room and took a glance around. She didn’t expect a five-star interior decor but they could have at least painted the wall a more neutral and relaxing color. The walls were painted in different colors as if there was a rainbow explosion that took place in here and to top it off, the “ what’s for lunch?” in big bold black letters was so not attractive for the eyes. 

Why black they could have at least use white! 4 over 10 for the cafeteria interior design, Ella silently said to herself. 

She checked her watch and realized that she had wasted nearly two minutes just standing there judging the interior design of a school cafeteria as if she was on an interior design tv show. Her next class wouldn’t be for the next twenty minutes so she had time to grab something to drink and have her packed sandwiches, plus her stomach had been reminding her that she barely touched her breakfast this morning. She grabbed  a bottle of water placed it on the food tray and she looked at the snacks on display, since nothing was calling her name, she walked away towards the fresh fruit juice counter.  As she stood there in the line waiting for her turn, Ella reflected on her first two classes. In her psychology class, there were only twenty-five students who were starting this year and everyone seemed to be antisocial. They had to introduce themselves and most of them stuck to only saying their name and surname. The professor looked quite old and Ella was scared that the classes  would  be less lively, but she kept her opinion to herself and swallowed it. English literature class was just English literature but with a twist as they had also merged the drama class with it.  There were about thirty-something students in the class and she had already spotted a few Shakespeare wannabes and Broadway hopefuls. Ella had no idea why she took English literature, maybe with time she would like it since she loves to read, but the acting wasn’t her thing and she hoped that they never ask her to sing. 

Ella stood there with her food tray as she scanned  the cafeteria, 

What m I doing... it's not like I know anyone here! she said to herself. 

She spotted an empty table in the far corner of the room, she wasn't surprised that it was empty since it was quite close to the restrooms. 

It's not like I have a choice...Until I can make some friends around here.. this will do, she said to herself as she sat down. She turned her back towards the other students and grabbed her juice. The smell coming from the restrooms made her quickly change her mind about even taking a sip of the juice. She opened her backpack, put her water bottle in the same pocket as her packed sandwiches. Even if she was super hungry she would have to wait for some of the tables to clear up so that she could move. She didn’t want to just get up and sat on a table where she would be stared at, that would be worse than the smell coming from the restroom. Ella opened her notebook and glanced at the timetable, 

Ok.. next I... I have law and it's in Room A4, Professor Badge, Ella read the timetable but felt completely lost once more.

Now where is Room A4?!, she frowned looking at the map of the school which she was given this morning,  but still, she couldn’t even find the cafeteria. That was the worst map that she ever had to follow, she would surely be going on a wild goose chase once more. She turned hoping this time she will see a familiar face from this morning, but instead, she saw one familiar face looking straight at her with a smirk on his lips. She quickly looked away from him, her heart did a total flip that she thought she was going to have a heart attack, with trembling hands she grabbed her bag and her books, all she was thinking about was to get out of there as quickly as she could. Eating will have to wait until she was far away from that guy.

" So it was you that I saw this morning..", she heard someone said from behind her as she stood up. 

How the heck did he get here so fast... Ella said to herself as she softly bit her lower lip to stop her lips from trembling. She didn’t have a choice she would have to leave this place, that meant she would have to face him. She slowly turned and looked at him with an awkward smile. 

" Do I know you? I don’t think we have met before”, were the words that escaped her lips as she looked at him with narrowed eyes and then she tried to walk away, but he stood in her way and she found herself stuck between him and the wall behind her.

He softly laughed as he stroked his chin, " Trying to be clever right? And  ... wait, she's even studying psychology..,”, Ella looked down at her books and noticed that he was referring to her psychology book which was facing him.

" So what...will you be psychoanalyzing yourself?”, he said sarcastically and then laughed as he looked at her with a smirk lingering on his bottom lip.

His sarcastic remark hurt Ella, but she tried to act like she wasn't bothered as she forced a smile.

" It looks like there are loads of psychos around here. I'm not the only one, since you are confusing me with someone else I guess you must be experiencing what is called delusion ..", she replied with a smile. 

Damian laughed, he could see that she was irritated with his presence and she was trying to play tough. 

" So you do admit that you are a psycho...I knew that the first time we met... remember when I saved your life. I should have called the hospital straight away or get a straightjacket ", Damian said with a smile.

“ Are you always such an arsehole or you are making a special effort today?”, Ella said to him and he could feel the anger in her tone, even if she was breaking down inside because of his inconsiderate words she had to play tough in front of this macho.

Instead of answering Damian laughed out loud and that irritated Ella even more that she nearly washed his amused face with the glass of fresh juice. Damian took a step backwards and indicated to her that she could leave.

Of all the schools, he has to go to this one! This animal is nothing like Luke .. nothing! she said to herself, she quickly pushed her way past him and hurried towards the girl's restroom. As soon a she got in she locked herself in one of the toilets and let out a deep breath.

" I'm not going to cry! I'm not going to cry!", she said repeatedly as she breathed in and out slowly. Wasn’t a pleasant place for doing a breathing exercise, but she didn’t have a choice, this was the closest sanctuary that she could find without that guy following her for her to vent out her anger. She had this feeling that this guy wouldn’t be leaving her alone , she saw it in his eyes. He was probably upset because she acted like a total i***t and didn’t thank him for saving her life.

Damian ran a hand through his hair and walked back towards his friends with a satisfied smile on his lips. He felt content with himself, he saw that he had hurt her, it was written all over her face and it served her right after the way she treated him after he had saved her life. She surely doesn’t deserve any respect for being a liar and an ungrateful person, Damian said to himself as he sat down on the chair next to Neil. He was looking forward to more instances when he will meet the little ungrateful liar face to face. He risked his own life to save someone who until today couldn’t even say thank you.

It's a shame, she is kinda cute.. ..hey! what's wrong with you ... she is so not the type of girl you would chase after, plus she's a freshman.. so cut it out!.., Damian said to himself.

" Hey dude.. are you with us?", his friend Neil asked waving a hand in front of his face.

Damian came back to reality and looked at his friend.

" Why wouldn't I be?", he asked annoyingly.

"Calm down bro!Who was that girl you were talking to? I've never seen her around here.. how do you know her?!", Samuel asked as he took a bite of his baguette sandwich,  Neil grabbed the baguette from his hand and took a huge bite out of his sandwich. 

" Hey dude!", Samuel said as he grabbed his sandwich from Neil’s hand.

" We are friends right, what’s yours is mine and what’s mine is yours, except the girls of course ..", Neil said to Samuel with a big smile as he chewed on the sandwich, 

" ..so Damian who was she?", Samuel asked turning his attention back to Damian. 

Damian wondered if he should tell his friends how he met that crazy girl, he glanced at his watch and noticed that he was five minutes late to his next class.

“ s**t! We are late ... Prof Macquire is going to roast us alive”, Damian said as he showed his friends the time.

They quickly grabbed their backpack and hurried towards the exit. Damian glanced towards the girl’s restroom and smiled. He was glad that he didn't have to explain anything to his friends at least for now because he knows that after basketball practice they will be pestering him about who that girl was. So, will he make up a story or would he tell them the truth? He had enough time to think about which one it would be, the truth or a fake encounter story. 

Ella checked her watch, she couldn’t stay inside here forever. She slowly opened the door and it seemed like she wasn’t the only one inside the restroom. She quickly walked out of the toilet, her stomach was grumbling but eating will have to wait until lunch time.One thing for sure ,she will be finding another spot for her to eat , anywhere else but that cafeteria. She opened the tap and splashed some water over her face and her neck. Two girls who were walking out of the restroom stared at her from head to toe, they whispered something to each other and laughed.Ella looked at her reflection in the mirror, her hair was up in an extremely messy bun, with her oversized T-shirt and baggy jeans, she looked shorter than her  5 feet 1 inch tall. The loose clothes made her look bigger than she was, she had a very slim figure but didn't see the necessity of flashing herself around like those two who had just walked out as if they were doing a photo shoot for the Vogue magazine. She had no one to impress like back in high school, so why should she bother herself? 

"Hey Ella..we meet again ", she heard someone said and she quickly came out of the daze that she was in to find the pretty ginger haired  girl ,  Laura standing next to her washing her hands.

" Hey... Laura, it's good to come across someone familiar... It can get a little depressing when you don't know anyone or where to go", Ella said with a soft smile, and then she asked Laura if she knew where the law class was. She was surprised to find out that Laura was also a law student and that they were in the same class, it was music to her ears.They walked out chatting like they had been friends for a long time. Ella found that it was easy to speak to Laura, she was a very nice girl with a bubbly personality and she had a feeling that they will get along very well and she might be making her first friend in her new school and the new chapter of her life.

At the end of her first day in college, Ella wanted to unwind herself by taking a tour of the school gymnasium. Her mother would be picking her up around 3 pm so she had two hours to familiarize herself with the school facilities. She was happy to find out that the school housed two indoor swimming pools which were championships standards and was thrilled when she was told that she could access them whenever she wanted to. She had quickly got changed in her one-piece swimwear which she had dropped in her bag just in case she was presented with such an opportunity or if she had a gym lesson.  Standing there looking at her reflection in the mirror, Ella felt sad as she ran a hand on the embroidery on her swimsuit. It was the name of her old school, she used to say it was her lucky swimwear and would wear it each time she was going to swim in the school competitions. She slowly put a smile on her lips, grabbed a towel and her backpack, and walked out towards the pool.

Ella swam an easy breaststroke, her body glided through the sparkling water. She remembered her former coach's advice as she tried to up her strokes, moving her legs and arms faster. She pulled herself up as she reached the end of the pool and checked her time. She smiled, with some more effort she could improve her record time. Sitting there on the edge of the pool, Ella glanced around her and for a brief moment she felt at peace. Something that she hasn't felt in quite a while. If there was one place that  she was impressed with at her new school, it had to be the gymnasium. The gymnasium was composed  of not only two indoor pools which they could use all year round ,but also two basketball courts , a volleyball court and a tennis court . For her the swimming pool was now her favorite place, she always felt happy when she was in the water. With that thought, she remembered how she had lied about not knowing how to swim ,when she was actually among the top three students with more medals for the inter-school swimming competitions which were organized back in high school and she had also won a gold medal in the high school championship. 

She couldn't tell a stranger that she had wanted to kill herself to join the love of her life, she would have sounded like someone acting out the famous love story of  Romeo and Juliette and he would have probably called the psychiatric hospital straight away. I don't want to think about that ... that rude .. person again! she said as she dived in the water and swam freestyle to the other side of the pool. As she pulled herself up she came face -to -face with her nightmare! He stood there with a gym bag tossed over his shoulder and a big grin on his face.

" Bravo! It's incredible, it is surely a miracle, you swim extremely well for someone who couldn't swim a few days ago!", he said with an amusing tone.

Busted !, she thought as a  shiver ran down her body.