CHAPTER 47

Genesis's POV

           I was glad when the last lecture was over and the professor excitedly bowed out of the class. We were saved by his pregnant wife. Apparently, he just got a call that she was in labor and was about to give birth to triplets babies. Sitting through three back to back two hour classes under an extremely empty stomach was an experience I'd never want to go through ever again.

I stood up and began gathering my books inside my bag when someone bumped my shoulder painfully and didn't stop to apologize. I winced and looked up, massaging the throbbing shoulder and about to rebuke the culprit when my mouth hung open in surprise as soon as I noticed who it was. Michael came rushing with words of apologies and immediately ran out of the class. I suppose, after her.

I thought we were friends. I thought they were my friends. The reason her attitude towards me deteriorated was still unknown to me. My phone gave a faint beep. I retrieved it out from my purse and looked at it and immediately, Amelia's unexplained unhealthy behaviour didn't seem to be a bother anymore.

I beamed while texting him back.

Where are you?

He responded immediately, At the gym. You coming?

Should I? I don't want to intrude if you're working out Dario.

I want you to.

"Uh, hey." Someone tapped me.

I turned around and saw a boy of average height with Teutonic-gold hair and hazel eyes standing behind me. His moon shaped eyebrows were thin and narrow and he had a small-sized nose.

I returned his smile and shook his hand. "Hi."

"I'm Pete." He said, his smile only widening.

"My name is Genesis."

"I know."

"Oh..." My brow climbed higher up, almost touching my hairline.

"I-I mean to say I'm a first year too." He laughed. "I'm in the same department as you so I know your name. We have all classes together from Monday towards Friday so I always see you around."

"Oh but I have never seen you around before."

"Uh, I try to...I try to stay out of people's way most times. I'm usually at the back of the class so I guess that's why."

"Ah.." I grinned at him. "I guess so."

"So uh...do you wanna get say, uh lunch? Bills on me."

"Ah..." I winced because the invitation was very tempting but, "I'm meeting up with a friend."

"Now?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry. Perhaps some other time?"

"Sure." He nodded. "Some other time."

I smiled at him and turned to leave.

"Wait, can I get your number? So I could...hit you up later tonight?"

"Okay." I smiled. "That's fine." I exchanged numbers with Pete and said my goodbye right after.

On my way to the college gym, I spotted Ian with a girl who seemed to be in his league. They were caressing and touching each other intimately. I made to slip away unnoticed but his eyes found me before I could disappear and didn't move away. I offered him a light smile and turned the other way without waiting to see if he returned it.

The college gym was a very large room equipped with various special fitness machines with impressive ambience and additional swimming pool and sauna. Fully air-conditioned, the gym was silent and vacant. For a moment, I thought I was at the wrong place but the fitness equipment and machines indicated that I was just in the right place but there was no sign of Dario anywhere or any indication that said he was at least here.

Then there was a frisson of heat that curled up my back, spreading throughout and warm hands which wrapped around my waist, pulling me in closer to feel rock hard chest pressing up against my spine.

I chuckled, tilting my head in response to the tickles the tip of a certain boy's nose made along my neck.

"Dario?"

I felt him smile while nuzzling my neck, "Hey."

"What are you doing?"

He took my hand and made me turn around to face him. He was shirtless, skin splattered with tattoos and smiling down at me.

"Dancing."

I laughed, "I can't dance."

He clasped our fingers together and wound an arm around my waist so that we were dancing chest to chest.

"I can't either." He said, moving his feet and swaying his body in directions that made me move and sway mine.

"There's no song playing Dario."

"Doesn't matter."

His hand plastered on my waist dragged up my sides and stopped on my arms. Slowly and carefully, he took my hands in his and wrapped them around his neck. Next came the flex of his hard muscle as he wound his arms around my waist.

I couldn't stop the giggle which broke free from my mouth when he made me twirl away from him and brought me back to him.

"Dario." I giggled.

He creased up.

"What got you so happy?"

He said nothing and went on with so many twirls and swirls and making me laugh in embarrassment while stepping on his toes as we danced.

"Dario, why are you so happy?"

He smiled, "Just dance with me."

I chuckled. "But I can't dance."

He leaned in. I felt his warm breath against my neck, then a flutter of his lips against my skin, just above the crook as he whispered, "You're doing just fine."

For a split second, my head swam as a frisson of desire and want curled through my every being then inserted themselves in deep, secret places.

"Dario." I breathed.

Then he twirled me again and I came back to him with my spine levelled against his chest. He wrapped his arms around me, holding me so close while moving slowly to the beat and rhythm of a non-existent song only he could hear.

His hands brushed along the tendrils of my hair while loosely running through the scalp. I chuckled because it tickled. A varied massage of the bristles against my scalp and hair while curling the tresses in his fingers, twisting the locks around his fingers, then pulling gently.

"I like it when your hair is pulled behind you. I get to see your face better." He spoke quietly and began to braid my hair.

I waited till he was done weaving the ringlets of hair down to the tip and turned around to face him.

"And I like it when your hoodie isn't shrouded around your head when I'm with you. It gives me the impression that you are hiding from me."

He cocked his head back in laughter and I guffawed along. "I can't hide from you Genesis." He said.

"Yes. Because I'll always find you."

He spun me around. "I tried and I failed."

I smiled, swaddling his neck with my arms as soon as I came back to him. "Dario. I wish you'd tell me why you are so happy."

He dipped me back and I squealed. I squinted my eyes at him in feigned anger. He was grinning from ear to ear.

"Sei tu. Tu mi rendi felice." (It's you. You make me happy)

"I wish I knew Italian well enough to understand what you say sometimes and I have the feeling you won't tell me exactly. I need to be sure you are not planning on selling me off."

Then he let me go. And I crashed onto the ground, landing hard on my backside.

I shrieked in pain.

"Dario!"

He had doubled over by then, bursting out, splitting his sides. His guffaws echoed in the large gym room causing me to roam my eyes around the gym in shock. Then I remembered we were alone.

"It's not funny." I argued.

He crossed his arms over his stomach in an attempt to catch his breath and stifle his laughter but ended up bursting into loud guffaws. I narrowed my eyes at him in mild annoyance and suddenly lit up with the vengeful need to get back at him.

I stood up and threw myself at his cackling form, abruptly pulling him down with me. We struggled on the floor for a brief moment, each one trying to come up on top. Something told me he was refraining from tackling me with all of his man power and instead, let me have the victory. I took it anyway and came up from beneath him to sit on his torso, astride him with his hands pinned above his head, caging him in place.

"Ha! Who's the one on the floor now?" I mocked, rubbing my triumph in his face.

He let out a humorous laugh. "I wasn't- I wasn't laughing 'cause you fell."

I slit my eyes in obvious disbelieve.

He began to chuckle, "Fine." Speaking amid hearty laughter. "I was but in my defense, it was partly 'cause of your last statement. Your fall tripled the entire shit up and made the show quite entertaining."

I pretended to be hurt by his remark, "So right now, I'm just a clown you can just...laugh at? I'm a buffoonery entertainer you just randomly use to feed your....Dario?"

A whimper escaped him as his face crumpled in pain.

"Fuck." He cursed, clutching onto his stomach.

"Dario, are you okay?" I immediately got off him and kneeled by his side, wary, scared and panic-stricken as he writhed in torment, veins popping out. His skin color suddenly transitioned into a darker shade of red.

An overwhelming sense of dread came over me as my heart began to palpitate. "Tell me. Where does it hurt? Oh my God! Dario, please tell me how I can help."

Out of the blue, he busted out into a wholesome laughter. Then and there, I realized I had just been fooled.

"Dario! You unbelievable, inked, deceiving...."

He shot up from the floor in a flash and sprinted away from me. I chased him around every corner of the gymnasium, barely catching up as our boisterous laughter circled the entire atmosphere and perhaps interfering with the outside world.

***

I apologize for the extremely short chapter. I just thought you'all should have another chapter before this week runs out completely.

I hope I'm excused?

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