Dante Is.... Here!

Scarlett got over the weird start to her day, she was already on her way to class but the text message from Brock only made her hurry up.

The lecture was about to begin, and Brock had told her that the Professor taking them had already arrived, she was already a few minutes late and knew she had to worry or else she would make a first bad impression.

Brock had shared his location so it was easy for Scarlett to find him, she was still new and had barely explored the campus so this was a much-needed help from him.

She was glad she followed him to the library because Brock was able to change how she perceived him, Scarlett was lost in her thoughts.

Luckily, she made it in time and the class was less populated than she would have thought it would be, and at the back of it was Brock, waving her down.

Scarlett hurried, no one spared her a second glance, and she blended right in.

Brock had saved her a chair but this wouldn't have mattered with the population of the class but it was a sweet gesture from him nonetheless.

"Hey Brock, how're you?" Scarlett started the conversation, the night might not have been traumatic for her but it could have been for him.

"You're asking how I am now? What next? Are you going to ask me out?" Brock said and Scarlett didn't even have the energy to reply to him.

"Sure Brock, you're the hottest guy in this room and I would just love to jump your bones," Scarlett said as she rolled her eyes in annoyance but his response was enough to give her the answer to her question.

"Fuck you and your sarcasm!" Brock fired back, but an awkward silence soon followed.

"You were being sarcastic, weren't you?" Brock questioned in a low tone, trying to confirm he was right.

"Of course I was!" Scarlett barked but she heard someone laughing behind them.

"There's always that guy… That pathetic guy is riddled with insecurities so he projects those insecurities…. People like you're used as comic relief in books." The jet black-haired man said, belittling Brock with no mercy.

Scarlett didn't give much meaning to what he was saying because she thought that Brock had it covered

Brock always had a sharp mouth so nothing was stopping him from using that sharp mouth in this situation that had presented itself, but for some reason, she never heard him say anything.

Brock got quiet quickly and just focused his eyes on the books in front of him but Scarlett was certain he wasn't reading it.

"Should I say something?" Scarlett thought. She had seen enough movies to see that trying to help in these situations only made them worse as it would make the victim feel even more embarrassed. Heck, her stepping in might only make the teasing worse.

Luckily, the silence was broken by the emergence of the Professor who was not in class as Brock had said, but this was a tactic to make her hurry to class before he did come.

"Welcome students, I go by the name Nathan and I want to welcome you to creative writing 1001," The Professor began to talk but Scarlett zoned out the moment he opened his mouth.

But this wasn't like her other zone out, this was more like a trance.

Nathan was a slender older man in his mid-thirties, he had nasolabial folds etched on his face.

He had on a vest, he looked like a dad, but that was to be expected as a wedding ring was worn on his hand.

Before he could proceed further with what they would be covering this semester, a man walked in. Scarlett's eyes widened, she knew who this person was and glanced over at Brock to see if he too recognized this person but judging from his face, he didn't.

This was the person she had seen the night before at the scene of the attack, she thought she had imagined it but seeing him here confirmed she didn't.

"Brock, it's him!" Scarlett whispered but Brock looked clueless as to who she was talking about.

"What are you talking about? You know him?" Brock asked.

"Quit messing around!" Scarlett fired back and just then, the person's eyes picked her out in the crowd, she was the first person he saw in the crowd.

It looked like he was listening to her but that was impossible, and Scarlett summed this up as paranoia because it had to be.

He began walking towards her, all the while looking right at her but she was uncomfortable with the whole scenario and looked away, focusing her attention on Brock but the closer he got, the more nervous Scarlett became.

"Are you okay?" Brock questioned, he noticed that she was uncomfortable, she didn't want to offload her paranoia on Brock.

"I'm fine! I think I didn't get enough sleep last night," Scarlett downplayed her exhaustion.

And her paranoia was proven to be just in her head, the man had been looking right at the man behind her.

This was the man that chipped in his two cents when no one called for it but Scarlett was surely uncomfortable with the olive-green-eyed man behind her.

The lecture proceeded as planned, with nothing interrupting it but Scarlett couldn't concentrate.

But she knew she didn't need to, not with how religiously Brock was taking notes.

The class was over after what seemed like an eternity but two hours was quite long in hindsight.

Scarlett rushed out of the class with Brock, she was in a hurry for some reason and Brock followed behind her like a stray.

"Hey! Scarlett!" Brock called out to her outside the school building but Scarlett was speed-walking away, it took Brock grabbing her by the shoulder to stop her.

"What is wrong Scarlett!?" Brock questioned, he sounded worried about her but one couldn't blame him considering her state of mind right now.

"Brock… Something is wrong… something is very wrong!" Scarlett said; she was speaking like she knew something she shouldn't know. Brock was confused, but he began to think that maybe Scarlett had a few screws loose.

"You're right…" A voice said behind her, Scarlett looked back only to be met by the man she had met at the store, it was Dante.

"Meeting twice in a week? Something has to be wrong. I didn't introduce myself the first time, I'm Dante." Dante had arrived at the University of Arizona and made contact with Scarlett thanks to Heidi managing to find out what she was majoring in.

"Who the hell are you?" Scarlett asked and Dante's smile quickly faded as silence replaced the atmosphere.

"Well, this is awkward…" Brock thought to himself as he wanted to see how this man intended to wriggle himself out of this one.