Avoid Him

Isabella and Leonardo dropped down from their car and got into the school, dried leaves were littered all over, making a rustling sound as the wind blew past them. They were early, so not many people had arrived, Isabella decided to grab that opportunity to head to the library and take a book to read.

"I'm off to library" she informed her brother.

"So why you telling me?" Leo asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Just get lost" she said and walked away

"Just get lost" he mimicked and walked to his class.

Isabella entered into the library, it was large in size with many books stocked in the shelve. She walked over to a shelve and removed a book, got to a chair sat down then began reading.

After a few minutes she brought out her pen to mark out a word but it fell from her hand. Isabella bent down to pick it up only to see her hand hovering over another person's.

"Aaah!" she screeched and jolted backwards. She thought she was the only one in the library or was she seeing things.

Isabella bent over again and saw the hand pick up the pen.

"I believe this is yours" she heard a familiar voice say. She raised her head abruptly only to be met by a pair of warm brown eyes that belonged to no other person but Francesco Esposito.

"Oh hey" she smiled awkwardly still on the floor "Didn't know you were here" she said as she stood regaining her composure.

"Yeah. I was actually here before you, I saw you walk in but you failed to notice me" he said and handed the pen to her.

"Um... thanks" she took the pen from him not sure of what to say.

"Then I'll just head back to what I was doing" she pointed at a novel which lay on a desk.

"Okay" he nodded and turned his back to leave but stopped to face her "May I join you then?" he asked.

'Too forward' he scolded himself thinking she was going to refuse.

"Hmmm? uh_uh sure" she stuttered and sat back on her chair.

'Why are you this nervous?' she asked herself and held the both sides of her cheek to prevent him from seeing her already red face.

Francesco grabbed a chair and positioned it next to her's, he was happy that she was the first person that he saw. Not his father, his step mom nor his step siblings.

"Have you been this shy?" he asked noticing her uneasiness.

"What?! no. I'm not shy" she defended "I'm just.... you know what just read" she pouted and focused her attention on the wordings of the novel.

"Shy girl" he laughed at her.

"Ehi!, you really don't want to see the bad side of me" she warned.

"Mmm really? I didn't know you have a savage part" he joked.

Isabella shut her book close, looked at him and said.

"You should read"

"You have really cute eyes do you know that?" he complimented. She looked away from him and she was sure that her face was tomato red.

"I think we should head to class now, lectures might begin any moment from now" she cleared her throat diverting from the topic.

Isabella stood up and slung her bag over her shoulder but Francesco pushed her back down to her seat.

"No. We still have about 30 minutes" he said.

"Oh, okay" she nodded and looked away from him. Maybe coming to the library was a bad idea after all.

"Be my vice" he proposed.

"Vice?, vice for what?" she asked surprisingly inquisitive.

"For the student council. I'm running as the president. So I'm asking you to be my vice president" he replied.

"I don't think I can_"

"Yes you will be" he cut her short leaving no room for objections.

"I'm not that popular and I'm only new here so I don't think I can" she pointed out.

"Now who said you're not popular?" he asked surprised.

She shifted her gaze away from him to the other side focusing on nothing in particular.

"Wasn't it you I heard the students gossiping about?"

"Bad or good?" she faced him with a curious looking face.

"Good" he replied "About how good you look"

"Excuse me?"

"Yes that's what I heard. You see your good look could earn us that position no doubt"

"Mmm... I'll think about it. Excuse me for now" she said as she stood up, she ran out of the library in order to avoid him keeping her.

Francesco, realizing that he'd been smiling since she walked out of the door cleared his throat and adjusted in his seat. 'What has gotten into you?'.

Isabella hummed a song as she walked down to her class. She made an attempt to open the door but a strong hand held the door knob before she did. She looked up only to see Stefano Mancini looking down at her, his dark eyes piercing through her.

"Hey Bella" he smiled

"Hey" she waved her hand at him then motioned for him to open the door.

"Are you gonna open the door or what?" she asked calmly. Seeing that he wasn't going to reply, she made again another attempt to open the door but he brushed her hand off.

"What the hell are you_"

"Sssh" he shushed her "Remind me of your father's name"

"Why would you want to know?" she asked already getting annoyed by his behavior.

"Welcome to school darling" he smiled mischievously opening the door and stepped into the class, but he jammed the door before she could even take a step.

"What the_" she stopped herself from completing the sentence "This guy is not gonna like me at all" she cursed inwardly.

Who the hell does he think he is?, does he know her from somewhere? no, has he ever come across her face before? no.

"Avoid Him" she heard a voice say.