Chapter 13: Deja Vu.

Monday.

Day 4.

Issa.

I woke up sharp and early this morning for my classes, totally forgetting about school completely. 

I felt like death, I had only slept a few hours. My mind was still hazy from the party. The rest of my night consisted of replaying Cam and George on that balcony, talking about me. 

The whole night felt like a dream. For all I knew, I still was dreaming and soon would wake up back inside the school. I didn't have time to think about any of that, because right now, I had to go to class.

On Monday's, my only class was speech at 9 o'clock sharp in the morning. My teacher, Professor Sterling, was very lenient and had said on the very first day that we honestly didn't even need to show up to class, which I was always a stick in the mud about his way of teaching. But as fun as that truthfully sounded today, I needed some distraction from my mess of a life, so I would be showing up to class. Despite the fact that I really, really didn't want to go.

I drove myself over a couple minutes early and bought myself a giant espresso. This whole morning I was feeling paranoid that I was being watched to add to my problems, but it was probably just my nerves eating away at me as usual. Even the barista lady was giving me the creeps. I ignore myself and head into class.

I walk in and see little to no one was even here, including the professor. Big surprise. We were more than halfway through the year and Prof. Sterling still showed up late. I had to give it to him though, it was Monday afterall.

I take off my back pack and throw it on the chair next to me, since no one would probably end up occupying it. And if they wanted to, it would hopefully be a big 'go away' to them seeing it there.

I look up at the giant gray clock, and as expected, the professor was late. It only takes him another few minutes to finally arrive most days, so I don't think much of it. I take out my notebook and a pen and start doodling. The door opens and in comes a late student. Lucky for them, Mr Sterling wouldn't even be here to care about his tardiness.

I look back down and keep drawing. I find myself drawing a face. It doesn't look like anyone I know in particular for once. I stare down at it and remember back at my first day at the school. I had drawn George without realizing I had even done it. Then I suddenly realize I was in fact drawing someone I knew. I was in the beginning of starting to draw Cam's face.

I hear another student walk in and ignore them this time. I stare at the drawing of Cam's daring eyes, annoyed at myself that I would draw him. I was torturing myself at this point. I rip the paper from my notebook and crumple it up so I don't have to look at him any longer.

I then hear a student walk past me and stop beside my chair. They start talking to me and I immediately snap up from the crumpled up paper to look at them.

"Could I sit here?" It was Cam, gesturing to my unwelcoming bag beside me. I slowly reach to grab it, not taking my eyes off of Cam as if he would dissappear if I looked away, then throw it to the ground. Still watching him, not understanding how he had found me, Cam sits down next to me. He pretends to settle his nonexistent gear on the table the way he wanted it then turns to me. He then smiles at me, making me grow impatient.

"You aren't in this class. Why are you here?" Cam looks around then back to me, innocent like.

"Oh shoot. You're telling me this isn't foods class?" I narrow my eyes at his joking tone and say nothing, just waiting for some kind of answer to my question. He finally looks back at me, acknowledging me, then adds;

"What, you call this a class? The professor isn't even here. And where is everyone?" I could tell he was trying to crack a joke again, but I just wasn't having it. I glare at him, making him stop smiling and finally admit;

"I was walking around campus and saw you. I decided to come join you."

"What? So you're following me?" That's the last time I don't trust my gut when I feel like I'm being watched. Turns out Cam was the creep following me. Why am I not surprised? Cam sighed, looked around carefully then started talking unhumanly quiet.

"I needed to know how you knew it was me last night. Like, what gave it away?" Just then Mr. Sterling walks in. He walks straight to his desk and without even looking at any of us, waves to the class. I feel Cam nudge me causing me to swat away his hand. I wasn't about to tell him that I had a crazy ass dream where he had kidnapped me. No way in hell.

"Your voice." Is all I can think to say. He nods like he understands then says;

"I've been to so many parties, and no one else has caught onto it. Not even my highschool friends. Only you." He looks around like he only just now realized he was inside a college classroom. He gets up looking awkward then says to me;

"You won't tell anyone, right? What I look like?" I glaze my eyes over him like I was debating my answer then when I noticed he looked worried I say:

"No. I won't." He throws me a thumbs up and swiftly leaves the room, leaving me absolutely flabbergasted. Mr. Sterling sees him leave and announces;

"Why not everyone just leave then. Everyone here today will get extra credit. See you next week." Everyone cheers and jumps out of their seats and leaves. I grab my things and shoot up from my chair, hurrying out of the room. I decided then that I wasn't finished talking to Cam. 

I move out into the hall and don't see him. Of course he was already gone. I didn't even know what I'd say to him anyway even if I did see him. I guess seeing him and knowing he knew George made me curious. And if it turned out that George didn't remember me like the rest of the people in my dream, I wouldn't be able to handle it.

I wasn't in any mood to go back to my dorm, knowing Jo would be there, so I take out my phone and text Lectra;

Me: 'Hey. You home? Kinda don't want to be alone right now.' 

In an instant she replied;

Lectra: 'Get your butt over here.' 

I smile down at my screen then walk over to my car to go to Lectras place again for the millionth time this week.

•••

I park my car and walk up to Lectras front door. I debate on if I even needed to knock, then do it anyway. I hear footsteps then the doorknob turning. Ready to hug Lectra, I lunge forward. Halting me to a sudden stop, standing there is her brother Brooks, or more like it, my chancellor.

I throw my hands out to stop me from landing face first into him, making them land on his chest. His chest was hard and buff. For being 33, as Lectra had told me, he was in good shape. Starting to feel weird for judging his body type, I feel his hands grabbing my waste to hold me up. I hear Lectras voice from inside the house and we stop our embrace.

I take a few steps away from him, feeling him still watching me, as Lectra makes her way past him. She shoves him aside and hugs me tight. As she hugs me, I see Brooks over her shoulder still staring me down. I start feeling guilty as I check out my best friends brother in front of Lectra.

Today he was wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt. He must have been working out too, because I can see now he was sweating through his shirt. Knowing I was watching him, he smirks a devious smile at me then turns and slowly leaves. Lectra stops hugging me and says teasingly;

"How does a hot tub sound?" I snap out of the awkward moment between her brother and say;

"Absolutely wonderful." What wasn't, was me having a stupid crush on her brother. 

•••

Lectra and I relax in her pool talking about things for about an hour until we finally decide to go watch a movie. I was still feeling guilty for checking out Brooks and for having a thing for him. He wasn't my type, not even a little bit. He was too buff for me, but feeling myself against him felt too good for me to ignore. Maybe this was my brain telling me I needed to get some action before I completely combusted.

We pick out a movie in Lectras room and everything is going good until I realized I had to use the restroom. I tell Lectra she doesn't need to pause the movie and can just watch it without me so she says;

"Fine, this is payback for not letting me finish the movie the other day then!" She settles into bed and unpauses it then I leave, searching for a bathroom in this maze of a house.

I make my way through the huge house, completely forgetting where the upstairs bathrooms were. Unsure where her brothers room was, and not wanting to accidentally walk into it, I go to the downstairs bathroom instead. I finally find it, feeling like I was going to explode, I go and feel ten times better.

Now the feeling was swapped with being hungry. Not thinking anyone would care if I got myself a snack, I head to the kitchen again. I walk in and there, making food on the stove, is Brooks. Before I can back away and go without him seeing me he turns around and asks;

"Issa? Thought you were upstairs." He turns back around and continues cooking what looked like steak. The smell of it was now overwhelming my nose. Before I can say anything, my stomach growls loudly speaking for me. Brooks turns once more and laughs at me.

"You hungry? Well I can feed you if you want." He picks up his pan and shows me the steaks. I was almost sure what he had just said was totally harmless, but with our scene earlier, I could sense some playfulness in his words. Oh no.

"Some food would be amazing right now. I'm starving." Now I wasn't sure whether or not I meant real food or if I was also being insinuating toward him. I really was hungry, but this man was making me feel something. Brooks smiled at me then innocently adds;

"Well they look like they'll be done soon. If you're up for waiting with me?" His almost gray eyes looked me up and down, tempting me. I didn't know what to say to him. Maybe his flirting was all in my head? Or maybe this was the universes way of telling me to just go for it. I wasn't quite sure but what I said next shocked even me.

"Or we could just eat later?" It was almost like I had no choice in what I wanted to say. My mouth just made the words come out without my permission. Normally I would never be this upfront with guys, especially ones I'm not even dating. More importantly, to my best friends brother. 

I would never do anything like this, what was wrong with me? 

Brooks looked at me with questioning eyes which quickly became filled with desire.

"You sure about that?" Is all he said. His words were smooth and tempting. He must have just come from a shower, because his hair was still wet. I then see a droplet from his hair slowly trickle down to his cheek. I walk close enough to him to feel his body heat. I take my hand and wipe away the droplet while still caressing his face. He takes one hand around my waste like he had earlier and pulls me closer to him so that we were now touching.

"I'm sure." This time I knew this was what I wanted to say. I had complete control and knew I wanted this man with every fiber. I feel one of his arms reach back to turn off the stove then find its way on me again. He doesn't do anything at first. He simply pulls away from me slowly, seemingly studying my body.

I remember I only had on a borrowed oversized shirt with swimsuit bottoms on underneath after I had went hot tubbing. He takes the shirt Lectra let me borrow and slowly starts to lift it up, trailing his fingers underneath as he does. He finds his way to the back of my bikini and unties the strings, letting it fall to the ground. This was wrong.

But I still wasn't stopping him.

He kicks the cloth away and continues touching me lightly. When he finally makes his way to my front he roughly cups my chest. I throw my head back with desirable pain. My eyes are closed when I feel him plant his lips into mine. He stops touching me and, with my shirt still up over my chest, pulls me into him so they push up against him. I feel him moan in pleasure into our kiss, which ends up making me moan with him a little too loud.

This was so, so wrong.

I start to hear footsteps behind me but Brooks doesn't stop and neither do I. I then hear someone say something behind me, but not quite making out what it was, still managing to make both me and Brooks stop what we were doing.

I turn, completely forgetting my chest was still out and see George standing there gawking at me.

It isn't the fact that he could see my breasts sitting out in plain sight, but the fact that George was here at all that makes me sit there and just gawk right back at him.