by Mariah Cole
It’s me.
A small painted picture of me.
I’m wearing my black first date dress, standing in the ocean, and my eyes are gleaming in the sunlight.
There’s a black raven sitting on my left shoulder—looking nonchalant, and at the bottom of my picture there are four words in white cursive: Ravens always come back...
I wipe a tear away and immediately take the photo into my bedroom, placing it front and center on my mantle. I run my fingers across the paint—oil and acrylic, and then I lie down on my bed, staring at it until I fall asleep.
***
“Miss Anderson, how many more classes are you going to drop?” My advisor rolls her eyes and hands me a new schedule.
“Why do you care?” I stand up. “You’re getting paid to do this. Be happy that I’m giving you something to do.”
I’ve only been on campus for a week, and people like her are already pissing me off. Everyone knows that the first two weeks of college are a free for all, a sampler if you will.
The “Add/Drop” period signals fourteen days of unrestricted class swapping. If you don’t like the way a professor’s syllabus looks, or if you find the teacher’s voice annoying, you can drop the class with no penalty and replace it with something else.
Of course, the average college student only changes a class or two at a time, and they usually only drop two or three.
I’ve dropped thirty so far.
Nothing is holding my interest, and I’m pretty sure this newest elective class my advisor signed me up for will be getting dropped tomorrow. The name of it is “405.” There’s no formal title, and if it’s as bad as that “Bird Watching” class she signed me up for yesterday, I’m going to pay her another visit at the end of the day.
Since it starts in half hour, I head over to the building.
As I’m walking, my phone vibrates and I pull it out of my purse. Carter.
I watch it ring and ring, wanting to answer it, but it goes to voicemail. I scroll through the few text messages he’s sent this week and sigh.
No matter what I do, I can’t get him out of my mind. It seems as if every day away from him worsens the pain in my heart.
When I get to the classroom, I see that it’s empty so I decide to call him back.
“Emerald,” he answers on the first ring.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
Neither of us says anything for a long time.
“We need to talk, Emerald.”
“About what?”
“You know about what.” He sounds upset. “I’m sick of this shit and I know you are too.”
I sigh and decide to give in. “I have class in a few minutes and another one in two hours. And AA right after that. What time are you free today?”
“Whenever.”
“Nine o’ clock tonight?”
“That’ll be fine. I’ll call you.”
“Okay...” I feel slightly better already. “I’ll talk to you then.”
“Looking forward to it.”
I smile and hang up.
“Is someone sitting here?” A male voice to my right says.
I look up and see one of the most attractive men I’ve ever seen in my life.
He’s dressed in a simple red polo short and khakis, with the words “Crimson Tide” engraved onto the pockets. With jet black hair, light grey eyes, and a smile that is currently making me melt, he’s fucking perfection.
“So...” He smiles. “Is this seat taken?”
I shake my head and smile back.
“I’m Lucas Pearson,” he says as he takes a seat. “And you are?”
“Emerald.”
“Do you have a last name, Emerald?”
“Anderson.”
He pulls out his phone and taps on the screen. “No Facebook?”
“No.” I haven’t had one since I flunked out of NYU and I’ve forgotten that they’re basically the social lifeline in college. “I’ll set one up tonight.”
“Make sure you do.” He flashes his perfect smile. “Make sure I’m your first friend.”
“You probably won’t be.”
“Why not?”
“I’ll probably forget your name by the end of this class.”
“And why is that?” He raises his eyebrow.
“I don’t keep track of every stranger I meet. There are far too many.”
He blinks. “You’ve never heard of me before?”
“Do you sing or something?”
He tilts his head to the side and smiles again. “You’re shitting me right?”
“There are thirty thousand students on this fucking campus. Do you really think you’re Mr. Popular?”
“No...” He leans close and looks into my eyes. “But I am the star quarterback of the football team. It’s not exactly Mr. Popular. It’s Mr. God.”
I roll my eyes and lean back, trying my hardest not to laugh at him.
He keeps his eyes on me as other people fill the room, as they recognize him and give him a high five before taking their seats.
“Why are you in this class?” Mr. God crosses his arms.
“I don’t know. I don’t even know what this class is.”
He shakes his head. “Interpretive Design. It’s a high level course for talented people.”
“Then why are you in here?”
His lips curve into a smile. “You’re quite the charmer, Emerald.”
“I would say the same for you, but I can’t remember your name. Oh, wait. Mr. God.”
He looks as if he’s about to say something else smart, but the lights in the room suddenly flicker.
I pull out my schedule and scratch this class out with a pen. The last professor that started the class with a flicker of the lights turned out to be a psycho with a twenty page syllabus.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” a familiar voice says and I immediately look up. “Welcome to Interpretive Art Design. My name is Professor Black, and I’ll be—”
Carter’s blue eyes meet mine and everything around me disappears.
He raises his eyebrow, smirking. “I’ll be teaching you quite a few things this semester...”
**The End**
Beautiful Temptation
(Book 2 of 2 in the Beautiful Series)
Coming Soon
(A Lot Sooner Than You Think)
Dear Awesome Reader,
Thank you so much for taking time out of your life to read this book! I hope you were thoroughly entertained and enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
If you LOVED it and have any extra time, PLEASE leave a review on amazon.com, B&N.com, goodreads.com, OR send me an email ([email protected]) so I can personally thank you :-) If you hated it, well....keep that shit to yourself! LOL (Just kidding. Feel free to let me know how I can improve next time!)
I’m forever grateful for you and your time, and I hope to be re-invited to your bookshelf with my next release.
Love,
Mariah Cole
