Three: Defense

I blinked four times. I just had to be really, really sure I wasn't dreaming. For goodness sake, this dude was literally one of the most famous guys on campus. How could he call me pretty? Or wait, did he seriously want a hookup? Damn, he had come to the wrong lady. 

"Um, hey?" I furrowed my eyebrows at him, denoting I was confused. 

He waggled something in the air. Moving my eyes to it, I gasped on seeing my necklace. How in the world did he get that? I must have forgotten to put it on. 

"How did you—"

"Huh-uh." He grasped it the moment I attempted to take it from him, hid it behind him. No, no. That necklace wasn't something anyone could play around with. 

I glared at him. "Can you please give it to me? I don't play around with it."

He licked his lips, winked at me. Gross. 

"You're sure about that?" He raised his eyebrows at me, smiled. "I mean, if it's important, you wouldn't drop it."

I gritted my teeth, trying as much as possible to not flare up. "Anyone can drop a necklace, Mister. So, for goodness sake, give. Me. My. Necklace."

"Woah, it's just a necklace. Is there a—"

"Sup, Roy?" Someone shove an arm around him. Spotting the person, I sighed. It was him again, Jason Gerald. The guy who claimed he loved Bella, but didn't know how to be faithful to her. It was good Bella had gone to class. If she had to see him, there'd be a commotion. 

"Hey, Jason." I faked a smile. I truly never liked to greet him. He was a total dick and pretender. 

He grinned. "I'm good, you?"

"Same."

Turning back to Roy, I was surprised to see his eyes widely opened. What now?

For a moment, they both muttered some things to each other, and that absolutely irritated me. My class had started for jeez' sake! What was Roy gonna gain by capturing my necklace? Although I didn't know what that necklace indicated, I still loved it so much. I'd been wearing it for years, so I was so used to having it with me. 

"Hey." I exhaled, becoming quite impatient. Noticing they were deep in their mutter, I cried, "Hey!" And, that made them flinch. 

"You startled me." Jason held his chest, blinking like the idiot he was. 

I tucked some strands of my hair to the back of my hair, tried to smile. "Please, I need my necklace. I have to get to class now."

"In that case…" Roy stepped closer, put his hands into the pocket of his jean trouser, smiled. "Let's go together. I get my lectures in the same faculty as you. I'm a senior there."

My eyes uncontrollably widened. Woah, what? He knew the faculty I was? Was he playing around?

"H-How do you know my faculty?" I was puzzled. 

"Take your necklace." He took my hand, dropped the necklace in my palm. "But, don't misplace it again. It's gold. Every girl likes gold."

"Okay." I nodded. "Thanks."

He turned to Jason, poked Jason's shoulder. "See you later, man. I've gotta deal with something here."

"Sure." Jason walked away. 

He smiled widely at me. He was cute. So cute. Of course, there was no lady who saw him, and wouldn't dare to fall for his cuteness. But, irrespective of how handsome he was, I tried to not be one of those ladies who drooled for him. I had a lot of things to think about, speaking of thinking about a cute boy. 

"Let's go." He held my hand, forced me to follow him. How rude. Had I told him I was going to go with him?

"So, what's your name?" He broke the short silence between us. 

I glared. I absolutely didn't like his company. We had only been walking together for less than a minute, but it felt like an hour. I was so, so nervous. What made me more nervous was the fact that people were staring at us. I hated to get people's attention unnecessarily. 

"Fart," I replied to him, jerking my hand from his hold. "PS, I don't need you to hold me. I'm not comfortable with it."

"Oh, sorry." We turned to the next hallway, close to our faculty. Why was my department so far today? Ah, what was with today? 

I tried to walk fast, and also tried to not look him in the eye. But, he seemed to be a really fast walker as well. The moment I walked faster, I bumped into someone. Shit, today was definitely bad. The person had to be Amy Walter. This bratty lady. 

"Oh my gosh!" She exclaimed. As usual, that dramatic-queen-attitude was in her tone. 

Looking up at me, there was a deep glare on her face. Her lips were pursed, her grey eyes holding so much wrath. Wasn't it just a mere bump? What was wrong with her? I'd admit, she looked crazy and unkempt. Her brown hair was tousled, and she definitely didn't look like the rich meanie I knew. 

"I'm sorry," I apologized. 

"Sorry?" She scoffed, linked her arms on her chest. "For goodness sake, do you know how much this dress costs?"

Moving my eyes to her dress, I noticed coffee stains on it. Oh, that must be the reason she was upset. I accidentally spilled her coffee on her dress. 

"O-Oh. I'm sorry about that." I took a small towel from my pocket, stretched my hand to give it to her. "Here. You can use this to clean it up. I guess it'll be of help."

"Wow!" She exclaimed, glared even harder. Woah, woah, woah. One thing I knew was I was never gonna take shit from a brat. 

"Excuse me?" I raised an eyebrow at her, getting equally mad. 

She scoffed again, flicked her long hair over her shoulder, moved her gaze from me. "Why am I even surprised? Your one year income won't buy this dress, so I shouldn't expect you to know how expensive it is."

That was it. Just because she was rich, didn't mean she had to say something that stupid. Angered, just about to say something, a bunch of morons began to laugh around us. 

Confused, I scanned my eyes through the place, only for me to see a crowd around us. This was what I hated. Attention. How the heck did they quickly form a circle around us? They were here to learn!

When I turned back to Amy, she had an ugly smirk on her lips. "Five hundred bucks will do the laundry. Do you have up to that? Or will you use your hands to wash it?"

Again, they burst out laughing. What was funny? At this point, I felt close to tears. I never liked to be embarrassed. But, no matter what, I wouldn't leave here until I spoke back to her. 

"This isn't—"

"What's wrong with you?" Roy's deep voice covered the hallway, cut into me. 

Huh? 

I stared up at him. Funnily enough, he was glaring at her. Why was he angry? Did he know me from somewhere? 

"Excuse me?" Amy snorted, that frown beaming on her face again. "What's wrong with you, Roy? You're—"

"If it's the money you need…" he took his wallet from the pocket of his denim jacket. "Have this." Damn, he threw money at her. "That's one thousand. It's double. I don't think it's right to embarrass someone for a mere accident. If you find joy in doing that, then maybe you should learn it's not nice." 

She gawked, obviously shocked to see him do that. "Roy?" She blinked like a lost pig. "D-Did you just? What? F-For this thing? You just..."

He grabbed my hand. "One thing I know is, it's wrong to make anyone feel terrible for a mere mistake. Anyone, absolutely anyone, can make a mistake."

With that, he dragged me from the crowd. I looked down because I was quite embarrassed, but I smiled. I smiled because I was happy I didn't have to leave there, being completely embarrassed. 

Reaching our faculty, he released my hand from his. And staring up at him, a small smile grew on my lips. "Thanks for that, even though I don't know why you did it," I said. 

He returned my smile. "I can't bear to see a poor lady being embarrassed like that."

"Thanks. See you some other time," I added. Just about to walk past him, he held my wrist back. Gradually, I moved my eyes to his face. 

"You haven't told me your name. I can't call you fart, right?" He denoted. 

I chuckled. "I'm Renee."

"Roy," he declared. 

Of course he was Roy. Who didn't know that? Well, I just nodded, pretending as if I didn't know his name. I had to be cool too. 

"Bye." He gave me a thumbs up, winked, walked first.

I just remained in my tracks like a dummy. What? So this wasn't a dream? I spoke to the hot dude? Maybe today wasn't so bad after all. 

With a small smile, I walked to my department. 

***