Liam Cokely (wrathrising) wrote in olympianthreads, @ 2014-11-11 13:33:00 |
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Liam preferred to think that he'd been giving Eva space since he'd moved back into his own room. He'd been quietly encouraged by their conversation in the mediated counselling session. He was glad there had been someone there to make her feel safe, although frankly he would have preferred a little more privacy. But she had smiled at him and said she wanted to see him around. That was good. He was sure if they could talk without someone looking over their shoulders and making comments on their language that they could really settle things. He just had to figure out how to do it.
The truth was that if he was giving her space it was only out of necessity. He'd missed two weeks of classes while on suspension, and doing the homework wasn't the same as actually being in lectures, and now there were exams coming up and he felt more behind than ever before. He wasn't exactly academic of the year anyway, but he knew he had to, at the very least, pass. He was rapidly running out of favours and second chances with the Administration. If he failed something, or more than one thing, they might just see fit to call it the final straw and kick him out for good. He kept his head down for the next few days, studying hard and asking his TA's for a little extra tutoring to catch him up in practicals. He saw Eva in the subjects they shared but kept a little distance, not wanting to cause an unwanted distraction or upset.
At Monday's dinner in the Mess Hall, going through the workbooks of the day's written tests in his head and wondering which ones he'd done the worst on, he saw her across a couple tables. She was talking to some of her friends, and as he watched she tossed her hair back and laughed. Fuck, Cokely, he thought as his heart lifted a few inches. What happened to friends with benefits? You have got it fucking bad. He looked quickly back down to his plate before she could notice him watching. No one was sitting with him; he was particularly surprised, as word had got out about his little 'incident' and apparently he was still in the doghouse with the general student population, even if they weren't a hundred percent accurate on the facts. It hardly mattered, anyway.
He thought about what he should do. Text her? Call her? Was that too weird and impersonal? He couldn't just show up on her doorstep. That was bloody stalkerish. He was just considering whether it would also be stalkerish to send some flowers or something instead when she and her friends got up from their table and started to make their way out. Making a split-second decision, he stood and made his way quickly over to the exiting group, balancing his pile of textbooks under one arm. He touched her arm gently to get her attention, hoping he could siphon her away from the main group before they all set on him like a herd of lionesses. He wasn't sure how her friends felt about him, but if they knew the truth he couldn't imagine he was their favourite person in the world. "Hey," he said, softly, trying not to bring too much attention to himself.