I was nervous. Why the hell was I nervous? I guess it had to do with the fact that last night, the time I’d spent with Nora had gotten to me. It meant something. And I was nervous that maybe, now that she was sober it wouldn’t hold up the same way to her. I was half convinced that I’d enter class and everything would be exactly the same as it had been for the last few months.

Nora would go back to not knowing that I even existed.

However, in all my random worries, and various scenarios as to how this would all play out I never considered that she wouldn’t come to class at all.

As I sat in that class and listened to the professor lecture my mind wandered wondering just where Nora was, what she was doing, why she wasn’t here. Not once had she ever missed class, she always promptly sauntered into the door right before she would technically be late. Confused and disappointed I absently scrawled whatever words came to mind in no sort of rhyme or order across the paper I was supposed to be taking notes on. I couldn’t stop thinking about her, when I got back to my room last night I’d laid awake and replayed those events over and over. Everything about her over and over. Her smile, the way she watched me, the sad reluctant look she’d had as we’d arrived at her home, the way her skin looked like the warmest cup of macchiato.

The professor dismissed the class and I realized that I had spent the whole time thinking about Nora. I had heard nothing that was taught today because only one thing, person, had taken up permanent residency in my brain. I sighed and began dumping things into my bag, as I looked down at the notebook page in front of me I finally registered what I had written as I’d sat and mulled over the mystery that was Nora Jackson.

Her

Her

Are you that her?

You say that you could love me

Early mornings

Late nights

Us

You

Me

Sunsets

The best clichés

Shaking my head at myself I grinned wearily as I flipped the cover closed and stuffed it with the rest of my things into my bag. Absently I plugged my headphones into my phone and placed them over my ears cranking the music up as I exited the class. I was walking completely absorbed in the smooth sensual vocals of Lianne La Havas when a tug on my shirt stopped me short. Curiously I turned pushing my headphones down to see Nora before me smiling brightly. “I called out your name but you didn’t hear me.” She said as I continued to watch her dumfounded.

“Where did you come from? You weren’t in class.” I said dumbly. It was as if all my thinking of her had conjured her up.

She shrugged and grinned unselfconsciously as she admitted. “I was waiting outside the class for you, but you didn’t even notice me.” She reached out and took my headphones from around my neck. “What you listening to?” She asked as she placed them over her own ears. She listened intently for a moment and then began to bob her head. I watched mesmerized as her eyes closed and a slow smile spread across her face as she continued to nod along to the beat, she even began to hum along even though it was clear she didn’t know the song and was going with what felt right.

When it seemed, she was going to be content to stand here in the middle of hall listening to the song I reached over and pulled the headphones down. “I have another class to get to.”

She frowned as she fiddled with my headphones hanging around her neck. “Do you have to go to this class?” She asked.

I rose an eyebrow at her question as I questioned myself. Did I have to go to this class? If I wanted to keep my perfect attendance going, If I didn’t want to miss whatever lesson the professor was going to go over today, if I wanted to keep my GPA at its current number; then yeah, I had to go. But did I actually care about those things? No, I didn’t. The only class that fascinated me I had just exited, I wasn’t too excited to attend my next one. Sometimes these classes felt like stepping stones to my grave, burying me under a future that I didn’t want. I shook my head. “Not really.”

Nora beamed brightly. “Great, then follow me.” She grabbed my hand. Her hand so much smaller than mines was hot to the touch sending a spark from the point of contact straight up my arm and to my heart. In turn my heart began to beat at a faster tempo excited by this smallest of contact between us. “I woke up late today and missed class bu