"You liar!"
"What?" Jeremy said, looking up from the book he was reading. He was shocked, startled actually. His eyes met hers. It was Ava. Ava Morgan. She was standing right over him, and she had just called him a liar.
"You dirty liar," she whispered. The two of them were in the library, and Ava was trying not to draw more attention to herself. Her initial outburst has already attracted some stares.
"I've got no idea what you're talking about." Jeremy said, confusion painted all over his face.
"I thought you said you only skimmed through books. Here you are being a full-on bibliophile."
Phew.
Jeremy's face eased up. The idea that he had done something to piss off Ava was so terrifying that his mind had probably thought about a thousand ways he may have gotten on her bad side.
"OK, OK, you got me. What can I say? Psychology is interesting."
"Yes, it is." Ava said, pulling a chair and sitting opposite Jeremy. She tried her best to move the chair quietly, but the metallic legs betrayed her. They scraped across the tiles, the silence of the house of books amplifying the sound. She was once again met with a flurry of eyes.
They sat there in awkward silence for a while, Jeremy staring at the book, Ava staring at him. At this point, all he was doing was looking at the words. His ability to read somehow flew out the window, along with his ability to breathe. He was literally holding his breath. He could feel his heart rate increase. He wanted to look up, but he didn't. He flipped the page over and kept fiddling with the paper.
"Why Psy 101?" Ava whispered, breaking the ice. At her words, Jeremy lifted his head with his eyes looking at hers. She has the most beautiful brown pupils. They looked like the colour of coffee beans.
"Honestly, I heard it was an easy A.
"Ouch." Ava said dramatically, clutching her chest like a bullet just hit her in it.
"I mean no disrespect, really." Jeremy said, chuckling.
"It's just that I had the space on my course form, and I asked some seniors, and they said PSY101 or Introduction to Music Theory. My father once tried to make me play the piano. I failed horribly, and God knows I can't dance to save my own life. So, yeah, it was either the human mind or music. Once I weighed it up like that. The choice was pretty easy to make."
Ava said nothing. She just kept looking at him with a smirk on her face.
"What? Why are you smiling like that?" Jeremy said, suddenly feeling uneasy under the intensity of her gaze.
"Oh, it's nothing. I'm just imagining you playing piano in some orchestra. Look at you, about to put Mozart to shame. You might have just been. the next Hans Zimmer."
"I guess we will never know. Besides, my fingers still push keys all day, but I switched the piano for a computer keyboard." Jeremy replied.
"Oh, yes, computer scientist. I sometimes forget you have a life outside Professor Griggs' classroom."
"Oooo, burn." Jeremy said. "Well, I do. You are looking at Westbridge's finest freshman programmer.
"Aha, we might just have another Zuckerberg on our hands."
"Who knows? Time will tell."
"But please don't drop out of university. I'm so tired of the whole techpreneur billionaire dropping out of university cliché. Make sure you finish what you started, okay? Besides, who is Professor Griggs going to yell at if you suddenly disappear on us?"
Jeremy laughed a little too hard, a little too loud. A girl sitting adjacent to them looked at him and then rolled her eyes. After this, she got her AirPods out and wore them. A clear indication of her displeasure.
Jeremy mouthed sorry at her and then turned back to face Ava.
"Oh, you've got jokes, huh? Well played. I wasn't familiar with your game."
"There are so many things you don't know about me." Ava said with a smirk. That smirk coupled with her killer eyes—they did something to Jeremy. It was like an epinephrine shot. It sent waves of excitement through his body, from his belly to his heart. It encapsulated him.
"Well, I hope to gradually uncover the many layers of you." Jeremy said, a little too sleekly. So sleek, it shocked even him. So sleek, it caught her off guard. She parted her lips to speak but hesitated. The awkward silence that was present before suddenly reappeared.
Jeremy didn't want to lose the convo. It had been going so great. Out of desperation, he then spurted out,
"What made you tow this path?"
"What path?" She responded.
"The path of psychology."
"Hmmmm." She said as she slowly tapped her right index finger on the table.
"Maybe we can have this convo some other time. Right now, I have a meeting with some of my postgrad students." Ava said, looking at the watch on her wrist. "
She got up slowly, picking up her briefcase. As she turned around to leave, Jeremy said,
"How about over coffee later today?"
"Hmm. I'm more of a tea girly myself. But we can make it work. I have from 5 to 6 free. See you then?
"Yeah, that totally works. Meet at Shaky Shack?"
"Sure. See you soon, Jer." Ava said, turning around to leave. As she walked away, Jeremy's eyes followed her every step: the bounce of her wig on her shoulders as she moved, the swing of her arms, and the shaking of her ass cheeks in those tight business casual trousers she wore. Jeremy was mesmerised. He loved what he saw, the bulge of his pants a testament to that.
Once she was finally out of sight, Jeremy looked at his watch, a silver Casio. It was 3:45pm.
I'm going on a date with Ava. He thought to himself, smiling sheepishly and nodding his head.
Oh shit, I'm going on a date with Ava. He said it out loud this time with a sense of urgency in his voice.
He quickly put his nose close to his armpit and smelt his shirt.
"Damn, I need to get ready."
Jeremy hurriedly put his books in his backpack. He stood up quickly, alerting people all around. He paused for a moment, then he quickly dashed towards the exit.