2. The Damage Occurred When Our Eyes Met

The most incredible feeling about soul connections is that they are not new connections.

They are reconnections of energy; often from a dream, or an alternative realm, a past life, an old memory, a distant galaxy, an ancient place or from ancestral lineages.

The vibrational resonance signals,

“Hello again, I know you.”

Without any further explanations needed.

-Alex Myles.

.

Thea’s point of view-

I let out a shuddering breath, as I stood outside the gate of one of Canada’s prestigious universities, Arthur Stanley University, already feeling out of place. The campus is huge with ten buildings, each building for a different department. I already feel lost, where the hell are my friends? Lucy said she and Tobias were on the way to pick me. I have already gone on two campus tours and still felt lost and small in front of the extravagantly large campus.

I frown as I tap my foot impatiently on the ground, very well knowing a few people glancing at me as I stood there, all awkward. Yes, I don’t know which building I should go to and I don’t wanna ask anyone because it would be embarrassing to admit that I was lost, even though this was my third time visiting this lavish campus.

Okay! This is it, I am gonna wait in the small cafe, right across this campus. I turned to walk outside but nearly bumped into someone. I was about to apologize but when I looked at him, directly in his eyes and lost all of my words. He was older than me, early thirties maybe with a chiseled jawline, and stubble beard with his hair pushed back. I blinked, embracing the fact that this man was drop-dead gorgeous. His honey-brown eyes scrutinized me up and down, before he shook his head in disapproval and walked away.

Of course, hot guys are assholes. Out of the corner of my eyes, I notice Lucy and Tobias walking towards me, with a devilish grin on their faces. They probably must have seen my encounter with Mr Arrogant Ass.

“He is sexy, isn’t he?” Lucy asks, clapping her eyes as she oogles his back. Tobias rolled his eyes at her before giving me a friendly hug and I returned it.

“He is a Professor of Abnormal Psychology. Not only is he good-looking, he is really smart.” Tobias explains.

Lucy looks at me, “Wait! You have that as one of your subjects, right?”

Yaay, these few years are going to be super fun. I follow both of my friends, this time trying to memorise the building names, numbers and the location so that I won’t get lost again. Unfortunately, I didn't have any classes with them in common, which made me a bit sad. We have been friends for a pretty long time. They have seen through the worst phases of my parents divorce to me being forced by my mother to study business administration to convince her that I will be studying in this ridiculous place as long as I could take up Psychology as one of my major subjects. And talking about Psychology I had it today as the first class with Mr Arrogant Ass Professor. Tobias told me to walk straight and then take the first left to reach the class. And Mr Arrogant Ass was already inside, seated on his chair behind the desk, with glasses on, grading papers, I suppose.

I knocked on the door as he looked up at me, motioning for me to come inside. His eyes filled with unexpectation, lingering with a sense of curiosity. Is it that surprising for him that I am taking this class? Does his superficial arrogant ass think I am not smart enough? Oh well, he is in for a huge surprise, I know my subjects and I work my ass off with even the subjects I dislike and I love Psychology, especially abnormal psychology so he can suck it up.

As I took my seat, I noticed that there were very few students in the class, roughly near seventy, which was saddening and understandable at the same time. I mean, saddening because it was such an interesting field and understandable because of well, Mr Arrogant Ass. After a few minutes, when the class was filled with all the students, he got up to write his name on the board behind him- Kiernan Dawson.

“You can call me Professor Dawson or Doctor Dawson. Welcome to Abnormal Psychology 101. Not that many of you would agree, but Psychology is and can be a very fascinating field, especially Abnormal Psychology.. During the first semester, we will be covering Part one and Part two which mainly consists of what abnormal psychology is about and its clinical assessment, diagnosis and treatment whereas part two will be covering one mental disorder.” He explains while looking at the class.

I already felt thrilled just by listening to it, it already sounded interesting to my ears as I looked at my pdf syllabus in my laptop and a few interesting books. Also, he had a heavy British accent and a warm tone.

“At the end of the course, you will be able to differentiate between abnormal and normal behaviour while also being able to demonstrate knowledge of etiology, symptoms and therapeutic techniques.” Then he went on to define the basic structures and books that we might need for different purposes, like for research, for case studies. Hell, he went on to give us the actual website sources and newspaper articles that were used in those books, for us to study. It just showed how really passionate he was about this subject and how much he loved it. There is a difference between a good teacher who has knowledge of the subject and the one who is passionate, utterly in love with the subject.

That made me feel guilty about thinking badly of him in the morning. He reminded me of my own passion that I carried for this subject which was somewhere deeply buried, thanks to my mother’s objection to it. But I could feel it resurfacing thanks to the way he was introducing it, as I found myself noting every resource that he was giving. He’s incredible and I could feel my anger subsiding as I was thoroughly impressed by him. Man, fighting my mom felt worth this after all. The bell rang and that made me frown as I noticed that Professor Dawson, noticing my little disapproval, gave me a warm smile and I found myself turning red like a tomato.

As students started getting ready for their next class, Professor Dawson asked me to stay behind for a minute. When the classroom was empty and the last student closed the door behind me, he approached my desk with that same beautiful, sweeping-you-off-your-feet smile.

“Can I have a look at your notes, Miss Quinn?” He asks.

Oh. He is aware of my name. Last name, dumbass! There is nothing special about that, my subconscious bark at me hurting my pride.

“Wow, you actually managed to note everything down.” He said, impressed.

Oh my- can he stop making such a good impression? I think my soul might get crushed out of the burst of joy that I was feeling at the moment.

“Can I have a pen?” He asks, as I hand it to him. He writes something down at the bottom of the page, before he hands me my notebook back. There was an email id, his email id.

“What’s this for?” I ask, butterflies in my tummy,

--------------------------------

Kiernan point of view-

I was in a hurry, as I wanted to escape a desperate and super clingy woman who was throwing herself at me. A married woman with three kids and a good husband, may I add. At the University, I was safe from her desperate clutches and it’s not like I had explained to her that I am just civil with her because she is a neighbour, not because I am interested in her. And on top of that, I still needed to grade a few papers before my lectures today.

I was on my way inside while still looking at my watch as someone was about to bump into me but we escaped it narrowly. The person, apparently a redheaded girl, looked up at me with an apologetic expression that turned into a transfixed one, which reminded me of that neighbour lady and shaking my head in disapproval, I walked off towards the campus building. After walking a few steps, I turned my head to look at her again. She was hugged by a familiar boy, I guess his name was Tobias or something.

That redhead, she looked vaguely familiar but then I noticed that her other friend was looking at me with a thirsty expression. Time to leave before she also misinterprets my intentions. After reaching my classroom, I sat down with the ungraded papers as I sigh with disappointment at the less percentage of students that actually followed my advice and rest just did crappy research.

A few freshman students started filling me, wishing me good morning and stuff as I greeted them back with a smile. I took out my file that contained the details of the freshman students as I looked over their majors and their names, when I came across redhead’s profile. Her name read as Thea Quinn and her main subjects were Business Administration, Economics and Abnormal Psychology. Hmm, business with Psychology, interesting. I looked at her picture and she was smiling…more like grinning. Her honey brown eyes were hinting another story contradictory to her smiling face. Her eyes held so many stories and so many secrets.

And then I remembered the reason why she felt vaguely familiar. It was that girl-

Flashback-

I was in my car as there was a huge traffic jam but luckily I was in the front row, cornered towards the pavement side. as I was waiting for the lights to turn green while watching a number of people crossing the road. There was a young woman dressed in a suit, half-running in her high heels as her leg twisted, breaking her heel in the process and making her fall down on the ground. She was obviously embarrassed. I was about to get off to help her in some way but before I could step outside, I saw a girl crossing the road, in a sprint towards the woman. She had long wavy, chestnut hair and was wearing a white top paired with a breezy, flowy pink skirt. She kneels down towards the woman and with an empathetic smile puts the cap she was wearing on her head, and then helps her get up. She asks her to shift her body weight on her as she takes her heels in her other hand while an arm is around her waist. She crosses the road along with her while making her sit in one of the benches. The redhead kneels down, taking off her wedges and putting it on her feet.

“Oh, these look so much better on you. Keep them.” She said, giving her an encouraging smile. “Oh, there is a cafe here, just give me a minute, alright?”

I could hear them, clearly because they were on my side of pavement

The woman nods, truly grateful for her help. She went inside and came out with a plastic glass filled with ice and one donut.

“Here, eating sweets is distracting.” She said, handing her the donut. Then she kneels down again as she holds the ice-filled glass on her hurt ankle.

“Thank you so much for helping me.” The injured woman said as the redhead gave her a warm smile. “All the best for your interview. I need to go now unfortunately. I have an orientation.”

“Oh but how can I pay for your help?” The woman asks.

“By giving your best in the interview.” She answered before waving her hand and crossing the road as I watched completely mesmerised by her. She was like an angel that came and then disappeared.

Flashback ends

So she is real! And she is a student here, in this place. She could have chosen any other school, why this ridiculous place? Putting the file away, I went back to grading the papers, subsiding any thoughts related to her. And after the last of my paper was almost done, I heard a knock at my door. I turned to look and there she was at my door, with a small scowl on her face. I motioned her to step in and she did, settling down in the front seat, still looking at me with a scowl. Why is she scowling at me? Oh! The morning incident, I guess I should apologise to her. I felt a little bad for treating her unfairly because of my bad mood.

She looked down at the printed syllabus and then switched on her laptop to take notes, I presume. After the lecture for today, I asked her to stay behind for a minute, mainly just to listen to check what she was writing so diligently. Was it to show me that she was smart? Because I remember her looking at me with a challenging and ‘I-will-prove-you-wrong’ look on her face. Although she did seem pretty interested in the class, I was just curious to check. She handed me her notes and I was impressed that she managed to note all the specific details. I decided to give her my email, surprising myself.

“What’s this for?” She asks, “Why are you giving me your email id?”.

And my egoistic ass thought she would be happy, but look at her questioning me. Any other girl would have been jumping at this offer. I couldn’t help my smile as I explained that since her handwriting is nice and she takes such detailed notes, she could forward those notes for other classmates along with daily questions and homework and other class related stuff that I will send to her.

“Why me?” She asks, breathless.

“Because you remind me of a boy who also loved the subject with all his heart.” I answer.