129. A Private Burlesque Show

Third Person's POV:

The day stretched endlessly, the monotony of lectures and the hum of students filling the hallways doing little to keep Rose's mind from wandering.

She had spent the entire morning willing herself to focus—on notes, on her professor's droning voice, on anything other than the fact that she had performed a private burlesque show for her stalker last night.

No matter how hard she tried to move past it, her mind remained stubbornly stuck in the shadows of her house, behind glass doors, under the scrutiny of golden eyes.

She tapped her pen against the desk, tuning in just long enough to realize that her professor had been rambling about something to do with early Renaissance literature. Or maybe it was Enlightenment thinkers?

Honestly, it could've been ancient alien theories, and she wouldn't have known the difference.

A sigh escaped her lips as she rubbed at her temple. Get a grip, Rose. Just a normal day. Just another ordinary, boring, completely non-eventful—

Her thoughts were cut short as something—or someone—brushed past her from behind.

She tensed instantly, spine going rigid before logic caught up.

It was just Leo sliding into the seat next to her.

Her reaction must have been obvious because he shot her a glance, one brow raised as he settled in, setting his bag down.

"You good?" he asked, voice low so he wouldn't draw the Professor's attention.

Rose forced a quick nod. "Yeah. Just—tired."

Leo didn't seem convinced, but he let it go. "You look like you saw a ghost."

*Not exactly a ghost,* she thought, gripping her pen tighter.

It wasn't the first time she had startled easily today.

She had flinched when a classmate accidentally dropped a textbook near her in the hallway.

She had stiffened when she felt someone walking too close behind her. Even the soft thud of a door closing had her heart hammering faster than it should. 

An after after effect that tends to happen when you put yourself in dumb situations with excessive amount of dangers, all that willingly.

Leo, of course, picked up on all of it.

"You're all jumpy today," he mused, tapping his pencil against his chin. "You sure you're just tired?"

Rose forced a tight-lipped smile. "Yup. Totally fine."

Leo stared at her for a long moment before exhaling, leaning back in his chair. "Well, if you say so."

"By the way, what are you doing here?" Rose asked politely smiling.

She hoped she was polite and didn't let it show on her face or in her voice that she wanted him to actually leave.

She wasn't in the mood for any kind of male interactions today, for reasons obvious. 

Perhaps she was afraid of the remnants of last night's drug in her brain would make her act on her monumentally idiotic ideas once again. Rose simply wanted to be on the safe side and avoid male company all together, in case that happens.

Other than that, she is never letting Aria over again without properly doing a pat down first. 

"I just wanted to spend some time with you. Lately I feel like you've been quite... aloof."

"Aloof?" 

"Yeah, like you're here but you brain was elsewhere? You got something on your mind that's bugging you?" Leo gives her a glance and looks back down at the pencil fidgeting in his fingers.

Yup, she definitely has something on her mind lately, more like someone.

"You can talk to me you know. We are friends... right?" he had uncertainty in his words and Rose almost felt bad for him.

He has been nothing but nice to her ever since they met and here she was avoiding him like a plague and trying to get rid of him because she couldn't trust herself right now.

She was a mess.

"Of course we are friends, Leo." she smiled up at him and grabbed his hand before squeezing it to almost prove her point because at the moment she didn't have anything else to say to him that would convey that she really meant that.

He smiled back and nodded, looking like a bit relieved. That sight of this innocent man in front of her further pulled Rose down in guilt for not being there for him the way he always have been.

But she simply got too much going on in her life.