The Beautiful Monster

Elias bumped her with his shoulder.

"You\'re doing great," he encouraged her.

Alyssa gave him a thankful look just as the professor walked across the lower section of the auditorium. She sat up in her seat, preparing herself for class.

She knew that it was just syllabus day, so she wouldn\'t have to take many notes, but she wanted to take note of all the deadlines. The last thing that she needed was to lose to Elias because she missed a deadline for an assignment.

"Welcome to World Civilizations 102. I\'m Dr. Hammond," the tall, blonde professor announced to the class as she walked onto the stage. She set up her laptop to bring up her introductory PowerPoint.

All Alyssa could think about was her first day in psychology and all of the events that transpired after that.

She glanced around the crowd, searching for Kaleigh\'s familiar face. Thankfully, she didn\'t see her. She could answer questions without being sneered at.

"Looking for Kaleigh?" Elias whispered to her.

Alyssa cracked a smile and nodded. Of course,

he would know who she was looking for.

Kaleigh had only tormented her for a whole semester. Thankfully, she had stepped off toward the end there before real trouble brewed.

"Nowhere in sight," she said. She focused back on the professor, listening to all of the learning objectives for the class.

They would be learning about history after the year 1500. She preferred that time period. Her first history class was a tough bite to swallow. The events before 1500 weren\'t as interesting as the ones after 1500 to her.

"Four tests," Elias muttered as he shook his head.

"Is that going to be a problem for you?" Alyssa teased at him. She knew that they were in competition for the best grade, but they were still going to help each other study.

She didn\'t want either of them to fail a mere general class. That would annoy her as much as it would upset her.

Elias put on a smile and shook his head.

"Of course not," he replied. He reached out and patted her thigh. Instead of taking his hand away, he left it there.

Alyssa eyed his hand, wondering what he was up to. She shifted her eyes back up as the slide changed.

She wrote down the due dates for the two papers that they would also have to write for the class. She wondered why general classes felt like they had to give so much work.

Elias slowly stroked circles against her thigh with his thumb. With each circle, his thumb moved closer to her inner thigh.

He looked straight ahead, not looking at her slightly wide eyes. He was playing a game with her.

Alyssa shifted slightly in her seat. His hand followed her movements. She couldn\'t believe that he was actually trying to tease her in class. Wait, no.

He was trying to distract her! She shot him a glare, realizing his plan of sabotage. She had to give it to him for being creative, though.

She moved her foot to trail up the back of his calf. Through the corner of her eye, she watched him stiffen in his seat. A smirk crossed her face as she kept going higher.

He eventually pulled his hand away as a truce was drawn. They could only get so bold in class. There were way too many people around them.

"Just wait until we\'re alone," Elias murmured beneath his breath.

Alyssa smiled to herself as she wrote down a few notes on her paper. She honestly couldn\'t wait, but she had this class and another to get through today until they could hang out at his apartment.

She wondered how much she would actually use the dorm this semester. Elias had assured her that he didn\'t mind her coming over a lot.

Once the entire syllabus was gone over, the class was dismissed early to Alyssa\'s relief. She would be working hard this semester.

She had so many science classes, but she was excited for everything that she was going to learn.

She just had to keep focused and to stay on top of everything. As long as she did that, she wasn\'t going to worry about failing or not.

"That class is going to make us have a lot of long, hard study sessions," Elias said to her as they walked out of the classroom together.

His wording made Alyssa laugh. She shook her head at him as they walked down the hallway. He wasn\'t entirely wrong, though.

They would have a lot of dates and events to study in this class, and they could help each other with their paper topics too. She was glad to have a partner in this because this class was just going to be a pest for her.

"I can\'t wait," she said as she lifted her eyebrows at him. They could help keep each other motivated, and she could think of a few ways for them to do that.

"You\'ve got two hours, right?" Elias asked her as he took her hand. Their fingers laced together.

Alyssa nodded, grateful to have a break between her classes. She hated having to rush from class to class without being able to take a breath.

This way, she could grab something to eat or go to the library if she needed to before her other class.

"Just one for you?" Alyssa asked him. She hadn\'t fully memorized his schedule yet. Hers was engrained in her brain already.

She was late to her classes so much her first week of her freshman year because she kept forgetting her schedule and where all of the buildings were at.

"Yep. Enough time to hit the café," Elias commented with a sly smile. "You in?"

Alyssa gave him a pointed look.

"Of course, I\'ll feed your tea addiction," she said as she squeezed his hand.

He had already used up all of the tea she had given him for Christmas. She was glad that he liked his gifts, though, because she thoroughly enjoyed her own.

Her planner was going to be marked up tonight once she put down all of her deadlines, and she wore her necklace every day. She noticed that he wore his ring every day as well.

"You spoil me," Elias chuckled as they walked out of the liberal arts building and headed toward the library.

Alyssa was pretty sure it was the other way around. He always paid when they went out to eat, even when she tried to beat him to the punch and put her own card down.

He drove her wherever she needed to go. He always checked in on her. She felt like she was his world, but she didn\'t mind that feeling at all. She just hoped he felt adored too.

"I\'m just getting close to the enemy," she pointed out teasingly.

"Smart and sweet," Elias smirked.

Alyssa playfully rolled her eyes at him. She could already tell that this semester was going to be great. She had who she believed to be the love of her life at her side.

She had a good slate of classes. She would get to see Zoe again. Things were getting locked into place, and she couldn\'t wait to see where this semester took her.