Ella

She left home hungry. In the past, it used to be because she overslept or sometimes because of the last night hang outs with her friends but now it was because of how little money she had left before the next pay. 

Even though her tummy was growling from hunger, begging her to give it some food, she did her best to ignore it. 

Ella wasn't even paying any attention to it as all of her thoughts were about the last night. For the first time ever, her stalker tried to make direct contact and it was terrifying. Whoever this person was, he was keeping a close eye on her. Even though he has never tried to hurt her, everything about him was creepy. 

He was following her everywhere and was aware of everything happening in her life. There was a high possibility of his motive being her murder. When she tries to think of a reason nothing comes to her mind other than the link between her and her father. She is the daughter of David Harrison. There were way more enemies of her father then she could count. It could be anything but she knows no matter how it would unrevail, nothing good will be the end. 

Her brain was filled with chaos as she walked to her locker. 

The hallway wasn't too busy. Just a small group of people was standing there and then there was this one person who got on her nerves. Ella has no words to describe how much she hates her. It was Julie Clarkson. 

She used to be her rival but now Ella has nothing to fight her. No money and no friends. 

Julie was the type of person who wants to be the main character of everyone's life and with Ella being thrown to the side, she was now crowned as the most famous girl in the law school. 

Just like a familiarity of the dream she lived, everyone was now crazy for Julie. 

Julie's look was average and even those plastic surgeries have given her nothing. She thinks she looks good with a thin nose and lips but in reality, her face is as pretty as a rat, even when she trimmed those mustaches. Her purple hair was bazaar and that style never suited her. She might have money but not the sense of dressing. She looked absurd, like an intense ray of light that causes a headache. 

Julie was standing with her friends. Her friends looked as bad as her own. They were chatting and there was another person. Julie was holding his hand but Ella was unable to see his face and then she heard that voice “Yes, it's true” her mind twitched at the deep, raw voice. It felt familiar. She silently took a step back to see the face and he was already staring at her. 

Ella abruptly moved back but Alex never stopped staring at her. She engulfed the air hard. His stare was terrifying and a bad thing to happen at that moment was, her eyes were unknowingly clicking towards him. 

He still seems unreal. He looks attractive to a dangerous level. Those deep gray eyes were from another world. They were dreamy and addictive. She was unable to hold the desire to get lost in them. 

“No way, I still can't believe it” it was one of Julie's friends who was yelling. Ella jerked her brain and held herself from looking at him “You have heard it from Alex. What else do you need to believe that he transferred to Veritas Law School because of me” Ella let out a surprised chuckle. It was absurd that she laughed pretty loudly. Alex was dating Julie, she couldn't hold the laughter at this idiotic thing. 

And then, she realized that Alex never stopped staring at her. She yanked her eyes and pretended to look at the floor while her ear stayed in their conversation “Aw, you are so lucky, Jul” his friend awed, hitting her shoulder with a fist and Julie was dug into his arm now. 

Ella was done. She took her things out and closed her locker with a loud slam, she regretted it a second later because everyone in the hallway was looking at her. She made it feel like she didn't care, tugged her books in her hand and walked to the class. 

Julie and Alex being in a relationship has to be the funniest joke of the century. They were a million light years apart in the context of personality. Julie was a spoiled brat while Alex was a gangster. How could they be a couple? Maybe there wasn’t much difference and she was thinking too much. But the real question to ask was, why was she even getting affected by it? 

Ella did not care about them. Maybe she was just jealous. Jealous of Julie and of everything she has. Julie could have literally anything she wishes for, that life feels like a strange familiarity. And she was angry just because of it. 

At the end of her half-hour-do-not-care thinking, she stopped when the professor came to the class. 

Maths was her favorite and it makes Mr. Calculus her favorite professor.

The law student doesn't give much choice of subjects that weigh less but she was grateful that she got maths. This was the only good thing to happen in this entire year

As Mr. Calculus entered the room, everyone went silent. Not many people liked this class and even though this wasn't the case for her, sometimes the lectures were a little boring. It was normal for the people who do maths as a hobby. She knows all the answers so what was the point of solving them over and over again. 

As Mr. Calculus wrote the question on the board, her mind started to work with his marker. The professor was on the second step to solve the question and she calculated the answer in her head within a minute. Yep, she was a math genius and it was completely normal to her. 

At the half of the lecture, she was bored as hell. As bored as she has ever gotten in her lifetime. There was no excitement or suspense in it. And in the end, she stopped looking at the board and her eyes started to wander. She was casually looking at the student sleeping in the class but when she reached the door, her eyes froze. Alex. That not-so-funny miracle happened again and they have another same class. 

Alex entered the class and everyone shifted their attention to him. There were whispers and some girls were audibly drooling for his looks. It was natural as his face was unnaturally handsome. Those slightly messy black hair with the eyes of shadow, guarded by dark lashes, his look was lethal. Unbothered by the stares, he calmly walked through them. 

Ella literally has zero friends and this was the reason why her neighboring place always remains empty. She suddenly wanted a friend so badly. A friend or any person who could sit with her before Alex saw it– too late for making a wish. Alex saw it and he was walking exactly towards it; her.

This could not be happening, she yelled to herself, looking at it happening. 

He took the place. She was sharing a bench with Alex Willard. He was sitting with her, taking his books out of his bag and she was losing her mind at this very moment. 

Ella wasn't looking at him, she could not look at him. She was suddenly interested in the lecture and her eyes were not moving away from the board and the notepad. She was noting the solution to every problem. Problems she has solved a dozen times. The lecture passed in a blink. 

The professor was asking questions, she knew the answer to every single of them but she kept her mouth shut. Students were now looking at her because she was silent in the question answer session. They must be hating her for it but she could not help them today. 

The lecture was obviously over and there was nothing left to be noted and the professor was explaining some boring things about the upcoming finals and she was not a single percent interested because she could ace the exam anyway. 

Ella took the free time to calm her blasting mind down. For a damn reason she was unable to ignore him now. He was doing something, something that felt interesting without even knowing what it was. She was feeling curious about it and then she failed and her gaze could no longer defeat the urge to shift at the side. 

With a corner of her eyes, she looked at his side of the desk. He was drawing something. It felt highly odd that someone like Alex liked to draw. But the dart converted into an intense stare because his sketch looked interesting. It looked like some sort of symbol. Her eyes went glued to the sketch because of the excitement and the anticipation of every moment about how he was making it. The way his fingers were moving and every line was disappearing into others, adding the perfect shade and the perfect details was nothing but astonishing. After moments of flawlessly moving the pencil, he put it to the side and held a Q-tip in his hand. He started to blend the shade with it. It looked realistic. The lines were no longer visible as individuals, they were merging into each other, putting the soul into those mere lines. The details were making his sketch look three dimensional. She couldn't tear her eyes from it and then he stopped. She wanted to tell him to continue because she needed to see the end. She waited, waited for him to start again but “Isn't it amazing?” she heard him saying. She looked up into his eyes, finding them towards her. 

Alex raised a brow at her and she panicked. Her eyes flickered, detached from him and fell on her desk. It felt embarrassing. Utterly embarrassing because of the way she was caught cherishing the sketch “You hate to talk, Princess, don't you?” Alex was talking to her. He was just mocking her and she could swear that she didn't remember how to speak. Alex put his elbow at the desk and put his face on his palm.

He didn't say anything but she felt his gaze at her. She forgot how to breathe, there was a lump in her mouth that she was unable to engulf. He kept looking at her while she was only interested in the desk. 

Luck had nothing to do with her but something unusual happened and the professor went out of the class just at the moment she needed him to go. 

Ella packed her bag, she heard a taunting laughter from him. She ignored it, stood up, made Alex look invisible and went out of the class.

•••

“Darn you, Mr. Whitaker” Ella cursed at the professor as he left ten minutes after his lecture as per his usual. The moment the professor was out, she ran as fast as she could. 

She had to take the bus or Hunk would certainly kill her. She was late and so was the bus. 

It was five minutes late and by the grace of that frustrating traffic, ten more minutes were gone. So, in total, Ella was twenty-five minutes late. The raw bruise on her cheek hurt a little more when she calculated the minutes. A punch and cut in pay was the least she was expecting from Hunk. She desperately wished to get away from this without an injury. 

When Ella entered the store, her face was already down, she could not bear to see him right now. She might run back from the fear and lose her job. 

She took a breath, smashed that sick ego and forced her lips to open “I am sorry Boss. You can cut my pay as much as you want but please do not fire me. I really need this job and I can't afford to lose it right now” she begged but she was left shocked when there was no shout. It was all quiet. Something was wrong. 

Maybe Hunk was not in the store, Ella thought but when she lifted her face up, he was there, right in front of her eyes and he was not looking angry at all. Was he going to kill her all at once, she asked herself and imagined an abrupt yes as the answer. 

“It's okay” she was hearing things. Maybe he had said, it's your end or something like that “I swear it will never happen again, Boss” Hunk was looking at her confused when she was the one who should be confused to death “It's okay” Hunk said again and there was something extremely wrong with him. She looked at him, trying to locate an injury on his head but there was none, only an injured–  removed finger. “I can understand that you have a busy schedule,” Hunk said, moving his hand to his back. 

“What do you mean?” She asked scared, Hunk gave her another puzzled look and instead of replying, he did another shocking thing 

“The store did well in the last month. So, here is your employee bonus” Ella spared a glance to Chad, and he replied with an anxious one “What happened, Boss?” Hunk was looking at her as if she should already know what was happening. “Take it and start working” she held the envelope while still being scared of whatever the hell it was about. The store does well every month and no matter how much they earn, Employees won't receive a single penny. 

Hunk left and went to the storage room. “What the hell was this?” She asked Chad “I have no f'ing clue, Ells. He has been behaving like this since morning. See, I got one too” he waved an envelope in his hand

“No, way” she stayed in disbelief “Maybe he hit his head on a wall or a shelf,” said Chad as he moved out of the counter “That's the only explanation possible,” she said, entering it 

“Take care, he might come back to haunt you” Chad said as a joke; she really wished it was one “Hah, take care” the two of them waved hands at each other and Chad went out of the store. 

Ella didn't know what was happening but she was happy, really really happy because she had a thick envelope of money. The amount was equivalent to her one month's salary. Whatever was happening, she decided to not care and just smiled. She was smiling at that money as if it was an envelope of diamonds. Her lips were stretched wide, eyes shining and then her phone buzzed with a message. In the same happiness, she took it out of her pocket and when she checked it, the smile vanished without leaving a trace

Unknown: Don't let those lips lose that smile ever again

Her face went pale in a second. Her eyes widened, breaths went so low. She looked up, but there was no one in the store. She looked through the window and then she saw him. 

It was her stalker standing at some distance. He was leaning against a tree. His face was covered with a mask, head with a hood and he was staring in her direction. 

She wanted to make herself believe that she was hallucinating and this person was not– 

The guy did a slight nod by his phone in her direction and her phone buzzed again

Unknown: See you soon Princess. 

And then, when she looked at him, he disappeared. 

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