Chapter 39: Aftermath

Ms. Dovermal told the large class. “Bring your uniqueness to the craft of magic. Doing so will make it far better than you ever could have anticipated.”

I was nodding absentmindedly, more focused on writing down her words than truly taking them in. I would probably realize how important and profound her words were when I read my notes later. But, for now, my main focus was getting them down for later.

“Alright, please complete your assignments by this Friday at the end of the day.” She announced loudly, walking around to sit behind her desk. “Anything turned in a minute later will be considered late and points will be taken off.”

In a matter of seconds, the bell was ringing again, signalling the end of class and telling us to leave.

The students flowed out of the classroom, being ‘filtered’ out of through the door and eventually finding their way out. While I sat in the middle of the classroom, I took my time, letting enough people pass me to the point where I was close to the back of the large group.

My eyes caught those of our teacher. She was looking over the large group of students disinterestedly. Her eyes then met mine and she gave me a small smile. Ms. Dovermal and I were not close, far from it, but I did not want to ignore one of her few displays of kindness, and hesitantly smiled back.

The moment was quickly broken when she turned away again and, already used to her behaviour, I simply shrugged and continued on my way.

As I sat in my next class, I felt some apprehension at the thought of going to lunch later on. The mood was a bit odd after what happened the previous day and I had a feeling it would be far more awkward than before.

~~~~~

I sighed heavily, making my way from the lunchroom to my next class. I had to use the bathroom before I went to class and I tried to use that time to prepare myself, mentally. Lunch was not as bad as I expected.

Awkward pauses and shared looks passed around the table like a well-inflated beach ball? Yes, that happened. But for the most part, we were able to act as if nothing happened.

What made it easier was the fact that Sam hadn’t shown up. Where exactly she could have run off to, I’m not completely sure. The six of us just had to assume that she was alright and give her time. We could not act as if what Harvey did was not shocking and for now, we hoped that the space would help her calm down and get perspective.

Right now, though, I was the man who sat next to her in Species class. I had no idea if she planned on moving her seat or not, but regardless, she and I had a project to work on.

If she decided to bounce to ignore me because I reminded her of the guy that she made out with, then it would be harder to finish our project. If she stayed around, then it would be extremely awkward to be around her. Either way, I was dreading Dean’s class.

And, to top it all off, Dean was still acting distant. He was still texting me, but it was limited to simple, “hello”s, “goodbye”s, and “goodnight”s. It may have been alright to some people, but to me, who was accustomed to full-fledged conversations, it was concerning.

The first thing that I noticed when I entered the classroom, was Sam beaming widely in my direction. I was startled into a shocked silence and simply gave a small wave in return. While her long red hair was a bit messier than usual, she appeared to be completely normal.

While I tried to ignore him, I couldn’t help myself and found myself glancing back at Dean longingly. As I expected, his eyes were glued to his paper and I, disappointedly, turned back to Sam.

“Hey!” She grinned widely, hair flowing in curly waves around her shoulders.

“Hi.” I replied, mustering a small smile that seemed to satisfy her hyper self. She went to unpack her things once I was seated comfortably, humming softly under her breath as she worked. I tried to think about other conversation subjects but my mind was focused on one thing when she was brought up. “I didn’t see you at lunch today.”

Sam froze, completely halting her previously carefree movements.

“Why was that?”

Sam’s eyes were glazed, focused down on the table in front of her.

“I never thought of Harvey as more than a friend, Sebastian.” She admitted suddenly, eyes wet and surprisingly honest. “Suddenly my heart was pounding and he was staring at me like . . . like my ex used to. More than that actually. Like I was the most beautiful and amazing thing he had ever seen.”

Sam seemed shocked to even be saying those words, happy yet disbelieving of what she experienced. I honestly understood. It is one of the most incredible and scary things to find yourself being cared for so deeply and you almost didn't want it to be real because then it could end.

“Then he was kissing me and I was kissing him and it was too much too fast!” No one seemed to hear Sam’s whispered confessions since no one looked over after her last words. Realizing how bothered she truly was, I scooted closer to her and began to gently rub her back.

“I was- am angry with myself for the way I acted and I wanted to blame him. I can’t just- go and act normal around Harvey now, Sebastian.” Sam sighed deeply as she finished her sentence as if she had just released herself from a heavy burden. “Especially not when I smacked him the last time that we were together.”

I stayed silent while Sam collected her thoughts, and then, she suddenly began to laugh.

“This entire situation is so- flipping stupid, Sebastian!” Her laughs became louder and more hysterical, beginning to draw attention to the two of us. The lard guffaws eventually calmed into quiet chuckles until she was silent again. “Why is this happening, Sebastian? Why do I suddenly want to run up to that big hot oaf and kiss him until I can’t breathe?”

My mind went back to the previous afternoon and the words that had left Harvey’s mouth.

~~~~~~~~~~~

“Sam is my mate.” He had stated seriously, no smile on his pale face. “And she doesn’t even know.”

The mood quickly dropped, all of us confused and wondering the same thing.

What the fuck were we going to do now?

“What do you mean by that?” Lani had asked, quickly trying to work out the situation in his mind. “She doesn’t know? How do you know that?”

Harvey had shrugged, unconsciously folding his arms over his chest to protect himself from our curious stares and prodding questions.

“Humans are the least sensitive to the mate bond.” He stated, his voice sounding so confident that there was no room for argument. “The two of us would have to have kissed and touched multiple times before she had the ability to feel it.”

My mind had gone back to the moment that Dean and I felt our mate bond and I had quickly agreed with Harvey.

Nick had raised his hand, drawing a few surprised chuckles from the rest of our group.

“My question is when you found out.” The moment that the words left his mouth, Nick’s slightly translucent skin flushed a light shade of pink. “Sorry, that wasn’t my place.”

Warlo raised his hand, easily silencing the muttering Nick.

“No, that was actually a really good question.” Warlo agreed, his eyes narrowed and dark. “When did you realize and why didn’t I- we know?!”

Harvey was a bit taken aback by Warlo’s nasty tone but went to answer regardless. Dipi beat him to it.

“Warlo,” She bit out darkly, shooting the glaring boy a glare that made his look weak. “Can you please stop being focused completely on yourself long enough to help your friend talk about the fact that he has a fucking mate?!”

Warlo shut up and Harvey was calm as he answered the previous question.

“I got a hunch the moment that I met her and it was confirmed after the second meeting.” Harvey told us, voice warm as he recalled those first few interactions with his mate. “I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you but I was hoping to tell her first before anyone else. I guess that’s gone out the window now.”

The five of us attempted to comfort the tall polar bear shifter, but it was not easy. How do you soften the blow of the fact that every plan he created for the beginning of his relationship with his mate was ruined?

You can’t really, but you do your best to not make it any worse. Most of the time was spent keeping Warlo from saying something stupid or correcting someone, mainly Warlo and Nick when they did say something stupid.

It was not the relaxing group meet up that we had envisioned but it was still better than sitting in a plastic chair for over an hour as your teacher rambles on and on about something you had just read in the textbook the night before.

We gave our all to making Harvey feel better, if not for him than for our own boredom. It got us away from school work and made us feel better about ourselves because we thought that we were making him feel better.

It was oddly similar to comforting someone after a tough break-up and a lot of us used similar phrases such as: “I am so sorry”, “It was not your fault”, and “you did everything that you could”.

Looking up at the sky as my friends continued to work on Harvey, I felt oddly cynical.

This is what college life is my friends. Graduates, get ready for the time of your life.

~~~~~~~~~~~

My eyes came back to Sam’s dejected expression. Whether the expression was made due to her frustrations or by my act of ignoring her, I was not sure. Not sure because, frankly, I had ignored her.

“I . . . ” I trailed off, fearful of what her reaction would be. “I think that you need to talk to Harvey about that, Sam.”

Sam looked up, a bit surprised and confused. She went to give me her reply but was cut off by the bell ringing. Class had started and she was forced to focus on our type of vampire, not the extreme confusion in her heart and burning questions in her mind.

For now, those would have to wait.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heyo!!!!!

Second Chapter in like 3 days!

I am honestly so tired, though, so I wonder if this is normal.

I can’t really dwell on it too long because I still need to look over this again!

*Sigh*

Anywhore,

What do we think about Harvey and Sam?

Honesty is the best policy guys so share all of your feelings in the comments!

While you do that, I will be reading them all meticulously because that is one of my favourite past times, for your information.

Anyhow,

This book is getting kind of long, isn’t it?

I just realized that we are almost at 40 chapters and I still have a lot of plans.

Hopefully, this book will be finished before 2021!

Fingers crossed, lol.

Anywhy,