All too soon the bell rang and jolted me back to reality. I'd gotten immersed in what I was writing and hadn't been paying attention to the time. I gathered my things and hastily left the classroom.

"Hi! You must be Adrian! My mom told me you'd be expecting me," a loud voice proclaimed, startling me.

"Oops," he continued, "I didn't mean to startle you! She mentioned you were shy. I'm Elijah, by the way!"

I warily took the hand that was being enthusiastically presented to me by Elijah and gave it a tentative shake before retracting my hand as quickly as possible while still being considered sociably polite. "Yes, that would be me."

He beamed at me, talking way too quickly for me to follow all that he was saying. We briefly stopped by the lockers so I could switch out my supplies before walking towards the maths building for my next subject. It turned out we would be attending the same class. Even before we got in the room I knew he'd choose to sit beside unless there was a seating chart. His extroverted nature reminded me a bit of Kai, but he definitely talked a lot more. Still, it was somewhat pleasant to meet someone who brought a feeling of familiarity to this new area.

I frowned, wondering how Kai was doing without me. We'd intentionally enrolled in the same school so we could be study buddies, but I upended everything when I moved to Helmsford. Now we'd both need new study partners, because though the schools were part of the same university system, each campus had its own syllabus and it wasn't guaranteed that the teachers would be following the same lesson plan even if we were taking the same courses.

As we entered the room, Elijah continued to speak emphatically. Currently he was going on about the school newspaper and the upcoming soccer game. I have no idea how he got onto that topic, but apparently he was going into journalism as his major. The classroom had tables with two chairs at each, and I was thankful when he sat next to me because I would hate sitting so close to someone I'd never met. I think I could get used to being around Elijah. Even if he does talk a lot.

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

Class ended and we headed out the door, Elijah not far behind me. I was lost in thought when all at once I found myself tripping over something, my two books tumbling out of my arms before hitting the floor and sliding in opposing directions away from me. I was surprised when my body was stopped by a strong arm that was thrust in front of it. It was not a small arm and falling into it took a bit of wind out of me, though nowhere near as much as hitting the floor would have. I rightened myself and looked up to thank the kind stranger who caught me, and was immediately captivated by the deepest pair of brown eyes I'd ever seen.

"Th-thank you," I mumbled as loudly as I could muster, my brain going wild as my face started burning. Oh god, he's hot!

"Watch out for where you're going," the stranger's voice was low and almost rumbled like a car engine. It was an immensely attractive sound, and my heartbeat quickened, which was definitely not helping my ever-reddening face.

"Y-yeah," I'm honestly surprised I managed to get any words out at this point. He gave a brief nod and walked away, and I stared after him for a good second before I realized people around me were whispering and staring at me, and someone was shaking my shoulder. Oops, did not mean to gawk at the hottie who just crashed into my life. Well, I guess I did all the crashing.

"Holy Hell, Adrian!" Elijah whisper-shouted. "You just fell right into Demian! Oh hell, oh no no no. I'm surprised he didn't do something to you."

I cocked an eyebrow and went about picking up my books. "He did do something. He stopped me from landing on the floor." And making more of a fool of myself, I thought, feeling the heat still in my cheeks.

"I mean, Adrie, he could have hurt you!"

"Adrie?" I lifted an eyebrow at him.

"It...seemed like a good nickname for you?" He said almost shyly, like he regretted saying it, and I felt guilty immediately.

"No, no. It's fine. Just haven't been called that before." We continued walking into class and I picked up snippets of conversation around us. Gossiping girls in a group, all staring over at me, whispering about how I crashed into The Demian. I don't get it. I've never seen him before, but clearly everyone knew about him, and at least part of it isn't good.

As we headed to the cafeteria, Elijah couldn't stop glancing over his shoulders every few minutes like a scared rabbit. I sighed after the fifth time and asked him what he was doing.

"Adrie, he could be waiting anywhere for you. Wh-what if he ambushes you in an empty hallway and-"

"What are you even going on about? Why are you so afraid of him? He's a college student, just like the rest of us," I interjected, rubbing my forehead in agitation.

"Did you not listen to me during our tour when I told you to stay away from him, whatever you do?"

"Uh..." I became flustered while racking my brain, trying to figure out when he said that. It must have been while he was talking a mile a minute earlier. "No, I think I missed that part. But, why should I stay away? What's so bad about him?"

"He's very mysterious and doesn't like to be disturbed, at all, so nobody really knows him. But, there are a lot of stories about him around campus, and more than one is about how hot-headed he is. He's a bully. They say he'll force people to do his homework and beat up anyone who upsets him, even teachers!"

I sighed again. "Do you honestly think that rumor could be true? He'd have been expelled a long time ago if that was the case."

He stopped walking and seemed to be thinking hard.

"I dunno, there has to be enough truth to it for so many people to say the same thing. Maybe the people are too afraid to speak up, or they worry he'll be worse to them if they do. He's got the height and build to do some serious harm if he wants to. Have you seen his biceps? He doesn't play any sports but he keeps himself really fit. I think he could bench press you, Adrie," he states, nodding his head for emphasis.

"People say a lot of things, Elijah. It doesn't mean they're true. And maybe he just likes to work out." I definitely wouldn't mind if he bench pressed me. I shake my head to clear my thoughts before my brain takes that train any further.

"Adrian. His ex-girlfriend says he hit her and laughed, and she said that his parents kicked him out after he hurt his mom in a fight. Do you really want to find out if the rumors are real by having him beat you up? You fell on him! Just- just stay as far away as you can, ok?" He pleaded, his voice getting higher in pitch. Clearly he was terrified by all the talk around this Demian guy. What his ex said was certainly concerning, though. I sighed again and agreed to stay away. I mean, I hadn't really intended to run into him -literally or figuratively- at all, so it wasn't like I was actively seeking him out. Still, in spite of the rumors, I was doubtful about how dangerous or awful this guy really could be.