The Beautiful Monster

"It'll be fine, though. We've got this," Elias said encouragingly.

Alyssa laughed as she shook her head. They were engaged in a mental battle. Desires were hard to ignore, but at least she didn't have to ignore them forever. Just a week.

"Maybe we should just avoid each other to make it easier on us," she said jokingly.

Honestly, that would just make things worse. At least getting to see him briefly would push her over until the end of the week.

"Absolutely not," Elias replied, prompting more laughter from her. They were on the same page about this.

They chatted on the phone for another fifteen minutes before they hung up to go to sleep. The week ahead was about to be tiring and rough, and they needed all of the rest they could get.

Alyssa just couldn't wait to get it over with and finally be able to take a breath and focus on Elias.

Her attention had been so split lately, and she was ready to focus on the moments they could share together. They were certainly going to be explosive.

****************

Day one of finals week finally arrived, and it was raining.

Actually, it was storming outside. Wind whipped through campus, making the rain pelt down sideways as thunder rumbled throughout the sky.

Dark clouds killed any chance of sunlight gracing the campus as everyone hurried to their exams.

Alyssa looked out of the glass door of the dorm entrance warily. She had an umbrella, a rain jacket, and rain boots, but she still didn't feel prepared enough to brave the weather and go across campus to take her psychology exam. The wind looked so strong that she feared it would blow her away!

Of course, the school didn't postpone exams or do the students any favors.

It wasn't bad enough for a tornado, so the students were expected to brave the conditions and get to class to take their exams.

She wished that the school would take mercy on them, but that wasn't happening.

She drew in a steadying breath before opening her umbrella up. She had to go now, or she'd be late for class, which was the last thing that she wanted right now.

She pushed open the door to the dorm building and hurried outside. Immediately, a heavy gust of wind nearly blew her umbrella inside out.

Alyssa angled her body to face her umbrella against the wind, trying to block herself from the cold rain pelting down.

No matter where she faced her umbrella, she still got wet.

All that she could think to do was to rush across campus as fast as she could. Her rain jacket would have to do most of the work because her umbrella wasn't doing its job.

She hurried down the sidewalk toward the middle of campus, building-hopping where she could. Her rain boots squeaked as she shuffled down the hallways, a trail of water following her.

She couldn't think of a worse way to start her finals week, but she had to react to what was thrown her way. She wasn't about to let a little storm put her off track after she studied so hard.

Before leaving the last building she could run through, she checked her phone to see that she had ten minutes left.

She needed to hurry up because she had a whole stretch of sidewalk left to run down to get to the building she needed to get to.

After doing a quick countdown in her head, she pushed the door to the building open and ran back out into the rain and wind.

Water droplets littered her face as she darted down the sidewalk as fast as she could without slipping.

She was reduced to an awkward shuffle, but she was getting to where she needed to go as she ran along a street that went through campus.

Suddenly, a car roared past her. Its tires struck a large puddle of water, splashing her from head to toe.

A shocked cry broke from Alyssa as she stumbled to a stop. Cold water dripped off of her as she stared ahead in bewilderment.

Of course that would happen! She waved her hands, trying to dry herself off as much as she could as rain continued to pour down on her. Her umbrella hadn't protected her at all.

As much as she wanted to stand there and fume over that happening, she knew that she still needed to get moving.

She could feel water sloshing in the bottom of her rain boots as she shuffled up to the building she needed to be in. She stumbled inside, water dripping off of her as she made her way to her classroom.

If she wasn't having to take a final today, she would've given up and gone home. Today was not her day, and it was still so early in the morning.

She closed her umbrella and walked into her classroom, ignoring the lingering eyes on her as she headed to her seat.

"What happened?" Elias asked as he stared at her with wide eyes.

"Car. Puddle," Alyssa merely said as she shed her wet rain jacket. She brushed her wet hair back from her face, trying to get her head back in the game. Sure, this morning sucked so far, but she could turn things around if she aced these finals.

"Girl, I would've chased them down," Zoe replied as she shook her head.

Alyssa smirked a little as she grabbed her pen out of her backpack.

"Crossed my mind," she said as she got settled in her seat. It probably wouldn't have mattered anyway. It wasn't like the driver did it on purpose. Kaleigh was behind her laughing, so she knew that it wasn't her. She didn't even have the strength to shoot a glare at Kaleigh right now. She just wanted to get this final over with.

Dr. Pierce then strode into the room with his teaching assistant at his side.

"Good morning, everyone. Thank you for fighting the rain to get here on time," he announced as he got situated on stage.

Alyssa glanced over at Elias.

"Good luck," she told him. She knew that he was a bit nervous. She could tell by how he was tapping his pen against his desk.

But she believed in him. She had drilled everything that they learned in this class into his head.

Elias smiled at her as he gave her a grateful look.

"You too. You got this," he replied.

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