A Twist of Fate (Complete)

Ch. 12 - Facing Keaton

The next morning Everly woke up before her alarm even went off. She had trouble sleeping last night and once she got woken up, there was no getting back to sleep, so she just got up and got ready early. She decided to use the extra time to swing by and grab a coffee before class so she wouldn't be tempted to fall asleep during one of the long, boring professor speeches.

Art class went just fine and then the part of the day that she had been dreading came; facing Keaton. She walked into English literature class and her heart sank when she saw that he was already in his seat. She had hoped by some miracle he wouldn't show up today, but of course she couldn't get that lucky. After being rejected by him, she knew things were going to be awkward between them. How could they not be?

She slid into her seat beside him silently and opened her laptop, waiting for it to start up and then pulling up the assignment, staying focused on getting ready for class and not on the man sitting beside her. She was relieved that he didn't attempt to talk to her either and just messed with his phone until the professor started.

"Ok class. I had given your groups an assignment to write your thoughts about what you think love really is and what English literature tells us about it. The surprise part of today's lesson is that it's an oral report!" he said with excitement and a big smile. Everly groaned and her heart sank. She HATED giving speeches with a passion, and she wasn't prepared to share her jaded thoughts about love with the whole class. What she had written was so personal.

As the groups got called up one by one, giving their speeches, Everly felt a sinking feeling of dread, knowing it was almost their turn.  Finally the professor called out, "Keaton Ashcroft and Everly Sutton" and she reluctantly got up out of her seat and followed behind Keaton to the front of the room, looking down at the ground and avoiding looking at him, but she could smell his familiar cologne and that reminded her of snuggling against him. After getting rejected last night that memory stung.

 When she got up there and turned, she lifted her head to look out onto the sea of faces in front of her and she swallowed hard, crossing her arms as she felt her heart rate pick up. She wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible so she cleared her throat and spoke up first. 

"So we're going to split this up into two parts; what Keaton thinks love is and what I think it is because we have very different opinions on it. I'll go first," she said, clearing her throat again. 

"So here's what I think love really is," she said, looking down at the trembling notebook in her hands and reading it out loud. "Love is the most powerful, addictive drug in the world. When you fall in love, suddenly nothing else matters to you as much as that person and you'd do anything and everything for them. That can be very dangerous. People throughout history have made horrible decisions that ruined their lives or others' lives because of love. It has caused countless wars, murders, and suicides. It makes you jealous and irrational and clouds your judgement. Love is fleeting and fickle and when it goes away, what's left behind is an empty, lonely feeling that hurts so bad you wish you had never been in love at all. All you have to do is have a conversation with a newly divorced person and you'll see how much love has ruined them. Love is a liar, a con artist, a scam, a fairy tale that only belongs in storybooks," she said, letting out an exhale, before clearing her throat and composing herself.

"The English novel I chose that best describes what love is really like is Romeo & Juliet. In this story, love took two perfectly happy, healthy young people and caused them to betray their families, lie, sneak, run away and ultimately commit suicide in the end. It completely destroyed their lives. The lesson I took from this is that love should be avoided at all costs, because in the end it honestly isn't worth it."

She lowered her paper and looked out at the sea of faces and saw that they all were staring at her with blank, sad expressions, looking depressed. 

She let out an exhale and finally looked over at Keaton. He was wearing a pair of crisp, dark blue jeans and a tight white t-shirt with an expensive looking black leather jacket over it and he had his hands tucked in his pockets. He looked as incredibly gorgeous as ever and that made his rejection hurt even more. All she could think about was that she wasn't good enough to be his girlfriend.