On hearing the familiar voice, Violet stopped in her tracks and turned. "Professor Matthew's brother!" her voice went up a decibel and her eyebrows shot up just before a smile covered her face. Relief made her weak in the knees, she had been holding back her fear of getting kidnapped and possibly having to walk hours home in addition to possibly getting beat by the rain.
Without waiting for another invitation, she walked to his car and entered, closing the door behind her. Once she was in, a sigh of relief left her mouth as her head fell back against the seat. 'What a bad day.' She thought before remembering her manners.
"Good evening sir and thank you for the ride."
Deon's eyebrows furrowed, glancing at her briefly before putting his eyes back on the road. "Sir?"
"Yeah, you always give me a 'you're a child look', so I figure you'd prefer to be called sir."
Deon looked away from the road briefly, his eyes travelling to her face. 'She looks pale.' He thought, taking in her chapped lips and tired eyes as she looked straight ahead. Deon looked back to the road. "Deon," he simply said.
"Okay, I'm Violet." she replied after a few seconds, smiling softly as her body seemed to finally become aware of its exhaustion and her eyes closed.
Deon's eyes traveled to her again and he caught her smile as she rested her head against the window to sleep. "Tsk," he clicked his tongue. "Still sleeping in strangers cars I see" but his lips stretched of their own accord again. If he was being honest, he thought it was pretty interesting that she was smiling even though she'd had such a terrible date. He recalled wanting to grab a bite after his meeting with some people from work and staying behind after they'd left. He'd gone to use the restroom and when he came back, he saw her sitting in the table before his and when he settled in his seat, he listened into their conversation he'd had to hold himself from laughing out loud from the absurdity of it. He chuckled as he drove down the road, driving past a green light.
Thirty five minutes later, he stopped at the same restaurant from last time, getting out of the car, as he was about to lock the doors, Violet who had been sleeping all the while changed position, bringing her feet up so they rested on the seat as she hugged her knees to her chest.
Deon stared, reentering the car so he could lean over, reclining the seat gently so she could relax better. As he was reclining the seat, trying not to wake her, she moved in her seat, taking her head off the window, and adjusting into a more comfortable position, so her face was now inclined towards the drivers seat. This sudden movement of hers caused Deon to pause as her face was only four inches away from his, he could see the dark circles under her eyes clearly but what really made him pause was how beautiful she was. Of course he knew she was pretty, but he never actually thought of or analysed it. Seeing her oval shaped face up close made him suddenly aware that she was a woman. His eyes moved to her full lips which slightly open as she slept but he quickly looked away, reclining the seat once more before extracting himself from the car. "Huh," he raised an eyebrow, more at himself than anything else, locking the doors behind him, he made his way into the restaurant to get food.
***
Violet heard someone call her name in the darkness and opened her eyes to see Deon staring ahead, one hand on the steering wheel and the other resting on the window sil, tucked behind his temple as his head rested against the door.
"You're home." he nodded.
She followed the direction he was looking in to see that they were by her gate and he'd already reversed. Realising she'd slept through the whole ride she cringed, quickly taking her legs off the seat. "I'm sorry, I'm not always like this." She straightened her jacket, sitting up.
"Sleeping in stranger's cars you mean?" Deon said without emotion.
"Yes, you're not really a stranger though, you're Professor's brother." She said, not at all believing her justification.
"Well I guess I wouldn't want to cause any trouble for Matthew." Deon's lips tilted up into a smile. "If you would know who was causing you trouble at least, you do know I know your house right? Wouldn't be too hard to break in especially seeing as you're the only one staying there."
Violet's heart skipped a beat at the truth in his words, realising that she had been careless of her safety. "How do you know that I stay alone?"
"You've come home very late twice now, what parent would allow that?" He turned to her. "Besides, I didn't know for sure, you just admitted it." he undid his seatbelt, leaning over and just like the other day, she reacted, bringing her fists up in defense.
Deon stared at her and couldn't hold back his laughter, his face lighting up in pure joy.
Violet's eyebrow shot up and her muscles lost all the tension, but her fists remained up as she was surprised to see him laugh. Watching the laugh melt into a smile, her surprise mutated into disbelief as she had never seen such a beautiful smile on anyone. Her blind date's smile in the afternoon was nothing compared to what she was seeing now. A warm feeling moved through her. Before she could think about his further advancement, he took one of her hands in his.
"Again, that's not how you make a fist." he shook his head, removing her thumb from under her fingers, placing them on top and doing same to her other hand. Briefly taking note of how cold her hands were compared to his warm ones. Letting go of her hand, he turned, leaning further in between their seats to get the food in the back. "Here."
"Hmm?" Violet came back to the present, getting over her surprise, taking the bag from him. "Thank you very much." She said with a soft smile. "I'm sorry to burden you like this again."
Deon didn't respond to her gratitude, only put on his seatbelt. "You should take care of your health."
Violet nodded, getting out of the car and closing the door, as he drove away slowly, she turned, doing the next sequence of events almost robotically; going past the fence, locking it, getting out her keys, opening the door, locking it behind her and sitting in one of the sofas in the living room. "His hands were warm" she noted, her lips curving upwards. "Apparently even that guy can smile."
***
Violet woke up around 8:00am and snoozed her alarm so the next time she woke up was 10:40am and she regretted it because she had an 11:00am class for which she was the course rep.
"Ah shit." she cussed, jumping off her bed and running into the bathroom only to be hit by cold water, but she couldn't be bothered to figure out what was wrong with the heater. Washing up quickly, she ran out of the shower, leaving water trails everywhere, wearing a knee length armless black gown, she put on flats and exited the house, running past the fence, down the street.
***
11:49am
Violet creeped into the class through the back door., thinking she was quiet but her appearance made her classmates turn which in turn made Professor Matthew look in her direction. Without commenting, he continued the lecture, and Violet sighed, knowing that he wasn't happy with her.
"You're late." Clyde whispered.
"You think?" Violet narrowed her eyes at him and he chuckled, raising his arms.
***
"I'll see you all next week next week, I'll convene any news regarding the continuous assessment through your class rep." Professor Matthew took his books, moving to walk out before pausing. "Violet organise the attendance for this class and submit it to me."
"Yes sir." She answered just before all her classmates flocked to her seat. She dug into her bag for the attendance book only to see that it was missing.
"Hey Violet be quick, I have somewhere to be." One of her classmates shouted over the noise.
"Yeah." Some others agreed.
Biting her lips, she tore a sheet of paper and handed it to them. "Write in here, I'll transfer the names."
"I don't want to write on a sheet of paper."
"Hey what if you omit my name when you're rewriting?"
"Hey what about signature?"
"I'll make sure to put in everyone's name, will also keep the paper." Violet paused "Better still," she tore out two other pieces of paper "Write only on the first pages so I can glue it to the the attendance book."
While most of them agreed, one person still complained about her forgetting the assignment to which she rolled her eyes.
Twenty minutes later, everyone had signed and she turned to Clyde who had been texting since. "Hey, do you want to grab a bite at the cafeteria before leaving?"
"Woops." Clyde stood. "Already made plans with Olivia." He took his bags, giving her an apologetic look then his eyes widened. "Ah. Lucy texted me, she said you're mad at her 'cause your blind date didn't go well."
Violet pursed her lips, recalling that she'd gotten a lot of calls from Lucy in the morning, she only missed it because she was sleeping. "I was sleeping when she called, and had to rush here so, I'm not mad anymore. I was mad yesterday."
"You shouldn't be mad at her just because your date didn't go well."
Violet gave him a flat look, packing the attendance and her bags. "Of course it's only the fifth one she has organised after I told her not to after the first one. She always insists, throwing a fit only for me to go there and getting slapped with with their unattractive personalities."
"What happened this time?"
"Hah." she sighed. "Where to even start, it's a long st-" before she could finish, Clyde's phone rang and he picked the call, listening for a bit and giving her a sign that he had to go, waving as he went. Violet let her expression go flat as he walked away. Taking out her phone, she texted Lucy that she was not mad at her.
Lucy replied with a smiley face and love emoji adding that she was with Adam and Cole at the faculty of science administrative building and she should come hang out with them.
Violet lied that she had a mountain of work to do and wouldn't be joining them. Putting her phone in her bag, she made her way to Professor Matthew's office. Knocking twice, she opened and entered only to see that Professor Matthew wasn't there but his brother was along with someone else.
"Good afternoon." she bowed slightly to both of them.
Gideon watched her bow, taking in the fact that she had no more bags under her eyes. and although she looked brighter, she also looked a bit sad.
"Hello." Emilia, one of his brother's post graduate student who had been talking to him answered her greeting, smiling softly. "You're Violet right? Professor said you should wait for him, he'll be back soon."
"Thank you." Violet nodded, her short brown hair which was styled in a Bob moved with her. Taking a seat far from them, she tapped on the books in her hand, looking a bit uncomfortable.
Looking around the room, her gaze came to rest on him and she smiled slightly, her eyes conveying appreciation for the previous day. Gideon smiled back softly, and her smile lingered for a while before she looked away.
"How is work Gideon? I heard you're consulting for Castor Automobile."
"It's fine." Gideon said, shifting his attention back to Emilia.
"What about..."
A few minutes later, Gideon's eyes came to rest on Violet again who was looking uncomfortable, tapping her feet quietly and looking everywhere else but at them, most likely so it wouldn't seem as though she was eavesdropping. Then she relaxed into the sofa, crossing one leg over the other. He hadn't been paying much attention before but he noticed now that her legs were long. From where her gown rested on her thighs, down to her feet, he perved, realised he was perving and shifted his attention back to Emilia, not particularly interested in what she was saying but acting the part.
'One more time.' He thought, moving his eyes to Violet, who surprisingly was also staring at him.
Violet smiled when he caught her staring at him, asking him with her eyes if he needed saving. Deon's lips tilted up as amusement filled his eyes.
"Oh, welcome back Professor." Emilia's voice came through with enthusiasm, breaking their stare.
*
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