Violet stood still, dumbfounded and surprised, her wide eyes and slightly open mouth said as much.
Deon saw this reaction and got nervous for a second, he never really thought about her not liking him because, well, he'd never been in a one sided affair where he was the one interested. He'd assumed Violet liked him from her actions around him. but seeing the surprise on her face had him thinking twice. 'Maybe I was wrong.'
A minute passed before Violet got over her initial shock and finally spoke. "How do you know my surname?"
Deon blinked, 'that's what she has to say?' but it amused him nonetheless so he went along with it. "Is there a reason I wouldn't?"
"Well," she scoffed, still not meeting his eyes. "I don't remember telling you."
"Well," he mimicked her tone. "It wouldn't be hard to figure out considering I know your Professor would it?"
"Oh." Violet nodded and silence filled the space between them. A few moments later, Violet murmured something he didn't quite catch with her bent head.
Knowing she was shy, Deon smiled. "Violet come closer, I can't hear you."
Just as she started to walk closer to him, a few things that they weren't aware of happened. One, Professor Matthew appeared at the entrance of the social science building, a few metres away from the car park, stopping when he caught sight of them. And then on the opposite end, Lucy, Clyde, Olivia and Cole stopped what they were doing, catching sight of Violet walking towards a strange man three of them hadn't seen before.
"What is she doing?" Clyde wondered out loud.
"I know everyone Violet knows, I don't know him though." Lucy said in an equally confused tone as they stared on at the scene unfolding. Olivia recognised the familiar face but did not make an input while Cole stared on with jealous eyes.
Violet stopped a feet away from Deon, head still slightly bent and she quietly said, "I heard what you said before, I'm processing it."
Deon hummed a smile, lifting his fingers and tucking stands of hair behind her warm ears. "Won't you look at me?"
Violet looked up, her face warm, her eyes vulnerable. Letting his fingers trace her cheekbones, as his pulse quickened, Deon fought back the urge to kiss the innocent face staring up at him. He dropped his hands, clearing his throat as his own ears began to heat up.
"Actually, I was going to ask you out on a date, that's why I said I wasn't heading home."
"Oh, I don't mind." she stated, looking to the side but missing the Professor who had turned away seconds before with a half annoyed expression. Half annoyed because while he clicked his tongue and shook his head, a slight smile stretched his lips immediately after.
"Well, I'll take that." he moved forward so he was no longer leaning on the car. "Shall we?"
Violet nodded, moving over and entering the car. As she entered, Deon looked to the side to see the four students staring at him, two with hostility and the other two with curiousity, he recognized them as Violets friends before looking away. Entering the car, he didn't mention it to Violet so her mood wouldn't sour afterall they may not be on talking terms seeing as they did not approach and only stared from a distance.
"So where are we going?" Violet smiled, getting over the in mutual shyness.
"Have you ever watched a horse race before?"
"Horse race?" Violet shook her head. "Haven't even seen a real horse before, just the ones on TV."
"Well, you'll see one today."
"Great," she grinned, excited already. "Oh that reminds me, I wanted to tell you that I had some pizza on Tuesday. I ordered one, the type I ate at your place. It was really good."
"Oh, you ate alone and didn't invite me." Deon teased, hiding a smile.
"No, no." Violet shook her head. "I figured you'd be at work, I finished class early around ten o' clock and ordered when I got back home..." Her eyes widened. "I don't have your number." she seemed to finally realize the fact.
"Oh, that is true." Deon also realised. "Here." he gave her his phone to put her number in.
Doing just that, Violet handed it back to him. "I saved it as Violet."
"Okay, would you like some music? It's going to be a long ride."
"Oh is it far?"
"About forty minutes."
"Okay, nothing too slow, I may sleep off."
Deon chuckled, putting on the radio and good enough, a fast song was on but Deon was not sure he enjoyed the genre.
The only sound in the car was the music playing until a minute later when Violet made a sound at the back of her throat.
"Are you alright?"
"Y-yeah." She burst out laughing.
Deon chuckled, looking at her. "Why are you laughing?"
"I know I said nothing slow but this, this isn't really my type of music." She laughed.
Deon looked back at the road before laughing himself. "I was just thinking that, please change the frequency."
Leaning forward with her smile in place, Violet changed the frequency a couple of times before settling on one. It was playing an old song.
"Oh, you like old songs?"
"Yeah, 90's."
"You have good taste."
"So do you." Violet smiled cheekily, making Deon smile.
"So how did you get into old songs?"
Although he didn't say it, she knew he meant that she was pretty young to be into those songs. "My brother and sister, those were the kind of songs they listened to and we were very close growing up."
Deon smiled, "You had a good childhood."
"Yeah I think so, we didn't have much then but we had each other so we were okay."
Deon's smile stretched wider but he didn't say anything, just tapped his fingers on the steering wheel as he drove. He didn't need to say anything, neither did she, they enjoyed the rest of the ride while listening to music.
***
"Icarus go! Come on, almost there... Yes!" Violet jumped up from her seat along with some other people watching the game, throwing her hands in the air. "Gideon, Icarus won." She turned to him with the biggest smile and he returned the smile, becoming aware of how much of a smiler he was when around her.
After they'd gotten to the racecourse on the other side of town, Deon explained to her the workings of the racecourse and encouraged her to pick a horse she wanted to win. The first two had lost, one in last place and the other in fifth place. The third one proved fruitful and she was ecstatic, shouting and flailing her hands in pure joy. Her contagious laugh made him laugh as well, then as the match ended, she sat back down, tapping her feet in residual excitement.
"Did you see that?" she turned to him.
"Yes, I did." he nodded.
Her eyes shined. "He was brilliant."
"Do you want something to eat?" he asked when her excited slowly waned.
"No I'm good" she waved him off, looking eagerly at the announcement board to see what horses were coming up next.
"Okay," Deon chuckled, getting up and going to get some food.
When he came back, the last race had still not started so he sat down and handed her a can of soda. "Here, your throat may get dry at some point."
"Thank you." she nodded, not looking at him as her attention was still feverish oh Xes on the board. Once she opened the can and took a sip, she prised mid swallow. "Oh, it's soda."
"Yeah, do you not like soda?"
"Hmm." Violet took another sip. "I used to."
"Do you want to switch?" He held up the bottle of water he had gottten for himself.
"Hmm." Violet smiled. "How about this," she eyed the burger in his left hand, "Give me a bite of your burger and I'll finish this."
Deon paused before chuckling. "I see. Here you go." he gave her a wrap.
"Thanks." she grinned, taking a bite and returning it.
Deon, took it back, taking a bite of his own and just then, the race started. Violet paid attention for a few seconds before turning back to Deon with a guilty smile. "One more bite, yes? No?"
Deon laughed, as his hunch was confirmed. Whilst buying the burger, he wondered if she really wouldn't want one, considering what happened the last time when they were seeing a movie. She'd eaten his popcorn and gone for the last slice of pizza too. Just to be on the safer side, he bought two wraps of burgers.
"Yes, I knew you'd want one." he dug into the bag and brought out another wrap which he handed to her.
Violet chuckled "Hehe, thank you very much."
"Did you pick a horse already?"
"Oh, no, I'm good." she waved it off.
Deon squinted thoughtfully before smiling, "Let me keep my winning streak, are you thinking something like that?"
Violet grinned, not saying anything but her silence was enough affirmation. The grin quickly thinned out into a soft smile as the turned to him. "That is correct." Her brown eyes shined and Deon caught what she was actually saying.
'You've been paying attention, so you were serious about liking me.'
Deon smiled back to confirm her thoughts and while shouts erupted all around them as the horses raced to the finish line, Deon and the one he was falling for stared at each other in silence, speaking through their eyes, making promises.
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