The next morning, Violet waved him goodbye and went home to prepare for class.
Around 4:30pm while helping Professor Matthew arrange a list of students in year one, Professor Matthew's phone beeped and he checked to see it was a message from his brother.
The professor's face fell as he read the message and he looked up at Violet who was typing away on his computer. He placed his phone down and called to her.
"Violet."
"Yes sir?"
"I'll drive you home today."
Violet paused mid-type. Deon had said that he would come so they could go home together. 'Well I guess he's gone then.' her happy mood dulled but she managed to give her professor a tight smile. "That won't be necessary Professor, I can just ca-"
"I insist, please."
Not in the mood to go back and forth as she could see in his eyes that he was bent on having his way. "Okay, thank you Professor."
***
The car ride was quiet and unlike in Deon's car where she usually sat comfy with her feet up on the seat, she sat properly and quietly.
Professor Matthew broke the silence with a sigh, "Please tell me that kid didn't didn't say rubbish like wait for me."
Violet smiled first then chuckled. "No, that kid did not." she smiled, remembering the morning when he looked like he was just about to say those three words but instead pulled her into a hug.
"Good, actually, you don't owe him anything." Professor Matthew scoffed. "Even if he had said it, ignore him, when you meet someone who likes you and you don't mind liking them back, go for it." He smiled at her.
"Professor!" she chided, laughing. "You should be on your brother's side."
"Gideon?" he laughed. "That guy has always been a heartbreaker." Turning to her for a brief moment, he said, "I'm on my favourite student's side."
"Professor." Violet looked at him with a smile, "Is this reverse psychology?
Hiding a smile, Professor Matthew shook his head. "Now why would I do that?"
"You aren't going to end up saying that irrespective of what you just said, your brother really cares for me right? 'Cause hearing you say this and that about him makes me want to defend him and then that makes him more favorable in my eyes." Raising an eyebrow and still smiling, she continued. "That's not it right professor?"
His lips twitched before grinning. "So, I forgot that you're an A student, my fault."
Violet chuckled. "You two are definitely brothers."
On reaching her house, Violet got out, thanked him for the ride and made her way inside the house while Matthew watched. Once she was inside, he drove home to his family.
Violet went straight to her room and lay on her bed as she closed her eyes to rest briefly, her phone vibrated and she checked the notifications tab that popped up to see a message from Lucy saying that she was sorry and she missed her. Violet sighed, taking off her clothes and making her way into her bathroom to shower. Once she was done and dressed in a long sleeping shirt, she lay on her bed again, with her forearm over her eyes, thinking about Deon. She missed him already, she wanted to see him, she missed his warmth, the way his strong arms held her, the way he smiled at the end of a laugh.
"I'm too young to be in love." she muttered with a soft laugh as tears filled her eyes.
***
Making her way into the classroom the next morning, she sat at the back beside Jordan saying a quick hello.
"Violet." Jordan smiled, his grey eyes shining.
She raised an eyebrow. "Your smile is creepy."
"Because I've been taking note and you and Lucy are not on good terms are you?"
Violet scrunched up her nose. "You don't have anything better to do?"
"Nope." Just as he said that, Lucy and Clyde entered the class and they looked around the room, to see Violet in a conversation with one of the boys in her class.
"Who is he?" Lucy inquired.
"Oh that's Jordan, he's in our class."
"Are they close?"
"Not really, they talk from time to time though."
"Hmm."
"Why not hang out with me till you guys make up at least."
"Why would I hang out with you?" Violet raised an eyebrow, her tone coming off rude.
Feeling insulted, Jordan rolled his eyes. "You were always snobbish."
Violet's face contorted into a frown. "Snobbish? Me? Coming from a guy who always hung out with the class bully."
Jordan went quiet for a few seconds before murmuring something.
"I didn't catch that."
He turned to her. "I said-"
"And I'm glad I didn't catch that. I don't care what you have to say." she snapped. Angry at herself for getting angry at Jordan.
Jordan kept quiet and didn't say anything until the lecturer entered the class and started the lecture. About thirty minutes into the lecture, Jordan took out a Vanilla flavoured sweet from his pocket and placed it in front of Violet. "That's if you still like it."
Violet smiled, unwrapping the sweet. "I do still. I'm sorry for snapping at you." she gave him a brief smile.
Jordan returned the smile.
Immediately after class, Violet started to pack up when Lucy came up to her table. "Violet."
"Lucy, Clyde." she nodded at them.
"I texted you yesterday."
"Yeah, I saw your text. Sorry, I was planning to texting back but slept off."
"So will you join us for lunch?"
"No, I have to do some work for Professor Matthew."
"Today is Friday, he's not around."
"Is today Friday?" Vilolet slung the crossbag over her shoulder. "Okay, lunch then." she smiled. "Jordan would you like to join us?"
"Well I wouldn't mind," Jordan smiled, getting up as well.
They all walked to the cafeteria in awkward silence, getting food and settling in a table to eat. As Jordan introduced himself to the rest of the group, Violet stared into space, missing Deon. Heaving a sigh, she took a sip from the plastic cup of orange juice.
"Are you okay?" Lucy raised an eyebrow to her friend.
Violet simply shrugged, getting an urge to ask her when she started caring but not in the mood to have an argument.
Staring at the Social Science Faculty car park which was visible from the cafeteria, she half hoped that Deon would drive in with that smile he usually gave her.
"Why are you smiling?" Jordan asked with a flat look and her response was a scowl.
"So, when are you going to introduce us to your boyfriend?" Lucy smiled as though there were no problems between them.
"Boyfriend?" Violet turned to Lucy, mimicking her smile. "I don't have a boyfriend."
"Oh please, how about the handsome guy with the car?"
"That handsome guy is Professor Matthew's brother and he's not my boyfriend."
"Ah." Clyde facepalmed. "I wondered why he looked so familiar, I've been trying to figure it out for the past week."
"Oh yeah he did look familiar." Lucy nodded. "Brother though? He's quite young."
Jordan stared at them, not asking questions, simply taking a sip of the apple juice he had bought. Gideon Sanders? Oh he knew Gideon Sanders very well and it was precisely because of him he was there, sitting at this table, watching the beautiful girl that was his secondary school classmate smile sadly.
"Yeah well." Violet shrugged, offering no explanations as to why their professor had a brother who was that much younger than him.
"So when are we going to meet him?"
Jordan raised an eyebrow at this, wondering why she was pushing.
Sighing, Violet replied. "I don't know, why don't you and Clyde apologize first then I'll consider it."
Lucy stared at her quietly before saying, "I texted you yesterday saying I was sorry."
"Texts don't talk." Violet raised an eyebrow.
There was silence that lasted for around seven seconds before Clyde broke it. "I'm sorry Violet, I don't even remember why I gave you the silent treatment." Clyde gave her a remorseful smile.
"I'm sorry too V. I was trying to impress Adam and-and messed up, I'm sorry." Lucy burst into tears which made Jordan almost jump out of his seat in surprise. Violet's eyes widened when Lucy started crying in the busy cafeteria. "We bro-ke up, he said I'm n-not his type and he o-nly dated me b-because all the guys in his c-class liked me."
"Oh." Violets eyes contorted into an angry frown. "What does he mean by that?" she dropped her cup on the table.
"Is it Adam from engineering department? 400 level? That Adam?" Jordan asked.
"Yeah." Clyde nodded.
"Well, that's no surprise, I mean, everybody in his department knows how he is. Did you really not–"
"Jordan!" Violet slapped his hand on the table. 'Stop it.' she mouthed at him.
Jordan pursed his lips. "Sorry."
"I'm sorry about that Lucy, are you ok–Well, obviously not." She changed her sentence when she saw Lucy wipe her wet cheeks.
Violet stood, signalling for Clyde to switch seats with her and when he did, she spent the rest of their lunch consoling her friend. "It'll be fine." she patted her head as Lucy threw her arms around her.
Clyde smile softly while Jordan had a bored expression on his face. Violets mind wandered briefly, thinking about whether and when she would see Gideon again.
***
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