Page 3 of The Lost and the Found

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Someone tapped my shoulder,and when I looked up, a girl with smiling blues eyes was staring at me.

She looked familiar, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember her name.

“Hi,” she said, sitting down next to me.

I gave her a small smile and rested my head back on the table again. I still had ten minutes before class even started, and I didn’t want to spend it talking to a girl I didn’t really know.

I heard the professor walk in, and I lifted my head back up again in time to see him set his big bag down on the desk at the front of the room.

Dr. Greg Reynolds was a short and lanky man with kind eyes and graying hair. He looked sleep deprived and cranked up on way too much coffee, but that was probably because he was.

He taught literature, something he seemed to be obsessively passionate about.

I wondered what that was like, to be so obsessed with something that you lived and breathed it.

“Please take out your book. We’re going to analyze John Milton’s Paradise Lost today.” There were a few collective groans coming from some of the kids in front me.

“Again?” the girl next to me said under her breath. I looked over to her out of the corner of my eyes.

I pulled out my old, worn out book, setting it on my desk. Dr. Reynolds looked up at us, his book in hand. Before he could start the lecture, the door opened, and a guy walked in.

Everything went quiet, even the students in front of me stopped their bitching. It was known that Dr. Reynolds was pretty laid back, but there was one thing he hated more than anything else in the world, and that was kids showing up late to his class.

But it wasn’t a student that walked in. No, this was a full-grown man. My heart stuttered in my chest, and I felt suddenly lightheaded, which was a surprising reaction from me.

The man that walked in could only be described as huge. He made his way over to Dr. Reynolds, a world of confidence in his swagger. I wondered what it was like, to have the kind of confidence that made it seem like nothing could sway him. And when he turned slightly to the right, presenting me with his full profile, my breath caught in my throat.

The man was simply too beautiful for words. With light brown hair, cut short to almost a buzzed cut, to his too bright hazel eyes that shone like a beacon in the dimmed room, I couldn’t help but stare. The dark scruff along his jawline was something else altogether. I wondered how it would feel against my skin.

I let out a small shiver.

I had the sudden urge to get out of my seat and walk toward him. And I wasn’t the only one, I noted, as almost all the females in the class—and even some males—had leaned forward, trying to get as close to this strangely beautiful creature as possible.

How could a stranger have such a strong effect on me? I was pretty cautious about those I didn’t know, but there was just something about this man made me feel differently.

He didn’t feel like a stranger to me. He felt familiar. And yet, I couldn’t pinpoint where I knew him from, or if I even knew him at all.

When he got to Dr. Reynolds, he leaned down to the much smaller man and whispered something in his ear.

“Pull out your homework and discuss questions five through nine with the people closest to you. I will be right back,” Dr. Reynolds said, putting his book down carelessly and hastily following the beautiful man.

Just as they got to the door, the man turned and, without hesitation, his eyes found mine, as if he was purposely seeking me out.

I had to stop myself from jumping out of my seat. His eyes glinted with familiarity I wasn’t used to getting from anyone. The man looked at me as if he knew me.

How could that be? I didn’t know him…

But why did he feel so familiar to me?

I sat in silence while everyone around me did as the professor asked and talked about the homework questions.

I was reeling.

Moments later, when the professor returned to class alone, I didn’t want to analyze too deeply why I felt disappointed. Dr. Reynolds cleared his throat, and everyone quieted down as class began, just enough that I could hear the girl next to me mumble under her breath, “He was so hot.”

Even though I agreed with her assessment, I vowed to try to avoid sitting near her next class.

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