Loitering [closed]

Rohan scanned the boxes, all the boxes he'd have to unpack and set up. "Sorry it's not too exciting." He said, batting the radiator that sat near the corner his bed lay at. "It's home, though. After a long week with the initiates, this is nice." He looked up at her from his seat and gave her a handsome grin, hands in his jacket. "You've got the test tomorrow, right?" He couldn't remember if she said she did; he had an alcoholic's memory.

She shrugged, neither agreeing or disagreeing with his assessment of the dorm being 'nice'. It did the job. But she was already imagining what she was going to do with hers in order to brighten it up, make it her own, erase the blah. His question pulled her out of her drawn-up plans. With a nervous pang in her chest, she nodded her head, suddenly remembering her own test appointment.
"I'm nervous as anything, but at least I'll move out of those other dorms," she said, laughing shortly. Despite the plainness of it, Ria had to admit this dorm was much larger. "Anything's better than those."

"Nervous?" He gave her a funny look, and stood with a stretch. "It's just a personality test. Like those ones in the teen magazines, except it tells you where you'll live." As the stretch ended, he kept his eyes closed for a moment. "I hear they're all the same, anyway. This one's no different than the other four."

Despite his reassuring words that there was no reason to be nervous, his heart pounded like a hushed drum. He walked closer to her with a smile, as confident as he could make it, his teeth peeking through his lips as he drew near to her. "But if you're nervous, let me help you calm down." Slowly, he drew in, and kissed her. He would have went for it at the crossroad if she denied his offer, and there seemed as good a time as any. It was a ginger kiss at first, in case she tried to pull away. He didn't want to be too forceful off the bat; his lips met hers softly, amiably, like he was rapping lightly on a door.

Just a personality test. She smiled at that. Ria had taken so many of those before, it wasn't anything new. And if that's all it was, she was much less nervous for it. Aside from having a teacher stand nearby and wait for her to finish, the pressure to do well was off, and she was positive that wherever she ended up, she would be fine.

Before she could respond to Rohan, however, he was closing the space between them, a strange nervousness yet confidence to his movements. "Help me calm down..?" Her words were cut off suddenly as his face came close and his lips touched hers. There was a moment where everything was totally still. Her heart had stopped, her lungs were empty, her eyes were wide open, and her hands clutched the jacket around her. She had never kissed anyone. She'd never even held hands with someone romantically, or hugged someone romantically, or anything romantically. In one moment, Ria had gone from 0 to 100.

Even so, he was so gentle. Clearly, he knew what he was doing. A kiss was nice. Slowly, she found her way into the kiss, stepping just an inch closer, still tentative but letting him know it was okay.

And once he knew it was okay, Rohan pressed harder into the kiss, cupping her cheek with his hand and taking in the feel of her lips, coming up for air only to cough into his fist. Good thing he separated in time; that would have killed the mood. "That was for the nice night," he said, his right hand still at her waist, hesitant to let her go. If his dad was watching from hell, he'd be telling him to fuck her, to go all in on the girl. And though his dad was an asshole, he knew his blood was in his veins. He had his eyes, the auburn, borderline scarlet. Was he an asshole too?

His hand moved down her waist, uncertain in its slowness but not stopping.

After its momentary pause of panic, Ria's heart had started racing, her mind kicking into overdrive as the kiss was deepened before it stopped. All those years overhearing the other students at her regular school talking about who was kissing who had seemed so ridiculous and pointless to her until that moment. She smiled shyly at him, suddenly feeling like a changed person, a new girl entirely, just from a kiss.
"It was a very nice night, wasn't it?" she said, forgetting who she was for a moment. Everything felt light and warm, and a confidence began to fill her chest.

It was a second before she became highly aware of his hand still resting on her, their proximity, the lateness of the hour. She should be getting back to her dorm. With an abruptness that was unintentional, Ria stepped back from Rohan, the space between them large enough to suggest they were nothing more than friends that had shared a pleasant evening. The confidence she had felt was melting away, the acid of the anxiety of having to return to her dorm in the dark quickly destroying it. She coughed to clear her throat and blurted out, "I should probably be heading back, it's getting dark. I mean, it is dark, and I should be back already, since it's late."

When she pulled from the kiss, he hoped, he prayed it wouldn't be the last of her. But sadly, it was. Rohan nodded with a weak smile. "Yeah, it's late isn't it?" The boy said, looking out at the window and the lone clock that sat under it, analog, green numbers reading 9:06. He turned back to her and rubbed the back of his head. "You want me to walk you back home?" He asked, clapping to alleviate a brief period of silence he brought on. He looked down, then up at her, lips pursed. He must'd done something wrong. He must'd gone too fast. He'd been with plenty of girls in this life, but each encounter felt plastic or unreal, like they were leading to something more, a new him. He didn't feel like he has that good with them. No matter how witty or fun or well-off he presented itself, and no matter how many girls hung on his every word, he always felt he was just not good enough with them. His father, now he was good with the ladies. But he used different means.

Ria worried she had spoiled it. They had been having a nice time, he had even kissed her, but now things felt tense, different, awkward. And it was her fault. Her mind fired her last few actions quickly through her vision, highlighting each wrong move. It brought back the smashed teacup back at the cafe, the first wrong move. She desperately hoped she hadn't upset him or seemed like she had regretted anything.

Displaying more confidence than she felt inside, the girl stepped forward again and rested her hand on his arm, giving him a reassuring smile.
"I would really appreciate that, thank you," she said, her voice soft. It was dark and she was still learning the school, and maybe, she hoped, she could fix whatever she'd done wrong.

"C'mon," he said with a smile, trying not to look as pathetic as he felt. The sensual touch to the arm didn't exactly help. "We need to dodge those curfew police." It was getting pretty dark, and Rohan realized he hadn't thought her stay through. The school let people stay over each others dorms, but only if they stayed. They weren't too fond of people wandering around campus late at night.
Nevertheless, they made it to the Initiate Dorms without much hassle. The journey itself wasn't a problem, though it was uncomfortably silent. When they reached the doors, however, where the lights were kindled with the still-risen spirits of those inside, Rohan took Ria's arm, and once again planted a kiss on her lips. This one was short, but it was more of a message than anything. Let's do it again sometime.

And wordless to keep from attracting attention, he stepped backwards, gave a motionless wave, and disappeared around the corner.

Glad for the company in the strange dark world of the school campus at night, Ria walked swiftly with Rohan, hoping he wasn't feeling too upset with the developments of the night. It was with relief that she saw the lights of the Initiate dorms, most people still awake, simply enjoying their warm rooms. At the door, she paused to say good night to him, only to have him kiss her briefly, wordlessly, before vanishing into the night, an air of mystery around him.

As she wandered upstairs, almost forgetting to dig out her key, Ria touched her lips lightly where he had kissed her twice. They tingled, she was certain, the leftover feeling of having been kissed lingering. Lying in her bed and falling asleep that night, she decided this was something she wouldn't tell her father in a letter home. Maybe this school was worth being at after all.