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Sasha trotted along the University campus ground, holding her favorite yellow dress down at the sides to avoid giving anyone a free show in the late September winds. She removed one of her hands from the side of the dress to check the time on her watch. 2:55 P.M. She picked up her pace a little and tried to go as fast as she could without tripping. She was supposed to meet her friend outside of the Library at 2:30. Something about books.
“Armin!” She called out to him as she drew closer, blonde hair shining in the warm afternoon sun. Sasha couldn’t help but notice how hard he was fighting with the wind to keep his favorite hat on his head. While Sasha loved Armin with all of her heart, she could never not laugh at him during the most inappropriate situations.
“Sasha! You’re late. I really want to get to the library before all the good books are gone!” He pushed his glasses back up his nose and took off without her. She picked up her pace once more, not even bothering to hide the annoyance on her face.
“Slow down! I’m wearing a dress you nerd!” She yelled after him.
“That sounds like a personal problem.” He countered.
He was obviously not in the mood, and she couldn’t really blame him; she had been about 30 minutes late to meet him after all.
“Don’t you even want to know why I’m late?” She asked when she finally caught up to him. It didn’t take her long before she ended up running ahead of him.
“Me knowing why you’re late wouldn’t change the fact that you were still late.” He refused to look at her, regardless if she was in front of him or not.
“That’s not nice!” She whined. “I see how it is! You don’t even want me here!” She pouted. “I’m just gonna leave since you’re fine on your own! I have friends who actually like me.” She turned around to trudge through the vast hoard of college student’s trying to get to their cars or their next class.
“Why do you hate me?” She heard Armin call out behind her. She smiled and turned around to confront him.
“I knew you couldn’t live without me.” She singsonged and got closer to him. “So what’s so great about a professor giving away half of his library of old musty books?
“Not just any professor! Dr. Smith has one of the most vast collections of travel based literature in the country!” He beamed.
Sasha saw stars in his eyes as he continued to gush about his favorite professor.
“He’s traveled the world and he’s so knowledgeable about geography and mapping out unsurveyed land!” Armin’s smile was so large Sasha was beginning to think it would to split his cheeks.
“Geez, if you love him so much then why don’t you just marry him?” She nudged his shoulder and laughed.
“Because he doesn’t seem like the type to sleep with his students.” He answered a little too quickly for her liking.
“Wow. And here I thought you had morals. That aside, are you sure you’re just not trying hard enough? You could always ask him to map out your body with his tongue.” She poked at his side playfully. The red creeping up on his face could rival their school’s spirit colors.
She laughed and continued walking forward into the heart of campus. The afternoons were always the time that many of the clubs would set up tables and sell food or services to raise funds for trips or projects they were working on during the semester. They would blast popular top 40 songs to attract people to them, generally the ones with the loudest music got the most people.
What surprised Sasha the most was there was still a club outside selling food, most were usually gone by 1 o’clock in the afternoon. She continued ignoring Armin’s attempts to defend himself from Sasha’s earlier accusations and looked to the one club that was still selling. It was a small group of 5 people with one holding a sign she couldn’t quite read. What caught her eye the most was how one guy in the middle of the group seemed to be getting on everyone’s nerves. He was dancing and shaking his hips to Maroon 5’s Sugar and Sasha couldn’t help but smile; she appreciated a goofball.
Most of the students were gone by then, with a few walking to their destinations at a leisurely pace with the exception of the lone club, who seemed to be barely setting up. Her eyes were still focused on the two dark haired club members trying to figure out their BBQ pit.
As her and Armin got closer to them, she got a better look at the guy dancing around his friends. He was tall and slim, but surprisingly muscular. He looked around her age, if not a little older in his early 20’s, His roots were peeking out of what looked to be bleached blonde hair; she could sympathize with being too lazy to get them retouched. It wasn’t a bad look on him though she had to admit. The closer she got to him, the more attractive qualities she could point out.
He turned around and glanced at her, looking away briefly before turning back to her with a grin on his face. He locked his eyes with hers and pointed to her, lip-singing the next part of the song.
“Won't you come and put it down on me?
I'm right here, 'cause I need
Little love, a little sympathy
Yeah, you show me good loving
Make it alright
Need a little sweetness in my life
Your sugar
Yes, please
Won't you come and put it down on me?”
Her eyes grew wide and her mouth opened in surprise. She couldn’t believe what was happening, things like that only happened in cheesy rom com movies, not to mention the timing of the lyrics was too perfect to be coincidence.
‘He couldn’t be pointing at me right?’ She thought. She continued walking, tearing her eyes away from his for a second only to turn right back to him. Her suspicions were confirmed when he started following her with his finger.
As she walked further, his arm turned to follow her. He was so engrossed in following her that he didn’t notice the tall freckled girl with the sign walking in front of him. His arm ran into the sign and knocked it out of her hands, managing to tear it from the corners where her hands were holding it in the process. She looked down at the poster in anger and turned to him with pursed lips and said something to him, words getting lost in the music. She rolled her eyes and threw her hands up in surrender when she realized that he wasn’t paying attention to her. As she bent over to pick up the fallen poster he ran into her again, knocking her off her balance. She stumbled a bit and snapped her head to him, eyes searching for something to throw before forming her hands into fists and shoving him down harder than Sasha had ever thought someone capable of.
There was a loud thud as soon as he hit the floor, even louder the blaring music. The little blonde girl was the first to his side, following the pretty girl with a scarf, who was hankering with the pit earlier. The brunette who was helping her was laughing so hard, he nearly fell over.
She turned to Armin and noticed he was also running to the fallen man’s side and Sasha ran behind him without a second thought. She heard their voices as she got closer to him.
“Jean! Are you ok? That wasn’t nice Ymir!” The petite blonde girl lifted his head off of the ground.
“Eren stop laughing.” She heard the other girl direct at Eren.
“That’s what you get for being a dumbass and not doing your job.” Ymir picked up the sign and went about fixing it like she hadn’t just almost murdered someone in broad daylight.
“Oh my God! Are you ok? I am so sorry!” Sasha blurted out once she and Armin got to the table. The group collectively snapped their head around to look at her, save for Eren who couldn’t because he was wheezing so hard.
“He’s fine, he’s just being a baby.” Ymir answered for him.
“Do you need anything?” She directed at the guy, electing to ignore Ymir.
“Yeah, there might be one thing you can do for me.” He groaned. “You could go out to dinner with me tonight.” He smiled bashfully at her and stood up completely, dusting himself off.
“Oh?” Sasha answered. “But you seem just fine.” She bit her lip in order to fight off a smile that wanted so badly to win.
“Physically, but my pride is hurt!” He grabbed at his chest and hung his head down dramatically. “The least I could do is take you out and show you that I’m not a complete idiot. My name is Jean by the way, Jean Kirstein.”
She was fully smiling by then. She couldn’t help but be charmed by the dorky aura that seemed to envelop him. “I mean,” she paused as if she was thinking it over, “If it’s the only way to make you feel better, then why not?”
For a second she forgot they were surrounded by five other people. Eren stopped laughing long enough to join the others in completely shocked silence.
“Great! Can I have your number so we can hash out the details?” He asked, suddenly feeling shy.
“Yeah!” She answered, feeling a bit shy herself.
“My phones dead though.” He sighed.
Sasha looked down at the permanent marker on the table and struck the boldest idea she’d ever had.
“Gimme your hand!” It came out more as a demand than a request.
“Yes ma’am!” He raised his eyebrows in surprise and extended his arm.
She took his forearm and wrote out her number, being extra careful to make it nice and neat. She finished it off with “Sasha Blouse” in big letters. She may or may not have been feeling a little territorial. She capped off the pen and set it back down on the table once she was done.
“I’ll see you tonight!” She grabbed Armin’s arm to leave and waved at him before running off. She could feel her heart pounding in her ears and her face heating up, she hoped she didn’t look desperate or pushy.
“You looked so composed until now.” Armin commented with a smirk. His poker face façade only faded when it was to torment Sasha.
“So did you.” She retaliated. She couldn’t see straight.
“What the hell just happened?” She just barely heard Eren yell. She could only imagine the look on his face as he asked that.
“How does someone like you get with someone like that?” She heard one of the girls ask.
“Don’t be salty just because I got the prettiest girl on campus to go on a date with me.” Jean said proudly.
It took everything Sasha had in her not to scream.