Once Upon A Rejection

It was the middle of the afternoon when Grayson parked the car outside of the dormitory. There were quite a few other students walking around and it felt like all of them were staring at us. I know it was probably just in my imagination but that didn’t make me feel better.

“I will only be a couple of minutes.” I said as I stepped out of the car.

I started walking towards my building. I hoped that Grayson would get the hint and wait for me in the car but apparently that was too much to ask for. I could hear him following me. I wanted to tell him to wait at the car but I could feel my anger rising and I knew it would only lead to a fight. Why couldn’t he just leave me alone for a few minutes?

By the time that I reached the door to my dorm room I was fuming. I flung the door open so hard that it ricochet off the wall and swung back almost hitting me in the face.

“Be careful Molly, I really would like to get my security deposit back when we move out.” June said. She was sitting on the bed surrounded by piles of books and papers.

“Sorry.” I mumbled.

“So how did it go?” June asked. Her smile suddenly dropped as Grayson walked into the room and stood behind me.

‘She is drooling over our mate, make her stop.’ Jade said.

“Who is this?” June asked. Grayson stepped forward.

“My name is Grayson Ward, I am Molly’s fiancee.” He said. He held out his hand for her to shake. June took it but the shock was clearly written on her face.

I wished that the ground would swallow me. Why oh why did he have to jump straight to fiancee. He could have said family friend or boyfriend but no he had to go straight for fiancee. As though this whole thing wasn’t weird enough for a human to understand.

June was going to have so many questions the next time we had a class together. Questions that I didn’t have the slightest clue how to answer. I should have tired Grayson to the fricking steering wheel, I knew it was a bad idea letting him follow me.

‘I knew you were kinky.’ Jade said.

“I thought you didn’t have a boyfriend.” June said as she turned her attention to me.

“I didn’t.” I said. Grayson should be the one having to explain this not me.

June looked at me. She was waiting for me to elaborate but what could I say.

“We saw each other at the party last night and it was love at first sight.” Grayson said, taking hold of my hand.

June scowled at us. I knew what she was thinking. I was always the one that told her she was silly and overly romantic when she talked about falling in love with people she had only met a few times. She was never going to believe this.

“So does this mean you will stop giving me a hard time about wanting to find my soulmate.” June said. She suddenly started smiling at me again. She can’t believe this surely?

Grayson smiled back at her.

“I am sure she won’t say anything like that now she has found her mate.” He said.

“I need to get my laptop.” I tried to change the subject before Grayson could put his foot in it any more than he already had.

I walked over to my side of the room and started picking up some of the things I might need over the next few days. My laptop, my books and a few changes of clothes.

“If you are going to marry my best friend then I should probably get to know you better.” June said.

“Of course. Maybe we should all go for dinner together tomorrow.” Grayson suggested.

I cringed to myself and started packing faster. Grayson was not good around humans, I was worried what he might say if he was around a group of them for more than a few minutes.

“I can’t do it tomorrow but I can do it the day after.” June suggested.

“Sounds perfect.” Grayson replied.

“Why are you packing, are you going somewhere?” June asked.

“We wanted to be alone together.” Grayson replied.

I felt like laughing. It was not like that at all. I was only going with him because I knew that there was no way he would stay that far away from me every night. The alternative was to have him hanging around my dorm every night like some kind of stalker and getting arrested.

Grayson walked over to me, he wrapped his arm around my waist. I stopped what I was doing. I wanted to push him away from me but that probably wouldn’t have gone down very well.

‘We have to make them believe we are in love.’ Grayson told me over mindlink.

‘Any excuse.’ I replied

“Maybe I should take you shopping.” He said as he looked at my clothes. If I wasn’t angry before I certainly was now.

“Why? Don’t you like my clothes?” I asked.

“They look lovely but you don’t have many. You need more.” He said.

“I am doing fine, I don’t need you to buy me things.” I replied.

I felt angry again. Our relationship was fake, for appearances only. Yet he still wanted to treat me as though we were in a real relationship. He wanted us to act like a happy couple in front of everyone we knew and now he was trying to buy me things.

“Oh come on, it sounds like fun. I wish I had someone to spoil me like that.” June said. The fricking traitor that she is. If she likes him so much then why doesn’t she date him?

Jade growled.

“You can come too, we can go before we have dinner together.” Grayson said.

June squealed excitedly.

I finished packing the things I needed into a couple of bags. I told June that I would see her in class the next day then carried my bags towards Grayson’s car. Grayson followed closely behind practically begging me to let him carry my bags.

I just rolled my eyes. I could feel Jade wanting me to give in and give him a chance but for me all of this was too little too late. None of this proved he really cared for me. It would take a lot more than money and grand gestures to convince me of that.

I shoved my bags into the boot and got back in the car. I crossed my arms across my chest and stared out of the front window. I heard Grayson get into the car next to me but I didn’t look at him.

“Why did you tell June that we were engaged?”

“I did some research this morning. Isn’t that the human equivalent of what we are to each other? Given that we are mates who have not yet marked.” He said.

“Maybe but you should have done a bit more research. Humans don’t normally get engaged until they have dated for months or years.” I said.

“Oh.” He said, turning an interesting shade of pink.

“I am sure it will be ok, they will just think we are a bit odd. That is all.” I said.

I have no idea why I was trying to make him feel better. The only thing I could think was that he looked kinda cute when he was blushing.

‘Or you don’t hate him as much as you pretend to.’ Jade said.

“Great. How about we get checked into the hotel and order room service?” Grayson asked.

“How can I argue with that?” I replied.