Chapter Text
He wasn't even sure when it started.
Wait, that's not true. It started back when he walked into her (he could admit that now). He'd been striding along laughing at something Val had said and then suddenly there was this much smaller body in his space. He'd instinctually tried to avoid it, of course, but it was too late. There was a bump. She, because it was a girl, had staggered a little but didn't fall over, so apparently the collision hadn't been that bad.
And, because that was how he was back then, he had said "Watch where you're going" to the top of her brown-haired head, already making to step back to the current path of his life and whatever douchebaggery had been next on the agenda at the time. Before he could move on, though, she'd looked up at him with a pleasant smile and said in a low-pitched, lovely voice dripping sarcasm "Thanks. You too."
Smile not falling for as long as he was able to see her face, she'd taken a step back and then walked around him like he was just another corner on campus. Which he fucking wasn't. He was Cardan 'the Dick' Greenbriar.
Two days later, on his way through the cafeteria, he'd spotted (in a sea of girls he could and couldn't remember if he'd already slept with) a weirdly familiar head of hair at a table halfway across the room from his own. It took him a second to place her, but sure enough it was the you-too-girl. He took one proper look at her face, you know, just for the hell of it. Freckles, cheek bones, nose. Dark-honey eyes. A downright beautiful mouth that was talking around a teasing smile-turning-grin. Hm. Then there'd been no more because someone had called his name, Locke or whoever, and he'd moved on.