Free The Full Experience by Dawn Doyle Page B

flowers added more color, and their perfume only added to the meadow-like atmosphere in the room.
    “I need to go see Lenny about our paper. Will you be ok?” Ava asked, rubbing Raven’s arms.
    “Oh yeah, I’ll be fine. I’m going to head over to the library soon anyway.”
    “Ok, Ray-Ray.”

    The rest of the day went by without a peep from Beck. Strangely, Donnie was nowhere to be seen either. It made Raven both relieved and guilty.
    Guilty because she’d made him think she was ‘taken’, when she knew how he felt about that.

    *****

    Raven felt so nervous her stomach was rolling. She was about to go into class and face Beck after a weekend of silence.
    She’d felt as though she’d had a vacation without his sexual references and innuendos, but she hated to admit that she missed him .
    She missed how his gaze made her feel. How his closeness had her heart pounding.
    No matter what his game was, Beck had gotten well and truly under her skin.
    He’d made sure of that.
    Taking a deep breath, she opened the door to the lecture room.
    Beck was sitting in the chair next to her as he had done since their year started. He had to remain there because once seats were taken, they were allocated to that student.
    He was looking down at the table, doodling on the paper in front of him.

    “Hey,” she said quietly as she sat down next to him.
    “Hey,” he replied, not looking up from the paper.
    That was it. He didn’t say another word to her as she got her books out of her bag.  
    Raven had no idea what was going through his mind as he stared down at the table.
    God I hate this!

    “ Who’s the guy?” He asked after a half hour into the lecture.
    “What guy?”
    “Don’t play dumb, Raven. The guy who sent you the flowers. The one you ‘love’.”
    “Why do you want to know?”
    He turned his body to her, his expression stone cold as he stared.
    “Why didn’t you say anything?” he asked, not answering her question.
    “You didn’t ask.”
    “I shouldn’t have to.”
    “I shouldn’t have to tell you my business either; should I?”
    Beck turned back to his doodles. “No,” he muttered. “But it would’ve been nice to know you had a boyfriend.”
    “I never said I didn’t.”
    “I assumed you didn’t when you never said anything!” he whisper shouted, instantly turning back to her. His eyes burned into her accusatorially. “You let me carry on anyway, and you know how I feel about that, Raven.”
    “I have a rule of my own, Beck,” she lowered her voice. “ Never assume.”
    “Is it that guy, the one who you had to fake it with?”
    “That’s none of your business!” she almost yelled. “You overheard a private conversation that had nothing to do with you!”
    “It is isn’t it? What’s the point in being with somebody if they can’t get you off?” he asked, as if she hadn’t spoken.
    “Not everything is about sex, Beck.”
    “Isn’t it?” he, narrowed his eyes at her. His eyebrows pinched together as if wondering what she was talking about.
    “Maybe for you, but not for me.”
    “You’re damn right,” he growled.
    Raven didn’t want to carry on with their argument, or whatever it was they were having. She felt guilty enough as it was, and decided just to take a deep breath, and leave it there.
    Beck didn’t speak to her for the rest of the class and made his exit the second they were dismissed.

    Beck was gone in a flurry, Ava was nowhere to be found, and the other girls were in their classes.
    Raven had nobody to turn to.  
    Taking out her phone, she called Ava to find out where she was. She needed her friend.
    “What’s the matter, Ray?” Ava asked when Raven sniffed up.
    “Ay, I think I made Beck really really mad,” she said, ducking into a corner under the stairs in the senior halls for privacy.
    “What happened?”
    The noise behind Ava silenced as if she’d shut herself in a quiet room.
    Raven told Ava about the conversation between them in class, and