I arrived at school Monday morning with butterflies in my stomach. I’d spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with Melanie and Quinn, not thinking about what had transpired Friday night. But that morning, reality had set in. I was anxious and nervous. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to act. I knew I should pretend it had never happened, but I also knew I wouldn’t be able to once I saw him. I had a feeling that the anger from that night would come to the surface as soon as I saw his face.
I kept my eyes focused on the ground as I approached the door to the classroom, just in case he wasn’t in there already and walked around the corner from his office. My stomach was in knots as I reached for the door and opened it. My eyes immediately looking toward his desk to see it was empty. Relief flowed through me as I walked toward it and signed my name.
Get it together, Em. You’re being stupid.
I turned from the desk and walked toward the stairs to get to my seat when the door opened and he walked in.
Just my luck.
I stopped where I was as he came in wearing a dark blue suit with a briefcase in hand. My heart raced as he made eye contact with me for a second before averting his eyes and making his way to his desk. I frowned and felt overheated as I continued up the stairs and settled into my seat. He’d looked at me as if he was disgusted, causing the anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach to turn to regret for thinking I could do what I did and not feel anything. That one look was like a stab to the gut. Anger still stirred, but it was overpowered by anguish and remorse.
Gah, I’m so stupid.
I busied myself getting my things ready for class, not noticing anyone was next to me until I heard him speak.
“Good morning.”
Turning toward the voice, I smiled as I saw Brian sitting next to me, setting up his laptop.
“Good morning.”
“Thank you for sending me all of your notes from Monday. I really appreciate it. I was going to send you an email, but I wanted to thank you in person,” he said with a smile.
I returned his smile. He really is a good-looking guy. My thoughts were interrupted as I heard a bang from the front of the room. I turned toward the noise to see Mason had slammed his phone down on his desk and was running a hand through his hair. He looked disheveled and pissed.
“I guess someone’s having a bad morning,” Brian whispered close to my ear.
I spun back to him with a frown to see he was only a few inches away from me. I backed away and quickly looked back down at Mason. He was looking at me, but averted his eyes just as quickly as mine met his.
I didn’t understand what that was all about.
“Hopefully his mood doesn’t project onto his teaching for the day,” Brian stated as he backed away and opened his notebook.
I looked at him with a small smile and opened a new Word document on my laptop. I hoped it wouldn’t either.
“Okay, class,” Mason started as he picked up a stack of papers and held it out for Steven. “We’ve done some book work, and now it’s time to get your hands a little dirty. The papers being passed around are from a cold case back in the eighties.” He paced the room and stuck his hands in his pockets. “I want you to partner up and review all the documents. Become familiar with the case and use all the resources available. How would you prosecute the case? Next Wednesday, I want to hear your thoughts.” He stopped pacing as a girl in front of me raised her hand. “Yes?”
“Is this for a grade?”
He took his hands out of his pocket and walked to stand behind his desk. “Did you read your syllabus, Ms. Jenkins?” he asked in an aggravated tone.
She looked around the room as if to see how many of us were staring. I felt embarrassed for her and a little upset he was being so rude. How hard was it to just say ‘refer to your syllabus’ or he could just tell her no. He didn’t have to embarrass her in front of everyone.
“Y-yes, I did.”
“Then you already know the answer.” He pulled the chair out from his desk and took a seat as he shuffled through some papers. We were all quiet as we waited for what to do next, not moving or saying a word. Then he looked up from his papers and slammed his hand down on his desk. “What are you all just sitting there for? Pick your partners and get started.”
I jumped at his tone and picked up the stapled packet of paper in front of me.
“Do you want to partner up?” Brian asked from beside me.
“Sure.” I hadn’t really talked to anyone else in the class, so I didn’t see a problem in having him as a partner. “But you better bring your A game because I don’t want to look bad.”