Chapter 13

Tessa’s POV

We walked up the stairs until we reached the faculty center. It was fairly vacant considering it was late in the evening and most teachers had already gone home.

Joseph’s office was in the back corner and secluded from most of the others. Like his bedroom, the office was extremely shaded. It was like he was afraid to allow any kind of sunlight through the window.

Not that there was much sunlight right now anyways.

Looking through the curtains that occupied his window, I could see the area of the street where the motorcycle gang had me surrounded.

He really did have a good view of that.

I wondered how I must have looked to him from up here. I wondered what he must have felt when he called the police.

I looked up at the camera in the hallway that captured him in his office during the attack. It didn’t look like a camera that was out of the ordinary.

“Was there something you wanted to talk about?” Joseph asked, peering over at me from his desk.

“Thank you for calling the police last night,” I said, turning to face him. “I’m sure it must have looked crazy from your office.”

He raised his brows and glanced at the window.

“Anybody would have called the police if they had seen that,” he said casually. “It’s quite dangerous wandering around at night. You should be more careful.”

“I will be next time,” I assured him. “So… what exactly did it look like to you from up here? Or did you hear something they said that made you call the police?”

He furrowed his brows together as he stared at me, assessing my every facial movement.

“I value my office time and when students come to see me, I expect them to discuss topics related to the course,” he said, his tone running flat.

His patience had run out.

“I also wanted to discuss my paper,” I said, giving him a nervous smile. “I’m sorry if my question earlier upset you.”

“You apologize too much.”

My face grew warm.

I suppose given my relationship with Brian. I grew accustomed to apologizing often. It was something I hadn’t realized until that moment.

“I was inspired a lot last night and it really helped me to write the paper. I must have been hallucinating because so many of the events last night felt real. It was like they actually happened.”

“Sometimes traumatic events can lead to hallucinations,” he said, meeting my eyes.

I observed his face, trying to find any minor thing. A scratch, a bump, a glimmer of recognition in his eyes. But he was giving me nothing. I couldn’t even see the wound on his neck due to his shirt collar covering it.

If I could just get a glimpse of his neck, I could at least prove to myself that I’m not crazy. I know what I saw, and I might have been afraid for my life, but it wasn’t a hallucination.

“I read your paper though and it certainly made for a good read,” he continued. He was searching my face with his eyes, just as I was searching his with mine.

He liked my story?

“Do you know who the protagonist was based on?” I found myself asking.

He raised his right brow as he leaned back in his seat, folding his arms across his chest, he asked, “Me?”

I was honestly surprised that he was so direct, but I wasn’t surprised that he knew the answer. Of course, he would know it was about him. He was there after all.

“Yes, it was about you,” I confirmed. “How did you know that?”

“It’s because I called the police for you twice and rescued you from Brian,” Joseph explained. “If you were to have associative hallucinations, it’s very likely that you would think of me.”

I was at a loss for words as I stared at him.

It seemed like he had an answer for everything and even I was beginning to doubt my sanity. I was questioning what I actually saw this morning.

It was definitely his features that were illuminating under the intense rays of the moon. I felt his arms wrapped around my waist and the speed he used to get me away from the gang member.

I shivered at the memory.

“It was almost like you were actually there,” I said, trying to keep my voice from trembling.

I needed to prove that what I saw last night was real. The only way for me to do that was to see the wound on his neck. But with that high-collar shirt, it was nearly impossible.

“I’m sure you were just confused,” Joseph said as I started to walk lazily around his office.

How was I going to casually sneak a peek at his neck without him suspecting anything from me?

I inched closer to his desk, bumping it with my foot and watching as a pen fell from his desk. He looked down at it, seemingly annoyed as he bent to pick it up. I took that as my chance to try and look at his neck, but he grabbed the pen and sat up before I even had the chance.

He narrowed his eyes at me.

“Was there anything more you wanted to discuss?” He asked, sounding irritated. “In regard to the course,” he added, his tone hardening slightly.

“Actually, I was wondering if you had any criticisms about my paper. Maybe some pointers to better my writing for future papers.”

I mainly wanted to keep him talking so I could walk around his desk and try to get a different angle of his neck. I was running out of ideas unless I followed him around at night and waited for him to take his shirt off.

Imagining him with his shirt off reminded me of our drunken night together.

“My advice for you is to not overthink it. It’s clear to me that you underestimate your abilities. Your fellow peers voted you for third place. That’s something you should be proud of,” Joseph surprised me by saying.

“So, if it was only up to you, would you have still let me in your class?”

“Yes,” he said without a single thought.

My heart leaped in my chest, and I had to fight the smile on my face. Joseph Evergreen liked my writing.

“If there’s nothing more, you can enjoy the rest of the night. Be careful getting home,” he said to me.

He was trying to kick me out in a polite way, but I didn’t get what I went there for. I promised myself I wasn’t going to leave without knowing the truth. I needed to look at his neck.

I walked around his desk again, trying to find a new angle to look at his neck, but to no prevail. Joseph had already fixed his attention on his computer.

At that moment, something inside of me took over and all I could think about was getting a glimpse of that wound. The next thing I knew I was pulling down his collar and feeling paralyzed when I saw nothing but normal-looking flesh.

He was unharmed.

But how was that possible?

My heart nearly halted in my chest as Joseph met my eyes. I looked incredibly strange to him. I couldn’t seem to bring myself to release his collar.

But soon, he was pinning me against the wall. His body pressed against mine in an effort to keep me still. His body was rock-hard and the thought of him against me like this made me blush as the memory of the one-night stand came into mind.

“You’ve been acting suspicious and evading since you walked into my office,” Joseph seethed. “Why are you looking at my neck?”

For the first time, looking into Joseph’s eyes, I felt afraid.