Chapter 14

Tessa’s POV

I felt my body tremble under the intensity of his stare. He was only inches from me, and I saw how red his eyes had gotten.

“I’m not trying to look at your neck,” I said to him in a small voice. “I thought I saw something on your shirt I was trying to get for you.”

It was a lame excuse and telling from his expression, he knew it. He released his hold on me, allowing me to move from beyond the wall he had me pinned against.

His expression was back to normal, and I felt like I could finally breathe, at least for a moment.

“You can leave now,” he ordered, keeping his tone low and his eyes away from me.

“I’m sorry—”

“I don’t know what any of this was about, but don’t make these excessive moves again,” he said, sending a shiver to course through my body.

I quickly nodded my head, showing him that I understood.

“It won’t happen again,” I assured him.

I mean that as well. It was clear to me now that I was hallucinating the entire time. Joseph was never there last night. He only saw the incident from the window and then called the police. He didn’t save me beyond that.

He never had a shard from the bike sliced through his neck.

I imagined the whole thing.

“If this is about the other night, I would like us to maintain a reasonable teacher-student relationship. Although I don’t plan on being a professor for long, I still need to have a good reputation.”

I nodded in agreement.

Maybe I was overthinking this whole thing. With everything going on these last few days, I could have been a little too sensitive. I did get heartbroken, slept with someone who turned out to be my teacher and got attacked in a matter of 2 days.

That could make anybody a little crazy.

I’m realizing now that Joseph wants to pretend that nothing had ever happened between us. I knew that was probably for the best.

As long as I attend class and ignore what happened before, everything will be fine.

I left his classroom without another word and as soon as I was outside the school, I paused as I stared down the dark streets. I probably shouldn’t have told Ruby she could leave without me.

Usually, I wouldn’t have cared about walking to her place, it wasn’t a far walk. But I feared what might happen if I was caught alone again by gang members.

I’m not sure I would be so lucky the second time.

I pulled out my phone and called Ruby to come and get me. She arrived in her old car and honked as soon as she neared me.

Getting onto the passenger side, she handed me a fast-food bag.

“I got us burgers,” she said with a grin.

I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I smelled the burger through the bag. My stomach growled angrily.

“I can’t believe we both got into that class,” I said, sighing with relief. “I was so scared.”

“I can’t believe you got third place. I read your story and loved every word. It deserved first.”

I laughed and shook my head.

“Hardly,” I said in return. “But your story definitely deserved a higher ranking. It was really good as well.”

She shrugged.

“I guess it doesn’t matter where we ranked in the top 15. Regardless, we made it on the list!”

She was right and I really needed to allow myself to feel good about this accomplishment. I felt even better knowing that Joseph would have chosen me himself.

We made it back to Ruby’s place and we settled in, curling up on the couch together to eat our burgers.

“So, you didn’t tell me about these scenarios you imagined last night,” Ruby said as she took a bite of her burger. “Who was that guy who saved you?”

“It wasn’t really much of anything,” I said, trying to sound casual as I took a bite out of my burger. “He was just someone who was walking by, and he helped me when he saw me in distress.”

She peered over at me, frowning.

“You didn’t get his name?” She asked, curiously.

“No,” I answered. “He was gone before I got the chance.”

“Do you think he was a student? Maybe a teacher?”

“I don’t know, Ruby,” I said, a little too loudly. She looked startled by my outburst, so I spoke in a softer tone. “He wasn’t someone I recognized,” I lied.

She looked disappointed.

“What were you talking to Professor Evergreen about in his office?” Ruby asked, wiggling her brows. I threw a pillow at her from across the couch, which she dodged effortlessly, laughing.

“Just about my paper,” I told her. “I just wanted to get some extra pointers on how to better my writing for future papers.”

“And did you guys talk about your encounter the other night?” She asked curiously.

“He wants to maintain our student-teacher relationship,” I answered. “Which is for the best.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

“As I said, it’s for the best. Plus, I only slept with him that one time and it was to get over Brian,” I said with a shrug.

…

After a few calm days, the first official start of the special writing course, taught by the famous author Joseph Evergreen, began. I could finally be excited and stop being so nervous.

Joseph started the class with the typical attendance list and made sure everybody was present. Then, he began explaining how to map a story. He used Christopher Moore as his examples a lot throughout his class and it seemed that other students were noticing this as well.

“What is it about Christopher’s work do you like so much?” Someone asked him.

“Christopher’s young and naive mind made for good storytelling. His imagination could run for miles, and he never seemed to run out of story ideas. I believe I’m inspired by him the most because of his carefree nature.”

“You talk about him like you knew him,” someone else laughed.

“When you read the books that someone wrote, it’s almost like you did know them,” Joseph replied thoughtfully. “I have many different versions of Christopher’s work at home, and it feels like I’ve been there with him, through it all.”

“I bet you live in a very nice home!” One of the girls in the front said, batting her lashes at him. “You should let us see where you live.”

“Oh yes! You can show us the versions you have of Christopher Moore’s work!”

I thought Joseph would have declined, but I was surprised that he seemed willing to invite students to his home.

“It’s just a temporary residence so I’m not sure it will satisfy your curiosity. But I can host a dinner party on Saturday evening for everybody.”

Everybody cheered with excitement.

Everybody except for me. I wasn’t sure I could confidently return to Joseph’s house after what we had done there.

I was worried that if I returned to his house, then the awkwardness would return. Ruby had asked, long after the class had ended, if I was planning on going to Joseph’s house for the dinner party. But I didn’t have an answer for her.

I kept telling her that I just needed to think about it.

Suddenly, my phone started to ring, and I frowned at the unfamiliar number.

“Hello?” I said into the phone.

“Hello, this is Officer Teller and I’m calling for a woman named Tessa.”

“Speaking.”

“Oh, hello Miss Tessa. I’m one of the officers that showed up for you during that gang attack. I’m calling to inform you that their bodies have been found.”

My entire body felt numb as I allowed his words to sink in.

“Their bodies?” I managed to say. My voice sounded distant and unfamiliar.

“Yes, mam,” the officer said in return. “These men were found dead.”