Chapter 55

Joseph’s POV

“Hello, Professor. I thought maybe we could have lunch together and discuss that book,” Emily said as she entered the classroom.

I was only in this classroom for a minute so I could grab some things, I wasn’t really expecting to have lunch with anybody. In fact, I wanted to sleep during the lunch period. But Emily’s large almond eyes stared up at me with such hopefulness that I started to feel guilty that I was shunning her.

Though, I wasn’t shunning her purposely. But I knew her being around made Tessa uncomfortable and I didn’t wish for her to feel that way. So, I’ve been aiming to be careful. If Tessa were to see Emily in my classroom right now, I doubt she would be thrilled by it.

“I made way too much food and I need someone to share it with,” Emily continued, as she brushed her fingers through her dark mass of hair.

“All right,” I finally said after a pause.

I grabbed the folder I came to the classroom for and joined her at the doorway. I was hungry and it would have been nice to have a conversation during lunch that didn’t include naive questions from the young minds of students.

…

Tessa’s POV

I watched Joseph and Emily walk side by side towards the stairs that lead to the offices. My heart ached in my chest, and I took a step back. I wasn’t going to follow them so I could give Joseph this lunch. I would be wrong to do so, especially considering he was my professor.

“Oh my god, were you to have lunch with Professor Evergreen?” I heard a female voice from behind me, making me turn around quickly.

A couple of girls stood before me, and I recognized them both to be in Jospeh’s class. They were staring at me with wide and amused eyes, folding their arms across their large chests and smirking.

“What? No, of course not,” I said, furrowing my brows together. “Why would you say that?”

“Um, because you are standing outside his office door with a lunchbox like a lost puppy,” she chuckled.

I looked down at the lunchbox, frowning.

“No fucking way,” the other girl said, stepping around her friend to get a closer look at it. “It has his name on it. That’s his lunchbox. You made him lunch??”

Both girls burst out laughing, causing heat to flare my features.

“I told you she was obsessed with him,” the first girl said in a fit of laughter. “It’s gross. She’s always staring at him longingly in class. She’s practically drooling over him.”

“I don’t know how I didn’t see it before,” the other girl said, shaking her head. “What a pathetic crush. Thinking that Joseph Evergreen would ever be interested.”

“You have it all wrong,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m not interested in Professor Evergreen. I found his lunchbox. I was just returning it to him.”

“Yeah right,” they both laughed.

“Hate to break it to you. But he’s obviously interested in that new teacher. I don’t blame him either. She’s hot and way more in his league than you are.”

I felt my face reddening and I knew I needed to get away from them before I completely gave away my feelings.

“I’ll admit that I’m a bit fascinated by him, but It’s nothing more than that,” I said, trying to act as casually as possible.

Neither of them looked convinced, but both their demeanors had changed instantly, and their bodies tensed as they stared upward and above my head.

“Is that my lunchbox?”

I froze when I heard Joseph’s voice behind me.

I slowly turned and saw him standing before me, his eyes fixated on my face and his brows raised. He didn’t look angry, just curious, maybe a little confused.

There’s no reason why I would have his lunchbox, so I understood why he was confused.

“Yes,” I said quickly, trying to figure out an excuse to tell him as to why I would have his lunchbox.

“I’ve been looking for that. I must have misplaced it. Thank you,” he said, grabbing it from my hands.

I was dumbfounded.

He was playing along.

Both girls looked at one another with confused looks.

“We must have misunderstood,” one of the girls said to the other.

“Yeah. Sorry, Tessa.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off Joseph’s. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking but he continued to look at me intently until the girl decided to scurry off to the lunchroom. At that moment, I realized I had been holding my breath this entire time and I finally was able to breathe.

“What were you doing with my lunch box?” He finally asked, raising his brows. “I don’t remember bringing this to school today.”

“I wanted to surprise you with lunch,” I said, keeping my tone low for his ears only. “I’m sorry for causing a disturbance.”

“I came back downstairs because I forgot something and saw that you were in a predicament. Figured I’d lend a hand,” he explained.

He looked like he was about to turn away, so I grabbed onto his arm, stepping closer to him.

“Are you having lunch with her?” I heard the question leaving my lips before I could stop them, and I instantly hated myself.

He rose his brow at me.

“She wanted to discuss a book I borrowed from her. It’s nothing more than that,” he answered.

I dropped my hand from his arm and looked to the ground.

“I see.”

He stared around my face for a moment longer.

“Thank you for lunch, Tessa.”

He turned away and went towards his classroom. Leaving me standing alone and watching him.

…

The next day.

It was a sleepless night. Every time I closed my eyes, I would see Joseph and Emily side by side. I’m not sure why this irked me so much. I knew what my relationship was with Joseph as soon as I discovered he was my professor.

I wanted to talk to him more about Emily, to find out if there really was something going on with them. When we got home last night, I thought that would be my chance, but he had a meeting with the Nightwalker police that I wasn’t invited to.

Admittedly, I was insulted by this. It was my blood that attracted them. It was me that they were after. Yet they kept me from the meeting. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was because they were hiding something.

“How was the meeting last night?” I found myself asking as Joseph cut some fruit for breakfast.

“Uneventful. I was hoping we’d get a little more accomplished but it’s difficult when we don’t have much of a trail to go off.”

“Would it help if I went to the headquarters for the next meeting? Maybe I could—”

“No,” he said firmly, meeting my eyes. “It wouldn’t help anything. As I’ve said before, you going to the headquarters was a one-time thing.”

“I just feel like I should help capture them. It is me they are after.”

“Exactly, they are after you. Which means we need to keep you safe,” Joseph said, narrowing his eyes at me.

Staring at him I had a strange sense that he wasn’t telling me everything. I couldn’t explain why I was feeling this way or where it was coming from, but I somehow knew he wasn’t being completely honest.

“Come on. I don’t want you to be late for school,” Joseph said as he placed his fruit in a bowl and began heading toward the door.

He grabbed his keys off the counter and tossed them to me.

The feeling of Joseph hiding something weighed heavily on my mind for most of the day. It was something I couldn’t stop thinking about.

What was the real reason he didn’t want me to go to the headquarters?

“What’s wrong?” Ruby asked as we took our seats in the back of Joseph’s classroom.

“It’s nothing,” I said, shaking my head. “I guess I’m just feeling a little under the weather.”

Joseph came into the classroom moments later and began sorting through some of the assignments on his desk.

Then, he came around his desk and stood in front of the class. His eyes crossed over the room until they landed on me. We held eye contact for a moment before he pulled his eyes away and addressed everyone else.

“We are going to talk about story transitions today because some of you have issues with the transitioning of your scenes,” Joseph began. “I’m going to be using Christopher Moore as an example a lot today because he struggled with that in the beginning. But with practice, he overcame that.”

Moments later, while Joseph was in the middle of talking about one of Christopher Moore’s pieces, there was a light knock on his door and then it opened slightly.

“I couldn’t help but overhear the lesson you were having, and I have my own opinions on the topic. May I?” She asked.

Joseph was quiet for a moment, but then he nodded and motioned for her to enter.

She came into the room and stood beside him, beaming as she spoke to the class. Though, her eyes kept finding Joseph and her lips kept tugging into a smile every time their eyes met.

It was making me feel physically sick.

Escaping this room never looked better to me.

“They look so good together,” the girl in front of me whispered to her friend who sat beside her.

“Right? What a beautiful couple.”