Haphephobia: the fear of being touched.
Blake, a second-year Psychology student, hadn't ever heard of such a phobia, until the day he was hired as a guide for Dean, the heir of a rich family.
Even though Dean had the appearance and behaviour of a ge...
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Effort should be its own reward. Of course, one could take pleasure from the various other prizes effort could provide, but the real fulfilment should be the feeling of a job well done.
Another option is to show off one's grades to the same person that threatened to give them extra work if they didn't pull through, and that was exactly what Collin planned on doing. Not only did he plan to gloat about them, he wanted to do it in style.
Standing in front of the lab door, he searched for a generic triumphant song and then he pressed play, opening the doors towards his big entrance, chest out in pride.
Both Adam and Jane stopped their work as he entered grandiosely, walking in large steps and with the most pompous expression he could muster. Jane was the first to react, scoffing out a laugh and clapping jokingly. Whether or not she knew the reason for the show was a mystery, but regardless, Collin appreciated the support.
The intern paused to wave at his single supporter and then continued his path towards the man working on his laptop, who eyed him with no expression apart from a slightly curved eyebrow. Once Collin reached his supervisor, he hurried to turn the music off, opening his student page that bore his grades. He had been receiving the exam-results one by one, but he had purposely waited until all of them were out to show it to Adam, just so he could see the look on his face. And now he was about to witness it.
Adam leaned slightly forward, skimming the screen with his eyes for a second before looking up at the smiling boy.
- What?
Collin's smile fell.
- What, what? – he repeated back, checking the phone to make sure he was on the right page. Seeing that that wasn't the problem, his eyebrows drew together at the older man. – Aren't you seeing the results?
- I am.
- Then what's with your reaction? This was my best semester!
To his annoyance, Adam still didn't give a reaction - or an adequate one at least. The supervisor shrugged him off, calmly closing the laptop and turning his back to the intern, getting up from his chair to walk away.
Collin felt a sense of disappointment translating into a deep scowl and flared nostrils.
He was so flabbergasted that he had to glance at Jane, just to make sure that it was really happening. The other doctorate student appeared just as surprised by Adam's reaction, shaking her head in response to Collin's look.
