The Diary of Our Love

Chapter 96

I bailed on college on Monday. I was too depressed to get up early and listen to some professor talking about anatomy even if I loved it. I was just too sad and my eyes looked awful from all the crying. Thus, to avoid questions from friends I skipped it one more day. I didn't leave the house or answered my phone. I just sunk down in my own misery. I knew it was going to happen after spending some days pretending that were together again and that we were fine. It had to bring sadness once real-life kicked in. On Tuesday though, my week started normally. I went to college a bit sooner to meet up with Julia who was gonna give me the appointments from the days I had missed. It was always like that. Whenever I had to miss college because of my job, Julia would give me her appointments. She was someone I really bonded with. I could count on her and she could count on me.

When we got in class, I had a newspaper on my desk. I looked at it surprised and I heard Howard saying something that I didn't understand properly. The only thing I got was "page 24" so I jumped to it immediately and panicked. Pictures of me and James having lunch were on that infamous page 24. I recognized the place. It was the restaurant where we had lunch on Friday. I read the text quickly and it said nothing special or incriminating. They just talked about us being seen together in Los Angeles having lunch and about a possible reconciliation though they hadn't seen any display of affection. Still, that was proof enough that we had spent the weekend together. None of our friends and family were that stupid to believe nothing happened between us. I knew I was gonna get in trouble for that. My mother used to read that newspaper every day, so that was enough for trouble and God knows who else could see it, or where else our pictures could be. I gave the newspaper back to Howard when the professor got in the room. He smiled at me when I did so. I think it was a supportive smile, but I felt a bit sorry for him.

Howard was hurt by my decision to break up, but soon he got his pieces together and we talked and we tried to stay friends as we were before start dating. Obviously, nothing was the same. We talked and we worked on the same group at college, but then there were some subjects that were a bit awkward to discuss between us, and this one was a good example. I don't think he was over me yet and this news must have been somehow hard for him. Anyway, it was a nice gesture of him to show me that.

I didn't pay much attention to class for I had the photos and the news in the paper travelling in my mind. I kept thinking about what my mother would say when she would see it, but most of all, the moments those photos represented took care of my thoughts. Every single moment of our days in LA were being relived in my memory and all the times we made love. It made me realize that it had only been two days and I missed James so much. I wondered if he missed me too for I haven't heard from him since we left the airport.

Mr. Perez was giving us class today. I had a great relationship with him so I thought he was the one to help me with my other problem. I still had the sexual diseases issue ringing in my head. I knew it was too soon to get myself tested, but there was still the risk I caught it sooner, as James confessed he had cheated on me when we broke up. We always had unprotected sex, taking only precautions for pregnancy. So, as soon as he ended the class, I told my colleagues to wait for me at the cafeteria and walked up to the teacher.

"Mr. Perez." I called.

"Yes, Leandra." He said, raising his head from the papers he was organizing.

"I'm sorry to disturb you sir, but I... I need your help and discretion." I told him.

"What is it?" He said looking at me with concern.

"Do you know any laboratory... I mean a good one... where I can do some tests for STD's?" I asked, feeling my cheeks catching on fire.

"Leandra! Being in the second year of medicine, having unprotected sex is almost a crime." He scolded me.