No one will know | 18+

Chapter 18

I shrugged and walked towards the club.

I didn't like Mattia that way. Perhaps, if we had been friends, I might have reconsidered. Maybe I would even fall in love with him after getting to know him better. But at that moment he didn't interest me. My mind and heart were elsewhere, kidnapped by someone who didn't want me.

I wondered if I had just made a mistake. A relationship with a boy my age could be the cure for the feelings I had for an older man.

I reached the bathrooms, locking myself inside the toilet.

No, the only cure for my unrequited love was silence and detachment. I had to hold on during the months remaining in my fifth year of high school. Then, I would have said goodbye to Pedro Pascal and forgotten about him. Only then would my heart be able to accept someone else.

I took my time, starting to ponder on the toilet.

"Do not even think about it!"

I recognized that voice right away.

Professor Pascal was standing beyond the bathroom door talking to someone else.

"Why? You said you're not interested," the man who was with him replied. It took me a while to figure out that it was his friend Oscar.

"She's just a girl and you're a grown man. It's wrong and you know it very well."

I strained my ears, unable to believe what I was hearing.

"Pedro" his voice was mischievous. "She is an adult too and she can make her own decisions."

I heard heavy footsteps. "You won't flirt with her," Pascal insisted. Oscar laughed. "You may be my best friend, but I swear I'll break your face."

"Okay, okay," he said condescendingly. "I won't hit on her, are you happy now?"

Pascal didn't answer and I heard the sound of flowing water.

"But in return, you must admit how you feel."

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"You like her, admit it."

"She is one of my students!" Pascal's voice was lower and rougher.

My heart exploded, pounding with such intensity that I thought I was about to pass out. I put a hand over my mouth, fighting back a cry of surprise.

Just then, my phone decided it was time to fall. I froze. The noise seemed deafening and I was sure they both heard it too.

I held my breath, counting the seconds in my head.

"Let's go back to the others," Professor Pascal said.

I heard their footsteps as they walked away. To be safe, I waited a few more minutes before exiting the lavatory.

The conversation I had just overheard couldn't be real. Surely alcohol had driven me crazy and I had imagined it. There was no other explanation.

Professor Pascal didn't have a crush on one of his students. And even if it were true, I certainly wouldn't have been directly affected.

It was just impossible.

A joke, an illusion.

I stared at my reflection in the mirror. My face was red, whether it was from alcohol or something else I couldn't tell. I arranged my hair with robotic movements and allowed myself a few more minutes of deep breaths.

As I stepped out of the bathroom, the music filled my ears, rumbling from ear to ear. In the minutes I had spent outside and in the toilets, more people had arrived and it had become difficult to move around the place.