Nothing Else Mattered--EXCEPT HIM

CHAPTER 7: Project Tensions

It had been three weeks.

Three weeks of morning lectures, awkward group laughs, and scribbled notes she wasn’t always proud of.

Three weeks of watching him from her usual seat third bench, left side, beside Arun while pretending she wasn’t doing exactly that. Elenna had learned to be quieter with her glances, better at hiding the way her pulse picked up when he walked in. And yet, some things didn’t get easier. Like the way his voice curled around her name during roll call. Or how he asked her questions, even when half the class was raising their hands.

She wasn’t stupid.

She knew what this was now.

It wasn’t just nervousness anymore. It wasn’t just fear of being seen.

It was a crush. Plain and sharp.

And though she hated the cliché of it,  student crushes on teachers and all, she couldn’t seem to silence the rush in her chest when he looked her way.

Still, she kept it locked tight inside her, scribbled in the corners of her sketchbooks under doodles of rib cages and messy hearts.

“Alright, listen up,” Prashant said, snapping the class out of their Monday daze. He was standing tall at the podium again, whiteboard behind him covered in neat lines and labeled bones.

“A group project,” he continued. “One week. Presentation next Monday. Topics will be randomly assigned. Four people per group.”

Groans echoed around the room, followed by hushed excitement. Elenna blinked, caught between hope and dread.

“Groups will be on the board,” he added, tapping the corner of the chalk tray. “Don’t ask for swaps.”

The list was already there. Arun leaned forward to read it, and she did too, her eyes trailing down to her own name.

Group 4: Elenna, Arun, Priya, Rishan

Her lips parted. Arun, he's okay. Priya, the girl who always smelled like citrus and kept glitter pens. But Rishan?

She glanced toward the back. Of course he was already smirking, dark hair tousled like he hadn’t even tried, leaning back with that lazy confidence that made some girls giggle and others roll their eyes.

“Great,” she muttered.

Arun snorted. “We’ll survive.”

“Hopefully,” she said under her breath.

After class, the group gathered awkwardly under the staircase near the library. Rishan arrived last, stretching like he’d just woken from a nap.

“Okay team,” he said dramatically, “who’s leading this legendary anatomy adventure?”

Priya looked at Elenna. Arun looked at Priya.

Elenna sighed. “Fine. I’ll coordinate. But we all work on this.”

“Fair enough,” Rishan replied, eyeing her with a slow smile that lingered a bit too long. “You’re scarier than you look, you know?”

She ignored that. Arun did not.

Meanwhile, back in the classroom, Prashant stood alone, erasing the final chalk lines from the board. His jaw moved slightly as if chewing over thoughts he hadn’t yet shaped into words.

He didn’t usually linger on students. Not beyond what was necessary. But her name kept echoing back. Elenna.

Something in the way she answered. The way her voice shook and steadied, like she was trying harder than anyone else in the room.

Was it admiration?

Curiosity?

It wasn’t attraction. He didn’t let himself go there.

But every time he called her name, a quiet flicker lit up beneath his ribs. And every time her eyes met his, he felt like something shifted, just a little.

He was still figuring it out.

Later that evening, Elenna sat on her bed, laptop open, the project doc barely half filled. She stared at her screen and instead found her mind drifting back to the moment in class when their eyes had met.

He sees me. Not just as a student.

Maybe it was foolish to think that.

Maybe it was dangerous to want it to be true.

But as she typed the first few lines about the thoracic cavity and copied diagrams into slides, her heart knew exactly what it wanted even if she never said it out loud.

NOTE: The Story is going To Be INTERESTING in the upcoming Chapters
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Stay Tuned for Chapter 8!