My Professor's Secret

36|

Way to spark the emotions, Wyatt.

Before attempting the line again, my eyes latch in concentration, channeling every ounce of emotion in me, and grasping the bag of flour in my arm as if it's the last time I'll ever lay eyes on it.

"'I will not name the man!'"  Even without the stamp of approval brewing on Wyatt's lips, unsettling nausea scoundrel its way up my belly. Perhaps it was too unduly.

"Now that," Wyatt pauses, fighting back a grin. "That was convincing."

The script continues as Wyatt rushes through the bits and pieces that belonged to characters we choose as a backup in case we hadn't gotten our first choice. Auditions and casting would be established during our upcoming lecture. It's why our scenes had to be flawless if we wanted these roles. Luckily after I'd forced myself into character, we were able to read through the play in its entirety.

By the time we've packed up our things and left the library, darkness has already fallen. Tonight's air isn't as frigid as I recall since returning from Minnesota— for that matter, I'm grateful. Unfortunately, some things couldn't be abandoned in Dreycott. The thought of my father's fate still plunged at my conscience every opportunity it had. As erroneous as it seemed, up until now, dad hadn't crossed my mind. Not because I wasn't thinking about him, but because I had forced myself not to.

Only now, as we proceed closer to my resident hall, the broken expression on his bandaged face as he lies limp in his bed is all that remains. Being home alone was the absolute last thing on my mind right now. If Taylor had been there, I wouldn't have minded. Instead—she and Leonardo were spending the night "getting to know each other" she told me over text message on my way to the library to meet up with Wyatt.

"So, what are you doing tonight? Any parties I wasn't invited to going on at the fraternity?"

Wyatt turns from his deadpanned stare of the road towards me with a smile spread across his face and laughs. "If there were a party—you'd be one of the first to know. Especially after what I heard went down at the last party I threw," he pauses, as a smug smile spreads across his lips. I suppose it makes sense that Wyatt heard about what went down between Rachel considering it happened at his fraternity. Although it's the urge to confront him about the girl he took to Hoa's parlor that yet beseeched me, mute I remain. "Why? Are you looking to get into something tonight?"

"More like everything, anything. I don't want to be home alone tonight. Too much shit on my mind."

My remark unmistakably disrupts the stillness of the atmosphere. As a way to deflect, Wyatt replies with a lame joke querying whether or not I'd invited him back to my place—which isn't the case. Amidst the clearing of confusion, it takes little to convince him to spend the rest of the evening with me. Which ironically still leads us back to the topic of going to my dorm in pursuit of the answers to our current predicament of boredom.

Laying tucked in the drawer of my desk is the bucket list Taylor and I seemingly tossed aside after our last conquest. We only managed to accomplish a few things on the list since I brought it back. Even if I had to do it with Wyatt, or alone for that matter, I intended to do them all. After pulling the notebook from the drawer, I change into a pair of boots far more comfortable than the pair of leather ones I decided to wear today. Our dorm is vacant and has still provided little interest in my current mood along with the urge to stay. On the way out the door, a glimpse of my reflection pulls my eyes towards the mirror and the frail appearance I'd been lugging around frightens me.