I hope you enjoyyyy!!!
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"Are you free to talk after class?"
The question immediately sent me into a small panic, but I nodded and calmed myself down, remembering that Professor Davis wasn't a guaranteed threat, but just a potential psychopath that may or may not have been scheming with Cooper behind my back.
"Sure. What about?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
"Cooper."
"Okay," I said with a short sigh. "Is it just about him in general or more about his past?"
My professor didn't say anything, but he stared at me with an unnameable something in his eyes. After studying his facial features for a moment, I chalked up that he had been looking at me with concern in his gaze... But his worry seemed masked by a dim nonchalant expression...?
"I think we should just wait until after class. I don't want to distract you from learning," he said quietly, making my stomach move uncomfortably.
With that, he walked away from my desk, and I could've sworn I'd seen a dark grey cloud over his head.
"Professor!" I called rather loudly, standing from my seat as my worked up nerves coerced me to. He'd quickly turned to face me and I couldn't help myself as I frowned at him. "I'd like to talk now..." I muttered, not wanting to be loud again.
Low murmurs had escaped my classmates' mouths; some wondering if the professor and I were going through a rough patch in our relationship, others wondering if I was cheated on by our professor, and some were just questioning what was going on and who I was.
"But—"
"Now, please," I said sternly, walking over to his desk. He watched me with hard, almost stunned eyes as I stepped past him and walked into his private lounge/office area, and he cleared his throat before telling the class that he'd return shortly and following after me.
"Look, Cameron, I know that you and I have a different—closer relationship than I do with my other students but you shouldn't make any more scenes like that... I mean, walking into my personal office—"
"I won't do it anymore," I said quickly. "But tell me, why are you acting so weird today? You keep looking at me with sorrow or-or worry in your eyes but the rest of your face is blank. I know we aren't that close but you're obviously hiding something from me and I want you to stop. Just be blunt. What is it?"
"I really think Giorgi should hear this too. That's why I wanted to wait until after class to talk," my professor said calmly. I shook and dropped my head, sighing: "That's not what I asked, Professor. Please just be upfront. Why are you concerned? What are you hiding from me?"
My teacher slipped his fingers behind his glasses and rubbed his eyes for a short while, groaning before he removed his spectacles altogether and massaged his entire face.
"Cooper has been building relationships with some of the guards in the prison he's being locked up at since his second year of being there. He's flirting, joking, and toying with them, and he thinks that the prison is going to release him earlier than his set date due to his 'good behavior.' He thinks he could be released as soon as next month."
My heart sunk into my stomach and before I could register or stop it, I'd thrown up—luckily directly into the professor's trash bin, though.
There's no way... There's no way they'd let him out for good behavior after raping someone! That can't be allowed! It can't! He has to stay and serve his entire sentence! Five whole years, he needs to stay!
"When did you hear about this..." I asked groggily, feeling like I was going to pass out. My professor grabbed me and guided me over to his desk chair, making me sit. "He called me this morning. Right before you walked in was when he had hung up," he said softly. "Cameron, I strongly feel that you and Giorgi should move. If he is released early, he won't tell me until he needs a ride from the prison. He won't let me know any earlier than then."
"You're giving him a ride...?"
"Yes. I volunteered to do so so that I could let you know if he wanted me to take him to you or Giorgi."
"What?"
"He still believes you live in your old apartment," Professor Davis said.
"He can't. Giorgi and I visited him together. I-it's been a little more than two years that we've been dating. Cooper has to know that we live together. If he's telling you that he believes I'm in my old apartment he's lying, and if he's lying about that... then he's got to be planning something," I mumbled.
"That wouldn't make any sense though," my professor muttered. "If he thinks you both live in two different places while I know that you don't—"
"GASP!" I clapped my hands over my mouth as I'd realized what Cooper most likely was planning, and I fought hard to hold down the second round of vomit that dared to come up.
"What? What is it?"
My hands and body began trembling as I moved my eyes up to my teacher's from the floor, and I almost succumbed to the urge to puke as the possibility replayed over and over in my mind.
"Y-y-you can't warn us," I stuttered behind my trembling fingers. "Don't touch your phone when you're with him. Don't even acknowledge any notifications you get. Whether they're from your friends or family or whoever. Even just an app. D-don't touch your phone, Professor..."
"Why?"
I shook my head and my eyes welled up as the horrific idea played itself vividly in my mind like a brutal horror movie.
Cooper would get in the car and tell him where to go... 'Someone's house...'...and as soon as the professor would reach for his phone, or glance at it, or even if he made a certain face that looked worried or against the idea of going in that direction even a smidge, Cooper would hurt him... Swerve the wheel, stab him with some sort of prison shank or shiv, beat him up with his hands—there was no way of knowing how Cooper would do it...but at the same time there was this heavy, eerie feeling that there was a way... Maybe if I'd known he was a psychopath longer, I could figure it out.
"Cameron, tell me! Why shouldn't I touch my phone?! Don't you want me to warn you if he's—"
"No! He'll hurt you... He-He'll kill you... If you do anything to stop him from getting what he wants, he'll make sure you know not to do it a second time..." I said, my voice wavering as I'd thought about how Cooper had punished me for doing anything that he didn't like.
"What— Oh, right... He's...'corrected'...you before... If you don't mind me asking, what would he do...?"
I glanced up at my teacher and mumbled upon looking back down at his desk, "Strangling... Beating... R-ra...raping..." I whispered. "But he always said that he loved me afterwards... And if that's the stuff that he does to the people he loves—"
"Then we can only imagine how he would punish somebody that he doesn't care so deeply about for getting in his way," my professor said lowly.
"I'd rather not imagine much more than I already have. I-I'm gonna go back to my seat..." I mumbled. "Please...don't tell Cooper that you've talked to me about this. I want you to tell him that I stopped coming to class a while ago if he ever brings me up. You don't know what I'm doing or where I've gone...you know."
My professor nodded and scratched his beard as he watched me stumble over to his office's door. "Leave Giorgi's house as soon as possible... Move somewhere Cooper would never think to go... Let's talk more after class about where you guys should go."
I heard but didn't acknowledge my teacher's words as I walked out of his personal office and made way to my seat in his classroom.
That's only for me and Giorgi to know... Professor, why would you want to talk to me about that...? The the way you speak and act...it makes you seem awful suspicious. Dangerous... I really hope you're not scheming with Cooper. I hope you have enough kindness in your heart not to betray me. We haven't known each other long but can't you see how damaged I already am? Don't you see that I don't deserve Cooper's tormenting? Haven't I proven myself to be—
"Hey... Are you okay?" One of my classmates questioned, stopping me in my tracks about five feet from my seat. "Did he hit you or something? You look—"
"No, no, I'm okay. Thank you," I said politely, giving my classmate a small, forced smile that I just knew looked like an awkward grimace. She frowned a bit but nodded, and after sitting down at my desk, I pulled out my phone and sent a quick text to Giorgi.
"Are you awake?"
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I hope you enjoyedddd!!!
Does this feel a bit...abstract? I feel like there's no real flow to this chapter...? Idk.
See ya next chap, ol' chap. :)