Chapter 15 – It’s Our Secret. Professor

“Don’t f**king roll your eyes at me.”

“I am not a child, stop telling me what to do,” I yelled at him as I put the phone on my bed and put my face between my hands.

“Who were you with? Why aren’t your friends answering? You let Isaac f**k you? I knew it. Knew it.” I grabbed my phone. My head was spinning out of anger.

“I don’t f**king know where they are, you piece of shit. I woke up now and stayed up all night to study. I’m not f**king-.”

“Sure. Sure. I knew it. I knew you’d get f**ked behind my back. Slut.” He hanged up.

I burst out crying, louder than I wished. I threw my phone on the floor.

“Idiot!” I screamed into my pillow.

I shouldn’t have picked the damn phone.

I cried for over fifteen minutes and then I went to the bathroom to fix my face. I was forced to put on makeup because I looked even worse. I had a terrible headache.

The door to the room opened, Charlotte came in.

“Hey, you woke up.” I was putting on mascara.

As soon as she saw my face, she knew. She put her tiny arms around me and I hugged her tightly. My eyes getting w*t again.

I told her what Sebastian said.

“Wow. He is a piece of shit, isn’t he?”

I tried ha*d to not ruin my mascara. I wish I had a waterproof one now.

“Why did no one wake me up? It’s 1.30 pm.”

“You didn’t sleep all night. You needed to rest.”

“Yes, but I have to revise.”

“And you will, after lunch, or breakfast for you,” she laughed and we stopped hugging. My face was done but my eyes were red and puffy. At least my outfit was presentable. A white blazer with black tight jeans.

“And there are good news, your presentation will be fifth.”

I exhaled a sigh of relief. I could have time to repeat my essay and listen to others as well.

Of course, when I went to the hotel restaurant, almost no one was there. They already had lunch. I ordered some omelet with bacon and salad.

Charlotte kept me company for the rest of the time. We would soon take the bus to the conference center. It was only twenty minutes away.

When I grabbed my notebook and laptop, USB driver and everything, I saw my professor. He smiled and we both went to the elevator.

“Didn’t see you all day, what happened?”

I shouldn’t have told him what was really up with me. “I was sleeping because I was studying all night.”

“Did you sleep well at least?” he looked into my eyes. The elevator was close to floor one.

“Yes,” I lied.

“Your eyes are puffy. Are you sure you’re okay?”

I looked away but he grabbed my hand.

“Hey, look at me.” He tilted my chin up. “Tell me what happened.”

I shook my head. “I shouldn’t. Not now.”

Mr. Reynolds nodded and let go of my face as soon as the elevator made the ding sound. We both took a step sideways so we didn’t look that close.

We met with the other students and Ms. Fitzgerald. She eyed me, then my professor for a few seconds.

“Where have you been, Miss Prescott?” she asked me. Why did she even care?

I was about to reply when the other professor-a man I didn’t know-said, “Let’s go, kids. It’s almost 2:30 pm. The other bus is already there.”

It took exactly nineteen minutes to get there. We all signed in and I had to be separated from the rest of the students who didn’t do the presentation, but watched.

I apparently couldn’t watch the other presentations, they said they would post them on their website and the winner could get an internship and money. Even though my family was rich, I couldn’t decide what to do with their money. It was always what they wanted.

I spent two hours rehearsing my essay to the professors who were already there. Mr. Reynolds, Ms. Fitzgerald and a mathematics professor I met today, Quentin Adler. Which apparently was good friends with my history professor.

Neither of the men had anything bad to say, they thought I was prepared as long as I was confident. I repeated everything so many times it was easier than breathing, but being recorded on stage in front of other students and important people wasn’t easy.

The only one who didn’t like it was Ms. Fitzgerald. Which was a surprise. Who could understand my essay better than a woman?

“Your take is very problematic. Tone down your words.”

I chuckled. “I am not going to tone down my personality just because I’m a woman.”

The other students presenting soon and the other professors looked at me perplexed. I could see the faint like of a smirk on my favorite professor’s face.

I checked my phone to see the time when I saw hundreds of messages from my boyfriend. I shouldn’t have opened them but I did.

Seb: I talked to Isaac. He told me everything. I will f**king ruin you.

You will regret this stupid wh*re

Tears welled up in my eyes. Why was he speaking like this to me? What did Isaac tell him? I didn’t do anything… he couldn’t have seen anything.

I wanted to call him and scream at him but Ms. Fitzgerald accompanied me to the stage. It was my turn. My eyes were filled with tears and if I blinked once, my cheeks would flood.

I looked once at Mr. Reynolds and he knew something was wrong.

“Can’t she go after another person?” he tried to intervene but it was too late. The other lady from the staff came. She said my name and the title of my essay.

I took a deep breath. I had the presentation on the white board behind me. I could have looked at it a few times-I had already forgotten everything. All I could feel was rage.

And my rage got directed toward Isaac, standing next to Charlotte and Penelope. I could have killed him right there. Everyone was staring at me. There were a lot of people dressed in suits, with badges on them.

“I-” I couldn’t speak. I was trembling. I wanted to be out of there now!

Sebastian and Isaac f**ked up my future.

“I am N- Nadia Prescott.” I was speaking too far away from the microphone. Mr. Reynolds was staring at me. He looked like he felt sorry for me.

“What’s you essay about? Walk us through it, Miss. Prescott,” he said and I tried to calm down and only focus on him.

“My essay is about women’s suffrage and how we’ve been fighting to have a c-choice for-“

I couldn’t continue. Isaac was laughing at me. He mouthed something to me.

I furrowed my eyebrows, I couldn’t hear.

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