Page 2 of Ghost
It took a moment to realize why his voice sounded strange. But the twitch of his mouth had given it away, as did the amusement flickering through his eyes.
Even concerned, he still managed to sound pretentious.
He thought this was funny. My hackles rose in response, but my voice was still frozen from the horror of being forced into the center of scrutiny.
“Is everything in one piece?” He held his hand out toward me, the picture of a gentleman. It was an impressive act, yet he lacked the sincerity Damen and the others held. But, sure enough, some fools began twittering about being jealous.
Bryce heard, and I didn't miss the way his mouth turned up in response. Even so, his eyes didn't leave my own. “That must have been painful. Would you like me to carry you to the medical office?”
I stared at him, unsure of his angle. Besides, I was completely out of my element. Bryce and I had spoken for question and answer sessions in class, sure. But outside of that, we never even so much as exchanged a greeting. I had no idea how to talk to him.
And he wanted to touch me? And we would have to hold a conversation? I had been avoiding being near him since the moment we met, preferring to loathe my arch-nemesis from afar. Being fated-enemies, after all, didn't mean you had to interact.
But he was serious. He would carry me if I asked. The look in his eyes caused my anxiety to come out in full-force. Even though he hadn’t said the words, it was clear he wanted to talk to me. I didn't know why. But I certainly didn't want to speak to him. Just being close to him caused my anxiety to spike.
And to make matters worse, our exchange was beginning to draw curious looks. People were starting to notice me, and I had tried so very hard not to be noticed.
I was going to be sick.
“Miss Brosnan?” Bryce repeated, only this time all traces of amusement had vanished from his face. “What are—"
“I— I'm alright.” I stumbled to my feet, deliberately ignoring his hand. Without even thinking about it, I moved as far as my corner lab station allowed. I couldn't even look at him, nor anyone else in the room. I was embarrassed and horrified. “S-Sorry.”
Oh God, I have two more hours of this class.Now people were going to be watching me the whole time. Judging my every movement. I wished I hadn't been lazy this morning. A skirt and sweater were not appropriate wear for this class. Maybe I should have worn makeup. I was afraid to look up, because everyone was probably laughing at me.
I would rather do anything—even talk to Finn—than to be in the center of attention.
“Miss Brosnan.” Bryce moved closer to me, and his voice was lower than before. So low I could barely hear him over the gossiping of my classmates.
I glanced up, expecting to see the eyes of everyone in the room looking in my direction. But nobody seemed to be watching me at all. For all intents and purposes, everyone was working on their own projects and holding normal discussions. But there was no way they had moved on so quickly.
Then Bryce's next words caused my breath to temporarily still. “I need you to go to Professor Hamway’s office please. I will meet you there in a little bit.”
I hated him.
But I was also grateful for the chance to escape this situation. While barely being able to hold back my panic, I still managed to gather up my supplies before I fled from the room.
I had been to Professor Hamway’s office before. So it took no time at all for me to arrive and settle into one of her faux leather chairs. Now, as the remains of my panic attack faded away, there was nothing left for me to do except to wallow.
I had never spoken with Bryce one-on-one before. And our first actual conversation was going to involve him doling out punishment to me. This was a disaster. If he told our professor about my falling asleep in class, she’d never forgive such a horrible offense.
Even more than her reaction though, was my fear of how Bryce might see fit to punish me. Howdidprofessors punish college students these days? If I was in Bryce’s position and he was my student, I’d have expelled him.
But, hopefully, he was much more forgiving than I.
The unknown still worried me, however, and it was high past time to research.
Thankfully, though, I wouldn’t need to Google. Even though my fingers itched to search ‘Professor punishes a bad girl’ to see what might be in store. I also knew it probably wouldn’t be a good idea.
Last night the five of us had gone over the depth of Finn’s surveillance. To discover, through trial and error, that I had been given a very watered down version of things in my life. Of course, I had indicated, with my new phone, I planned on finding answers. Like, for example, the real meaning behind ‘happy ending’. Their reactions to Seven Minutes in Heaven had been odd, to say the very least. But upon learning my intentions, the boys suggested searching these things might not be such a good idea.
In fact, the word traumatizing even came up once or twice.
So, for the meantime, they offered to act as my resources. If I had any question, no matter how stupid, I could always reach out to one of them. If it was a safe topic, then they’d redirect me to Google as necessary.
I didn’t believe them at first. Last night I waited until after Titus and Miles finally fell asleep, and sat on the couch with my phone. Trying to determine where to begin.
It took me less than five minutes to realize that they were right. My first intro to Google included the search ‘What is BSDM and how to use it’. And what I discovered was terrible.
