Chapter 46

Chapter 46
NOAH
I love you. Those words were on the tip of my tongue after she gave me a kiss and headed towards the door but I remained quiet till she left the office.
“Damn it,” I muttered. I had wanted to say those words to her for the past couple of weeks now but I was worried about how she would react if I said them. Would she say it back? Would things become awkward between us and would she end up dumping me? The latter scared me way too much.
I plopped down on my seat with a sigh and moments later, a smile crept onto my face because of what happened a couple of minutes ago. I couldn’t believe we just did that… on campus. Was it weird that I wanted to do it again? My smile grew wider and I swivelled the chair from side to side before a knock came on the door.
I quickly sat upright and moved the chair closer to the desk, thinking it was Dalia. “Come in,” I called out and when the door opened, my smile instantly slipped off. “... What the fuck are you doing here?”
Allison flashed me a smile as she shut the door and that made my frown deepen. “Travis has a disciplinary hearing today.”
I paused. I wanted to ask why but decided not to because that would be indulging her. I could find out from Travis but he always blew me off whenever I tried to talk to him and he had basically told me to fuck off the day I called him to my office, so it seemed like I was going to have to stay out of this.
“That doesn’t explain why you’re in my office.” I got to my feet when she didn’t stop walking towards me and she stopped, raising her brows at me. “That’s close enough.” Maybe I should listen to Taylor and get a restraining order against her because she didn’t seem to understand that I didn’t want to see or talk to her.
She blinked at me and after a couple of seconds, she sighed and wrapped her arms around herself. I knew she was going to say something to try to make me feel like a bad person as she opened her mouth because she always did that same move before doing exactly that when we were still together. And because I didn’t want to get into an argument with her, I always apologized or walked away… till she took my mum’s credit card. “... I just wanted to see you, Noah.”
“Allion, get the fuck out.”
Her gaze fell to the floor and she hmmed as she lowered herself to it and picked something up. I glanced at her hand to see what it was but she balled it into a fist before I could. “I’m worried about you, Noah.”
For fuck’s sake. Why can’t she just leave me alone?
The door opened and Avery peeked in, flashing me a smile when she saw me. “Hey Noah. I heard you -” Her eyes fell on Allison after she stepped into the office and the smile instantly turned into a frown while Allison rolled her eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“I work here.”
“In his office?”
I didn’t know what Travis did but it wouldn’t look good for him if his guardian got kicked off campus before she got to his hearing, so I kept my hand off the phone but I was close to losing my patience. “Allison… You have somewhere to be. Leave.”
She clicked her tongue and tilted her head, as though she was having trouble making sense of something. “You know, I saw her on my way here. She seemed nice… Thought you were a stickler for the rules though.”
I drew my brows together. What?
She then stretched her hand out to Avery, giving her what she’d picked from the floor, and Avery stared down at the object in confusion. It took me several moments to realize that it was a button from Dalia’s shirt and when Allison grinned at me, a cold wave embalmed me. She knew. What the-
“Noah’s fucking a student,” she announced just as I walked around the desk and my heart slammed against my chest but I didn’t stop walking towards her. Avery didn’t look shocked by what she just heard, she looked pissed. She had recently come to believe that something was going on between Dalia and I, but I had convinced her that Dalia was just my TA, and with what Allsion said now, there was a high chance she wouldn’t believe me if I said it was a lie.
But how? How did Allison find out?
“Ow!”she yelped when I grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the office while Avery called out my name. There were a couple of students standing close to my office with wide eyes and slightly parted lips as they stared at us. Did they hear what she said? Shit.
“Noah, you’re hurting me,” she said, sounding very pleased with herself, as we walked down the hallway, and a wave of annoyance flashed over me. When we were together, I gave her everything she wanted and did everything I could to make her happy, but it just wasn’t enough for her. Now that I was happy with someone else, she wanted to destroy it. It seemed like all she wanted was to make me miserable and I honestly would never be able to understand how I fell in love with her.
“It’s not like I’m lying about you dating a-”
“Allison, shut the fuck up!” I retorted, letting her go as we finally got to the stairwell, and she scowled. “Have you been following me?”
I was pretty sure she never saw Dalia when I was still staying at my parents’ place, so the only way she could have found out about her was if she had followed me. That was most likely how she found out I was staying at my parents’ place after moving out of our place and based on what happened when we were together, she must have frequently followed me after seeing Dalia with me for the first time. I felt sick at the thought of her watching me and Dalia together while we were unaware and I fucking hated that Dalia had become a target for this crazy woman.
“You’re treating me like I’m the bad guy here,” she hissed and I clenched my jaw. So that’s a yes.
“Go to your brother’s hearing.”
“No! You should know better than fucking a student anyway.”
I would have laughed at that if I didn’t glance over the balcony to see Kristen and two girls freeze on the stairs after hearing her and I just knew that she did that on purpose.
She wanted to ruin Dalia, she wanted to ruin me, and the only good thing in this situation was that she hadn’t mentioned Dalia’s name. But Dalia was the first person people would think it was since I interacted with her more than any other student.
I had to go talk to her. I- I told her I won’t let her get in trouble.
Her mouth twitched into a small smile after she glanced at the girls as they descended the stairs, and I turned so I could go back to my office, but she immediately grabbed my hand. “I’ll report her. I’ll get her expelled,” she said while I yanked my hand out of hers and kept walking, trying to figure out how to deal with this. I wasn’t worried about what she just said because I wouldn’t let Dalia get expelled, I wouldn’t even let a disciplinary hearing take place. What I was worried about was the fact that people who heard and believed what Allison said were going to think the student in question was Dalia and it won’t take long for that to start spreading among the students and professors. I couldn’t protect her from that.
I have to find a way to fix this.
“You son of a- Sure! Just walk away! Like you always do!”
I didn’t want to answer her. I didn’t even have anything to say to her because the thoughts of her that were currently running through my mind were just… full of hate. But she was so going to regret this later, I would make sure of that.
Right now, Dalia was more important.

DALIA
“Nathan!” Tamika called out, making me look up from my phone, and I saw her waving at Nathan who was wearing sunglasses and walking towards us while I fiddled with the spot in my shirt where a button was meant to be.
He scrunched up his face and pressed his hand to the side of his face before getting to us. “Not so loud,” he muttered, taking the seat next to Tamika, and I smiled while shaking my head at him. His frat house had thrown a weekend party but Harvey and I didn’t attend because we went on a road trip.
“Why did you come when you’re hungover?”
“Exams are starting in two weeks and did you see my last semester’s grades? I don’t want an extra year,” he replied and Harvey and I snorted as we glanced at each other. Then his smile faltered and he gave me some sort of bro nod which made me tilt my head to the side while furrowing my brows, before he grabbed his phone from the table.
“I’m going home,” he muttered and began to gather his things as Nathan frowned.
“What? Why?”
“Work.”
“I- what? Fuck work. My GPA’s on the line.”
“Mine too…” Tamika added, pulling on Harvey’s jacket while he shot Nathan a dirty look and I also gathered my things, wanting to go with him.
“Follow me to my mum’s place then.”
“But… But the pool will tempt me,” she replied and Harvey gave her a blank stare before getting to his feet. She heaved a sigh and quickly put her books in her bag while I held Harvey’s hand.
“I need to use the bathroom. Wait for me?”
He gave me a nod and I got to my feet before heading out of the lecture hall. I was actually heading to Noah’s office to find my button because I was sure that was where it was. I had texted him but he didn’t reply, and if he wasn’t in his office when I got there, I would just have to get the button another day.
I realized that I left my phone in the lecture hall when I got to the entrance of the stairwell and as I contemplated going back for it, a familiar face walked down the stairs.
“Oh, Dalia.” It was Professor Dunhall and she sounded and looked like she was happy to see me. That was extremely weird. “There you are. I’ve been looking for you.”
Looking for me? …Why?
“Good morning,” I said, moving away from the entrance when she approached it, but she stopped in front of me. What?
“You left this in Noah’s office. You really should have been more careful.”
She stretched out a fisted hand and I raised my brows, stretching out my hand too before she dropped something in my hand. A button… my shirt’s missing button. Why was she looking for me because of this? I haven’t even seen her today, so how does she know it’s mine? …Oh-
My eyes went round, a feeling of dread creeping up from the pit of my stomach as I remembered her last statement, and I snapped my eyes back to hers just before she slapped me across the face. There was a flash of immediate pain and shock and my hand flew to my face while I opened my mouth but found that words had deserted me.
“You fucking whore,” she hissed, her expression hardening, and she took a step closer to me, making me move backward. “Did you think no one would find out that you were fucking a professor? …Oh, you’re so done for. You’re going to get fucking expelled. I’ll make sure of that.”
My heart was throbbing in my ears, loud and irregular and blocking out all other sounds - including what she was saying - as she kept making me move back. I might have believed that I was imagining all this if my cheek didn’t sting and my back didn’t hit the wall as she raised her hand again, but before she could hit me again, another hand caught hers by the wrist.
“What the fuck?!” Harvey’s tone and expression bordered on homicidal, and given his temper, it couldn’t be ruled out as a possibility. I had always hated seeing him like this, but right now, I wasn’t bothered by it because I was pretty sure I’d have fallen apart if he didn’t show up… I still felt like I was going to fall apart though, but at least he was here.
“You can’t not know what she’s been doing. Why are you defending her?!” she shot back, looking as pissed as he was.
“What the hell do-” He glanced at me and the look on my face must have told him what he needed to know because a muscle in his jaw twitched as he returned his attention to Avery. “Fuck off.” He threw her wrist to the side before grabbing my hand and pulling me down the hallway. It felt like I was walking on borrowed legs as we moved and my heart throbbed in my ears, loud and irregular. I didn’t know how long he pulled me for or where he pulled me to but when he called my name, snapping me out of my daze, I saw that the only light in the place we were in was from a projector suspended from the ceiling.
I then turned to face him and blinked at him for a moment before a laugh tore out of my throat. “What…”
“Dalia.” He seemed like he didn’t know what to say, he just wanted to be sure if I was alright. But I was far from alright.
How? …How did she find out? I mean, she hadn’t even seen me before a couple of minutes ago, so she couldn’t have known that the button was mine. Even if she did see me, how did she come to the conclusion that Noah and I were together because of a button? A button wasn’t evidence. How did she find out?
Tears gathered in my eyes as I sniffled sharply and when I tried to laugh again, it was a tiny, hoarse thing. “What…” I repeated , glancing down at my hands. I could no longer control them; they were shaking in an odd trembling rhythm.
This was bad. Oh, this was really bad. There was going to be a disciplinary hearing and everyone was going to find out… Mum and dad were going to find out.
“Harvey,” I croaked, unable to hold my tears back any longer, and placed my hands on his chest. He felt like a shield and that was what I desperately needed because it felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest.
“Hey, hey,” he added as his arms pulled me close and I leaned against him, fisting the front of his t-shirt. Does Noah know? …He probably does, she’s coming from his office. “You’re alright. You’re alright.”
“Harvey…”
“I’m here... What do you need?”
“Please take me home.”
“Okay, Dalia… Let’s go home.”