Chapter 13

“What? Did he scold you for coming to class late?” Emma implored, as she strolled beside her best friend.

Christina did not reply. Her eyes remained focused on the ground underneath her as she walked, lost in her memories.

Emma shook her, “Chris!”

“W-What?” Christina looked up. “What’s up?”

“You have been staring at the ground for like ten minutes. Was it that bad? What he had to say?”

“… Actually…”

The professor’s last words shot across Christina’s mind: Nobody has to know any of what I’ve just told you Christina, not even Miss Emma, your best friend.

“… Actually, it’s err… It’s nothing," Chris lied. “You’re right, he wanted to speak about my arriving late to class.

“Why were you late again?”

“Turned my alarm off by accident last night. It’s stupid really.”

Emma frowned slightly, processing the lie she had just heard. She knew her best friend had at least three morning alarms set to go off at different times. She knew because she had the same pattern set up on her phone. Something was eating Chris up and she didn’t want to admit it. No, not that. She couldn’t share what was on her mind.

“Hey," she put a hand on Christina’s shoulder, and looked her fully in her eye. “I’m here if you want to talk about it. You know that don’t you?”

“Thank you. Let me think about this one for a while. I’m not in trouble I promise” Christina smiled at her friend.

“That’s a relief. I thought he asked you to carry his children or something”

Chris burst out into laughter as they resumed their walk. “It wouldn’t be that bad you know. He is an intelligent handsome man after all”

“You slut! Did you just call the professor handsome?”

Chris nodded, smiling, “speaking of handsome intelligent men, here comes Ben.”

“What? Where?!” Emma’s head shot up in an instant. A couple months ago, she had confided in her friend about how she had a crush on one of the boys in their class. Chris had used that information to torture her, much to her regret. The next months had been full of random cries of “Hey Ben!” or “Look, It’s Prince Charming,” sending her into instant terror. Chris thought it was funny, but she wanted to kill her. This time however, she wasn’t lying. Emma followed Chris’ pointing finger, and ended up staring into the face of Ben as he strolled over cool and composed, as if moving to the beat of some internal music.

“Hey Christina," he offered as a greeting before turning to Emma. Without a word he bent and hugged her, picking her up ever so lightly as he rocked her from side to side.

Christina’s face didn’t have enough muscles to display her shock. Her mouth hung open in disbelief, staring as the couple shared a kiss before turning to regard her.

“EXCUSE ME?! What is going on?” her eyes darted between the two faces giggling hard at her bewilderment.

Emma winked, “Plot twist honey. See you around.”

With that the two walked off and left Chris rooted on the spot, her mind running calculations to come up with answers to what just happened.

“Is she still looking? Emma whispered softly to Ben.

Ben turned. “Yes," he giggled.

“Good.” Emma turned and blew Chris an exaggerated kiss, who stayed in the same spot, unable to arrive at a conclusion.