𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 | ✓

23

I get to my feet, holding Professor Wright's unwavering gaze.

"How's the uh..." his voice trials down, as he bends down slightly and glances at the window, peering outside before returning to me. "Sky gazing going?"

"As good as it gets," I mumble and look away.

Did he follow me here? I fidget with my fingers and quickly scan him, spotting a thick book in his grasp. Or maybe the book he was looking for was here. If so, it shows my luck has run out after I convinced him for considering writing a paper with me.

He tilts his head slightly to one side and studies me. "What's wrong?" he softly asks.

I gulp. Everything. "Nothing."

He sighs and places the book on the table. "Stewart," he tenderly calls, leaning down the slightest to me.

Hesitantly I peer up through my lashes. The way his dark blue eyes burn into me accelerates my heartbeat.

"You can share if you want," he softly offers.

His gaze locks with mine and confusion clouds my head. Based on what I've heard and seen this is so not like Wright. Yet here he is.

I lick my bottom lip before sucking it between my teeth and shake my head. "It's nothing important... just some personal problems."

Deep lines furrow his brow and he lays his palm flat atop the book. "Again?"

I fail to decipher the emotion underlying his tone as I run my finger over the brim of my wristwatch.

He pushes his glasses up and straightens himself.

"I'm not lying."

"Believe me, at this point, I wish you were," he mutters, shaking his head and crosses his arms in front of himself. "You let your surroundings, the people around you, affect you too much. First your midterm and now today. This isn't going to work, Stewart." His low and deep voice sends shivers up and down my spine.

I hug myself and glare at him. "It's not like I'm telling people to come and mess me up," I hiss.

A sardonic breathy laugh escapes from him. "I didn't say that." He shoves one hand into his pocket and stares down at me making me feel impossibly small before him. I had never noticed how much taller than me he is.

"These personal issues, or whatever you want to call them, never seem to end for you. I'm not saying you're an odd case, everyone has problems, all I'm saying is, you let these complications affect you to the point where it directly impacts your responsibilities as a student."

I glare at the chair across from me, press to the wall, below the window.

"Tell me, Stewart, this problem, does it have a direct impact on your present-day life? Does it change anything? Like have you lost the place you were living at? If not, then no. Does it have something to do with your past? Probably. Does it impact your future? I highly doubt that. But you are allowing it to influence your present which directly affects your future. Do you disagree?"

I dig my fingernails into my upper arms as I glower at the chair.

"I'll take your silence as a no. You have to learn to not let these complications influence your daily basis life, especially an issue from a past personal life. The way you allow them to do so, is frankly very concerning. You need to learn to not only separate your personal life from your professional or academic life, but you also have to learn to take control of what affects you and to what extent. Otherwise, you'll be the one who pays the price. And before we start doing anything, I've told you before, I'm telling you again, I don't put my energy into something that I see no future in it. If you keep up this act, I won't work on a paper with you. Are we clear?"