In Your Corner | ✓

Thirty-One

It's cruel, really, the wait for the investigation.

Life crashes on around us, simultaneously in slow motion but also so speedily it's like a hurricane stealing our breath.

My nerves are constantly shot and every message I get on my phone, every email I receive, I think it's going to be related to the investigation, giving me some kind of news.

Josh is in a similar boat, often phoning me multiple times a day because he's having a hard time doing anything other than wait in anticipation.

We've somehow ended up in a routine of seeing each other pretty much every day and there's an occasional sleepover still, on really bad days.

Even now, I still can't tell whether the girls simply don't notice, or if they just don't say anything. Any teasing on Anandi's end has stopped and she actually grovelled for a solid half hour once she found out about the investigation, apologising over and over again because she didn't realise exactly what my friendship with Josh entailed.

Of course, I just smiled and shook my head. She wasn't to know.

Given that we've been spending a lot of time together, it's fitting that we're sitting together in the Beanery on a Friday, trying desperately to study, when our phones chime at the same time with an email.

We both scramble for our phones and my eyes widen in shock when I realise that it's Dean Matthews.

Hardly even properly reading it, my brain joltingly registers the words concluded, meeting and today.

I shoot up from my seat, haphazardly jamming all of my things in my backpack, struggling to fit them all in. "We- we have to go. Right now."

Josh nearly drops his laptop as he stuffs it into his bag, his eyes wide. "Come on."

We tear out of the coffee shop, racing towards Dean Matthews' office with our backpacks banging ferociously against our backs, nearly knocking over a dozen or so people who just happen to be in our way.

Luckily, I've still been going to the gym, so I manage to keep pace with Josh.

We arrive, panting messes outside his office and his secretary looks up, completely disarmed at our presence.

Pulling my phone out and unlocking it to find the email, I thrust it in her general direction, but I'm sure my hand is shaking far too much for her to actually read it. "Dean Matthews- he- he asked us for a- meeting," I pant, trying and failing to regain my breath so I can be even remotely coherent.

Josh is full-on shaking right now, head to toe. He's bouncing on his feet, his head bobbing up and down, his hands clenching into fists and relaxing, over and over.

The secretary looks between the pair of us, both completely nervous wrecks, her eyes like saucers. "Right," she says slowly, her gaze slipping to my phone. "I'll just, uh, phone through and talk to him."

It's pretty clear that she doesn't really know what to do with us, given that we're both standing in her office with probably a feral look in our eyes.

She doesn't know that everything, everything hangs on this moment.

Luckily, Dean Matthews does.

Their phone conversation doesn't last long and she turns her head to me, a small, apologetic smile tugging on her lips. "He can see you now."

I don't hesitate, just nodding my thanks as I plough past her, grabbing Josh's hand to make sure that he's on my heels.

Dean Matthews looks vaguely amused, but also relatively pained, at the sight of us, which admittedly grates on me a little. I'm not sure how this is funny.