The knowledge of the mind

Chapter 3~ who are you ?

TW mention of alcohol abuse and mental illness

Lauren noticed the professor scanning her like she was a spy and he was the interrogator. However she noticed he wasn't just looking confused but almost in awe. She thought she was just being silly as a professor wouldn't dare look at his students that way and it was probably just her imagination. As he got closer, she could smell his cologne. She smelt it and enjoyed the scent, a bit too much. It was a dark cologne with the scent of lime and cedar wood and she could tell it was probably very expensive. He got closer and closer and she could feel her heart beat quickening. She looked away as she had realised she had been staring into those contrasting blue orbs. She regained her composure and shook her hair off her shoulders and held her head high. She felt as though she might be in trouble for doing her friends lecture but persisted anyway. She fought down the anxiety slowly building in her stomach and swallowed it. She had to remember who she was, she was Lauren Walsh for Christs sake and she was an amazing legal apprentice and incredibly smart and talented. She was ready to fight.

He finally came close to her and asked her " sorry I've never seen you before in my lectures, are you new?" His tone was deep and husky yet soft and kind , it was a very posh accent but not snobbish. Lauren mentally slapped herself for being so enticed by his voice. She responded "Hi I'm Lauren, Lucy Davis is my best friend and she is very Ill today with a stomach bug and asked for me to go ti her lecture for her and make some notes." He looked puzzled by her response, but all he could think about was her voice. She had a deep tone of voice than most girls he taught who'd often sound like they're screeching. It was soft but had a bit of spice in it, he knew she wasn't lying by the tone of her voice. She spoke very proper just like him but like him too, she didn't sound snobbish but more like she knows what she wants and he liked that.  He then realised he had to respond and felt as though he had been dwelling on her for longer than he should've. He replied "I'm sorry to hear that about you friend, but this is a psychology class and you don't seem the type to me to be a psychologist?" Lauren smirked at his response, he though 'fuck maybe she does do psychology and now I've just completely stereotyped her' even though Professor Hiddleston was a well known profiler. Lauren responded wittily "well you're half right and half wrong. You see, I'm a legal apprentice who is studying her law degree along side her job at the uni and I'll have you know, I studied psychology a level and got the top grade in the UK for the subject". Tom wasn't expecting the feisty response and saw her as a challenged. He could tell she was very well put together and her comments were sarcastic without being rude. He'd never encountered a student like this and saw her as a challenge he wanted to have. He questioned her saying " well if you got the top marks in the whole UK, why not study psychology then?" Lauren responded quickly as she had been asked this many times by universities. "To do any job in psychology you need to do a masters minimum and even then they prefer PHDs and I would like to have a job before I'm 30 rather than student debt." The sass was unexpected but by now Tom kinda caught on to her character. He liked it. He saw great potential in this student and decided to see if she was really all she claims to be. "So , Lauren, tell me your personal opinions on social influence?" It didn't even take her a second to come up with her answer. " I believe social influence can have a large impact on anybody's life. For instance scientists believed that teen smoking would be a lower statistic than it actually was. It was found that 3.7 million teens and children smoke from the ages of 11-15 and, and estimated 463 children start to smoke daily. The biggest factors were either parents or peers." She stated it in such confidence that Tom believed that she could say utter nonsense and she'd make him believe that's true. He was very impressed by her answer but was also curious to talk about smoking out of any other social influence. He asked himself if he should ask or would it be too personal. Then he reminded himself that she doesn't even take the degree yet, she wants to be in the lecture. He decided to ask her why she chose smoking and she responded with saying she is part of that statistic even though she wasn't proud to admit it. He could see the sense of guilt in her eyes but noticed she covered it up just as quickly as she answered her question. He wanted to know so much more about her as he noticed she liked to put up walls, and that only made him want to break them down and get to the heart of who this mysterious student is.

Lauren wish she had just kept her mouth closed. Even though she wasn't trying to entertain the teachers interest, she already felt like she had told him too much about herself. She felt guilty. She covered up that feeling like she does with most of her emotions. She hates showing her sensitive side but she always said she has nothing to hide. She wasn't lying completely as she would answer people's questions if they had any, however she'd only answer them if they were the right questions. She noticed this gleam of wanting in the professors eyes. She had known from Lucy that he was a world renowned profiler but Lauren, always felt as though she could ready anyone like a book. She often found herself reading people and understanding them even before she has said a word. This even happened when she met Lucy. She had always known Lucy to be a bright and optimistic person however, Lauren knew she had a dark past. She could tell Lucy struggled a lot with her self imaging issues just as Lauren does and notices Lucy has battled a fair few demons in her time and uses her optimism and happiness to cloak it. But Lauren always knew because the more Lucy drank, the worse her mind was. Lauren would lecture Lucy on it however she wouldn't be able to speak on it as Lauren herself self medicated, not with alcohol but nicotine and caffeine. Lauren was intrigued by the professor trying to analyse him. She could see he had passion for what he does but also could sense a yearning for something new. She could tell he was lonely and spent most of his nights alone by the fact he was always so quick to ask questions. If he did have someone he wouldn't be as reserved as he is and, he most certainly wouldn't have studied her in as much depth as he has.

Tom tried to read Lauren but even he found it hard, and that was saying something. It interested him as to how this one girl, could hide her true self better than the multiple serial killers and murders as well as terrorists he had profiled/ interviewed. It was nothing he had ever experienced before and it angered him. He was the best at what he does yet this girl he has met for all of 5 minutes had stopped him in his tracks. The one thing he could tell though, is that she was incredibly intelligent but knew it didn't come at ease. He could see the dark circles peeping from under concealer and the biro stains on her hand being prominent but knew she washed her hands. It showed to him that she tends to stay up late and studies hard. He noticed a smell of coffee lightly stuck to her. It also supported his theory that she didn't get much sleep and spent way too much time studying. He almost felt sorry for her. He believed that a girl of this magnitude shouldn't be having sleepless nights just to get her work done. He wondered, mentally, how well she was. He questioned to himself whether he should let the girl who obviously needed a good nights sleep stay in the lecture or tell her sleep. It dawned on him. Why did he care? Why did he care so much about this one student but, if it was his regular students would blame them for their sleepless nights? This puzzled him and he didn't like that. He decided to ask her if she wants to stay or if she had work to do he can send the lecture to her friend. Lauren insisted on staying stating she had a deep interest in psychology, and if it hadn't of been for how long it would take, she would've gone into profiling. That statement stunned Tom. He was used to most students wanting to be psychologists for student, adults and even the foster systems. He was baffled that a student would even know what they want to do, let alone the specific career path. This fed his yearn to know more about her. She was like a box locked and Tom wanted to pick it to find her contents. But then he thought to himself, she is either a Pandora's box or one full of gold and did he really want to risk that chance to either let her go or go somewhere he shouldn't. He felt like a little boy again on a treasure hunt and decided he wanted to find out more about this Lauren Walsh. Besides, her being beautiful and intelligent would make it easier to get to know her. He even admitted to himself that he liked the fact she knew what she wanted, as most of his female students joined his class for his looks rather than his knowledge which aggravated him. He never cared about fake questions so that he'd come over, or the really obvious flirting most of his students would try. But Lauren wasn't like that and he could tell. She yearned for knowledge and he could tell she was eager to be in this lecture and that made him happy as well as excited to teach her. He liked the fact she had a passion for the subject and cared. That was very rare. but then again, very thing about this girl was rare.