Faith and The Vampire ✔️

Chapter Fifteen

The day had started like any other day. Everyone A warm breeze—unseasonably warm for a Brașov fall— played with my hijab as I leaned out. Today, I had History of Psychology and Educational Psychology for my second and third period before lunchtime. After spending three hour of human mentality, the class was dismissed. Andrei was about to go with his partner to finish their paperwork, skipping lunch. He then rushed out immediately. By now, I'd burned up a lot of time leaving class.

I dragged myself to my feet. When I was about to leave the classroom, Mrs.Gerigan was waiting with a stack of paper near the doorway. I barely had time to think of anything, but I hoped she wasn’t here for me.

“Miss Darmawan,” She called my name. Ugh. Not again.

“Bună ziua, Doamna Gerigan” I greeted her. “May I help you?”

“Doamna Padma wants to see you.”

My stomach twisted nervously, but I followed her. We strode off across the hallway. I felt surge of annoyance. She’d given me no idea what I might expect once we arrived to wherever she led me to. But I didn’t have the nerve or the energy to ask anything, so I meekly followed her through a pair of double doors. Until I realized where she was taking me.

I came back here, Dean of Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences office. The office looked exactly like I remembered, resplendent with gothic, baroque and renaissance architecture. Mrs.Gerigan led me to another pair of double doors, told me to get in alone.

When I got in, Mrs.Padma sat in a large chair. Books and papers on the table in front of her. Staring at me, she gestured to the chair across from her. I walked over, but I did not sit. Mrs.Padma glanced at me with faint exasperation.

"Sit down, Miss Darmawan."

I perched on the edge of the chair, watching her warily.

She sighed. "There is much speculation about you, circulates in the Institute recently."

I swallowed the lump in my throat.

"This sort of speculation is going to intensify. Considering the fact that you're a scholarship awardee—" she paused, taking a deep breath. "You're still on a probationary period."

Understandably, I was outraged. The thought that I would purposely let the whore rumors spread out was ridiculous. But what could I do? I either confessed to experiencing financial chaos or to not clarifying any rumors about me. Neither option was appealing, but I had to cut my losses. One made me look pathetic. The other made me look, well, inappropriate. I didn't want to be associated with either of those. I much preferred my usual description of "reckless" and "disruptive."

"Why am I getting in trouble over irresponsible rumor ?" I asked tightly. "I mean, yes, I failed an important proficiency test. Isn't that the point of the whole course thing? My silliness, that was the past."

"A report came to me that you had a catfight with other student in the cafetaria last week. Are you trying to tell me you're suddenly mature and responsible?"

"I'm trying to tell you that I want to be. I have to be." I looked at her defiantly. "They're accusing me of working as a prostitute, but, I swear, I didn't do it!"

She studied my face and then glanced away. I could tell now, that the rumors had finally reached her. She knew. She knew about the rumors somehow, but she never meant to mention them directly.

"Can you prove it?" she asked flatly

I didn't respond. I've done enough wrong, on my own, I didn't want to get blamed for something I didn't do. If it's never our fault, we couldn't take responsibility for it. If we couldn't take responsibility for it, we would always be it's victim.