It All Started with a Lie

Chapter 4

Speak when you are angry
and you will make the best speech
you will ever regret.
~ Ambrose Bierce

Chapter 4
His POV
"I did turn it in!" I defended myself to professor Hammon's.

He pushed up his glasses, leaning back in his chair, probably very thankful for the desk that sat between us. "Well, I do not have it."

"Then you must have lost it. I turned it in, on time, in class." I worked my ass off and missed practice to make sure I turned that paper in. I had even seen it in that stack when that Beta Sigma Xi girl opened the safe so I could put in my decoy essay. I know my paper was in there.

"I do not lose things. All of those papers are constantly locked up the second they are turned in. There is no possible way it was lost."

"What about your TA?" It took everything in me to keep my voice at a reasonable level.

"My TA is a respectable and careful man; he would not have lost it."

I gritted my teeth and desperately squeezed the stress ball in my hand. I turned in that damn paper. I know I did. It was there a few nights ago. I had seen it.

That girl opened the safe, and my paper was right on top. I put the fake essay, with a fake name, right on top. It was in there.

"I can reprint it and turn it in to you now."

His bushy brows drew inward as he stayed firm. "I do not accept late work."

"It's not late, I turned it in." I raised my voice.

He stood as if to intimidate me and state his authority. So I stood too, and for a moment I could see an ounce of fear glimmer in his eyes at my size. I got that look a lot. "There is no need to lose your temper, Mr. Henderson. You can try again on next week's paper."

Lose my temper? If this is what he thinks losing my temper is, he would hate to see me snap. "Fine." I took a step back before he got the chance to see it. I couldn't afford to get expelled, and I knew myself. If I stood there arguing any longer, I'd break.

I took a few steady breaths as I left his office and headed to the nearest exit. I kept my composure until I made it outside where I took a moment to breathe and rested my back against the rough brick wall. And then I lost it. I collapsed to the ground, cradling my head as I desperately tried to breathe. My sister was usually the only person who could calm me, but I wouldn't bother her while she was driving home from school, I wouldn't bother her at all. It shouldn't have to be her problem to deal with me when I got like that. Instead, I stayed there, like that, until my breathing returned to normal and I almost felt okay. Okay enough at least to make a beeline for my bike. The sooner I made it home, the better.

Unfortunately one of my frat brothers had other plans. "Klaus! What's up man?" Tommy threw his arm around my shoulder.

I tried my best to shrug it off. "I can't talk right now. I'm in a hurry."

"Ah right, I heard Hammon's flunked you for some assignment you forgot to turn in."

I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth, a habit I picked up from my father, amongst many others. I peeled his arm off of me. "I'm not in the mood to talk right now. You should go."