The closed curtains

Chapter 5

"Your best friend's hoodie looked a lot like the one you wear in the evenings before getting back to the dormitory," Hannes commented when we were making our beds in the morning.

"So?" I asked.

"You call him sweetheart," Hannes said. "Who calls their best friend sweetheart?"

"Why do you care?" I asked. He had nothing to do with my private life. We were not friends. He was rude and homophobic.

"You said you were not gay," Hannes said. "Which was apparently a lie. He is your boyfriend, isn't he?" I ignored him as I finished up to go to breakfast. He then blocked the doorway out of the dormitory.

"Get out of my way, Hannes," I said, calmly.

"If you confess," he replied.

"Confess to what?" I asked.

"That you are gay and in love with that boy who met you on the platform," he said.

"I am not gay," I said. I was not gay. I did not see a point in labelling myself as anything. I was myself. And I was in a relationship with Simon, who happened to be a boy.

"So you don't deny being in love with him?" he replied. His grin was mean. I could not deny Simon. It would not feel right. But I did not know what Hannes would do with that kind of information.

"Just move out of my way, Hannes," I said. I was tired and irritated.

"You are, aren't you?" he said. I pushed him out of the doorway and got out.

"Are you stuck in high school being an immature bully? Can you at least pretend to be an adult?" I replied. I walked out to the cafeteria and got myself some breakfast. I sat down by a table with some of the boys in my dormitory. When Johan and I had been talking for a while, I reached for my phone that I had put in my pocket before leaving the dormitory. It was not there. I was sure I had it before I left the dormitory.

"My phone is gone," I said and checked all other pockets on my uniform, in case I had put it somewhere else.

"That's weird," Johan said. "You had it this morning, didn't you?" I had been texting with Simon before we had to get up. He was supposed to meet Sara that day, and had seen Felice the other day. Felice had gone to New York with Maddie after graduation. I had missed her. She was one of my best friends. I had told her that Simon and I were a couple right after going to the military. She had not been surprised. Apparently Simon and I had not been as discreet as I had first thought.

"Yeah," I said. "And I am sure I had it when I left the dormitory." I had bumped into Hannes when I got myself out of the dorm that morning. What if he had stolen my phone?

"We can go back and check if you left it in the locker if you want to," Anton said. I nodded. It did not hurt to check, before accusing Hannes of being a thief. We went back to the dormitory and I looked everywhere to try to find the phone. It was not there. Johan called my phone. No one answered and we did not hear the ringtone anywhere.

"I bumped into Hannes on my way out of the dormitory before. What if he snatched it?" I said. "I bet he is already reading my texts and looking at my photos." Simon and I texted a lot. And we had a long distance relationship. We never sent each other full on nudes, but I knew for a fact that I had some photos of the two of us topless. And I had a picture or two of us kissing too. That we were a couple would not be a secret to anyone who went through my phone.

"Don't you have a lock on your phone though? If he has it, he hopefully can't open it," Johan said. I nodded. I hoped what he said was true. Johan's phone buzzed. He got a message from Simon on messenger.