Winter in Cambridge

Chapter 14 - Cryptic

Author Note

Accompanying song
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Move Me by Badflower

"What the hell?"

Winter's voice trembled with anger as she stood in the open doorway of Tom's office. The skin of her hands was taunt as she balled them into tight fists, clutching her bag straps. Her jaw clenched with the tension she felt in her body.

She wanted to scream, wanted to shout at him for what he had done, but she still had her senses about her and knew she couldn't.

Winter didn't want them to get caught.

The rain outside accompanied her mood as it pattered against the window pane, creating a dull drumming noise against the glass like war drums calling people to battle.

She had followed Tom to his office after their lecture had finished. She couldn't let him embarrass her like that in front of the rest of the student body. This was her final year, and she wasn't going to throw away all her hard work just because of some drunken mistake they both had made. If his plan was to get her to quit her course by being a dick and picking on her, he was sorely mistaken.

"Why are you so angry with me? I haven't done anything wrong!"

Tom dropped his bag to the floor by his desk. His shoulders slumped, and his head hung in defeat.

He had hoped that he could just push Winter away without needing to do this face-to-face, to make her hate him from afar, but it seemed that Winter had other ideas about how this was going to go.

"Get out, Miss Martin," Tom said quietly. He was too exhausted for this and didn't feel he could trust himself around Winter alone.

Winter narrowed her eyes as she stepped further inside in disbelief, unceremoniously dropping her bag to the floor at her feet.

"What?"

Tom spun around, unable to meet her gaze as his eyes went to the open door behind Winter. His hands clenched into tight fists, matching Winter's own.

"I said get out, Winter. I want you to leave," he bit back with an angry edge to his voice, trying to push her away with his words in one last attempt to get her to leave by being cruel and distant.

Winter planted her feet firmly on the floor. She wasn't going anywhere until she got an explanation as to why he was being such an asshole towards her.

"No."

"No?" Tom huffed in disbelief as his face fell into a scowl. He scoffed loudly as he shook his head and bit his bottom lip, drawing in a breath. Tom knew she could be stubborn. He'd seen glimpses of it in her writing when she kept to a point and argued her reasoning, trying to convince the reader that she was right.

"No. I'm not leaving until we discuss what happened like adults instead of you acting like a child and digging me out in front of the whole class, telling me off like I'm some naughty five-year-old year."

Tom grits his teeth and storms past Winter to his office door. He quickly looked up and down the corridor to check no one else was around before closing the door with a firm shove.

His hand lingered on the wood with his back to Winter as he took a deep breath and ran his free hand through his hair, debating whether to lock the door.

"Winter..." Tom's voice trailed off as he rested his forehead against the cool wooden door and took another deep breath, closing his eyes to try and hold onto some sort of composure. "What happened was a mistake. It shouldn't have happened," Tom said quietly before he took another breath and turned around to face her without locking the door. "I shouldn't have done what I did... I'm sorry." Tom swallowed and dropped his gaze away as if he was ashamed of what he had done.