✧˚ °➶𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓟𝓻𝓸𝓯𝓮𝓼𝓼𝓸𝓻'𝓼 𝓟𝓮𝓽➶˚ °✧

Chapter 6. Delinquency

I awoke to the warm sunlight that bled into my dormitory through my blinds. My first thought upon opening my eyes was the consideration that my entire relationship with Orion could have been a dream. I considered this because he was truly the smartest most attractive man I had ever met. He was like that of a creature from my greatest, unimaginable fantasies - everything I would have dreamt up if I had the imagination.

As I got ready for the day and thought more and more about this, completing some more of my homework before heading off for class, I realised that it was a real possibility, Orion being made up. But my memories of the night we had spent together comforted my paranoia, and once I got to class and sat next to Carter, ignoring his seemingly awkward manner due to him asking me out the last time I had seen him, Professor Hart walked in.

My favourite part of each lesson was when he walked in. It was like I was seeing him for the first time all over again, almost every day. Like I was kissing him for the first time. Like he was touching me for the first time...

The class went by as usual, bringing all of the content to my attention just as much as normal. I was becoming increasingly more interested in the classes as they progressed, likely due to who was teaching them. Orion truly was the smartest person I had ever met - I didn't know why, but I found that incredibly attractive... likely because intelligence was something I considered more than any other feature of a person, other than the relationship already established with a person.

At one point in the lesson, Orion's deep blue eyes met mine and said something beautiful to me in their chaotic strength. I couldn't wait to be alone with him, eventually...

By the end of the class, I handed in my practice test to Mr Hart along with everyone else, smiling at him in the process and catching his eye. I got back to my dorm at two in the afternoon, seeing a text from him.

'If you still want to come over, I'll be grading papers so it might be a little boring'

I rolled my eyes slightly, sitting down at my desk and looking at my clean dorm before replying.

'I just wanna be with you, if you'll have me'

He read this and took a moment before typing and sending a final text back.

'You're always welcome.'

I smiled, and told him that I would be there at four, because I had some finances to figure out, which had been lingering in the back of my mind.

I pulled up my bank information on my computer and phone, checking to see how much I owed the university, the cost of which suddenly increased to an amount that I not only didn't own, but an amount so large that I had no idea how I would be able to obtain it before the deadline, in two week's time.

I put my phone down, burying my head in my hands, not in thought, rather simply in stress. How was I going to pay for this? I didn't want to go back into sex work because of Orion, and I couldn't leave the university. I would simply have no-where to stay.

My phone's ringtone buzzing on the desk suddenly broke me out of my anxious trance, and I picked it up, reading the name as the office for Ascot University.

I stood up, pacing a little before swiping to answer, holding the device to my ear.

"Natalia speaking." I said formally.

"Ms Whitlock," The woman on the other end of the phone spoke in a posh voice, compared to that of my incapably casual tone. "Ascot University is aware that you have paid the fee of the first semester, but we regret to inform you that the fee for the second semester is due."

I placed a hand on my forehead, closing my eyes and on the edge of a lonesome breakdown before speaking. "Yes, I'm aware... But, I thought it wouldn't be due until a month before the beginning of the second semester? Why is the fee coming around so early?"

"The financial schedule is ahead, and so we, at the office for Ascot University, expect all payments to be made as required. The new due date for the second semester's fee is in two weeks." She spoke heartlessly. "Are you able to make a payment by then?"

I nodded a lot before replying. "Yes, I can do it."

"Great," She said, not sounding grateful at all. "We will call you in seven days if the payment is still not due to serve as a reminder for your convenience."

"Thanks so much." I said, biting my tongue a little. "Goodbye."

And I hung up. Two weeks, the fee for one semester of university. How the fuck was I going to do it? I sat on the floor of my barely-paid for dorm, leaning against the wall, practically in shambles. I had no way of making money that fast, apart from sex work, which was most definitely off of the table as of the circumstances of my relationship with my very attractive mathematics professor.

Perhaps I could speak to Orion about my problems. Perhaps this was the day that I could open up to him about my wretched, guilt-ridden past. The delinquency that followed my hesitation to make money in my habitual way prior to the beginning of our relationship was now catching up with me.

Preparing some of my mathematics things and equipment, I checked myself out in the mirror before leaving my dorm. I wore a short, black academic skirt with a grey, baggy top.

I was headed for Orion's, where hopefully I could talk to him, my angel, about my issues. Or, at least, I could be lost in his presence, far away from anything my tainted, stressed mind could conjure up.

➶˚ °✧    n e x t       p a r t     i s      a l r e a d y      o u t    ➶˚ °✧