YOURS FOREVERMORE

34. THE AWFUL ART OF CLOSING YOUR EYES (PT.3)

‼️TW: sa‼️

Back at her part time job, Herin took a sip out of her freshly brewed sage tea, before serving a customer buying some snacks.
She had flipped through one of the magazines that were getting sold at their store and only had skimmed over an article about tea, when she had read, that camomile tea had an calming effect.

They only had sage at stock, but luckily, that one had a calming effect too.
Herin really needed something to stop her from being so nervous all the time, especially before she would go back to university again.
She had talked herself into working on her project again, hoping the professor would keep his words and stay away from the classroom.
Just the thought of seeing him there again made her anxious.

The customer left and just a few minutes later, Herin had to serve a new one.
Her gaze fell onto her phone screen, checking the time while asking herself, why the store was suddenly so busy.
As soon as one customer left, another would enter.
She handed out the change and said her goodbye, before her gaze fell back onto the next customer in line.

„The same cigarettes as always." The professor smiled at her.
Her mouth instantly got dry and as she took her arm back, she accidentally had pushed her cup of tea off the counter and it shattered in thousand pieces.
The tea that had missed her hoodie, but not her jeans was now spread on the tiles behind the counter.
„Fuck. Fuck." She whispered as she felt her skin burn underneath the with tea soaked fabric.

Why was he here again?
Herin looked in his surprised face and then on the floor, trying to ignore the pain on her leg.
„Herin!" He leaned over the counter, observing the broken cup on the floor.
„You should be more careful..."
The professor looked up at her again as she clenched her jaw.

„Yeah, right."
She tried to hide her anger behind a fake smile.
She really started to hate every word that came out of his mouth.
„The black ones?"
Herin tried to ignore the wet floor underneath her feet, he was the bigger problem right now.
He just nodded as he stood up straight again.

When Herin wanted to turn around again, she noticed her bag underneath the counter.
The bottom had soaked up most of the tea and she immediately bend down and opened it.
„Just one second!"
She said as she tried to hide the panic in her voice.
Her sketchbook was still inside.
All her ideas for this- and future projects.
She didn't wanted them to get damaged by this stupid tea.

„I can just get them myself..."
He suggested as he watched Herin open her bag and rummage inside of it, placing her pencil case on the counter only for it to fall off as well.
The pens spread on the floor, right into the still hot tea.
She sighed as she felt her last nerve disappearing more and more.

Herin ignored them and took out her sketchbook instead, flipping through it and feeling a second of relief as she realized, the pages were still dry.
She pressed it to her chest and silently thanked any god who made the miracle happen.
That really would've been her last straw.

Herin stood up, turned around and bumped into the shoulder of her professor.
Her feet slipped on the tea and when she was about to fall back, he lay his hand around her waist, pulling her close to him.
The sketchbook fell out of her hand, hitting the ground and soaked up another puddle of tea.
The shards underneath her feet made an uncomfortable noise as she tried to take a step back. Her eyes ripped open as she looked into the face of the professor.