don't call me that

14: Deconstructing

Even after Harry and I's talk on the roof, things between us were still a little less than back to normal. I was slightly distant and he was slightly uncomfortable, and with school starting up again it didn't give us a chance to fix it.

Jade was there for me, though. She was immensely proud of me for letting go of my secret.

Smith wasn't quite so supportive. After the incident in Harry's bedroom and the explosion thereafter I didn't have a lot of time to write those three essays due in class.

Louis and I shied away as he approached our desks on Wednesday morning, holding out papers.

"Morning, guys," he said, placing my work down on my table. I forced myself to avoid looking down at it, but even in my peripheral vision I could see several red pen marks.

"Hi, Smith!" we said in unison.

Our professor eyed us, amused. "Long weekend, huh?"

Louis snickered and flicked his fringe out of his eyes.

"You could say that," I yawned, glancing at my essay three times, trying to decipher Smith's messy scrawl.

He smirked. "Save a little more time for work next week, alright?"

Louis continued to laugh. "Yes sir," he agreed.

Smith left our table, shaking his head. I let out a relieved breath that he hadn't been angrier at us. I shared a smile with Lou.

Looking down at my paper, I flipped to the last page and read what Smith had written:

Nice-ish work, ma'am. Definitely letting you and Lou Tommo slide on this one, okay? See me after class, Parker!

I showed the message to Louis, who chuckled.

"What do you think he's gonna say?" I asked, sort of worried. "Think he's gonna chew me out?"

Louis shook his head. "You're his prize student, Blue. He's probably just calling you down there to tell you how great you are."

I giggled. "That's stupid," I said, but part of me hoped that was exactly what it was.

When the bell rung, I said goodbye to Louis and let all the other students file out of the room before approaching Smith's desk.

"What's going on?" I asked, sitting across from him. He crossed one leg over the other, exposing one bright green sock.

"I've really gotten to know you as a writer over the course of the year, Indigo," he said thoughtfully.

I nodded along, confused.

"I can, I don't know, read your emotions through your writings," he continued, stoking his nonexistent beard with long fingers.

I sighed, narrowing my eyes. "Yeah?" I said slowly, trying to understand where he was going with this.

Smith cleared his throat and removed his leg, sitting forward and looking me in the eye.

"I think you're having some ignored troubles with your man Harry."

I felt my eyes widen as his words sunk in. "What?!"

Smith began packing up his papers, leaving me in confused, indignant silence.

Troubles with my what now?!

Part of me was laughing while the other part slowly came to terms with what Smith was saying.

My professor, wordless, saluted me with his empty coffee cup and walked out of the classroom. Dumbfounded, I sat there in his chair for more than a minute.