After 2

Chapter 180.

"How was everyone's weekend?" Professor Soto asks the class.

A few people answer but Landon and I look at each other and he smiles. He had a much better weekend than I did.

"Glad to see that a few of you are awake." Our professor chuckles.

It's odd not calling him Jonah because I have seen him outside of class more than once, but then again it's odd to call him Jonah because he is my professor after all.

"Let's get out our journals, today we will be discussing forgiveness." He says and Landon immediately looks at me.

"Seriously?" I say under my breath.

"What was that Ms. Young?" Jonah calls me out.

I want to sink into my seat, I like attention in class for getting correct answers but not for having a smart mouth.

"Nothing." I quickly respond and he smiles at me and tucks his ink pen behind his ear.

"Like I said today's lesson is about forgiveness. People spend their entire lives making mistakes and asking for forgiveness, it's the natural cycle of mankind. It's always been that way and every single religion has a tale of betrayal and forgiveness. In Christianity for example, the story of Judas Iscariot is the most famous. Judas was one of Jesus' twelve disciples who betrayed him for only thirty silver coins. Jesus of course forgave him, that is the essence behind Jesus of Nazareth. Forgiveness. It is believed that Judas couldn't live with the betrayal he had committed so he hung himself, the moral here being that even though he was forgiven by Jesus he was never able to forgive himself.  Which is worse, not being forgiven by the one you betray, whether it's your God, or someone else or not being able to forgive yourself? I can say from experience, forgiving yourself for a mistake is one of the hardest things in life. The good thing about forgiveness when in relation to religion is that your God will forgive you, you only have to ask for it in most cases. Humans on the other hand aren't so forgiving." He says and a chill spreads down my spine.

"Well, get to work!" He adds and sits behind his desk.

He always seems to pick a topic that relates to Hardin and I, or maybe it's just that everything in my life relates to Hardin and I.

Forgiveness is not something I really want to think about right now. It's not really about forgiving Hardin, it's more important that he can forgive himself for the things he has done in his past. Once he is able to do so he can allow himself to be happy.

My pen meets the paper and before I know it Professor Soto is dismissing us for the day.

"That was an interesting topic." Landon smirks at me and I use my journal to swat his arm.

"So what did you come up with? That Hardin should go to church?" He laughs and raises his arms in defense.

I pull my hair into a ponytail and gather the rest of my things before Landon and I walk outside.

"Have a good day Ms. Young." Jonah calls when I reach the door and I wave goodbye to him.

"See, notice how he didn't wish me to have a good day?" Landon points out.

"You've got to stop hanging around Hardin." I tease.

I feel complacent today, not necessarily happy but not miserable either. I am confused as hell and I miss Hardin already, pathetic I know. I can't help it, I had been away from him so long and almost had him out of my system but now he's coursing through my veins again, taking over every last bit of sense I had left.

"Are you wanting to go off campus for lunch today?" I ask Landon while we wait for the crosswalk to change.

"I'm going to be making some calls to NYU during lunch." He tells me.