somewhere in there / jonathan crane

4. experimenting

A month has passed since classes started again and Zoe was on the top. She was the best student in her department and her parents and friends could not be more proud. Crane was giving Zoe the attention she deserved and from one study session per week, it went to two and three. She revealed things to Crane and he liked it. He was sleeping at night with her on his mind, thinking he found the one, thinking he found someone who could help him test his experiments. Scarecrow didn't like that.

It was friday, the day she didn't have a study session with him. He made her realize more things and he opened a new reality that was far from reality for her. She wanted more. Being at the worst with her boyfriend, Crane was a good distraction along with his studies.

"Noah..."

"Zoe I understand you want to focus on studying but it feels like you have meetings with that creepy ass dude just because you want to do it, not because you need to study!"

"Noah what the fuck?! He's our professor!" Zoe yelled back. She wasn't going to give in, not this time. Noah was being a jerk and everyone started noticing. Even his friends said he had to zip his mouth and control his mind.

"I don't think that that really bothers you, Zoe, we all know you are into older guys. I have ears and eyes everywhere, remember?" He said, trying to manipulate her to expose herself.

"Dude, you've lost your shit. This is not you."

"Hey, hey, don't talk about change to me, Zoe! You've changed, no one can reach you anymore. You're either studying psychology, reading books about psychology or talking psychology with that psycho!" He yelled, still seated on Zoe's sofa, who was pacing around in front of him, blocking the TV screen.

"I love psychology, Noah! Crane is just willing to help me! Also what should I say about your late nights with friends and the next day you're smelling like Chanel? Or when you say you're gaming but your roommates see you coming home at 5 in the morning? Does your computer play itself or?" She argued.

"You're not making any sense, Zoe. You need to chill out." He said, standing up. "And you may reconsider spending time with your boyfriend or even maybe pleasing him instead of fulfilling Crane's fantasies about you." He grabbed his coat and walked out, not giving Zoe a chance to reply.

She immediately broke down crying, feeling ashamed of herself. She never once felt wrong hanging out with professor but her boyfriend made her feel guilty of a lot of things. She let out a long sigh and leaned back on the sofa where she could still smell Noah's cheap perfume mixed with Crane's strong and calming cologne that was all over her.

She quickly dialed Jennifer's number.

"Hey Jenn." She said, wiping away her tears.

"Are you crying?" Jennifer asked.

"I just had a fight with Noah. He's bothered by me studying with Crane and he even said that he minds how we don't have sex that often anymore."

"The Crane thing...well, you do spend a lot of time with the professor and all of the students are talking about it but you should not care because you're doing in for the grade and it's not our fault they are stupid and don't understand shit," Jenn explained, making Zoe giggle a bit. When Crane was mentioned, she wanted to hear, she was ears. "But the sex thing...If he loves you, he shouldn't bring that up. Relationships are not sex, Zoe, we know that. I say take a break and let's see what's gonna happen." 

"Breaks don't work with me and Noah, we're already broken up. I don't think we'll continue the relationship, Jenn." She cried, blowing her nose this time.

 "Ah...So I told you that I'm attending a party at this bar tonight with Michael and his friends right?"

"Yeah."