Between the lines

Chapter Nine

Elliot's pov

I wished Maude would stop breathing down my neck. It was distracting me from my studies. I hoped leaving the common room for the library would offer me some respite, but I was wrong. It had been well over an hour and I still couldn't move past the first two pages of my book.

"Elliot, I know I saw him this time."

"We both have tests tomorrow," I begged. "Stop smoking whatever you do and take your books out. You nearly failed last year."

"Ahem, I had a two point five two average."
"Yeah." I rolled my eyes. "Close call from having your scholarship revoked."

"Oh, fuck off..." she sighed and plopped down into the seat next to me. "Besides, you're in architecture. What on earth would they test you on?"

"Construction methods, Maude," I deadpanned. "At least this stuff comes to me naturally. What on earth made you choose poli-sci?"

"I can be smart, too!"
"Then study."

With a huff, she took her books out and plunged her nose into them. I sighed in relief and returned to my own books, although the diagrams were beginning to make less sense than before. The library was chilly, and I kind of missed the warmth of the common room. They had coffee there too.

I looked at Maude and wondered if I could sneak away. I loved her, but sometimes she worried too much and gave me anxiety. It was times like these that made me realise why God didn't make us biological siblings. I would've whooped her arse if we lived under the same roof.

There was a sinking feeling in my stomach that she might be right. She'd been going on about seeing a Bennett look-a-like the past two weeks, and there was a small part of me that was starting to believe her. For some reason, I felt nervous about it being true. I wasn't sure why, because it wasn't like Bennett bothered me ever since the tree incident. I barely thought about him since leaving for London either.

All right, that was a lie, but the point was that I wasn't concerned about him as a person. I didn't try rationalising his actions, or think about how he carried me to the hospital, or the way he always got in between me and whoever was trying to beat me up.
He was weird, and sometimes I got curious about people like that. But I couldn't afford any more distractions, and I really needed coffee. Quietly clearing up my space, I snuck away from a sleeping Maude and out of the library. The common room would be around the corner, and I only hoped no one had taken my favourite quiet spot.

Seemed like more students had a break at the same time as I did. However busy the common room was though, it always felt serene to me. It was a room large enough to host up to a hundred people at once, with table games off to one side, board games on the other, a loft, two walls of bookshelves, and another wall of sliding glass doors that lead out onto the schoolyard. I preferred the doors to be open when I sat by them, but I could see it was drizzling again. Someone was playing the keyboard horribly in the loft, but the soft chatter below muffled it.

My eyes scanned the reading spot for the red bean bag chair I would usually occupy, but halted on someone familiar.

"Professor Hendrix?" I said and neared him. He sat at one of the long workbenches overlooking some papers to grade. I would expect him at a teacher's lounge out of all places.

He looked up at me and brightened immediately, "Elliot! I've been waiting for you. How was your break?"

"It was nice," I said. "I did some workshops here and there. Did my last mentee do okay?"
"She was splendid, Elliot. You should consider being a teacher."

Only if I had my mother's patience, I thought before diverting from the topic. "Anything I can help you with? It's unusual to see you here unless..."

It was then I saw there was someone seated next to him hidden behind a book. My heart stopped for a moment, then picked up pace when I noticed the chestnut-coloured hair.
Oh no...