A secret is a secret | ONC 2024

03 | The digital news article

The past weekend had gone away and now it was Monday. I was sitting down in a chair in the last row of the classroom listening to the professor talking about today's learning lesson. I am trying my hardest to pay attention to the professor and it is working.

That's until five minutes ago when I checked the time on my phone sitting on top of my notifications. The notification was a digital news article from a news outlet that I like to read. I clicked on the notification. Quickly felt my breath getting stuck in my throat as I read the title. A young man was found dead early this morning by a person walking on the beach.

My heart began beating fast, my hands started shaking rapidly almost making me lose my grip on my phone. I placed my phone inside the pockets of my hoodie, breathing slowly to calm down my heart.

"That's all the time we have today. On Wednesday, we will finish the lesson and I will give the instructions for the assignment. Have a good afternoon, I will see you on Wednesday." The professor's voice announcing that the class was over reached my ears.

My classmates around me stood up from their chairs and started putting their things away inside their backpacks. I stood up from my chair, closed my laptop and notebook, and placed them inside my backpack.

I closed the zipper of my backpack and walked out of the classroom with the other students. I adjusted my backpack over my shoulders as I walked out of the classroom into the hallway.

"Hey, Lena." A voice behind me called out for me as I was starting to make my way toward the nearest exit of the building.

I turned around facing the source who called out for me. The source was my boyfriend leaning his back against the wall near the door of my classroom. It didn't take me long to realize that he was waiting for my class to be over.

"Hello, Alf." I greeted him, faking a small smile.

Alfred looked at me, pushed himself off the wall, and walked to me. He didn't say anything until he was standing in front of me. "That's your fake smile. Are you okay?"

I knew that my boyfriend could tell a fake smile from my real one. He knows me so well. "No, I am not."

"Okay, thank you for telling me. What's wrong?" My boyfriend asked me, softly placing a hand on my lower back and started rubbing comforting circles.

I reached into the pocket of my hoodie and took out my phone. I looked down at my phone, placing my password. I held my phone up in his eyesight and showed him the screen of my phone.

He looked at my phone for a short period before he met my eyes. "Okay, come on, let's go." He softly took my phone from my hand, placing it back inside the pocket of my hoodie.

"Where are we going?" I asked him as he walked to my side and moved the hand on my lower back around my shoulders. He and I began walking toward the nearest exit.

"Lena baby, I can see that you are shaken up about this even though you are trying to hide it. So, we are going to my dorm room."

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"Hey, Lena, have you eaten anything today?" The question left his lips as he opened the door of his dorm room.

Instead of walking in first, he held out the door, allowing me to walk in first. He entered his door after me behind him, my boyfriend slowly closed the door.

I walked to the couch in the living room, I took my backpack off my shoulders carefully placing it on the carpet floor against the couch. I sat down on it leaning my back against the softness of the couch.