Sensation (h.s)

Chapter Three

✺ Kate's point of view ✺

I live in fear for the next twenty-four hours. Between knowing that he is trying to get ahold of me and my outburst with Professor Styles, I barely sleep a wink.

Somehow I end up somewhere off campus with a new pack of cigarettes and my cellphone weighing heavy in my pocket. I call my mother as I smoke multiple of the cancerous sticks, hoping to ease some of the relief. She asks knowingly if something is wrong just by the tone of my voice, but I tell her everything is fine. I don't need her worrying until I really know there's something wrong.

By the time I make it back to my dorm, it's pushing ten at night. It's pitch black out besides the street lights, but it doesn't scare me. Nothing really scares me at this point. Being framed as a murderer couldn't be much worse than anything else that could happen to me.

I get back to my room and avoid all electronics for the rest of the night. I'm not in the mood to check my email or my instant messages incase I'm once again under attack from a few simple words.

I just need to take a deep breath and not myself get worked up over stupid things. It's not worth my time, or my record of being well behaved since moving here. Certainly I do not need the cops interfering again.

✺

My classes seem to roll by fairly smoothly the following day. I intentionally sleep in past my alarm again and disregard the fact that I've missed Professor Styles class two days in a row. I don't really want to see him after yesterday and today was the last day before the weekend. Time too cool off definitely wouldn't be a bad thing for us.

When my last lecture of the day finally begins, I find myself content in taking notes in the back of the classroom with no one paying attention to me. I'm getting by thinking about asking Lena to accompany me to the movies or something this weekend so that I don't have to spend another few days only sitting in the dorm doing nothing.

Fifteen minutes before the bell rings, the door to the lecture hall opens. The all too familiar dean of students steps into the room and my heart feels as though it plummets into my stomach.

The inevitable comes all too soon and I'm packing up my things and following him out of the room minutes after the professor calling my name.

"Nice weather we're having today, huh?" The dean asks as we walk across campus towards his office. I look up at the gloomy sky and back at him, then silently nod, not exactly agreeing with the statement. The small talk isn't really my cup of tea when I know in my gut something is about to happen.

When we finally make it to his office, he pushes the door open and I nearly choke on my own spit. Professor Styles is sitting in one of the chairs in the office, kicked back with his legs crossed and hands perched in his lap. His expression is stoic even though I know I look like I'm about to cry.

"Have a seat, Kate. We have some things to discuss." The dean tells me kindly. I sit down in the chair beside Professor Styles, but keep to myself the best I can.

Part of me questions momentarily about if this meeting could simply be asking why I've skipped his class two days in a row, but I know it's not. They don't care that much in college to take time out of the Professors and the deans day.

"Well, I suppose we'll jump right into it. Professor Styles emailed me this morning and said that you and him had some sort of small dispute yesterday where you used vulgar and disrespectful language towards him. Do you know anything of that?" The Dean eyes me carefully and I consider jumping out of my seat and making a run for it.

"Yes, that's correct. I wouldn't necessarily call it a dispute but-"

"Save it, Kate. In these situations we typically take the student and the teachers sides of the story, but you're certainly a... Different student. Professor Styles is a highly respected teacher in this university and I hope you can understand that this is completely against your agreement that you signed when we accepted you as a transfer student." The Dean shakes his head at me and I continue to sit in silence, unsure of what to say or do.