Out of Focus |finished|

39- undercover and suspensions

Jamal was sitting in his biochemical engineering class but his mind was somewhere else. On the previous night and how he'd let anger control him. He cringed every time he thought of the intensity with which he'd hit Peter.
For the fifteenth time that morning, he sneaked a look at his phone expecting to see a message.

His heart leapt when he saw a Telegram notification. One unread message from an unknown number attached to a document. Jamal opened it quickly and read,
Here's the List. Hope you know what you're doing.

Jamal felt like he could literally explode out of joy. He checked whether the lecturer was still teaching and landed his eyes straight on his. The smile disappeared from Jamal's face and he pushed the phone into his pocket. It was too late as the lecturer, Dr. Amor, had already caught him.

"Mr. Dubois, care to share with us what is on your phone?"

"On my p-phone?" Jamal stuttered and watched as Dr. Amor walked to him and opened his palm to him.

Just my luck, Jamal sighed. The lecturer had no phone tolerance in his class and once he seized your phone, the chances of getting them back were slim to none. He was a burly man, with a balding head and always wore rimmed glasses.

"The phone, now." Dr. Amor ordered and opened his palm to Jamal.

Jamal nodded and took out the phone from his pocket but not before he pressed the home button. His palms were sweaty and chided himself for making such a stupid mistake of checking his phone during Dr. Amor's class.

The lecturer was learned, old and intolerable to most of the students. Dr. Amor walked to the front of the class and gave the phone to his T.A. Jamal let out a sigh of relief,
At least he didn't place the phone in his suitcase. With the T.A, Jamal could convince him to give him the phone back.

Dr. Amor continued teaching and this time, Jamal listened attentively and even answered a question to get back into the lecturer's good graces. But fate was against him. Barely 30 minutes after his phone was seized, Dr. Forson entered the class.

Jamal's heart began racing fast. There was no way this was a coincidence, the reason why Dr. Forson was in the lecture hall definitely related to him.

The two lecturers talked for a moment and Dr. Amor called out to him, "Jamal, Dr. Forson would like to see you."

Jamal stood up with shaky feet, willed himself to calm his out of control shaking hands and walked to where the two lecturers stood. The whole class was quiet as the other students watched what was going on.
Dr. Amor shook his head and Dr. Forson had an almost sad look. Jamal took his phone from the T.A and walked out of the class with his former paramour.

They'd walked a few steps when Jamal stopped in his tracks and asked Dr. Forson, "What do you want?"

The lecturer sighed and shook his head, "What did you do yesterday?"

All the blood rushed of Jamal's face and he felt his heart beating against his chest. He was sure Forson could see how fast his heart was beating.

"I don't know what you mean," he managed out and dared to look into Forson's eyes.

"Stop the lying Jamal. The assistant Dean of Students called me this morning because I'm your academic tutor. You beat up someone?"

Jamal couldn't risk saying anything that would give he and his friends up. He shrugged and willed his heart to stop beating so fast.

"I don't know what's going on with you Jamal," Forson touched him on the forearm and he flinched. "You're suspended for 3 weeks, effective immediately." He added.

"What?"

"Whoever you beat up, the assistant Dean felt for his plight. I'll find who it was and Jamal, I hope this isn't related to what we talked about."

Jamal's sisters flashed before his eyes. "It isn't! I promise."

"Let's hope so. You can't set foot on campus during your suspension. Take care boy."

And with that, Dr. Forson left him standing there clutching his bag and his heart finally calming down.

Jamal walked away from the lecturer, picked his backpack from the lecture hall and walked towards the shuttle station to pick a shuttle to his place.
He'd almost reached and received a text from Malachi.
Don't forget, my place after class. Key is under my doormat.

He had been in such a daze about the suspension and the imminent discovery of everything by Dr. Forson that he had forgotten that he had to meet Malachi after class.

He let out an exhale and he redirected his steps to the cluster of hostels on campus. Everything was becoming too much for him. Ironic since an hour ago, he'd felt like he finally had the winning hand.

On his way to Malachi's hostel, he met a few friends and fist bumped them. He smiled as usual but within he felt like everything was hopeless.
What did I do to deserve this? He looked up at the sky.

Everything could end much simpler for him if he didn't have his sisters to think about.
Get your head right, he chastised himself and took out his earpiece from his bag.
With hip hop blasting through his head, he closed his mind to the world and walked down the corridor to Malachi's room.

He had gotten nowhere when someone pulled him into one of the rooms. The first thing that hit him was the harsh flowery scent in the room. He held back a sneeze and looked at who had pulled him in.

"Abby?" he stared at her.

"Hey Jamal."

"What do you want? Did Forson put you up to this? I told you people –,"

"Shh Jamal. I know you have the List and for the safety of everyone you have to give it to me."

Jamal put his hands in pocket. "And why would I do that?"

"Because I've been working undercover with National Security Agency and we've wanted for that List for a long time." Abby dropped a bomb on him.

Author's Note

Hey guys, there are no excuses I'm so sorry for the late update. Thanks for reading.
Do you think Dr. Forson will catch Malachi and his friends? I don't know if it's just me but Jamal seemed depressed.
And Abby?! Do you believe her?