Chapter Fifty-Three

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"... and the last type of marriage is devitalized marriage, where once upon a time, the couple used to be strong, but is no longer so..."

Mr. Herberg's words flew past my ears, and minutes passed by as he talked about marriage while my head was not even here at all. I had no idea if this topic was even in the curriculum. In fact, I had no idea if anything we'd been doing for this class was actually in the curriculum at all.

At least we covered a little bit about taxes and money management last week. God knows I'd need that knowledge for my future.

I twirled the pen in my fingers before pretending to jot down words into my notebook, while really, I was drawing weird doodles that looked like an infant doll coming out of a horror movie.

I never said I was good at drawing.

"Miss Taylors," Mr. Herberg addressed me formally—which was weird since he usually just called me Hannah—and the pen I was holding immediately fell onto my desk as my head snapped up. "Are you here at all?" he asked, his eyes taking notes of the ugly drawing on my book.

Nope. I am not here at all. "Yeah. Of course. Sorry."

He looked like he was about to say something more, but instead, he just lifted his right shoulder and said, "Next time, Hannah, if you ever get bored in this class, draw my face instead of that weird looking giant worm on your notebook."

People chuckled and my cheeks burned. "It's not supposed to be a giant worm," I mumbled.

Mr. Herberg joined in the chuckle and he walked over to my desk to inspect the "giant worm" on my notebook closer. "Then what is this?" he asked curiously.

"Your face?" I tried, and he looked mildly amused as he put the notebook back down.

"Nice try. Pay attention, Hannah," he reminded once again, and I nodded at him as he walked back to the front of the classroom.

My eyes met Jonah's once Mr. Herberg was gone, and I found myself unable to look away, until he hesitantly turned his head away first, breaking the short-lived eye contact before I could even begin to feel anything.

But I felt his eyes on me again once I had kept my gaze fixed on the notebook on my desk. I felt it as if we were in a dark room and the only source of light was coming from his gray eyes, and it pointed only to me. It made me feel like I was the only one in the room and I had a thousand pair of eyes watching me.

It made me want to turn around to stare back at him. But I didn't.

Just as I started to think that the bell couldn't ring soon enough, it finally did. I shoved my notebook and everything on my desk into my bag and stood up, right at the same time Jonah got out of his own seat.

We both stopped, and for a while we were nearly chest-to-chest, his tall figure towering over me. Time seemed to pause for a while as his eyes flitted from my eyes down to my lips, but when he blinked, I took a step back.

And nearly fell onto the desk behind me, had he not caught me in the waist in time. He immediately retracted his hands, muttering, "Sorry."

I heard his voice and thought about the voicemails he left me, and I kept my head down so his eyes couldn't find mine anymore. "Yeah," I said, quickly turning to leave. I found Mr. Herberg watching me with curious eyes as I passed by his desk, and I gave him a quick smile.

I let out a breath once I got into the lunch room, finding my usual table still empty. I got my lunch and immediately sat down, already nibbling on my grapes as I waited for my friends to arrive. My mind was still whirring with emotions from the way Jonah looked at me, so I kept my head down and ate in silence, even when Gina and Bey finally arrived at our table.. Gina shot curious glances at me every once in a while—I hadn't talked to her about everything that had happened yet—but didn't ask anything.

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