Mara’s pov
I sat down on my bed with my back pressed on the wall. I was holding my knees up to my chest. I was staring straight into nothing.
The room was silent.
My head? Loud. Chaotic. Unhinged.
I could not stop thinking about him— Professor Hayes.
But this time my chest kept becoming tight as everything from earlier kept replaying on a loop—no pause button, no mercy. The way he spoke to me. The way his eyes slid past me like I wasn’t worth stopping for. The way his voice sounded… distant. Polite. Professional. Like I was just another name on his attendance sheet.
I tried to breathe it away. I tried to convince myself that it was not what it looked like.
“Maybe he was just being careful,” I said out loud. “Maybe he was trying to keep things clean.”
That sounded reasonable. Logica
