BLINDED BY A MONSTER

CHAPTER 2:Love

He was brief— God, he was short.

I nodded sheepishly feeling my self-esteem drain out of my already pale skin

“Guilty as ever, um.. Professor..um…”

“Gregory…” he called out with an air of sarcasm

“You should know that by now Mr. Hunt, seeing that you’ve only attended my class twice”

I smiled broadly as I gusted through the heart of the class hall, making my way to the only vacant seat which conveniently happened to be in the front roll.

As I sat down, I couldn’t but notice the professor’s gaze resting heavily on me, his glasses perfectly rounded, 3 times the size of his eyes resting pompously on his already bloated nose, he wore the most obnoxious grin and could simply pass as the main villain in any story, because why not?!

“Alrighty then, now that we can afford the luxury of a full class, it’s only common that we begin”

The professor pointed just in time for my chair to collapse beneath me. The sound of splintering wood reverberated through the hall—my weight had proven too much for the integrity of Calderdale’s woodwork. Bugging

Lines of embarrassment ran down my face, I felt ice in my veins as my blood ran dry.

My weight had betrayed me— which was, again, strange.

As I stood trying to maintain my cool, brisking off debris from my pants. Professor Gregory turned to me “ well, Mr. Hunt, I see you love to make an entrance. Comport yourself and have a seat. This time, Carefully!”

The class erupted into laughter, my face was on fire, I sheepishly found a rather cosy spot to seat

“Today we are discussing the object and character of Material dialectic” the Professor called out “Mr. Hunt, I trust you’re up to speed with this”

I hesitated, it dawned on me that I hadn’t opened the book, “ahh…yes…professor”

“Delightful, then I presume you’re more than able to enlighten us on Federich Engles follow up rules of Material dialectic?!” he replied, raising an eyebrow.

I felt my heart in my throat, it was clear that today would be long and painful.

No escape now, I heaved deeply and began rambling anything that I believed sounded intelligent.

“well to understand this, we must first permeate..”— yes permeate, I used the word correctly.

“through the varied conception of material and dialecticism, independently, in a nutshell that’s what…Friedrich…rules… encircles”

The professor’s eyebrow arched higher, I could feel the piercing gaze of the entire class driving through my soul, I have never been the brightest crayon in the pack—and never for once did I complain about my standing in the academic hemisphere of Calderdale, but this, I felt the gravity of my ignorance weighing heavy on me, I wanted the ground to swallow me whole.

The Professor’s expression turned cold as the tone of the class went from well calculated chatters to absolute silence.

“You don’t say, Mr Hunt. Well, does anyone care to help him out?”

“what he is trying to say, I believe” a rather shrill voice called out “ is that segmenting the definition of this various disciplines would attribute more understanding to Engel’s rule, his approach, while unheard of is somewhat salvageable if at all we give credence to context”

I turned to glance at who threw me a lifeline, and my gaze met the starry blue eyes of Barbel, her luscious red lips curled into a smile. My heart felt warm, I was razed with gratitude.

“At least someone’s head still has its use…Good enough for me” the professor called in

“Mr.Hunt, it would be in our best interest that you spend dedicated time with Miss. Cain, as her brilliance might rub off on you”.

My cheeks flushed red, Nice set up Prof.

As the class continued, it was only natural that I occasionally glanced at her.

Her dark hair falling over her face, she was deeply engrossed in her notes, jotting down most of the gibberish gutted out by the professor, what would have ordinarily seemed endless appeared to be brief, in a matter of minutes the lecture ended.

She closed her note book, stood up and was about to leave the hall, but no way would I let such happen.

I have to let her know that I’m Cool, smart and confident enough to steal a date.

“What a ride, huh!?”

“what do you want” she snapped back venomously

“Wow, easy there. You know, the Professor said we need to spend time together, we have to. It’s in the school bylaws or something “

Did I come off too strong?

She arched her eyes— s**t! She’s damn pretty.

“Is that so…”

“yeah” I said, grinning,

She rolled her eyes, her expression sent off a mixed feeling of annoyance and frustration “so what exactly would we be doing during this proposed Quality time?”

Well I shrugged, playing it cool, “I dunno, I was thinking,maybe, we could explore the meaninglessness of our very, very short lives together”

She tilted her head in awe, she raised both eyebrows possibly because of the shock from such all encompassing foolery “really?! How …romantic” a smile ran down her face

“ hey, it’s not my fault, I’m just trying to turn water into wine here”

Her smile broadened, she leaned in, her voice grew serious “ alright Juan, I think there’s a way we can make this work, but…I wouldn’t be going easy on you”

“oh, I like it hard…I mean…I”

“I know what you mean Juan”

Our eyes locked in for a moment and I was lost in her gaze, I could feel adrenaline pumping through me, blood running through my veins with incomprehensible speed, the air grew thicker, my heart pounding through my chest— I have dealt with ladies before

But this, this was different, usually the ladies were the ones to feel this way but not me…

“ don’t get any ideas young sir, I’m only doing this because I have to”

I raised my hands mockingly to surrender “word of honour woman! I’d be on my best behaviour”

She sighed “ I very much doubt that…”