Page 25 of Somewhere Between Falling

“She was taking too long, and I didn’t want to make it obvious. I got you something,” I said, grinning as I pulled the book out of my bag.

He seemed surprised as he took it from me and unwrapped it. His eyes brightened when he read the title. “Where did you find this?”

“Downtown at one of the flea markets. I figured it was about time you read it.”

“Thank you, Tamsin.” He hopped off of the desk and pulled me in for a hug.

We held on probably too long for ‘just friends,’ but as we stood there, wrapped around each other, I realized I wasn’t ready to let go, and it didn’t seem like he was either.

He pulled back just enough to look down at my face, but he kept his arms wrapped around my waist, his head tilted, just slightly, as if asking me an unspoken question.

I knew he wanted to kiss me, and I wanted him to. My breath caught in my chest as he leaned closer.

But before anything could happen, the heavy wooden door swung open and I jumped back so fast, I hit one of the desks behind me, hitting my hip hard enough I was definitely going to have a bruise.

“Ow!” I exclaimed, rubbing my hip.

Julie appeared in the doorway. She pushed up her glasses, her brow furrowed in confusion as her eyes darted from where Tobias still stood by his desk and me leaning against the desk in front of him, rubbing my now very sore hip.

“Did I interrupt something?” she asked in her obnoxious, nasally voice.

“Nothing at all. Tamsin was just asking a question about the assignment,” Tobias lied smoothly.

“What did you do to your hip?” she asked me, almost mockingly.

“I ran into the desk,” I said with a casual shrug.

“How?” she inquired. Why is she so nosy?

“Just clumsy, I guess,” I said, straightening up and smoothing out my hair. “Anyway, thanks for the help. See you next week. In class. Um, okay, bye.” I scattered as quickly as possible.

Julie followed me out. “You aren’t fooling anyone.”

“What does that even mean?” I asked, my heart pounding loudly in my ears.

“Hmph,” she sneered before strutting off, leaving me with a very bad taste in my mouth.

How much did she see? What did she think she saw? If Tobias and I were going to continue this…whatever this was…we were going to need to be more careful.

Chapter Fifteen

As much as I loved snow, if I had to pick one season to live in for the rest of my life, it would be spring. I loved how erratic the weather was. Most people complained about that, but I loved how the cool morning air reminded you that winter wasn’t quite over yet so it was too early to put away your sweaters, but then by the afternoon it was too warm for one because summer was fast approaching. Spring symbolized fresh, new beginnings and reminded me that summer break was almost here. It wasn’t just school that had me stressing out this semester, so I was beyond anxious for it to be over.

My secret friendship with Tobias was starting to get complicated.I knew that no one else could possibly know; I hadn’t even told Alex about it yet.And after Julie almost walked in on…whatever was about to happen in that classroom, I hadn’t even stayed after class to talk to him. Our outside-of-class communication was strictly through text these days.Things were finally starting to quiet down about my dad, and the last thing I wanted was to spark even more gossip about my family.

Even though Dr. Kiuchi was back and Tobias was no longer teaching my class, he was still in a position of authority, which would not look the greatest if we were to start spending more time together publicly. It was definitely in both of our best interests to keep our friendship quiet for now.

So, we texted… a lot. I had never been one of those people who spent a lot of time on her phone, but it was the only safe way to communicate with him so lately I was constantly on my phone.

On Tuesdays I didn’t have time to eat an actual lunch, so I grabbed a muffin and a cup of coffee on my way to our class.My phone vibrated in my pocket with a notification from Tobias: Twilight marathon on tonight. Figured you’d be interested though I still find your taste in vampires questionable.

I set down my coffee on a nearby bench so I could respond: I like glittery things

I made a mental note to stock up on snacks after class. Then, before I could respond, another text came through: See you in a few minutes :)

When I walked into the class, Tobias was already there. We briefly made eye contact before I made my way to my desk and sat down. He now sat in a corner, observing instead of leading lectures. Dr. Kiuchi was a good teacher—an interesting lecturer and very knowledgeable—but I found myself a bit distracted. It didn’t help that every time I dared to glance over at him, he was looking at me with a knowing smirk. I felt my cheeks redden in response every single time.

“Yes, I know you submitted these via the internet, but I’ll be honest, I am not the kind of teacher that grades well online. I prefer pen and paper, so while you will continue submitting assignments electronically, I will often have Tobias here print them for me. Very well done, by the way. It’s obvious I left you in capable hands during my medical leave,” Dr. Kiuchi said as he and Tobias passed out the graded papers.

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