Page 23 of Praise You

Yeah? What the fuck? I'm supposed to be getting out of here, not meeting him somewhere, just the two of us.

"Or we could just stay here if you want."

"No, no. The library would probably be better." I tell him, nodding my head as though it will convince both of us to go there.

"Are we going to talk about what happened?"

"Wha—?" My voice croaks, so I clear it trying again. "What happened?"

Ronan huffs, rolling his eyes. "You know what happened. You were there. I was there."

"Oh, uh, yes. I do remember. No need to talk about it," I stammer, looking everywhere but at Ronan.

I try to walk around him when his hand reaches out, stopping me.

"I think we should talk about it."

“I really don’t want to,” I plead, hoping he’ll drop it.

“No. We need to talk about this. When you logged in the other night, I recognized your screen name but I couldn’t place it until a couple of days ago. You joined my live during the summer, didn't you? The one who hid his camera from me?”

Fuck.

Do I lie? Do I tell the truth? What the hell do I do?

"Fuck. Yes, that was me." Sighing, I lift my bag back over my head, before making my way over to the first row of chairs. I sit down, dropping my bag onto the floor. Ronan takes the seat next to me, neither of us saying anything. "Fuck, I didn't know it was you. Now that I'm sitting here listening to your voice, I have no idea how I didn't put two and two together but I swear, if I would have known it was you, I never would have joined the live or watched your videos."

Ronan cuts me off before I can continue. "You watched my videos? Also, I deepen my voice and change it so that I'm not recognizable."

"Well, it worked. I didn't know it was you. Fuck. This is so fucked."

"Why?" he asks, tilting his head, not breaking eye contact with me.

"What do you mean, why? You're my student Ronan, I'm your professor. It's wrong."

"There's nothing wrong with it. You're my college professor. I'm twenty-two. And you're...."

"Thirty," I finish for him.

"See, adults. I don't see anything wrong with it. You didn't know it was me, and I didn't know it was you."

"True. That's true." Slumping into my seat, I close my eyes. He's right, I didn't know who he was. It's not my fault, but now that I do know, I can't do it anymore. “We should head to the library.”

“So, we’re not going to talk about it?”

“We just talked about it,” I counter.

“Okay, so what’s next?”

“Nothing. We forget it happened,” I say, standing up and plucking my bag up from the ground. “Come on, let’s go.”

“What? No. I don’t want to forget about it. I want to discuss this.”

“There’s nothing to discuss, Ronan.”

“Whatever.” He storms past me and I rush after him, not wanting him to leave. Before he reaches the door, I grab his wrist, turning him around to face me.

“Ronan.”

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