Page 79 of Monster's Baby

“Did you finish cleaning your bathroom?”I asked, pulling away from Aiden.

“It’s squeaky clean,” the professor said innocently.

Too innocently.

I narrowed my eyes at him.“What did you do?”

“The soap bubbles are gone,” Professor Reynolds said, his eyes wide.“I cleaned them up.”

“Uh huh.”I peeked at his bathroom from the doorway between our rooms.It looked clean.“Okay, you did a good job.This suspicion,” I said, pointing at my head, “is because you keep lying to us.It’s hard to trust you if you keep lying.”

The professor pouted and looked down at his feet.“Sorry.”

I sighed.“Just...Try not to lie, please?Come on, let’s get breakfast.”

Professor Reynolds took my hand readily enough, pulling me out the door.

“Hey,” Aiden said playfully.“I thought I was the only one who got to hold your hand.”

I shrugged.“On the way to class?”

“You’d better.”

In the foyer, we were just in time to see the main doors open, letting in three people; two guards from the jail, and...

I blinked.“Professor, do you have a twin brother?”

“Is it just me, or is it weird that the school got guards to escort the professor’s brother to the school?”Aiden muttered.

“I don’t remember him,” Professor Reynolds squeaked.He frowned.“I should remember him, shouldn’t I?”He stared at the trio as they walked into the office, an unreadable expression on his face.“They’re going to run more tests on me, aren’t they?”

“Probably,” I said gently.

His eyes filled with tears.“I’m not hungry.”He rubbed his fists over his eyes, never looking more like a child than at that moment.“I’m going to go to the bathroom.”

“Okay...”I said cautiously.

“Do you need me to come with you?”Aiden asked.

“No!I can find my way back to my room.”He scowled.

“We’ll be in the mess hall.Come down when you’re ready,” I said.

Exchanging anxious glances, we watched the professor climb the first set of stairs.

“Poor guy.He can’t remember his family, let alone get turned back into himself.Maybe they’re planning on using his twin’s DNA or something,” I said.“There’s a whole other avenue that I hadn’t considered.Maybe we don’t have to break the curse!Maybe we can work around it.”

“There’s my optimistic mate,” Aiden said cheerfully, tucking me under his arm.“Now, I’m starving.Do you think they have French toast?”

Teasing each other, we made our way into the mess, and joined our friends at our table.

Pierre and Una were sitting beside each other.She was shyly glancing sideways at him every time she took a bite.

It was nice to see her infatuated with a guy.Usually, it was the other way around, and she got bored too quickly.

I flipped my hair over my shoulder before picking up my fork.“What’s everyone up to this weekend?”

“Thesis work,” Lilia said with a groan.“I have to brew my prelim potion.”

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