A TOUCH OF INSANITY

CHAPTER THREE

“Now am sure you have heard of the 4 d’s of abnormalities”

Professor Daniel speaks as he writes some inscriptions on the board. The incident of last week was like a distant memory for him but not for me, yes I hold grudges but he is still a good teacher

“ Miss Stephanie” he called me and all eyes were on me

“yes, Sir” I replied

“what are the 4 d’s of abnormalities,” he asked, and in my head so much for avoiding me

“distress, Danger, deviance, dysfunction,” I said with a smile on my face, mostly trying to prove am smart

“thank you, Miss Stephanie”

“When a person first develops a mental illness they express anxiety and negative feelings when they are around people, their body sends a signal which allows them to feel disgusted for people who touch them,” he says as he walks around the class, he continues talking “that is Distress, well basically psychologist use these 4 abnormalities to access possible traits, symptoms or conditions that express the disorder in which its patients have, now take schizophrenia for example how do you access a person who just developed schizophrenia using the 4 d’s of abnormalities,” he asked and the class was still silent “anyone,” he asked and then Richard stood up and I rolled my eyes which did not get unnoticed by Daniel. In case you are wondering why the hate looks, it is really nothing you know how there is just some overzealous student who has nothing to do but to constantly try to prove they are better than you. Daniel walked towards where Richard was seating

“Yes?” the Professor asked

“in terms of Distress, the person will exhibit panic and anxiety most especially to what he sees like something trying to attack him”

“wait what if he was seeing a flower” and Richard was silent

“human beings are observant creature, seeing a flower in the middle of nowhere would make him questions his insanity, or a seeing the flower in an abstract place or doing abstract things and no one around him is asking why that flower is doing that or placed there which then leads to exhibit panic and anxiety,” I said loudly for him to hear me Professor Daniel turned toward me

“that very good, and in terms of danger?” he asked

“He is a danger to himself and others because behaviors are detrimental, his mind is the greatest weapon against him, whatever he thinks of himself and those around him could cause harm to him,” I said and the professor smiled and then he checked his watch

“am sorry my time is almost up but for your assignment due for my next class I want to know if

psychopathy is a disorder and how can a psychopath reacts using the 4’s d of abnormalities” and he left the class and I could think was how intense the class was.

After Professor Daniel’s class, my girls and I decided to check out the football team mostly because Mimi was having a fling with the wide receiver of the team, and they had a match but we arrived close to the end of the match, which I didn’t might because I hated seeing the violence of any form and football was an aggressive sport actually any sport.

“Are we heading to “DRIPS’BURGER JOINT” afterward,” Casey said

“yeah am really hungry” Tintin whined and when she does we all know she can get really annoying, she was a foodie and I don’t blame her for that. Out of all my friends, she is the only one who does sport, Tennis, while the rest of us are lazy bums so she eats as much food as she can burn

We waited for Mimi to say her goodbyes to her fling Jonas Keitel before we took my car and drove to the burger place and then we ordered and started talking and eating, laughing at funny videos we saw online, and when the football team came in we all observed them

“I heard that Crystal dumped Henry ass,” Mimi said as the football team sat down at the other end of the restaurant

“so not true,” Casey said with a look like she didn’t believe her

“so true….Jonas told me” Mimi said trying to convince us that it was true

“that sleazeball Jonas has been trying to bang crystal for ages,” Casey told her like it was a fact that everyone knew

“yeah…I don’t think so, Crystal and Henry are like victoria Beckham and David Beckham,” Tintin says and my mind was just saying trust Tintin to bring anything sport-related into it

“Steph….” Mimi called me, she does that, bringing me into conversation into things I don’t want to talk about and people have no clue who they are

“yes,” I asked

“what do you think,” she asked giving the look that I hope you have been listening to what am saying

“who is henry, or crystal,” I asked while dripping a chip into the ketchup and putting them in my mouth, they all looked at me like I didn’t even know the name of my president

“the power couple of this institution” Casey replied to me

“Isn’t this institution as you say too big for everyone to know one particular guy?” I told them

“not if you watch varsity football,” Tintin tells me with so much enthusiasm in her voice, makes me not want to spoil it and tell them I don’t like football or any other sports

“am out,” I say as I stand up to go to the counter, At the counter, I see a broad-shouldered man with a jacket with our football teams logo on it, in my thought, he must be one of the players, he took his drink and as I tried to move out of his way, the drink fell down and splashed on my baby pink shirt

“f**k” I said slightly pissed because I knew I was going to walk around smelling juice and the stain of this shirt won’t leave easily

“so sorry”

“what is sorry going to the shirt,” I asked using a mean tone on him but he still looked apologetic

“you could come to my side and I will dry clean for you and give you another shirt to wear”

I looked at him weirdly “is this a ploy to get girls because most girls don’t want their clothes ruined just because some guy wants to ask her out” and he laughed and his smile reminded me of Professor Daniel

“no, when I want to get a girl I don’t use cheap tactics,” he said cockily and he continued “my place is not far from here” and then he waited for my response

“ok….what your name…if I am going into your house for you to murder me…I need to at least know my murderer’s name” I asked and he laughed again, making me wonder if I am actually a funny person

“Henry,” he said

“hmm” and I walked to meet my friends

“if I die, Henry over there killed me,” I told them loud enough for him to her and probably some of his teammate cuz they all busted into laughter, obviously knowing that he was the quarterback that they were talking about and I went to meet him

“let go,” I said and I entered his car while following him as he leads me with his car to his apartment. when we got to the apartment the place seemed familiar, I entered the house and everywhere looked neatly arranged and which made me question if he lived alone

“do you live alone,” I asked as he reached for the fridge to take out cold water to drink, I watched as he gulped the water and all I could think was he had a sexy Adam apple which reminded me of Daniel, I need to stop thinking of that man and relating him to everything

“no my elder brother lives here as well”

“oh”

And he continued like he needs to explain further

“I kind of need to cut cost and I like living with him minus he is a pain in the ass”

“nice,” I said making the place awkwardly silent

“ok your shirt,” he said and I pulled it out of my body and tossed it to me, I watched as his eyes trailed from my face to my bra and back up to my face and he blushed slightly as he saw I caught him staring

“sorry….I will just go and dry clean this” he whispered and as he left I looked around, I saw series of trophies and as the door open I heard someone calling henry name as the footsteps get closer to where I am, but I didn’t care I stumbled upon a picture and the person in the picture looked familiar

“Who are you” a voice that I have heard before and I turned the expression was filled with so much emotion I could see the shock on his face which slowly turn to anger, disgust, malice, and a hint of desire. it made me wonder what I did wrong I became fully aware that I was just on bra and jeans

“I asked what you are doing here Stephanie,” he said with his voice a little raised higher than his normal pitch and too stunned to answer I looked back at the picture and he was smiling like that night when we talked about everything and nothing

“Stephanie are you stalking me cuz that a little low coming from you,” he said with the bitter tone of his voice and I finally got my voice back

“pls like I have anything better to do than to come to my deadbeat Professor house” I said out of spite and the tension in the room was high, that was until Henry came without even knowing we were on the verge of exchanging words

“so I could get most of the stains out,” Henry said as he comes into the room. I smiled as I took the shirt saying “thank you”, as he turned it was then Henry realized that his brother was in the same room “I see you have met my brother” and all the memories flood in, this was where the party was held and Henry was Daniel’s brother

“Yes, you could have told me your brother was my professor,” I said hinting to his brother

“s**t I didn’t even ask” and Daniel stood quietly not saying anything

“it ok” I replied

“you could stay for dinner” henry offered, it was a sweet offer but I would like to decline, I won’t want to be in a place where someone could kill me with their stares

“I…” but I was interrupted by the man who had yet to speak

“I think it getting late and Stephanie would like to go home”

“no I won’t I would love to stay for dinner” as I stared into his eyes daring him, I only accepted to annoy him, that might make me petty but I didn’t care.

As henry left the room to receive a phone call I was stuck with Professor broody, I watched as he sliced the carrot carefully, I moved closer to help him

“do you need help?” I asked and he looked at me

“I don’t know what your game is, but it needs to stop”

“why do you think I have a motive you act as you know me” and then he stopped cutting and he moved closer and I moved backward but he moved closer and I felt my back hitting the back of the cabinet and all I could do was look into his captivating eyes and I realized that henry does not have that, yes they had similarities but Daniel’s eyes was the most unique

“I do know you,” he said harshly

“I don’t need to study you to know that you are compulsive, pretentious, and you manipulate everyone into thinking you are happy but you are not and everyone is just used to pass time till you finally decide to end and in reality, you are just a cold bitter person, and I have enough in my life to deal with your drama,” he said and It felt like acid has been throw on my face, the fact is when the truth is said to your face it a lot harder to take. Yes I was lonely I don’t like going home to an empty house, I am bitter about the fact that my friends talk about their family and mine is non-existing and sometimes when my friends are talking it like am not there, just space but he had crossed the line I took my bag and slammed the door I could hear henry calling me but I didn’t care.