Echoes of Desire

4. CRY

"Come here." He called her over and gave her the answer sheet.

She looked at it and saw that 10 marks was deducted. Just as she thought. He would always find mistakes in her. She looked over her mistakes. She knew those were just two silly mistakes which could be looked away, but knowing him he was seriously being unfair with her. But she didn't voice out her thoughts.

Then Armond gave her Blake's answer sheet. She didn't know what he wanted her to do with that. She saw his marks which was 8 more than her. She was disappointed in herself. He was a new student but still he managed to best her. And most likely soon enough Blake will also take her position.

"Seems like your lover boy has outdone you." He mocked her to get a reaction out of her.

At first, he picked on her, scolded her as a way to make her hate him. But now he loved picking on her, mocking her. It gave him a weird sense of satisfaction that he could make her cry. A sick sense of satisfaction to see her tear stricken face.

"He is not my lover." She muttered incoherently with a trembling voice and her lips wobbling, unable to contain her vulnerability.

"Stop lying, Aanya" he said discontented "I don't like lying people." He tsked, his face doing the familiar scowl.

"But I'm not lying" she said meekly, casting her eyes down. Her heart beating erratically.

"Anyways, focus more on this paper. It's not easy like the other papers. I know you keep up with your studies but I need more from you. You are already behind Blake, Aanya. And you wouldn't want your parents to know about today's marks, do you?" He told her seriously.

She looked up scared hearing what he said. Her whole body started trembling violently. Then she shook her head indicating a no. What if he informs her parents. That would be bad, very bad. She didn't even want to imagine their disappointed faces. Her mother's words that were pointy like arrows.

"Words, Aanya." But she couldn't speak up, she could already feel a lump forming in her throat wanting to cry.

"Speak up, Aanya. Why do you always have to keep mumbling when you're around me? Speak to me loud and clear, alright?" He said with a sigh.

She still couldn't say anything fearing her voice would give away the fact that she was already crying. Her tears dropping to the floor beneath.

He noticed her shaking figure. Now he was a little concerned. " Aanya, are you alright?"

But she still didn't answer. He was now losing his patience.

"f*****g answer me dammit." He cursed frustratedly. She jumped back while letting an ugly cry out. She couldn't control her tears anymore. The dam of her tears crashing down and she started sobbing loudly. Her body shivering violently. Her hands going up to hide her face.

"Are you crying? But why?"

"I don't know. Really." She told in a broken voice.

And she started blabbering, all the anguish catching up to her at that moment. " I don't like him and I don't want my parents to find out about today." She managed to say between her sobs.

"I am trying, I am not even sharp in the brain, I have to keep studying and studying, day and night but now the one thing I was good at, the one thing that makes me proud of myself. And sooner or later he will also take that from me. He has already bested me today. What do I do now, what even am I doing." She kept blabbering, hiding her crying face with her hands which kept muffling her words and wiping her tears in between.

She was having a full on panic attack, blabbering gibberish which Armond couldn't understand at all.

His heart ached looking at her condition . He felt bad for shouting at her. He wished he could take back his words. But the other inhumane part of him was also mesmerized by her. He half expected her to react defiantly. But she was not of that nature at all. Aanya was a good girl.

He stood up and enveloped her shaking form in his warm embrace.

"Please don't cry. I am sorry. I am so sorry." He closed his eyes and took a whiff of her hair, guilt eating up at him.

She stayed glued in his arms and kept crying out all her emotions. After she calmed down a little, she rubbed her stinging eyes and pushed him away coming to her senses. Her tears leaving a wet spot on his light grey shirt.

"I am s-sorry for ruining y-your s-shirt" she whimpered and hiccupping in the process.

"Don't worry about it." He grabbed her wrist and pulled her back into his warm embrace. She didn't have the energy to struggle back anymore, so she stayed limp in his arms. He soothed her, running his hand up and down her back and put her face right above his chest so that his heart beat could calm her down. She nuzzled her face more into his chest, weirdly his masculine fragrance calming her nerves.

She stopped shivering but tears were still leaking from her eyes even though she tried to control them. But they still flowed out without her consent. She looked up at him and didn't know what came over her when she blurted out,

"Why do you hate me so much?" She asked with a shaky voice and her red, teary, puffy eyes looking up at him.

He was a little surprised. Of all the questions he didn't expect her to ask that at all.

"I don't hate you sweetheart. If I hated you, you wouldn't have been alive right now." He answered, a small smirk shining on his face, while wiping her tears stained face lovingly.

He wrapped his arms tightly around Aanya's waist, softly nuzzling his face in the crook of her neck, his soft curls tickling her sensitive skin. Her mind was numb. She knew it was wrong for her to be this close with a teacher even though she was now in college. This act is wrong. Her mind was screaming at her to get away but Aanya stood stiffly in his hold.

"Relax Aanya. I won't eat you." He chuckled and placed a small kiss on her neck. He now stood tall and took a hold of her face in his large hands. His thumb caressing the mole on the corner of her top lip.

"You know, it's becoming very difficult for me. I lose control everytime I see you. I don't even know how to make you understand what I feel for you, you are too innocent and naive. And that's what's dragging me more towards you." He told her. And it was.

Day by day he was becoming insane. Thoughts of her would make him want to stroke himself. But he would somehow control himself knowing it was wrong. The amount of cold showers he would take.

Aanya looked up at him and she was confused by his words. Why would he not know how to act around her. She didn't even want to try to understand the meanings of what he just said. She thought Armond hated her but Aanya was a little surprised to see his kind nature. She didn't know he possessed something like kindness in his being.

She was thinking of what was going on in his mind. If anyone would happen to see them, he could lose his job. And it started to scare her. She didn't want him to lose his job because of her. But who would tell her that it was his college that she was studying in.

So she got out of his hold. For the very first time, Aanya happened to see this side of him. And it made her all the more attracted towards him. Like a moth to a flame. They were in their own world, both thinking the same things but not knowing each other's thoughts. Both of them drowing in each other's eyes.

And when the bell rang, Aanya flinched and realised that she was slowly, deeply, madly, foolishly, completely , desperately falling in love with him.

And it crashed on her like a heavy rain. And she ran out of his office not being able to breath in his vicinity.

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