“Look at your phone, just keep looking at your phone.” Those words were spinning in my mind. Halfway down, a man in his forties started following me. I saw his reflection in my phone. With a slight rightmost turn of my head, I caught a glimpse of his staple plaid checkered overalls. It was him, my suspicions were confirmed. The way everything was going so far, I still had the chance to be unnoticed. He was getting closer nevertheless.

  He skipped down the stairs, cheerfully adjusting his poorly fitting glasses as they slid down his nose. Thankfully, that man was very much occupied by his own thoughts to be concerned with me. Plus, don’t get me wrong, I do respect him as a professor, an absolute pro in his field, but…but he was sloppy and a bit, well, very much a lot like a pushover.

  I felt bad for judging him. Who was I to judge anyone? Especially since I was hiding from my math teacher—the professor with ginger curls, humming mathematical equations under his nose, getting louder by the second. He was getting closer.

  Why was I hiding? Probably because I felt embarrassed, I knew that I was deep in shit, but having the courage to face it was something completely different. I failed this math class three times. Yeah, yeah..ah…I was this stupid, but that wasn’t the point. I would have to talk to him eventually; otherwise, I wouldn't be able to register for the remaining classes I needed to graduate.

  And here he was, he was right beside me. Meanwhile, I took out my phone squinting my eyes and puffing my cheeks to make myself look different. Pretty sure this was doing the opposite of what I intended. There was no point in doing this really. The current me looked nothing like the kikimora in my id picture. He probably wouldn’t have been able to tell that the constant bottom of a curve student was me. This teacher never saw me anyway. From the three times I took that class, I attended exactly three classes total. For your information, it wasn’t just the first day each time. I didn’t attend a single class on my second attempt of this class. Obviously, I was fully aware of how my actions looked in the eyes of my professors and I tried to fix it, but never could. I didn’t hate mathematics either, I loved it even. After all, it saved my life once. This was quite the dichotomy, I know.

  “Hey, let me out,” said the voice from my backpack.

  He paused, practically next to me as well. Pulling his glasses up, he turned his head in my direction.

  I smiled. This was a very awkward smile; however, I was glad. Glad that he didn’t say anything and just continued walking.

  “Did you hear me? It doesn’t seem like you are still in that class.” It was that raven again. “Let me out!” I felt him moving, wiggling within. There were people next to me. I couldn’t just let him out now. Plus, I was bound to attract attention, not something I wanted to do in this situation.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Ouch,” I felt his beak against my back. That thing was trying to damage my bag.

  “Shush,” I said through my teeth. He was giving me no choice.

  “Fine, FINE! I will let you out just keep quiet would you,” I said turning my head sideways as yet another attempt of escape almost sent me flying forward, face first, down the stairs. I must have looked crazy. First, almost falling out of nowhere and then talking to my backpack. Especially in the eyes of the couple that just walked by me, giving me judging looks. They must have heard him talk too, at least to them it sounded like a regular raven. However, carrying a raven in my backpack probably just made me look even more weird. This feeling of embarrassment just sped up my descent. I was in a rush to hide from all of them as soon as I could.

  On my way down, just when I was about to reach the last set of stairs leading down to parking lot, I let go of one of the leather backpack straps, getting ready to open up the zipper. This was enough for Phobos to get out himself. I looked up briefly.

  My professor was at the base of the stairs looking at me. Meanwhile I could feel my heart pounding. This must have been such a short while, but time slowed down for me.

  “Lub,” the first sound of heart, “he knows.” I even saw him getting ready to walk towards me.

  “Dub,” signaled the second sound of heart. I was so scared to face my mistakes.

  His deep-set eyes looked enormous through lenses of the circular old fashioned glasses. I felt my worst fears surface the longer I looked into those eyes, whose color I could not recall.

  I had to talk to him. This might have been just the right moment to do so. If I don’t…I will not be able to keep this lie of a life going much further. At the same time, I couldn’t tell my family the full truth either. My grandma with her already weak heart was bound to have a heart attack and my mom… I would break her heart. I couldn’t say the truth. I just couldn’t say that all her hard work was once again for nothing. She already had a lot going on in her life.

  Shifting all my weight onto the left leg, I was about to take a step forward, with a deep breath in through my mouth, I was ready to talk to him.

  “Nope,” I thought. Abruptly, I closed my mouth, breathing out through my nose as I subconsciously bit my lower lip, before making a full one eighty and running away the same way I came.

  “I will talk,” I mumbled. “ I will, I promise…just not today.”

  “Da-dum, da-dum.” My heart was still racing with no sign of stopping. I was a failure once again.

  I needed a distraction and it seems like I might just get one. Following the sound, I walked towards its source. First, there were three bits of crisp sound of cymbal followed by heavy riffs of electric guitar supported by bass. It was catchy, pulling me in. Curiosity took over and without me knowing I reached the quad, a grassy courtyard located at the heart of my uni, now fully packed with students. By the time I got close enough to see the stage, the melodic vocals shifted to aggressive and powerful growling.

  I just wanted to forget it all, at least for today. I closed my eyes, bobbing my head and moving my body to the hard-hitting music reaching my ears. My weight was shifting from one knee to another and the vocals were practically at war with the drummer as each was getting more intense. It was exactly here following the drop when I opened my eyes only to see a familiar pinked haired shorty dancing with a tall Asian beauty.