My stomach churned. How had my letters ended up on his table? He didn’t even live on campus. It had to be one of my roommates. He leaned back in his chair, waiting. I couldn’t speak. Shock pinned my tongue to the roof of my mouth.
When my silence dragged on, he began to speak.
“So the news is true? You’re a member of Mike’s occult group—the one that uses spells on girls?”
I opened my mouth to protest, but he raised his hand for me to keep quiet.
“Mike told the disciplinary committee,” he went on, “that you planned with him to sleep with that girl. According to him, you went first. When you finished, you left the room so he could also have his turn. During the act, the girl fainted. He says he escaped through the window, leaving her behind.”
My jaw dropped so wide it could have swallowed three cows. Mike had dragged me into his filth. Me—who didn’t even know an occult group existed on campus, let alone joined one. And me—who had barely spent two minutes in the room with him and that girl. Sweat broke out across my forehead even though the weather was cool.
The Senior Housemaster paused, then continued, “When Mike told us, I didn’t believe him. So I tasked one of the students to spy on your movements. This morning he brought these two letters. I didn’t believe you wrote them, so I went to your exercise book to compare the handwriting. They’re almost the same. KD, I’m tempted to believe you’re somehow connected to Mike’s case, but I can’t point to exactly where. I want you to be honest with me—brutally honest. Tell me the whole truth. Because I still feel you’re innocent.”
His words hit like a sledgehammer. This was it. Time to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I slumped into one of the chairs and began to cry. The weight of the accusations felt heavier than my chest could hold. The Senior Housemaster said nothing. He just watched me, letting me cry myself out. But when the tears dried, the problem was still there.
I had to speak. The final verdict would be my word against Mike’s. Every time I opened my mouth, fresh tears rolled down my cheeks.
“Hey, gentleman,” he snapped at last, “I can’t spend the whole day with you here. If you can’t speak for yourself, I’ll take what Mike said straight to the Headmaster, and you’ll face the consequences. So talk—and stop behaving like a kid in a diaper.”
Something inside me hardened. I wiped my face and spoke. This time, no tears. I told him everything. From my JSS days when I met Lucy and fell in love with her, to coming to this school and developing a harmless crush on the nameless post office girl.
When I finished, he nodded slowly, but his face gave nothing away. Not a flicker. All the while I’d been talking, he’d been writing furiously, as if I was giving him lecture notes.
When he was done, he set his pen down, looked at me, and advised me quietly for a few minutes. Then he told me to return to class. I thanked him and stepped out, my mind spinning.
Just a few steps from his office, I heard him call my name. I turned back. He held out the two letters. I took them. Could this be a sign I wouldn’t be punished? I walked away silently, praying under my breath, waiting for whatever would come next.
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