Acting On Love

I lay in the bed with Ville in the morning. I didn't remember falling asleep, but eventually I must have. I could feel his skin against mine, keeping me warm. By then I was almost awake.

But something happened which quickly brought me to full consciousness. There were three loud bangs on the door. I lifted up my head from Ville's shoulder and quickly looked to the door, with my heart beginning to beat quicker and quicker. I looked at Ville, who was now suddenly awake next to me, staring at the door in shock.

"Is it locked?" he whispered sharply, sliping out of the bed. He quickly pulled on his jeans and began to zip them up.

As I tried to form the word, to tell him it wasn't, the door was suddenly opened. I saw Ville freeze in my peripheral vision as we both looked at the girl standing in the doorway, holding the handle of the door. She stared at us in equal horror.

All my thoughts seemed to melt away, out of my reach, and my heart felt as if it were exploding in my chest. This isn't happening. . .this isn't real, I kept telling myself, lying.

Another face appeared in the doorway - a guilty, horrified face. Lisa's face. Her eyes met mine and seemed to stay there, as if they were hoping that she could make some sort of silent apology through them.

"Lisa. . ." I whispered. I sounded desperate, even to myself.

I pulled the sheets round myself, feeling an overwhelming amount of pain. It was shocking how painful a moment like that could be. It was almost as if I could feel her knife in my back. Her betrayal.

And yet it still hadn't sunk in, even as these two girls just stared at us. Was that it? Was that the blow that would end our relationship. . .?

I heard a set of footsteps approach the room anxiously. And then another. Pretty soon the number didn't matter - just the faces that stared at us in shock.

"No!" Lisa shouted, suddenly turning away and pushing through the crowd. Then she was gone. All that was left was the crowd she'd invited. I heard them whisper to each other, as if we were some sort of play that they couldn't take their eyes off.

Then Ville seemed to come to life - like he'd suddenly been let out of a cage, or some sort of strange force controlling him had fled.

He reached down to get his shirt, grabbed it, then walked so quickly it looked like his feet were burning, towards the crowd. Dumbstruck, a few made way for him. Others just stared. He was just about to leave when someone else came into view in the middle of the small crowd. It was a woman in about her fifties - the woman who lived in part of the ground floor of the halls, to make sure everything went along in an orderly manor here. I rarely saw her, only usually when I went down there to wash my clothes.

Her permanent cold stare seemed to lose its guard as she stood in front of Ville. He practically towered over her. Her eyes went down to his bare chest, where he clutched his shirt, and then trailed back up to meet his panicked stare. Her jaw dropped open slightly in the moment where I knew she recognised him as a teacher. Then he ran - ran through the crowd, and away from me. The eyes that had followed him quickly wandered back round to watch me again.

"All right, all right. . ." she said quietly, seriously. Not in her usual shout I heard from her. "Go back to your rooms. All of you," she commanded - her eyes never once left mine. This terrified me even more. Ville was gone - I didn't even have him to defend me from her. But more importantly, everyone knew.

Everyone knew. . .