Still the One

The room is silent. The five of us stand in front of Mr. Hughes’ expansive desk. He places his eyes on the handful of pages, each signature line signed. We all watch on as he checks and checks again.

‘You may have not heard my voice originally, but you cannot deny us or the signatures. Jacobs has to go.’ I chime, finally breaking into the ongoing silence.

‘If you aren’t hearing us, we will just have to go the press as much as we don’t want you,’ Carine adds and we all nod in unison, ‘We will make sure that you are out alongside him.’

‘Could you ladies please give me a moment alone with Miss. White?’ Mr. Hughes leans back in his chair, taking off his glasses. We all exchange nervous looks before I give them the okay. They all file out of the office one by one, leaving me there with Hughes. He opens his mouth only to close it again. Running a hand over his gray, distinguished beard, he gestures towards the oversized wooden chair and I sit down carefully. ‘Words will never do what you deserve justice, but I am sincerely sorry. I did not want to believe that something such as this could happen on my campus, so I stupidly tuned it and you out. I should have acted swifter, I should have not been so quick to defend him. I have only ever wanted my students to feel at home and safe here. I failed them unfortunately. Mr. Jacobs will be out before the hour and the statement will be published this afternoon. I want to commend your bravery and resilience in this matter. Thank you, Miss. White.’

‘Thank you.’ I nod, my voice failing me.

Mr. Hughes extends a hand out to me and I meet him halfway. I felt like the room was a thousand times lighter. I could breathe again. The girls are eagerly waiting on the bench outside of the office. Jade even goes as far enough as crossing her fingers as tight as she could.

‘We did it!’ I cheer and we all rush into a sloppy, awkward-angled hug. ‘Thank you for sharing your stories with me and putting yourselves out there. It honestly meant the world just to have someone listen.’

‘Just so you know, we are never allowed to lose touch with each other after this. I mean it.’ Tessa points her manicured finger at us. ‘We are in this together.’

Rumor had travelled throughout the campus that Jacobs was packing up his classroom. I guess Mr. Hughes wasn’t joking about him being gone within the hour. Students hover near the door as he wordlessly tosses items into his box. Security waited by the exit to take his building keycard when he’s finished. The hushed whispers get louder as Jacobs makes his way into the hall. The whispers are soon replaced with loud chants of approval of his termination. He focuses his eyes directly on us, his eyes narrowing. Bianca grabbed a hold of Jade’s arm until he’s no longer looking at us. I let out a vocal exhale, intertwining my fingers nervously. As overjoyed as I was, I wondered if Jacobs would retaliate somehow. But instead, I push the thought to the furthest part of my mind and roll my shoulders back. Today he’s gone and that’s enough. We all go our separate ways to our next class while some of the people stay behind to watch Jacobs get escorted to his car. In Communications, I could still hear people talking about it as Dr. Caldicott walks in. Luckily, Max and Christopher talk to me about the latest episode of Celebrity Big Brother, like they did every week even though I didn’t watch it. I was grateful that they didn’t treat or see me any differently. They didn’t walk on eggshells or exchange concerned looks. I loved them for that.

‘We’re almost at the end of this term so it would be best to focus on this course while you are in it as interesting as the current situation may seem.’ She speaks bluntly, already taking attendance to lock the door on whoever’s late.

The moment that Dr. Caldicott finally decides to release us for the day, I head straight to Smithson. The office was completely set up and I was finally about to start on actual work. Thomas knocks on the door as he makes his rounds of the office. ‘Hey, sorry I missed you for the last couple of days. How are you settling in?’

‘It’s been amazing and everyone’s gone out of their way to make me feel at home, but I am actually feeling ready for some sort of responsibility now. It almost feels like I’m getting paid to decorate my office.’

‘Completely understandable. Sorry about that,’ He nods several times before taking a long sip of his coffee, ‘We are having an editorial meeting this afternoon and I’ll be passing around some of the latest manuscripts so you’ll definitely going to have your hands plenty full soon.’

I open my mouth to reply when my phone vibrates on the table, Harry. ‘I’m really looking forward to it.’

‘We’ll get started after lunch.’ Thomas slips out of the office to check in on the other members of the editorial team.

So I’m hungry and we don’t have anything here, do you want to get lunch?

Yes please

It felt like an eternity in the silence before the office phone lights up, loudly ringing. ‘Libby, Mr. Styles is up front.’ Caleb chimes on the other end. With a quick thank you, I hurry down the hall to meet him.

Harry stands near Caleb’s desk, saying something that makes Caleb laugh so hard that his shoulders bobbed up and down. Always the charmer. His eyes brighten as he extends a large hand out to me. ‘Thank you again, Caleb.’ Harry waves as I lead him to my office. ‘Is he your new Tiffany yet?’ Harry wonders with a teasing smile, ‘bit of a partner in crime thing.’

‘Not yet, I still have to corrupt him.’

Harry slowly trails behind me down the hall, taking it all in. He offers few polite waves and hello’s as he passes the staff in the hall. ‘Here we are.’ I announce, pushing open the door to my office to grab my purse.

‘I like it.’ He smiles, making his way to the set of pictures on the shelf to study them. ‘There’s Bandit, how on earth did you get a picture where he wasn’t sleeping and looks happy? I swear every single picture in my phone he looks like he wants to claw my throat out.’

‘I bribed him with treats.’ I confess, closing my laptop and turning the lights off. ‘Hover it over him and he’ll be your best friend for all of ten seconds.’

‘I’m gonna try that.’ He stifles out a laugh, throwing an arm over my shoulder. ‘Where do you want to get something to eat? I honestly don’t care as long as it’s quick.’

‘There’s that pizzeria right down the street, we can walk.’ I point once we’re out of the elevator. ‘Sound good?’

‘As long as I eat before I pass out.’ He speaks dramatically, intertwining my fingers with his.

In line, majority of all the eyes fall on Harry. As expected. Somehow over the years, he’s learned to ignore the longing stares. His green eyes never leave the menu board in front of him. Maybe he was just that hungry. His silently pulls me into him, resting his chin on my shoulder. The fresh pizza aroma lingers through the air and my stomach voices its hunger. I resist picking off one of the large pepperonis as Harry grabs the drinks.

‘So you haven’t told me what happened with the president yet? Does that mean good or bad news?’ Harry questions once we’re sitting in the trunk of his Range Rover with our box of pizza.

‘Good.’ I nod in between bites, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t believe I forgot to bring it up. It was great news actually – Hughes got rid of Jacobs. We even got to watch when he packed up his room and got escorted off campus.’

‘That is incredible, it’s about damn time. What does this mean for the course? You still get to graduate right?’

‘Yeah, they’re going to bring in a sub for the rest of the term. There’s only a few weeks left anyway.’

‘I’m proud of you.’ He muses, leaning in to press his lips to mine.

Harry and I sit in the trunk of the car for another half hour before I have to go back upstairs. He waits for me to go back inside the building before the dark car disappears down the busy road. I slip in just in time to follow the others into the conference room. Thomas sits at the head of the table with several red folders in front of him. ‘I think that we have some amazing works here just ready to be told. Some may just need a bit more fine tuning than others but that’s what you are for. I want everyone to be in contact with the authors and to help guide them to their dream story.’ With that, he slides folders across the table, each staff members name scribbled across the top. ‘So spend the next couple of days with these, meet up with the authors with your suggestions, and get it going.’

I eagerly open up my folder on the way back to my office, ready to get up close and personal with my first manuscript. Victor Raines. He was currently working on a dystopian novel. Thomas added notes to the bottom of the page, betting that it could be the next Hunger Games or Fahrenheit 451 but Victor needed an extra push. I spend the rest of day, scanning through the pages, falling in love with the story and its characters. There were little corrections to be made. Victor clearly knew what he was doing. He just needed to finish it. I carefully ease the manuscript down into my bag with my laptop before leaving for the day. As I’m waiting for the elevator to come back up, I decide to check my emails. I immediately touch the latest email from the university.

Students and faculty members, I’m sure you’ve heard about the recent and overdue departure of a staff member. This staff member grossly violated our code of conduct as well as betrayed the trust of those around him. Our campus strives to be a welcoming, inclusive environment but we, I, fell short of that promise. As your president, I will vow to do better from this moment forth as it is what you all deserve out of this institution. I plan to work tirelessly to implicate new and improved policies to protect those who seek to further their education in our halls. If you or any person you know is need of a helping hand or a pair of listening ears, my door will be open for the remainder of the term. Feel free to stop by with your opinions and suggestions on how we and I can do better. Thank you. .

A smile eases its way onto my face because for the first time in a long time, I was genuinely happy.