Bella

The lecture hall felt suffocating that morning. The professor’s voice droned on about supply-side economics, graphs flickering on the projector, but none of it reached me. I sat near the middle row, pen frozen in my hand, staring blankly at my notebook. The whispers started behind me.

“Did you hear? Mr. Black got fired.”

“Yeah, the dean called it ‘inappropriate conduct’ after that hug video went around.”

“Someone posted it in the final-year group chat. They said it was unprofessional.”

My stomach dropped so fast I thought I’d be sick. He was fired? Because of me. Because of that one moment when I’d been so happy I couldn’t hold...