Walking back to my dorm after the final bell had rung, I had one thing I wanted to do. And trust me, it wasn't my homework. What I really wanted to do was re-watch The Walking Dead on Netflix. The only real episode I wanted to watch at the moment was the one where Carl loses his eye. That episode still gave me all sorts of chills. I opened up the door to my dorm room, immediately turning around to lock it.

"I've been waiting."

I had a minor panic attack and spun around so fast that I accidentally hit my head on the wall and dropped my keys, then proceeded to fall on the ground. I looked up to make eye contact with West, who was standing in the corner of the room. Apparently, I hadn't noticed him upon my entrance. "Well, Jesus. If I knew that was going to happen, I would've waited by the door."

I stood up and rubbed my head, then turning around to face Satan, himself. "What the hell, West?!" I screamed. "You basically could've killed me!"

"But you're alive, aren't you?" He said, giving me a smug smile. That asshole.

I shot him a dirty look and grabbed the Oreos from my desk and went to sit on my bed. "Why are you here? You're not with Jason for once?"

"Jason had work to do, so I came here. Plus, I wanted to get the details about your date with Otto! Spill. Was it great?"

"Don't get me wrong, West, it was amazing," I said.

"There's a 'but' coming, isn't there?" He asked and I nodded. "Ugh, fine. Just spill the details."

"To be honest," I paused, thinking of the best way to phrase it, "there were some parts of the date that were a little sketchy."

"What? No! Why?"

"Well, it's just..." God, where do I start?

"It's just what, Harrison? Come on, I'm literally dying and need to know," he pleaded, seemingly way too interested in my relationship with Otto.

I thought about it. Confiding in West had been something I always did with every secret I ever had. Surely there was no reason to keep this secret to myself. "Okay. So it was weird. I got there and he had this whole dinner set up and it was really nice. He was acting normal, too, the weirdness had nothing to do with his behavior. It was just... the music that he played."

"What? Is he into some super obscure band? Wait! Don't you dare tell me he's into the bagpipes? I still can't forgive my ex for that. I will literally never forget," West blabbed on. It was true, his ex did have an odd obsession with bagpipes. I can vouch for him, as the first time I met said ex boyfriend he had driven us to this restaurant, and the entire ride there a series of terrible bagpipe songs were playing. It was truly disturbing. I wouldn't wish that experience on my worst enemy.

"No, thank God it wasn't like that. But... it was just really weird. Every song that played was a song from my playlist," I explained.

"Wait, which one? The Joji-Frank Ocean one or The 1975-Niall Horan one?" He asked, referring to the few playlists I always played around him.

"The 1975-Niall Horan one," I said. "West, he even played One Direction. He's a 24-year-old English teacher, there's no possible way he's into some British boy band."

"Okay, but everyone likes One Direction. Maybe he's just not the stereotypical directioner ," he suggested. Although, his theory was hard for me to even consider believing.

"That wasn't it, though. He asked me what my favorite book was so I told him that he wouldn't know of it, he said 'try me', and so I did, and I said Call me Hope," I told him.

West's eyebrows arched. "That's a lie. Your favorite book is that one with the killing and the birds." "To Kill a Mockingbird, West. And yes, I am aware that's my favorite book. I just lied because I guess I wanted to test him," I said. "I wanted to see if he knew about some random book. I knew that he would know about my actual favorite book, I mean, he's an English teacher. Every English teacher on the planet knows To Kill a Mockingbird. But Call me Hope? They don't read that in a high school English class." "I think you're just looking into it too much," West said. I shook my head. "I told him that after the One Direction song played, I thought that it might be my playlist, obviously in a joking tone. And then he told me that Jason suggested it." "Jason hates One Direction." "He said Jason asked you about what music I liked and you mentioned One Direction." "I don't remember having that conversation," He muttered, obviously now realizing that something may have been up. "Of course you don't," I mumbled. "I know this might sound bad, but he went to the bathroom and so I stood up and went to look at his phone to see if the playlist was mine." "And was it?" He asked. "No, but there were 17 playlists, and they were all labeled 1 through 17. And each one had different types of music, I mean it. Gospel, rap, boy bands, you name it." "Maybe he just changes his taste a lot?" West said. I knew he was just trying to make me feel like Otto wasn't hiding something, but it was really hard when there were already numerous red flags. Regardless, I didn't know if I was onto something or just overreacting. And it seemed as if I couldn't quite get out of my own head when it came to the situation. West put his arm around me. "It's alright, Hare. Maybe you just need to forget about it. He's a hunk who is totally into you. And his roommate is totally into me. So it's practically perfect," He said and I took a deep breath in. "You need to get out of your head. It's going to kill you. Let's watch The Walking Dead."

•••

I was currently walking to guess what class? Oh, you know, the class with the 24-year-old teacher that I was actually in a relationship with and yet also might be stalking me.

Oh yeah, English.

West had made me realize that maybe I was just freaking out about Otto for no reason. And I really was trying to believe him, although I was still slightly conflicted. The night had been weird from the playlist that so closely mimicked mine to the fact that he had not only read, but obtained a copy of Call Me Hope. But I wanted to believe West's theory that it was all a weird coincidence and that there wasn't anything wrong with Otto.

When I entered the classroom, my eyes immediately wandered to where Otto was standing behind his desk sorting papers. He straightened them on his desk and clamped them together with a binder clip. He wasn't paying attention so I hurried to my seat by West. I liked Otto. I just didn't want to talk to him or make unnecessary eye contact until I was sure that I had forgotten my suspicions of that night.

"Still on about your stalker?" West asked sarcastically.

"Shut up," I said. I put my book up to create a barrier between Otto's eyes and mine. "It's not funny."

"I think you're paranoid."

"And I think you're an asshole."

"Well damn, sorry," he muttered. "Whatever. So are you doing anything tonight?"

"What, you're not busy with Jason?" I retorted.

"He's working again," West said seemingly agitated. It was clear that he was upset over something. From the way he had been speaking about Jason the past few days, something must have been up between the two of them.

"Last time I checked he doesn't work more than once a week. What's up?" I asked, hoping for an explanation.

West shook his head and dismissed me. Obviously, their relationship was pretty rocky. They were doing great when they started dating around two months ago, but they hadn't made their relationship official until just a few weeks ago: something about Jason having trust issues. I liked Jason, I mean, he was a decent person. Sure, he could get defensive from what West had told me, but I wasn't convinced that he was a terrible guy. Recently though, West had been acting weird whenever I brought Jason up, and Jason had become extremely distant. The situation was just a bit off.

"Hello?"

"He's just been busier lately. Jesus, can you lay off?" West rebuked, and he angrily grabbed my book that was propped up and put it down so that there was no longer a barrier blocking my view of Otto. "You need to get over your perception of him because there is nothing wrong with him. In fact, I think he's great for you. He's getting you out of your dorm room and you seem happier than you were when you just kept locking yourself in there, binge-watching TV shows on Netflix and eating addictive junk foods. So get over it. Move on. There's nothing wrong with him."

West turned his attention to his planner and I decided to drop it. It was clear that West was in a mood and whether he told me the truth or not, it most definitely had something to do with Jason.

Without my book barrier, I glanced over to Otto's desk, watching him sorting his papers and clipping them together into organized stacks as he'd been doing since I entered the room. He didn't look at me, which relieved me, but only slightly. Part of me wanted him to keep focusing on his papers, and another part of me wanted him to look up and see me. Smile at me. Just acknowledge that I was there. I opened up my book and started reading for the first time in many class periods, trying to get out of my own head.

I would have demanded West to tell me what was going on with Jason, but I suppose it wasn't really my place. Just like it wasn't his place to be telling me that my suspicions were invalid. But I had to believe him because, in the end, I really did like Otto. I believed that we truly had something profound. Just being around him inebriated me.

I glanced back up to Otto's desk and this time he looked up and saw me. I was satisfied when he sent me a quick smile and a wink before picking up his phone and typing something. Seconds later, I received a message from him.

O- We could do something after class.

H- I think you're forgetting that I'm a student here. I have math next. And you have class,

too.

O- Shit, you're right.

I was literally sitting in my English class texting my English teacher. What had my life come to?

O- After school? Unless you're already planning something with West.

H- West's been acting up. I don't know, I think it has to do with Jason, but it's not my

place to interrogate him.

O- Jason was acting kind of weird the other day, too. If it keeps up, I'll talk to him.

H- Thanks.

O- No problem. But back to my proposition. After school we can do something. Any

ideas? H- How about we go to dinner out of town? Not to risk anyone seeing us or anything. I looked up to make eye contact with Otto, and he just looked at me and raised his eyebrows, then turning back to his phone. Seconds later he had typed another text. O- Know a place? And without much thought, I realized I knew of the perfect place.

•••