I feel him licking his lips inside his mind. I almost recoil, and my smile falters. I look at his handsome face, but I can't see our teacher anymore, only a monstrous pervert, a pedophile, and a telepath.
Emmie pulls me over to the teacher in a few springy steps with a wide smile:
"Mr Tyne, how were your holidays?"
"Emmie, thank you for asking. Between summarizing last year, writing reports, and planning for this year, I only managed to catch a bit of the sun."
"You worked so hard!"
Faced with Emmie's admiration, the young teacher who has only been here for three years smiles.
"I see that you have grown a few centimeters the past few months, and your skin has tanned a bit. You must have enjoyed the holidays."
"Hehe…"
"Max, I heard about what happened last year. Sorry for your loss."
By now, my heart has calmed down. I even manage a sad smile.
"Don't think too much. Focus on your studies and on the future. It will get easier with time."
I look down at the hand that rubs my arm to comfort me, and smile while swallowing the disgust, that feeling which seems to have been accompanying me for the last few months.
"Thank you for your concern, Mr Tyne. We will take our leave. We have to reach the cafeteria before there are only leftovers."
"Yes, go on."
'Not bad, smooth skin. A different taste, but it might be exquisite!'
Hearing the thought coming from the back, I suppress a shudder. I regret not wearing something that covers me more today.
"Mr Tyne is so kind! Do you think he will accept if we ask him to tutor us? He does the same every year for students of our year."
When I hear that, I only recall what the handsome teacher had been thinking. That was not kindness.
"Do you know who he tutored before? Are they still here, at the school?"
Emmie is surprised by my question, but after thinking a bit, she gives me an answer:
"I don't know everyone, just some, plus some rumors. But it seems that some of the girls he tutored are said to have dropped out."
"Why?"
I latch onto that information, but Emmie's answer doesn't satisfy me.
"I don't know. It seems there are different reasons. I just know that one senior left the city, and another died. Suicide, I think."
My heart starts pounding again.
The worst is not that the man is a pervert, but that he can read mind, and he has tried it with le before.
I shudder when I think about what he has been doing with his ability. Choosing prey, stalking it, catching it whether by force or through finding a weakness, and squeezing it the way he wants.
I admit, if I was a man in this life, I would have been tempted to do the same thing. Well, not exactly, but peeking into people's mind makes it easy to get them to share a night together, or to even build a relationship.
But that man is a predator. He is not using his ability. He is abusing it, and also abusing his position to prey on students, on young girls.
Throughout the rest of the day, I remain distracted. When school ends, I barely register Emmie calling me to leave together. I reject her proposal when she invites me to the back of her mother's car. That is something only Liz can ease me into doing.
I take the bus, and thankfully, it is not rush hour yet. In an environment where I can't lose myself in my own world, I have the time to thing.
Humans… are ugly. Really, I wasn't wrong when I compared their minds, or maybe their hearts to garbage bins mostly filled with filth.
Another thing bothering me is the fact that I don't know if our teacher is on the same group as the fake policeman who visited me months ago.
For now, I don't know what to do. But what is certain is that I will not even be able to pretend to be an ostrich, not only because I have been targeted, but even if I have not been, there is Emmie, that all boobs no brain friend of mine. And I wonder if that will be the only time she will be targeted in her life, if that has even been the only time she has been targeted, only with no one going through with the bad intentions.
I certainly am not jealous of her early growth. Certainly not.
I shake my head, and think about Liz. She must be busy with her patients and the gossip loving female personnel of the hospital. Of course, there must also be flies around.
I shake my head. Being a woman can be difficult. Something I have been avoiding thinking about assaults me full force now that I have to face it. It is the feeling of weakness that seems inherent to being a woman. It is even more pronounced with the shadow of a stronger body in my memory.
I hate the feeling. If life must be out of control, at least the body should be something helpful to help us through it, should it not?
I clench my fist, not tightly, just to feel the muscles in my arm.
When the bus arrives at my stop, I push the useless thoughts away. Lamenting is useless, only logical thinking, planning, followed by action can be useful. While walking the rest of the way, I already have a lead on where to start. I have never been a sports person. I'd rather sit under a shade to enjoy the wind while reading a book. But now that has to change.
It is easy to ignore things when they don't seem close enough to happen to us, but reading minds makes everything seems close, able to happen at any moment.
As they say, stare into the abyss, and it will stare back at you. You can swim without getting wet, and I have to complain again, people's thoughts, their dark desires, are filthy.
Now I have to pull my weak body up, even if not to the same level as my supernatural mind, to face the world. It is not just for me, but also for Liz, and for what might inevitably come someday. And everything starts with exercising.