I dropped my bag onto my bedroom floor and flopped onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling like it had answers.
It didn't.
All it did was remind me of her.
Daphne Mehra.
Professor Mehra.
Whatever name I used didn't change the way her voice echoed in my head. Calm. Confident. That kind of quiet authority that didn't need to be loud to be listened to.
She'd walked into class again today, just like yesterday, with that same quiet smile and her hair pulled back in a clean, neat style this time—smooth, professional. A total shift from yesterday's messy bun and cozy look. Still no makeup, just her. Always just her.
She didn't try to impress. That's what made her so impossible to ignore.
I told myself to focus on the lesson. Told myself I was just another student, just another guy in the room. But my damn eyes wouldn't listen. They kept drifting. Kept searching.
At one point, she asked a question—something about gravitational force or vectors, I don't even remember what. But when I answered, her eyes landed on mine.
And lingered.
Just for a second.
And yeah, maybe it was nothing. Maybe she looked at everyone like that.
But the way my chest tightened? That wasn't nothing.
I rolled over and groaned into my pillow like a kid. This was ridiculous. I didn't even know her. And she was my professor.
Off-limits. Untouchable. Not interested.
But I couldn't forget the way her fingers moved when she talked, or the way she laughed under her breath when someone cracked a joke. She made science feel like a conversation, not a lecture. She made a classroom feel like something alive.
And she looked at me like—
No.
No, she didn't. I imagined that.
Still… I kept seeing her.
The way she stood at the front of the room. The way her clothes always matched her mood—baggy and soft when she felt relaxed, clean and sharp when she meant business. The little things. Things no one else seemed to notice.
But I did.
And now I was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about a professor I barely knew, with the kind of ache I didn't have words for.
What the hell was happening to me?