15

Chapter 15

Argo was still lying in bed when her alarm went off at 8 am that morning. She turned it off and sat up, stretching her arms in the air. After throwing one leg over the side of the bed, she stood up and then made her way over to the wardrobe where she opened it up. Taking out a simple grey T shirt and blue jeans, she changed into those and then made her way back to the bedroom where she grabbed her wallet. Grabbing her glasses, she put them on and then walked outside into the kitchen. Just as she had expected, there were no traces of her husband anywhere, not even his car. In order not to disturb him, she decided not to make any attempt to get him out of bed, and so instead decided to eat alone. After finishing breakfast (and drinking nearly half the cup of coffee that he had left in the machine), Argo left the house, leaving the kitchen as empty as possible. After closing the front door behind her, she set off towards the university where classes were going to start. However, she didn't reach there until almost 9am because she had had to stop by the local supermarket to pick up some stuff, so she was late. Fortunately, she made it to her class in good time and took her seat, greeting every single person who was sitting in their respective seats. The professor came in shortly afterwards, and once he had sat down, he started talking about the lecture he had prepared.

During the lecture, the students started to write notes on their worksheets, some writing on it whilst others did not. Argo had been waiting for the bell signalling the end of class to ring, but it never happened. Instead, all the students suddenly burst into laughter and giggles, pointing at something on the noticeboard, and Argo looked over at the board in confusion and was shocked to see that the noticeboard was covered in hearts. There were thousands of hearts, filling up the entire wall that divided the classroom from the hallway. Looking back at the teacher, she realised that he hadn't noticed anything strange about the hearts as he continued speaking. She was shocked but nonetheless managed to hide it under a mask of calmness, although she was slightly scared. Was it possible that people actually got jealous of her teaching, as opposed to the teachers and students themselves? Did the rumours that she was a bad teacher somehow spread? She couldn't have been more wrong; she was only a lousy teacher, and that was that. All the students knew she was horrible; they hated her and wished that she never taught. She knew that, and yet she still taught anyway. Perhaps people were angry that the school had to pay her salary, but she didn' t mind. Her salary was fine with her and she preferred to live here, instead of travelling around to places where nobody would recognise her.

After the lecture, she packed up the bag she brought with her to school and headed out of the building, locking the main door behind her. Once she reached home, she made herself a sandwich and then laid down on the sofa in the living room, trying to ignore the stares of her daughter's friend; Yuliya; and his boyfriend, Njat. She didn't want anything to do with the couple right now. Not that she disliked them but she didn't want to spend time with them either. She hated them. She hated them both very much. Yuliya was an arrogant little bitch that had no respect towards women nor did she ever showed any regard to the fact that she was dating another guy. She loved to bully and humiliate Argo, making fun of her and mocking her name, especially when it was the name she had given herself, and she was a woman. She called her "Mrs. G" and would sometimes say that she would look better naked, especially in Argo's clothes. On top of that, Yuliya didn't bother to conceal the fact that she hated her husband, and whenever she talked to him, she used insulting words just like she used to use them towards her.