If You're the Victim, What Am I?

"Husband? Did she say husband?", "I also heard 'children'", "Professor Guil is married?", "Professor Guil has a wife?", "And the wife is pregnant!" These are some of the multiple murmurs at that moment among the faculty as they refer to the woman on the phone.

This was possible to be exposed because though Professor Guil's phone was not on a speaker mode, the silence of the curious faculty made it audible for everyone.

Professor A could no longer estimate how much more she can take or which part is harder to bear. Is it the fact that she embarrassed a proven non guilty professor? Or the fact that the real 'other woman' was she?

"So, professor Ramiscal is really innocent after all, I knew it!" someone whispered among the crowd.

Everything that she said to Maia and what Maia said to her is coming back to her now again. 'If you're the victim, what am I?' Maia's voice echoed inside her head, *Or was I really am the victim here?* She thought, then here's Maia's voice again inside her, 'if you're the victim, then how about professor Guil's wife? Does she know about you?'

"But I never knew any of these either!", She looked at Maia and screamed as she squats and covers her ears.

Everyone seems to pity Maia and the wife of Professor Guil but it's like no one ever felt sorry for professor A. This dilemma made her run out of wits and only wished to disappear at the moment. *I'm the victim here too...* She self-pitied and about to break down but...

"You know it wasn't me in the first place, right?" Maia squatted in front of her with intent look, "You doubted but I'm the only one you saw, right?" These were all factual questions that professor A cannot deny nor answer but what brought her to edge is what Maia said next.

"You're the victim here too, I know" Maia said in a low but audible voice, "You won't attack me if you knew any of these, right?... But I'm already hurt, what if I won't listen to you? But again, you're a victim too, right?"

Professor A cannot believe that the one who chose to understand her was unexpectedly the one she hurted the feelings and reputation. She is now embarrass to Maia more than she is embarrass in front of the faculty or of the students, so she quickly stood up and walked out as she left Maia's phone on one of the office table on a speed pace without looking back, she just stood at the doorway silently, waiting for the busybody students to voluntarily move out of the way then continued her walk.

Murmurs did not stop and she looks like she would snap out at any moment again but she managed to leave without saying a word that morning.

Meanwhile, Maia finally stood up and fix her clothes again and noticed one of the buttons of her blouse was pulled out probably when she was attacked violently, making her stomach a little bit exposed, so she asked her co-teachers if they have needle and threads of certain color that would compliment her blouse if possible as if nothing that happened happened.

"Do you have any thread close to beige color? Or light brown? Or atleast white?" She asked one of the stunned professor.

Only the people mainly involved to the incidence knew what they talked about later that afternoon in the president's office.

The next morning, professor A was nowhere now to be found, but anyone can anticipate it, what others did not saw coming was Maia doing a sideway body wave while listening to music through her earphones as she types on the keyboard of her laptop, humming from time to time, especially if it's her favorite part of the lyrics as if her life and reputation was not in the line yesterday.

"Is she a psycho or what?" One of the faculty members asked curiously among the others, "Maybe she had an amnesia!" One of them blurted out.

"Shshshsh..." The rest chorused and gestured him to be quite.