Page 48 of The Other Side
My heart was still racing, but the adrenaline was starting to wane.
I wasn’t sure how to deal with the situation. But as I slowly began to calm down from the rush of everything, I tried to parse through my thoughts.
I believed Chance’s story about Daniel and Claire, although I certainly wanted to ask him a few follow-up questions about being related to Daniel and having only found out about him recently.
I had occasionally seen a fashion column, written by Claire, in the student paper, but it hadn’t occurred to me to ask her about Daniel. I had thought about trying to talk to some of his known friends, but as a teacher, it felt like I would be overstepping. And I didn’t want to stir up feelings, as they were likely traumatized by losing a friend at such a young age.
The thought occurred to me then that if Daniel and Chance were as close as he said, he was likely deeply affected by the loss as well. I felt a brief pang of guilt at the idea of him having to process that grief alone.
But then I reminded myself that he had been taking unsolicited photos of me while I was unaware, for the last two months. Though the photos I remembered seeing in the bathroom were exactly as he had described, just candid shots, usually from a distance, of me in common areas, like the entrance hall, front courtyard, and rose garden.
Could I really trust that he hadn’t meant any harm? The same confused feeling washed over me as I was both discomforted and pleased at the thought of him being drawn to me to the extent that he felt compelled to photograph me.
Lucky for me, because it was a Friday, I had the weekend to cool down and figure things out before I’d be forced to deal with Chance in person.
Unfortunately, Chance had other ideas.
