She's My Sleeping Pill

“What?!”

“Oh, no. Why now?”

“My braincells will short circuit with all these things.”

While her classmates fussed around her, Cayenne just read the instructions on the paper. The assessment was divided into three parts. Two of them will be a written exams while the last one was an oral exam with limited time. She was not worried about the written tests. However, she was a little bit bothered with the last one. She thinks that the given time was too short for them to give the scientific name of the plants which he listed. Not just that, during the oral examination, everyone has to pay attention to the previous examinees because they are not allowed to repeat what the previous person said. In short, they need to know all the scientific names of the plants. The number of your correct answer within the time limit will be your score.

If there was no time limit, Cayenne was confident that she’d get 80% of the items correctly but now, she was a little bit worried.

“I will give you 30 minutes for the written test. The remaining 45 minutes will be allotted for the oral exam. You may start now.”

.....

Cayenne started answering without waiting for more words. She scribbled as fast as she could and tried her best to maximize her time. When she didn’t know the answer, she moved to the next item until she reached the last number. Using the remaining time out of the 30 minutes, she re-checked those items that she skipped and spent time recalling the lessons she learned.

Although it wasn’t a major exam, she felt so exhausted.

Brian watched everyone to make sure that no one was cheating and his eyes landed on the woman that he missed for a long time. [How could you marry someone else? How can you act like you don’t know me? Why am I too late?] He wanted to ask her these questions but he could not even approach her without her bodyguards.

In the middle of his wandering thoughts, his phone buzzed and an unfamiliar string of numbers reflected on the screen. “I’ll step out for a moment to answer this call.”

The moment he stepped out, the students started asking their seatmates what was the answer to what question. Even Faith started asking Cayenne and Noah for answers because she missed quite a lot of numbers.

Outside the classroom, the bodyguards stood tall and intimidating but Brian passed by them as he answered the call. It was a great surprise to receive a call from this man and he didn’t even know what could have resulted to this sudden communication.

“Do you have time to spare this afternoon?” Stefan asked after his short self-introduction. “I’d like to talk to you.”

“I can give you one hour of time.”

“Great. We can meet in the café across the university. It will save you from the trouble of driving.”

“I didn’t know that a great man such as yourself will cater to someone’s worries.” Brian commented with a fake smile hanging on his lips. “I take it that she didn’t know about this meet up.”

“She didn’t but she will.”

Ever since their conversation last night, Stefan wasn’t able to get the man out of his mind. He wasn’t suspecting anything but he wanted to know something just in case there was some sort of unspoken relationship between him and Cayenne in the past. He wanted to make sure that Brian has no leverage he can use against him.

At the same time, he was confident that Cayenne will never leave him.

After the call, Brian returned to the classroom and found the unusual silence of the students. It was suspicious but he didn’t dwell on it. He was once a student. He knew when students cheat.

Soon, 30 minutes was over and the oral examination started. With her paper and pen, Cayenne crossed out the items that her classmates took.

When it was her turn, most of the listed items were taken. If the oral exam was done alphabetically, she should have been the first person to recite in front. Unfortunately, it was done withba randomizer and she came last.

“As long as you get all of the items correctly, you will have the highest score.” Noah commented as he looked at the items on his paper. “I think you are all familiar with these.”

“Right! I’m sure that you will do just fine. Don’t be nervous.” Faith added and prayed for Cayenne’s luck.

At first, Cayenne walked confidently in front of her classmates but when her eyes met her professor’s, her breathing hitched and she felt confused. Right. Instead of getting nervous, she was confused why the man looked at her as if she was his most important person.

[If I’m not mistaken, that is how Stefan looks at me. This man is crazy. How could he look at me like that?] But then, Brian’s expression changed and he looked at her with obvious disappointment. [Just what is wrong with his brain? What mistake have I done to receive such treatment?]

“You have 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Time starts now.”

“Huh?”

“Ms. Ardolf, don’t just dawdle there.”

“I...uh...”

“Yen, don’t be nervous. You can do this.”

“Vitex Negundo, Blumea Balsamifera...” Cayenne started talking as fast as she could to make up for the lost seconds. Her voice wasn’t loud but when she spoke, everyone looked at her and listened to her. “...Coleus Artropurpureus...” she didn’t falter or even paused for a few seconds. She didn’t get any wrong answers as well.

Ten seconds before the time stopped, Cayenne was utterly dumbfounded in front of everyone because of the man who looked at her as if she was the only person in the world. She didn’t like that expression on someone else.

Goosebumps appeared on her skin and she stopped talking.

“I’m done.” She said and hurried back to her seat. [Darling, there is something wrong with this man’s brain.] If she could talk to Stefan, she would really say these words to him.