The Point

On-shift day, Sebastian wasn't feeling well, so I let him stay in bed. 913 was on duty first, then 931 took over, and finally me. My now kind of rival left right after her shift, while our peacemaker went to take a nap and joined me for a while somewhere in the middle of my shift. He placed a steaming mug of coffee in front of me.

"Thanks," I replied, surprised when I noticed that he had prepared a drink for himself as well and sat down next to him. "I thought you weren't staying any longer than necessary."

"I still have a few hours until the train," replied 931 with a smile. "I thought we'd talk in the meantime."

Some of the ghosts pretended not to be interested in eavesdropping at all, so we both glared at them. They went back, as it were, to reading and looking through the titles we had collected.

"I hope you are aware that the boy is staring at you like a picture. Kids this age have a silly tendency to have crushes on their teachers. I know from experience, so I'm just asking you to be careful," the man announced suddenly, sipping his coffee as if it were nothing.

"Stop it," I muttered. "Sebastian definitely doesn't have a crush on me."

"What if so? Think about it and just in case also about how to break his heart in the most delicate way," 931 replied and pointed to the spirit, which evidently demanded my attention and help.

A week later, however, the senior medium's words haunted me. Sebastian asked if he could carry out our last shift himself. I agreed, I had no reason to say no. Instead of packing, I lay on my bed wondering if I had made the same mistake again. I hadn't noticed that Tristan had feelings for me until Zoey had to let me know.

I grabbed my phone and looked at the wallpaper, sometimes I missed trivial things like being able to set my boyfriend's picture as the display. I missed him and wanted him to be next to me, despite the more and more remorse that tormented me. I closed my eyes and remembered his face and the mischievous smile that had annoyed me at first and now I adored it.

"I felt you were thinking of me, that's why I came even though you asked me not to," he said suddenly appearing next to me.

I covered my eyes with my hand and smiled sadly, Tristan tried to take it away but I wouldn't let him. He sat down on the bed next to him and asked sadly if something was wrong.

"I don't deserve you," I whispered. "I've been lying to you for a long time."

"I know," he replied. “At first I was angry, but then I got over it. I was just afraid you were seeing someone else. Why didn't you tell me from the beginning?"

“You would have advised me against it because you knew it would involve more work."

"You are right," he agreed with me. "But that would ultimately be your decision anyway. I would try to understand your arguments and support you as much as I could."

I got up abruptly and threw myself into his arms crying, apologizing, and trying to explain how I felt during this time, and how I didn't want to look like a hypocrite afterward. How I was afraid of what would happen when it all came out, that I didn't want to hurt anyone in the end, but to take the easy way out with a lie. I felt a little better as I finally let it all out loud.

"Nobody's perfect," he said, stroking my head. "But don't lie to me evermore," he added, then disappeared abruptly when he heard a loud knock on the door.