“You were?” I lifted my brows in surprise.
He let out a nervous chuckle. “Yeah, I was kind of hoping that maybe you’d go out to dinner with me sometime?”
“Oh,” I said, not even knowing how to answer. I was surprised he wanted to go out with me.
“I mean, if you want to. I don’t want to make you or anything. I just…” He shrugged. “I don’t know. I like you, and I’d really like to get to know you.”
I couldn’t help but smile at that. How could I turn that down?
“If you need to think about it?—”
“I don’t,” I blurted out. “Need to think about it, I mean. I, uh, yes. I would love to go to dinner with you.”
His blue eyes lit up, and he smiled so wide that those adorable dimples formed in his cheeks. “Really?”
I laughed and nodded.
“Great, how about?—”
“Are you two coming in anytime soon, or should we all expect invitations to your wedding by the end of class today?”
I turned my head to find Professor West standing near the door, glaring at me. Thanks to him, we had the rest of the class’s attention, too. Chase and I exchanged a look that said we’d pick up our conversation after class, and he followed me in.
“I’m sorry if we interrupted your proposal, Mr. James,” Professor West said as we both moved toward our seats.
“No apologies necessary, Professor,” Chase said, earning a few chuckles from our classmates.
I slid into my seat, and my attention went to the front of the class. Elliot was clutching the edge of his wooden podium, causing his knuckles to turn white. His eyes were narrowed and trained on mine, and his jaw was set in anger. I diverted my eyes to the top of my desk so I didn’t have to see the disdain he had for me.
He was silent for several long seconds. Finally, he turned his attention to the class. “I have everyone’s papers here graded and ready to return,” he said, stepping away from his podium as he picked up the stack of papers. He moved to the far side of the room to start passing them out. “It seems the subject matter was a little too challenging for some of you.” He dropped a paper on someone’s desk. I saw the way her eyes doubled in size.
God, please don’t let me fail this…
“I considered dropping this assignment from the syllabus, but then I realized how unfair that would be to all of my students who came before you and all that come after you.” He dropped another paper and moved up to the next desk in line.
“I also thought about making this an extra credit assignment, but I thought better on that as well. You people are adults. You have to take responsibility for your own actions. If I were to turn this around for you, none of you would learn a lesson, and we’d be right back here next week.” He dropped another and another, slowly making his way toward me, one student at a time.
I watched him draw closer while glancing at the faces of every student who had gotten their paper back. Some looked relieved, as if they had expected worse, but there were many more who looked upset or angry over the grade they received.
Then Professor West put my paper on my desk. My heart pounded as I stared at the big, red F that was written on the front of my title page. A handwritten note read was written right below the letter.
Sign up for a meeting on your way out of class today.
I looked up to meet his gaze, but his steely eyes didn’t calm me. They only made me more panicked.
He turned and made his way back to the podium.
“There will be a signup sheet posted outside the door by the time you all leave class today. If you got a note to sign up for office hours, I suggest you do it on your way out. If you didn’t get a note, congratulations. You’re now one of the top in the class. Everyone else, I suggest you put in more effort on your next assignment. It’s a fine line you’re walking. I’d hate for you to fall behind, because it means you’ll spend the rest of the semester trying to play catch up, and that’s a slippery slope.” He looked directly at me, causing me to sink a little lower into my seat.
I knew my paper was good. It was way too good to get an F. That meant he knew that the paper wasn’t mine. The question was, what did he plan on doing about it? Was he going to turn me in to the dean, or was he going to give me another chance to write it? If he wanted me out of his class, why didn’t he just turn me in immediately? Why drag it out?
That’s when I realized that it wasn’t just about getting rid of me. It was about humiliating me in the process. He wanted to play with me, have a little fun before ruining my life. And for what? All over something my brother did, how many years ago? I hoped that Gabe really enjoyed whatever it was that pissed Elliot off so much because I was the one he was taking it out on, andsomething told me that he wasn’t going to take it easy either. He was going to bend me until I snapped.
How could a person change so much in such a short time? There wasn’t even a shadow of the guy I once knew. Elliot and Professor West were like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He was once sweet, kind, and caring, but that version of him was gone. He’d been replaced with the angry and bitter professor who was determined to destroy me.
When class was dismissed, I gathered my things and made a break for it, my heart in my throat.
Sittingby the windows was my safe space, but it also meant I was the furthest from the door. By the time I got to the sign-up sheet, the only time slot left was the one at the end of the day. I scribbled my name on the list and left without a backward glance, my pulse thudding in my ears.
