The Road Less Traveled (Prof./Student)

Chapter 24 - Lipstick marks

"You seem nervous, did anything happen that I, as your best friend, should know about?", Julie asked while giving me a suspicious look. 

I couldn't help the smile that sneaked up on my face when I thought about it.

"Hello? Earth to Liz? What has happened between the two of you? And another question, do you have a new lipstick? I've never seen this colour on you before but it suits you", she asked again, this time a bit more annoyed. 

I sighed and finally looked at her:"We've met."

"Aaand? Come on, I won't tell anybody you know that!", Julie pressed.

"Aaand...it's official now, well no, not exactly. But between us, at least...", I smiled.

The next moment I found myself in her arms:"Oh my god, Liz! That's amazing, congratulations! I am so happy for you."

I hugged her back:"Thank you, at least I can talk to you about this. But oh shit! I guess I have to go now, my class begins in two minutes."

"Okay, okay but at home you need to spill the details! And don't forget that your brother picks you up later to discuss some wedding details. You said that I should remember you again", she saod excited. 

She really loved every kind of celebration. 

"Yes, thank you! See you later!", I shouted and turned around to walk to my poetry class. 

I was already late so I started to jog up the stairs and around a corner only to run directly into someone's back who was also heading into the same direction. However, the incident should be more described as me crashing against some muscle that was almost unaffected by my body. The man seemed to catch himself pretty quickly unlike me, who basically had to grab onto his back to prevent myself from falling. Something felt familiar about it but I didn't know what it was..

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I should have b-", I started to speak when the person turned around and I looked into my professors' face. 

Amusement was dancing in his eyes:"Miss White, late to my lecture?"

"Well, considering the fact that you're not there yet, I wouldn't say so, Professor Cullen", I answered and bit on my lip to stop myself from grinning. 

His eyes followed my movement and stopped at my lips before he deeply exhaled.

"Don't do that...", he whisperd tense and I freed my lips from my teeth but still looked at him. 

After one last glance at my lips he looked away and clenched his jaw. 

"That's really not fair...You're even wearing the lipstick that I chose for you, aren't you?", he murmured. 

Unable to say something, I just nodded and glanced around just to see that no one around kept much attention to us. Quickly I added:

"Mhm, I like the colour. But I think we should head to the room now, right? Otherwise people start to wonder where you are."

"I like it too", was all he said sighing before he turned around and I followed him through the hall in a tense silence. 

When we arrived at the door, he held it open for me to go first. He didn't really step aside so I had to keep extra attention not to touch him while moving past him. He followed directly after me and I could feel his authoritarian presence right behind me. 

"Stay after the lecture", he whispered from behind into my ear before he moved over to his desk. 

I had to take a deep breath before I quickly made my way to an empty seat. According to my beating heart, everyone must have been staring at us but in reality, no one seemed to have noticed. They were all either too tired or bored as hell to even consider that something was going on. Relieved, I tried to concentrate on the lecture even though I had to admit that a slightly bigger part of me was impatiently waiting for the lecture to end...