Teaching Mr. Graham

Chapter Thirteen

    "Best...night...ever!" Kenya dropped an overstuffed pillow on top of her face and kicked her legs in the air.

    Tatiana laughed. "You and Eric were definitely hitting it off."

    Kenya lifted the pillow off of her face and placed it behind her head. "He's so nice, and so cute...he makes every single guy from high school seem corny and immature." She released a dreamy sigh. "And he knows how to dress. Jesus help me. Mama likes."

    Two girls, lying in the dark. In separate beds, but feeling as close as ever. Kenya launched into a summary of her conversation with Eric.

    Tatiana traced a finger on her pillow, her brows furrowed in thought. It was bothering her that she couldn't place where she'd seen A.D. before. She felt like it should be obvious. But the harder she tried to remember where she'd seen those eyes before, the more it slipped away from her. If only I'd seen them for just a minute longer.

    "Earth to Tati," Kenya said with her hands cupped around her mouth.

    "Sorry," Tatiana said.

    "I wasn't the only one vibing with someone," Kenya said. "I saw you with that guy outside. Spill."

    "Not much to spill. He stayed with me while I puked my guts out. We walked and talked a little. He doesn't really tell a lot about himself. The only time he didn't hold back information about himself is when he spoke about writing."

    "He's a writer, too?" Kenya asked, raising up on one elbow.

    Tatiana smiled just thinking of the words he'd recited. "Boy, is he."

    Kenya laughed. "You're just as smitten as I am. Look at you."

    Tatiana rolled her eyes in the dark. "I wouldn't say I'm smitten."

    "You don't have to say it," Kenya said. "I just did. And you are. I can't even see you, but from how your voice sounds, I can tell you're grinning like a lovesick fool."

    "Anyway, the talk we had was nice."

    "That's good to know, because I had him pegged as a stage five clinger," Kenya said. "Following us to the party? Who does that?"

    "We did look good tonight," Tatiana pointed out.

    "Bitch, true," Kenya agreed. "Now that you mention it, the line of men who followed us to the party should have been a lot longer."

    Tatiana laughed and rolled onto her back. "He's in the same writing class I am."

    Kenya gasped. "No wonder he wanted you to sign up for it."

    "I don't know...I think he was really looking out for me when he suggested that I take the class. But it's a definite bonus that he's in it."

    "Says the girl who is absolutely, positively not smitten," Kenya joked.

    "Shut up," Tatiana said, barely resisting the urge to throw her pillow at Kenya.

    "The first step is admitting it, Tati," Kenya said with a yawn.

    Tatiana stared up into the dark. Speckles of light shone on the ceiling, coming from the tiny holes in the slats of the blinds hanging over their dorm window. Only having seen A.D.'s lips, facial hair, and his eyes for the span of three seconds, she attempted to piece his face together in her mind. Her attempts were still in process when sleep claimed her.

                                                                                   ~~~~~~~~~~~

    The rest of the weekend was spent familiarizing themselves with campus. She didn't have any other A.D. sightings over the weekend. With the disappearing act he'd pulled at the party, she figure he was laying low for whatever reason. Kenya and Eric texted each other a lot over the weekend and hung out Sunday night while Tatiana stayed in.

    Monday morning came around a lot more quickly than Tatiana had anticipated. Oddly enough, she was relieved to wake up to her first day of classes. More than anything, she wanted her first two classes to breeze by so she could get to the third class of the day, her creative writing class. A.D. had hinted that she'd know his reason for being so mysterious when she saw him in class, and she wanted to know.

    Her first two classes of the day were Philosophy of Law and Biology. The classes didn't quite fly by. It seemed that they dragged on forever, or maybe Tatiana was feeling sluggish because Kenya had kept her up most of the night talking about her date with Eric.

    She was relieved when the third class finally came around. Relieved and extremely nervous. She stood outside of the classroom, staring at the door for what felt like hours. Another student opened the door and walked in. Deciding that she could only stand in the busy hallway for so long before she was branded a weirdo, she followed the student in. Immediately, her eyes searched the face of each student in the large lecture hall. There was no telltale baseball cap, no Mr. Mysterious. Yet, she thought to herself as she found a seat in the third row of the lecture hall's stadium-style seating. She set her backpack on the floor and unzipped it. As she dug around her backpack, she caught clips of conversation behind her.

    "You won't believe who Chaz saw on campus...can you believe it? I can't even believe it."

    "I heard a rumor that he's going to be our teacher. When you look at the teacher's name, it makes sense."

    "I'm just waiting, man. Because if he walks through that door, I'm freaking the fuck out."

    Tatiana strained to hear more of those conversations as she pulled out her notebook and writing utensils, but the conversations died down. More students filed into the classroom, chatting. Students who recognized each other greeted each other. A few guys gave each other high fives, then immediately launched into talk about their old high school. She looked around the classroom, wondering if A.D. was going to show up at all. With a sigh, she opened up her notebook and flipped past a few pages of random thoughts she'd taken to paper.

    The door to the classroom squeaked open, but she didn't bother checking to see who'd walked in.

    A low buzz started in the classroom. That buzz escalated to loud shouts and a few screams.

    "Oh my God. It's him."

    She raised her gaze and found a tall man standing with his back to the classroom. He stood in front of the desk, unzipping a stylish looking leather briefcase. He was dressed in a nice button-down shirt, khakis, and understated dress shoes. In confusion, she glanced to her left and to her right. Then she settled her eyes back on the man at the front of the classroom. From this angle, she could just see that he was fairly tall and light-skinned with a fade. The back of his head and a flash of his hands were all that she could see, though. And he does have a nicely shaped head, but is that a reason for people to scream at the sight of him?

    "Good afternoon, class," he greeted with his back still to them.

    She perked up in her chair at the sound of his voice. No way. A.D.?

    He walked around the desk, keeping his head bowed down.

    The buzz from the other students never died down; it only increased in intensity. A few girls shrieked.

    The man at the front of the classroom raised his head and smiled. "It sounds like someone's excited to see me."

    Tatiana's breath caught in her throat. Light skin, the most beautiful down-turned eyes, thick brows, thicker lashes, unbelievably juicy lips, a beard groomed by God Himself, and a body that was filling the hell out of that button-down shirt. But then again, the body didn't come as a surprise. She'd seen it a couple of times by now. Only...she hadn't just seen it a couple of times. She'd seen it hundreds or thousands of times, because the man at the front of the classroom wasn't just A.D. She stared at him in disbelief, watching him survey the classroom. She stared at him until his eyes found her.

    They held each others' gazes and his smile grew wider.

    A.D., shethought. Aubrey Drake. As in Aubrey Drake Graham. As in...Mr. Graham.Rapper. Campus stalker. Gentleman who doesn't abandon puking girls in thebathroom. And...my teacher.