My Professor's Secret

11|

eleven

"Check your syllabus for next weeks assignment. It's a lengthy essay that I recommend getting ahead of before it's too late," Professor Thornton announces to the class. "With that being said, you're dismissed."

I gathered my things a tad quicker than everyone else with the intention of escaping before Professor had the opportunity to stop me. The last conversation we had was the night he invited me over. During the entire lesson, he avoided looking in my general direction completely.

Perhaps my incisive need to overanalyze warped my perception of professionalism, but whatever happened between Professor T and I exhausted more energy than I cared admitting to myself. All the while, our alone time seemed to loom in my mind—even managing to creep into my dreams.

A large pile of ungraded assignments stacked high on his desk steals his attention once he finishes erasing the writing from tonight's lecture from the chalkboard. Professor shoves the stack of papers into his satchel.

"Screw the idea of other people having places to be, right?" Terrance says, nudging me with his shoulder, motioning towards a few girls obstructing the stairs leading out the lecture hall—holding a cluster of us behind until they decided to clear the way. His outburst yank me from the daze Professor T's gracefulness sucked me in. Once he notices the sudden instinctive jerk his voice caused, he laughs then apologizes for startling me. "Finally," he adds as the jam of people thin out. "You heading home?"

"Thankfully. My bed is calling me as we speak."

The laugh he releases catch brief glances from the girls in front of us at the commotion and once they turn to continue out the room. Terrance turns to me with his nose scrunched and top lip pinned to it as if smelled something horridly foul 

"Ms. Castillo, can I see you in my office, please? I need to discuss a few details regarding the assignment you turned in."

"Jesus, Castillo, in trouble already?"

"Whatever," I laugh, nudging him in the arm. "Wait for me?"

He nods and we continue down the stairs. Professor T greets Terrance as he approaches the door leading out the lecture hall and the three of us head in the direction of his office.

The corridor was vacant once the remaining students from Professor's class emptied—us being his last class of the day. Terrance's ringtone fill the hall with music until he declined the call, though it rings again. He pulls his phone from his pocket, violently tapping on the screen of his phone to reply to a message he'd just received. Brows furrowed, stiff lipped, and flared nostrils shifts his entire demeanor from what it once was before we left the classroom.

"Hey, everything okay?"

Professor Thornton turns around eying us both before coming to halt in front of a locked door. Terrance glances from his screen while a half smile stuck in the crook of his mouth, desperately trying to hide the uneasiness creeping upon him.

"Actually, no," he sighs. "I have to run, something's going on with one of my friends right now. Sorry I can't stay back. Will you be okay?"

"Of course. I completely understand. I hope everything is okay." Terrance nods before saying goodbye to Professor and I. I trailed him all the down the corridor until he finally jogs out of view.

Professor T invites me into his office after he flicks on the light. He lays his satchel on top of this desk and encourages me to take a seat on the sofa in the opposite side of the room.

"Am I in some kind of trouble? Is that why you needed to talk to me in your office?" My palms pool with sweat anticipating his answer.

"Trouble? No. This is good news. You actually received the highest grade out of all my classes on your recent paper. That's why I pulled you aside. Every course the university allows the english department to select a very few number of students to enter a scholastic arts writing competition. It's as much prestigious as it is exclusive. It requires a copious amount of attention and effort. The winner is awarded twenty grand and a chance to have a piece of your writing published. I want to recommend you and one other student in your class to participate," he ends, intertwining his fingers.