Confessions Of A Professor ll

3

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"Motherfrea--" Eric was cut off by the doorbell ringing. His head was pounding and he was already late for work. What else did he need to stop him?

"What the heck do you want?" He didn't look up, but instead, heard a hurt voice.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you to not be rude?" Eric looked up, seeing none other than the soft eyes of his mother. He laughed, pulling the frail woman in his arms.

"Sorry, mom. I'm already late for work. But you can come on in and do whatever." His mother laughed, forgetting that he had a job to go to. She knew something was wrong with her, but she wouldn't want to tell her son. She knew it would devastate him.

"Love you, mom." The grey haired lady smiled.

"I love you too, Eric. Now go before you're late. I'll see if I can straighten this place up a bit." Eric nodded and gave his mother a kiss on the forehead. Eric almost never kept his house clean, he was either too busy with grading papers or too busy drinking. He slammed his car door shut, speeding off to the university that was thankfully only ten minutes away.

He caught a glimpse of a brunette haired beauty walking into the building seems as if he wasn't the only one to be late.

"Ahh, so I see I'm not the only one walking in late." Teegan stopped in her tracks, adjusting the book bag that sat on her shoulder.

"Guess not." Eric was taken aback by her sudden shortness, but quickly recovered from the shock. He vaguely remembered seeing her at the bar last night. He knew it was her. He could feel the heat radiating from her.

"So, why are you late, Mrs. Martin?" Teegan gave a dry laugh. As if he really wanted to know.

"Had a late night." She replied simply, shoving her hands in the pockets of her ripped jeans. She drew a breath,

"It seems as if you did too." Teegan turned back around and began walking again. She knew it would be better off if she had no interaction with this man. She didn't want to catch feelings and get hurt. But for some reason, she felt protective over him. Like she had to watch out for him.

"Yeah, well, hangovers aren't really the best feelings in the world." Teegan gave a genuine chuckle. He was right. She would know.

"At least you got something right." Eric looked at her and frowned. What had he done wrong? After all, he'd only known Teegan for a week, but he couldn't ever recall of doing anything wrong. Except maybe at the bar last night. He sighed, jogging to catch up with her.

"Look, if there was anything I did to you last night, then I'm sorry." Teegan's eyes widened. Of course he hadn't done anything wrong; Teegan just sometimes said things that she didn't mean.

"Oh, you're worried about that little comment back there? I often say things I don't mean. You should really keep that in mind." Eric watched as her plump red lips turned into a smile. He wanted to smile too, but knew he couldn't. Instead, he opened the door for her. She smiled at him, causing a feeling to bubble up inside of him he didn't exactly agree with.

"For you." Teegan let out a laugh. She loved his sense of humor and slowly; felt the feeling of sadness leave her. She knew as long as she was around him, she could almost forget what was happening in her rather boring life. She went in before Mr. Hayden and followed him to his room. She half expected everyone to be there, but then again, she knew that whenever a professor was late, the class would just ditch. Eric turned to her,

"Do you think anyone will be in there?" Teegan gave him a look. Raising her eyebrows as if to say 'what do you think?'.

"Right." Teegan laughed and took the initative to slap his arm. Eric turned to her and smiled. He had a feeling that this was going to be a great year if it involved Teegan. Teegan opened the door before he got to it, seeing the dark room had absolutely nobody in it. She smiled to herself and took her seat. This was the perfect opportunity to get to know him a little bit more.