Teacher's Pet

I stopped and turned when I heard someone calling my name, even though I knew exactly who it was. Nick ambled over, backpack slung casually over one shoulder, a smile on his face.

“Hey,” he said. “Where you headed off to in such a rush?”

I could see twin reflections of myself in his Oakley sunglasses. “I’ve got class,” I said. “I’m actually going to be late if I don’t get going.”

“Yeah? Which class?”

“Feminist fiction.”

“I’ll walk you there.”

“Um, okay.”

He fell into step next to me, and we made our way toward Baker Hall. “So,” he said, “you think you’re available to hang out anytime soon? And when are you going to wear that little leopard print number that you wore before? That was a good one.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I didn’t realize that you were looking forward to it so much.”

He chuckled. “It was pretty great.”

I stopped walking and turned to face him. “Why, all of the sudden, do you want to hang out with me again?”

“I just think there’s some unfinished business between us, and it’d be cool to hang out. You can’t hold that against me, can you?”

Did he have some sort of sixth sense about this? I had the distinct feeling that if I wasn’t involved with Leo, Nick wouldn’t be having this conversation with me, wouldn’t be interested at all.

“I’m seeing someone,” I said. “And no, I’m not going to tell you who it is. No offense or anything, Nick, but if I remember correctly, you were the one who decided to end things with me. I was kind of bothered by it, because I had actually enjoyed hanging out with you.”

I started walking again. It felt good to say it out loud, though I knew the reason that I was able to was because I no longer had feelings for him.

“I’ll bet we could still have an enjoyable time together,” he said. “Especially if you wore that leopard print getup of yours.”

“Sorry, not going to happen.”

Seth was coming out of Baker Hall as we approached. He held the door open for me. “What’s up?” he said to Nick. “Where you headed? I thought you had Abbott’s lecture now.”

“I do. I was just walking Tessa to her class.”

“Thanks,” I said, more to Seth for holding the door than to Nick for walking with me. “I think Nick might like it if you walked him across campus to his lecture.”

“I can manage that,” Seth said. He punched Nick lightly on the shoulder. “Come on, bro,” he said, an easy smile on his face. Nick looked like he was going to say something else to me, but then changed his mind, which I was glad about. The two of them walked off together, and for a second, I wondered what it must be like to be either of them, to have everything come so easy.

Later that day, after I got home from my classes, I checked the mail. There were a couple bills, which suddenly mad

e me feel more anxious than they ever had before. Before, getting the bills was really nothing more than a formality because my parents had set up automatic withdrawals for electricity, internet, rent. My phone was on their plan. Would they take me off of that? Deactivate the number? I sighed and tried to push the thought out of my mind.

And then, underneath the bills and the coupons for the local grocery store, I saw an envelope, my address typed out on it, no return address.

You’ve done well on the first two papers. Good work.

The final assignment that you will be required to complete is for submission

to the first issue of the Benton Daily Journal, which, you may be aware, is

going to be relaunched. While there are no specific guidelines in regards

to what people are allowed to submit, you will need to write an article

that is interesting and readable, ideally something that is a new take