Professor

Detention

𝙹𝚘𝚜𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎

I walk into Professor Jones classroom and see him sitting down at his desk writing things down. As I shut the door he looks up from his work and stares at me.

"Just on time. Sit down, front row please" He speaks coldly

I take a deep breath and walk down the steps to the front row taking a seat. I take my things out without saying a word to him and begin doing my homework. You can hear a pin drop with how silent it is in this classroom, it's so awkward. As I'm doing my work I hear my phone ding signaling I got a text. I quietly and slowly reach for my phone in my backpack but before I can even check my phone Professor Jones speaks up.

"This is detention Josette. No phones, it's commonsense. Put it on my desk now" He says

"I'm not in high school Professor Jones, I don't have to put my phone on your desk. I just won't take it out. Fair enough?" I say coldly

"Don't take it out again. Finish your work." He says and returns back to his work

"Geez, why are you acting like that" I say looking at him

"Why am I acting like this? Why did you start the scene in my class today?" He says looking back at me

"Look it wasn't on purpose okay? I never acted that way with any teacher ever. It was an accident and I didn't know what I was doing. I apologize." I say

"Was it because of your boyfriend?" He says without an hesitation causing me to stare at him in disbelief

"Uh excuse me?" I say standing up

"Well you and I both know what's going on with you. It's not something great and I just assumed that you acted out that way today because of your.. situation" He sighs

I quickly walk over to his desk and slam my hands on it.

"You have no right to say that shit to me! You have no idea what the hell I am dealing with. What you think that just because you saw some bruises on me that you fucking know me and everything?" I say angrily 

"Do not! Do not dare use that language with me Josette. I am your Professor and you will show me some respect. Do I make myself clear? And no, just because I saw some bruises on you doesn't mean that I know you! I just know what you are going through Josette." He yells making me flinch 

His face goes soft and I can tell he felt guilty for getting loud and angry with me. He opens his mouth to say something but just shakes his head and looks away from me and back to his work. I get quite and turn away going back to my seat. I continue doing my work silently as time passes by.

***

For what seems like hours I check the time and realize I still have an hour and forty five minutes with Professor Jones. Really? it's only been 15 minutes. Dear God please just end my life instead.

"Well that's not very nice to say don't you think?" Professor Jones says without even looking up at me

"What?" I say confused 

" You said "dear God please just end my life instead" why do you say that? Because it's only been 15 minutes since detention started? Believe me Josette I'm not very happy to spend my evening with you either." He says rudely

"Oh you heard me. Well sorry." I say sarcastically

"Man you have one hell of an attitude. Seriously why? Why are you acting this way? Why did you act that way in my class today?" He says and I sigh staying silent for a few seconds 

"Professor Jones, I'm sorry okay, I'm sorry. I really just- I don't know." I say sadly

"Lies. You do know, what's wrong? Besides the obvious" He says pulling up his chair next to me

"I- I'm losing my mind.. he hurt me so bad yesterday in the morning. After I saw you at night I went and sat in my car just to be alone. I guess I ended up falling asleep. I woke up at 5 in the morning to my roommate calling me saying  that my boyfriend is outside our dorm room knocking for me. I checked and realized I had so many texts from him that I obviously didn't reply to because I was asleep. So I rushed inside to our room and he pulled me in slamming me into the door, slapping me... choking me. He said.. he told me I was dead to him" I say beginning to cry

"He said that to you? Josette why are you still with him, seriously why? Give me a true and honest answer." He says

"I just, I've been with him for so long. My family loves him, and he makes it almost impossible to leave him. Any time I try he always finds a way to bring me back" I say

"Almost, you said almost impossible. Meaning you still have that possibility to leave him." he says grabbing my wrists

"I love him though.. he hurts me, yes and stupidly I still love him. I'm used to it now, it's not the violence that scares me anymore Professor Jones. It's that I know, no matter what... I will still love him. And I am so fucking stupid for that. I am an idiot and I hate myself. I am letting myself go through this because people accept the love they think they deserve.  And that is clearly what I am doing" I say sniffling

"That's not true. You just need to find some strength inside you that will be strong enough to leave him for good. You need to report him, get him taken away. You aren't leaving him and moving on because he keeps coming back to you. He doesn't give you the chance to move on, he says he will change and that he loves you Josette. And since you love him so much, even if you don't believe him you still take him back. You still have the one strip of hope left inside you that he will change. But he won't." He says

"You're right.. I still have hope that he will change. Even though deep down I know he won't. The thing is.. even if I do leave him I don't know what I would say to my family. I don't know how I would recover. I'm all alone here in Chicago." I say with tears

"You just need to tell them the truth. They sure as hell won't love him anymore if they found out the truth. And since they still live in New York with him they will make sure he gets locked up. Please I don't want to see you bruised up anymore, I don't want find out that he went too far and killed you. That happens! It's happens more than we think, people in abusive relationships don't speak up and they end up.. dying" He says staring at me

"Maybe that wouldn't be so bad" I say bluntly

"Stop it! Don't say that Josette. Because guess what" He slams his hand on the table

"What Professor Jones? What else do you have to tell me?" I say tiredly

"I care about you, I really do. And when I found out that you were getting abused I went ballistic. I went home and I just- I went crazy. I couldn't believe it, someone as great and beautiful and smart as you just getting beat on." He says scoffing 

"Wait, what? You think I'm beautiful and all that?" I say

"Well yeah, I do. It just made my body shake with anger. I couldn't stop thinking about some asshole hurting you." He says

I sit there silently and stare at him in shock. My heart dropped down to my stomach when he said that, I felt goosebumps arise all over my body at the sound of his voice saying that. I take a deep breath and stand up inching closer to him as he stares at me.

"Wow.. I would have never thought that. Professor Jones, I really am sorry about earlier in class today. I should've never done that." I say

"Well if I'm being honest, I don't regret giving you detention Josette. Not one bit" He says staring down at me

"Why do you say that?" I say staring back

Without saying anything he pulls me into his arms and kisses me.

I immediately kiss him back.