The TA

3: The Sharpest Eyes

As much of a flirt George was, he was an excellent teacher. I learned a lot more from him than I did this morning with that boring old man.

"Okay, try to do the rest of the sheet and I'll walk around to see if anyone needs help."

He began his stroll and of course, started on the left side of the classroom. As I was writing down my work, he pressed a sticky note to my desk. "See me after class."

I tilted my head down, trying to hide my face as I continued my work. I know I'm doing perfectly fine, this stuff isn't that complicated. So why does he need me to stay after? A student's hand was outstretched above his head. George jogged over to help.

My pencil stopped moving as I wrote the last answer on the sheet. Slowly turning over, I snuck a peek at George. I didn't notice earlier but he had a really nice physique, even if his clothes were baggy you could tell. As he rose from the desk, he caught me and winked at me, giving me that wicked smirk again. I could just melt away right now. I turned my head, hiding my face with my hand and forcing a snicker out of him.

After making a few more rounds, he took a glance at his wrist. "Alright guys, this is a pretty simple concept and it seems like you guys haven't gotten that far anyway, so that's it for today. Feel free to email me with any questions you may have and I'll see you next Wednesday."

Just as they did earlier, the students filed out as a unit. Hoping to disappear into the crowd, I took hold of my backpack and slid into the chaos.

George cleared his throat, his eyes like a needle into thread on my back. "(Y/n) I didn't take you as the type to ignore authority."

It was like his words tethered my limbs to strings; my movement was suspended. The crowd parted away from me to make their way through the door. I felt like an intruder being caught on camera.

"Come back here." His voice was sharp and authoritative.

My body slowly rotated to face him. The pen was out again as the vapor left his lips. His face contorted to show his annoyance.

"I'm trying to help you, alright? I don't have to do this." He gestured for me to hand him my worksheet.

I glanced over at my desk, where the paper still rested. His eyes followed mine.

"You're a bit of an airhead, huh?" Face softening as he snickered, he picked up the sheet. "Did I gross you out that badly?"

Gross out? No. Intimidate more like.

"I'm just trying to get home..." I drifted off as I watched the whiteboard.

"So you don't have another class, then." He scanned the paper, "You probably feel like you understand the concept, but you're all mixed up."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

He waved me over, placing the sheet on the desk.

"See when you're doing this, you have to look at the decimal points. But here you need to look at the smallest amount of sig figs. You didn't do that." He pointed out my errors, explaining with a patient and gentle tone.

"Maybe you should pay attention next time instead of checking me out." He raised his eyebrows as he took a hit from his pen.

"Well maybe you shouldn't be vaping on campus. We all do things we shouldn't be." I crossed my arms.

He pierced me with his annoyed glare, vapor jutting out through his nose like a bull about to charge.

"Don't forget, I'm also your lab instructor. I can't grade you on recitation but if you don't pass the lab you'll fail the course." He twirled the pen in his fingers before putting it in his pocket, a shit-eating grin on his face.

"You must be out of your mind if you think I'm going to let you manipulate me."

He took a seat behind the teacher's desk, resting his head in his hands and looking at me, unamused.

"You were like a dog to its owner when I told you to come here not 10 minutes ago." George's eyebrows flew up as he squinted his eyes.

I cursed under my breath. So much for acting tough.

"Anyway, I could've told you all that in class. I wanted to invite you for pizza but clearly I scare the shit out of you, so I'll see you on Wednesday." He stood up from the desk and without a last bit of eye contact, vacated the room.

What the fuck is his deal!?

A/N: Hey, loves! Wanted to try my hand at a new fic (don't worry I won't abandon the other one). I hope you like it so far, the views and votes will tell me. Thank you for reading, more will be coming 💜