The Cost of Love

Chapter 4: Reese

Professor Eckert had the kind of voice you'd expect on a 4 hour documentary on how paper is made. He was an older guy probably in his 70s. His interest in the subject was probably about as exciting as he was. Intro to Writing seems like it would be a relatively easy class so I am thankful that it probably won't require me tuning into this old geyser. Listening to him with his monotonic voice for an hour and a half for a few weeks was going to be pure torture. 

Almost like clockwork, Reese walked in 10 minutes late again, which made close to no sense since he was only outside the building the whole time. The professor seemed annoyed but didn't have the willpower to want to call Reese out on his tardiness. 

The hour and a half absolutely dragged on as if the minutes were years. The only good thing about the time dragging is that I could occasionally glance over at Reese. Regardless of the fact that he wasn’t really the kinda guy I was particularly attracted to I still had this odd fascination with him. Claire and I got so bored at one point that we played 7 games of hangman to pass the time. 

As the class finally came to an end I walked over to Claire to exchange goodbyes because we wouldn’t see each other for the rest of the day.

“So there’s a party tonight in Miller Hall! There’s gonna be plenty of drinks and dancing, you should totally come Dylan!” She says while she pokes my arm.

“Ehhh….” I said reluctantly. I wasn’t one of the partying types. Just the thought of it makes me feel uneasy.

“Come on!!! It’ll be fun! And not only that you can get to know some of the people around school that are freshman like us! Maybe you can even meet somebody!” She says as she playfully winks at me.

“Egh…alright I guess it couldn’t hurt.” I heard myself saying as I felt my anxiety rising at the thought of a large group of people in a very close space.

 I walked to the next building for my last class of the day. I was looking forward to this one because it was a creative writing class. I walked in and took my seat. Seconds later my professor announces "Well gooooooood afternooooooon future writers of America!!!!!" 

I rolled my eyes almost immediately. Oh great, the eccentric professor.

"Oh what an honor it is to be your professor for this class! To be but a small part of your journey through academia! My name is Professor Steven Johnson!! Haha...no I gotcha!!!! It's John Stevenson!"

The classroom was silent. I buried my face in my palm wondering if I would be exposed to more of these bad jokes for an hour and a half or for the rest of the semester for that fact. Professor Stevenson had a sweater that was two sizes too big for a man of his slender figure. He had the matching hipster glasses on to match. He was in his 20's for sure. I speculated if he was only like 2 years older than me. He had an untrimmed beard and brown hair so messy that he might as well have just gotten out of bed. 

"What you shall do today my precious students is get into groups of two and delve your selves onto paper!! Write down yourself, your inner being, your likes, dislikes, and things that you find interesting about yourself!! Whatever you like! And then share it with your partner! Don't worry this isn't a class sharing activity. This will only stay between you and your partner. Once this is done you will have created a bond with your peer!!! Hopefully a lifetime bond that will excel well beyond into the near future!"