Forbidden | Shedeur Sanders

02

Shedeur

"Your first college football game and you sitting on the sidelines. Do you have any idea how embarrassing that is for me? My friends calling me asking if you hurt, hell I wish you was. How are you already failing, and school just started?!" my father ranted at the dinner table, this had to be like the 3rd rendition of the same speech.

"That's enough Deion..." my mother said shooting him a look, "Do you need a tutor honey?" she asked me, obviously trying to be gentle. Before I could answer my father scoffed and answered for me "Aint nobody wasting no money on getting that boy a tutor. He too old for that, he just need to go to class and do his work. It's not that hard!" he said to my mother.

I glanced over at Shelomi, who looked as uncomfortable as I felt. I was eager for dinner to end so I could go back to my apartment. I entered to see Drew and Karim sitting on the sofa playing 2k, nothing out of the ordinary, but once they looked at me they paused the game immediately.

"Damn man, look like you been through it." Karim said, "What happened?" Drew asked. So I sat there and gave them the rundown of things.

"I just don't know what to do, it's early in the semester but catching up by the next game seems impossible." I explained rubbing my hand over my face.

"Man you'll be straight all you need to do is go to office hours, professors love that shit." Karim said encouragingly, "Yea, you gone be on that field in no time." Drew said following him up.

I was willing to give anything a try at this point, so I was hoping office hours would be the easy solution I was looking for.

Dr. Wilson was the most approachable out of all of my professors so I figured I would start off with her. I stood outside of her office door, listening to her talk to another student. I hated to admit that I was nervous, and a little bit embarrassed too.

The more I thought about the more I was psyching myself out, so I just entered without warning. I realize that wasn't the best decision as both Dr. Wilson and the student looked at me in shock.

"My fault I meant to knock..." I said, locking eyes with Dr. Wilson.

Eden

I stared at the face I'd gotten very familiar with. I was surprised to see he'd made his way into my office.

"Aye man can you like leave?" he said to Oliver, the student I had been speaking with prior to his arrival.

"Oh, um, yea, sure." Oliver said quickly gathering all his belongings and rushing out the office making me frown a little bit.

"You can't just barge in here and kick another student out of office hours. They're for everybody." I said as he sat in Oliver's previous seat.

"My bad about all that, I just really don't want nobody else in my business. I'm Shedeur." He said, doing a quick glance around my office.

"Dr. Wilson, nice to properly meet you. What brings you in?" I asked giving him my full attention.

"I need some help in your class, but I really don't fuck with the office hours shit." He explained making me chuckle, "I hope you not expecting me to pass you just because you on the football team." I responded, and he laughed a little nervously.

"Of course not...." He said, obviously lying. "Good. But If you don't like office hours I'm really unsure of how I can help you." I said to the boy who was obviously getting nervous.

"Can I get like, I don't know, private office hours. You can explain the stuff from class or whatever I don't understand." He said, now sounding a little more optimistic.

I had a pretty tight schedule already, so he was kind of asking a lot of me. "I don't know Shedeur—" I started but was interrupted. "Please. I really need some help."

I sighed, knowing I'd feel horrible if I turned him away. I pulled up my calendar and turned my computer screen to where he could see it. "Alright, what times and dates work for you?" I asked making him smile.

Once we got days and times established it was time to head out. He stood waiting for me as I locked the door to my office.

"Eden" he said catching me off guard, then I looked up realizing he was reading my name plate outside of my door. "Pretty name."

"Thank you." I said giving him a smile. He nodded at me before we headed our separate ways. 

I found myself looking forward to our first session together but grew increasingly irritated as I watched time go on. We had agreed on 9 o'clock yet here I was, sitting by myself at 9:30.

"This what you get for trying to be nice Eden." I said to myself, standing and starting to pack my purse up. As if on cue, the door opens "Woah, woah, woah, where you going?" Shedeur asked entering the room and closing the door behind him.

I folded my arms and glared at him, "Home. You are 30 minutes late. I'm going out my way to try and help you, and you can't even respect me or my time." I said to him, "Listen I'm sorry, I lost track of time. You aint gotta leave though, I promise I won't be late no more." He said, sitting on the chair across from where I was sitting.

"Whatever, get your book out." I said sitting back down. I started to teach the material from the beginning of class to him, and about 20 minutes in he was obviously getting frustrated. I was always patient and understanding with this class though biochemistry was no joke.

"Alright Eden I need a brain break." He said leaning back in the chair, "So we on a first name basis now?" I asked with an amused look on my face. "Yea, more personable that way. Let's get to know one another, how you so young and teaching college?" he asked, sitting up attentively.

"How you know I'm young?" I responded now curious, "Lucky guess." He said shrugging.

So we spent the next 10 to 15 minutes just talking and getting to know one another. He had one of those smiles that made you want to smile, and one of the most contagious laughs I'd ever heard. We stopped laughing at a quick story he'd shared, finding ourselves staring at one another.

I could feel myself getting lost in his intense gaze, my eyes focusing on him licking his lips. I cleared my throat looking away from him.

"Come on let's get back towork." I said not wanting to be lost in his eyes any longer.