Next Semester

2. horrible

3118 words

"Take a seat wherever you'd like. We don't have to sit at my desk if you don't want to." Professor Dun said as he closed his office door behind them. Tyler glanced around and didn't really know where he should sit. There was a long couch along the wall in front of the door, two lounge chairs, and then two chairs seated in front of the professor's desk.
"Um, your desk is fine." Tyler mumbled, shuffling his way over to one of the chairs. Professor Dun followed and walked around to his own seat and sighed as he sat down, "I really appreciate you accepting my offer, Tyler. You're helping me out more than you know."

Tyler just nodded as the man clacked away at his computer. After about a minute of silence, Professor Dun turned the monitor around to show him, "Okay, so this is my schedule... ignore the blue blocks, those are my office hours, so I'm free during those times as well." Tyler noticed he had the screen showing times all the way down to 8pm...was he going to be with Professor Dun that late at night?

"Um, I'm free for almost all of your freetime. Uh, Tuesdays are the only days I'm not. I'm not done until 5:30pm." Tyler said quietly. Why was he so nervous? This was the same way he felt when he was 18 and a blushing mess as he talked to Professor Dun about his exceptional exam grades in Intro to Lit.

"Perfect! I'd like for you to get in about 20 hours per week if possible. I know that may be a lot, but since you wanted to pick up an internship anyway, I think you can manage that." Professor Dun said as he turned his monitor back around to face himself. Again, he began silently typing and dragging things on his computer as Tyler watched him. Tyler couldn't help but notice a small hole in the man's nose where a nose piercing used to sit. God, Professor Dun would look good with a nose piercing.

"Tyler? Hello?" the man chuckled, giving Tyler the same amused look he gave him in class earlier. Tyler turned red almost instantly, "Sorry! I uh, didn't hear you. Must've zoned out...."

"It's fine, I just asked if you'd be alright with starting tomorrow at 8am."

Tyler's face dropped, "8am?"

Another charming laugh came from the man, "Yes, Tyler. 8am. You don't have class until 10, so that'll give us tons of time to start every morning."

"Every morning? Is it too late to back out of this thing..." Tyler groaned. He hated getting up early. Professor Dun was still smiling as he shook his head, "Nope! You've already agreed. No take backs."

"Ugh," Tyler sighed, "Yeah, 8 works I guess."

"Good! That'll give us plenty of time to get stuff done during the day so that we don't have too many late nights." Professor Dun nodded matter-of-factly as he typed something into his computer. He turned his attention back to Tyler and his eyes widened as he remembered, "Oh! Also, you will be getting paid for this! It's not just you doing all my bidding behind the scenes for no compensation."

Tyler grinned, liking the idea of a paycheck, "Really?"

"Yeah, of course! There's no reason any internship should be unpaid. I'm pushing the paperwork through the department right now, so it may be a little while until you officially have a position, but just record all of your 'unpaid' hours now and add them to your timesheets when you're officially hired." Professor Dun winked at him and Tyler could've dropped dead on the floor.

Tyler nodded, "Thank you, Professor Dun. I really appreciate that."

"No, thank you, Tyler. Seriously, I was in way over my head without a research assistant." The man smiled warily at him. He still seemed a little stressed, but Tyler could almost see some weight lift off of his shoulders.