Professor Fischbach

Two

Friday nights for most college students meant crashing the best party on campus. Although I did party occasionally, I liked staying in with friends on Friday nights a lot better. Katie was spending time with her boyfriend, so I had been hanging out in another friend's dorm. I had a Skype date with a friend from home scheduled at 11, so when it was 10:45 I decided to leave.

My friend was in a separate dorm building than me, so that meant I'd have to do some walking in the dark. She offered to walk me back, but then she'd have to walk alone and I was the one with pepper spray attached to my lanyard. I absolutely hated traveling around campus at night unless I was with a decent sized group of people, so I was definitely on edge once I left the safety of the residence hall. It wasn't that far of a walk back to my dorm, but I was still so paranoid. Every time I saw anyone, I paid close attention to them to make sure they weren't acting suspicious towards me, but I didn't have any problems. At least not until this one taller guy. He was leaning up against a streetlight, not really doing anything in particular except looking around. I told myself he was probably just waiting to meet someone, but who would meet up at a random streetlight at this time of night? Sure enough, he started walking as I passed him by. He kept a good pace behind me, and I didn't see any other people around at that point. I sped up, clutching the pepper spray in my hand, reminding myself to aim for the eyes. When I picked up the pace, so did he. I didn't have to look behind me to recognize the sound of the guy's footsteps. Just keep going. Not much farther to your well lit, safe dorm.

I was walking so fast that I was almost jogging when I heard the footsteps behind me get heavier. The next thing I knew, I felt a strong hand latch around my wrist. I tugged away and tried to run, but the guy was too quick and too strong. I fumbled with the pepper spray but my lanyard was snatched away from me and thrown far off into the grass. Shit.

My first instinct then was to kick him in the balls, but he caught on to what I was doing and grabbed my leg, which threw me off. He got a better hold of me and there was no way I could do anything then. I tried to think of self defense that I had learned. How do I get out of this kind of hold, again? I attempted to rack my brain for ideas, but I was too afraid to think of anything. Just then, when I thought I was completely out of luck, I heard a familiar, deep voice.

"Hey! Let go of her!" I saw a dark figure running towards us and as it got closer, I recognized it as Professor Fischbach. He threw his bag onto the ground and went straight for the guy holding me. I was afraid that things might get violent - that my professor might get punched or worse, or that he might try to hurt the guy. Instead, the guy got scared. He must have recognized that it was a professor, because he instantly let go of me and took off the other way.

"You better run, asshole," Fischbach mumbled, probably trying to keep his cool since he worked for the university. "Are you alright, Aria?" he asked.

"I'm just a little freaked out is all," I responded. My heart was still beating way too fast and I was shaken up.

"He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"He had a good grip on me, but I'm fine," I told him.

"Where are you headed? I think I better walk with you." He picked up my keys and handed them to me.

"My dorm. It's in Studebaker," I explained. Professor Fischbach grabbed his bag and we started walking that way. I instantly felt safer walking with him, but I remembered the time and day and I was slightly confused as to why I had even run into one of my teachers in the first place. "Thank you for saving me, Professor."

"It's my job to help, Aria. It's no big deal. I'm just glad you're alright."

"Yeah, me too. Hey, Professor?" He looked over at me. "Not to be rude or anything, but why are you here so late on a Friday?"

"I teach a night class that lasts until nine and then I had some extra work to do after class. My printer at home is broken, so I had to finish up some worksheets and print them out here," he responded. I just nodded. It sucked that he had to stay on campus so late on a Friday night, but he had mentioned at the beginning of the semester that he lived really close, so I guess at least the drive home wouldn't be bad for him.

We reached my dorm a couple minutes later and we stopped right outside the door to the building.

"Thanks for walking me here, Professor Fischbach. And thanks for helping me out. I owe you big time," I realized.

"Just keep writing amazing papers and we should be good," he chuckled. "By the way, you don't have to call me Professor Fischbach outside of class if you don't want to. You can call me Mark." I felt myself blushing after that comment. Did he say that to all his students that he bumped into outside of class? He probably did, but I still was affected by it.

"I'll see you on Monday," I said before heading inside. By the time I got back up to the third floor where my room was, I decided I had experienced enough excitement for one night. I rescheduled the Skype call with my friend so I could process what had gone on. My roommate was out with friends so after reading to get my mind off of things, I got ready for bed early and passed out.