After Class (Janet and Aaliyah)

Chapter 5

Acacia

I almost lost my cool. She looked so fine, leaning over my desk, her perky little breasts staring me right in the face. Her eyes smiling at me. Everything about her today was absolutely satisfying. Dressed from head to toe in Tommy Hilfiger, she could have been a sponsored model for him. Every chance I got, I wanted to look at her, and interact with her.

  And when I took a good look at her face for the first time in the hallway, it took all I had not to grab her by the cheeks and kiss her with everything in me. I would be the one to smudge her makeup, not her tears. Even when she was crying, she was beautiful; her eyes got red and the color was even more intense than usual. I wanted to do so much to her. Maybe tutoring at my house wasn't such a good idea. My self control wasn't what I thought it was. She had to know by know I was into her.

  For the rest of the class period, she looked so focused, so willing to try. I couldn't believe I got her to actually give a damn. Even if none of her answers were correct, I would be so proud.

Once the bell rang, she was the last one to leave, taking time to finish her work into the passing period. Making so much progress. After about 2 minutes, she handed hers to me personally, with a slight closed-mouth smile. It accentuated her dimples. "None of it's right, but it's all yours, teach."

  "If you did some, I'm happy."

  "Oh, you'll be happy, alright. I'll see you later." She turned around.

"8:15, Ms. Haughton," I called one last time.

  "Yeah, yeah." She waved me off as she left the room. I shook my head. "Oh, hey, Mr. H."

  "Hi, Aaliyah." Matt's voice sounded from outside the room.

  "How was she today?" he asked, pointing behind him and coming in.

  "So much better. I took your advice, talked to her after school yesterday, we're cool." More than cool.

  "Awesome. It took her nearly a whole semester to warm up to me, so she must like you."

I got butterflies in my stomach. It was the simple things.

  "I hope so."

  "Would you like to have lunch today?" He asked.

  "Sure, but I packed one today."

  "So did I. It's okay. We can just hang out in my classroom, if that's alright with you."

  "That's fine, yeah." I grabbed all the tests from the front of the room. "But you'll have to excuse me, I need to grade these. So I can't chat right now." I would grade them, but I really just needed a chance to get my thoughts together. Aaliyah couldn't distract me like this for the entire day. Not again.

  "Oh of course, I understand. I'll see you later."

  "Bye, Matt."

I sat down on top of my desk with a sigh, then looked at her test. I noticed she dotted her I's with little hearts, and had this neat, bubbly handwriting. It was very cute, but just like she warned, none of her answers were right. Page after page, there were solid attempts, but she never got farther than one or two steps. At least I knew what we were going to work on tonight.

On the very last page, a cute drawing of a woman, definitely a black woman, in a low-cut crop top and tight jeans, straddling a chair backwards with curly hair that covered her eyes . She had wide hips and plump lips wrapped around a sucker. It made me smile. Maybe that's why she was so eager to give me the test. I wanted to rip it off the page and keep it for myself.