The Professor

Chapter Eighteen

"Um..." I feel my eyes widen and I feel frozen in place. I literally have no idea what to say. Judging by the look on Jessica's face, she is not in the mood for bullshit. I don't know why I didn't come up with something to say on my way home. I literally had the perfect opportunity and plenty of time to come up with a valid excuse and right now, my mind is reeling as I try to think of anything to say.

"Collin told me that you canceled your dinner plans with him because you had a headache but you look perfectly healthy to me." She says, shifting her weight from her right leg to her left.

Shit, thanks Collin. Wait a minute, how does she know about that?

I narrow my eyes and cock my head at her. "How do you know about the dinner plans I had with Collin?"

An uncomfortable look spreads across Jessica's face and she fidgets before pushing a strand of her blonde hair back from her face. "Besides the point," she says, adverting from my question. "You are just now getting back super late at night without letting me know where you were going. You have no idea how freaked out I was! I was literally about to call the police if you didn't text me back five minutes after I sent the last text."

I step into the room and start to change into my pajamas while still conversing with Jessica. "Well everything is fine now. I'm back, i'm alive, no one kidnapped me, it's all good." I take off my shirt and slip on a big Stanford t-shirt before replacing my shorts with plaid pajama pants. 

Jessica stands in the same spot and watches me as I change. Once i'm done and have hung my clothes back up, I look at her. "What?" I shrug.

She hesitates before shaking her head. "I feel like you're keeping something from me but whatever."

Great. Now she has an attitude.

She's not wrong though, I am keeping something from her, but it's for the best for everyone in this situation. It's actually super hard to keep this from her. Jessica is the only girl friend I have and not being able to share with her events from tonight is driving me crazy, i'm just doing a good job at playing it off... surprisingly.

Jessica climbs into bed and turns off her lamp on her side of the room. She lays with her back facing me and I think I hear her mumble a "goodnight" after I tell her goodnight first. I snicker to myself at her ridiculous attitude and then brush my teeth before getting in bed myself.

I turn the lights off and lock our room door then plug my phone into my charger. My phone lights up and I see I have a missed text message from a random number. I open the message and see it's Dean. It's weird having his contact in my phone now, especially after saving it and looking at his name instead of his number.

DEAN: You haven't texted me and I know you should have been back by now. Are you okay or do I need to come look for you myself?

His text messages makes my heart flutter and a big grin spreads across my lips.

I reply back to him:

ME: Depends. What will happen if you find me?

Dean replies instantly:

DEAN: Too much for you to handle this early on.

I hear myself gasp but the heat I start to feel in my body is one I could really get used to. The way Dean talks to me makes me swoon and wish that he would go ahead and do everything I dreamed about in class. A part of me wonders if i'm ready for all of that but I am getting older. It's time I start experiencing life and things normal people do and experiencing them with Dean sounds amazing.

I type a response back to him and wait for him to reply.

ME: Well yes, I made it back safe and sound. Thank you for asking.

DEAN: Did your roommate have any concerns?

ME: A little but I got it under control. She doesn't suspect a thing.

DEAN: Good. Let's keep it that way.

I contemplate replying but figure it's best to leave him wanting more. Putting the phone down and not responding back to him is an itch I want to scratch so badly but I find the will power not to. 

Instead, I lay in bed and drift off to sleep with thoughts of tonight and the next time I get to be alone with Dean.