My Sarcastic Teacher

Chapter 6 ~Stacking Pans~

When Natalie called me yesterday and told me there would be a party, I was all for it. However, now that I'm actually going, I want to scream and cancel my plans to watch Netflix in my bed.

I've packed all of my makeup in order for her to pick me up and go to her dorm room, over on the lower half of west side of campus. Her roommate apparently is okay with me coming along, yet I'm not so happy myself to be going at all. That's when I hear a giant crash coming from inside the kitchen. 

I walk out of my room, my bag hoisted up on my shoulder. 

"What the hell was that?" I ask, taking a look around the adjourning wall to the kitchen. Inside the kitchen on the floor is Nick, pans scattered around him haphazardly. I try my best not to laugh, even though it's very difficult not to.

"Yeah go ahead and laugh." Nick glares at me, his piercing blue eyes almost glowing in this light. 

"I promise I won't laugh. But I guess I could help you clean it up." I set my bag on the floor and go to start helping him clean up the pans, stacking them in order to size. At one point, he reaches for the same pan as I do and our hands brush briefly. I feel a weird spark and look up at him, but he's already pulled away and is continually cleaning up the rest of the pans. I clear my throat and try to start a possible, non-aggressive conversation.

"So, what's with all the pans?" I say, standing up with my own stack.

"I was attempting to put them away all at once, but the box fell off the counter." He gestures towards the empty box that also sits on the floor. His large hands are wrapped around his stack of pans he holds, which, quite frankly, is a lot.

"Huh, and here I thought you were trying to make a friendship meal," I reply sarcastically.

"Wouldn't dream of it, princess." He counters, rolling his eyes. He sets the pans down on the counter, making sure that they're all in place so they won't tip over again. I walk over and set my pans down in front of me, gesturing for him to do the same with mine. He scoffs and rolls his eyes again, leaning towards me and reaching towards the pans in front of me. He slides them towards him without breaking eye contact. 

"Satisfied? Now, I absolutely don't want or need your help. So go do whatever you were going to do." He flicks his hand towards me, breaking eye contact to focus on stacking the pans according to size.

Now it's my turn to roll my eyes, sighing I turn my back to walk away. I hoist my bag back up onto my shoulder and start to head towards the door. 

"Hold up, wait, just out of curiosity, where are you going?" Nick asks, leaning against the counter while crossing his arms. He's wearing a plain, pale blue T-shirt, that only seems to emphasize his muscles more. For being a "professor", he sure finds a lot of time to work out.

"What's it to you?" I ask, blatantly at him.

"Well, I would like to know when you'd be back in case I need to order a pair of earplugs." He says, a smirk on his lips. 

"Haha, very funny. You should've been a comedian instead of a TA." I reply sarcastically, sticking my tongue out at him.

"Wait, why do you think I'm a TA? Maybe I'm an actual professor." His brow furrowed, he stops leaning against the counter and looks very, very confused.

"Are you kidding? No one your age could possibly ever be a professor." 

"Who said I wasn't?" He takes a step closer to me, forcing me to look up at him.

"Well, for one, it's obvious. You're so immature, two, you're young. And three..." I hesitate, Veronica told me not to mention it, but why? It's not like he couldn't know. He's gotten this far, he's had to know someone has been pulling the strings behind the scenes this whole time.

"Three what?" He inquires, breaking me out of my thoughts. I decide to just say it anyway, what harm can come from this anyway?

"Veronica said your father has paid for everything, there's no possible way you could get this far without someone actually pulling the strings. You realize that right?" 

For once, Nick is silent. He looks at me, his face placid and drained of color.

"She said that?" 

"Umm... Yes..?" My face scrunches up in dismay, did he really not know?

All of the sudden my phone chimes, it's Natalie, she claims to be parked out front of the apartment waiting for me. I almost feel bad for leaving after I dropped this bomb on Nick. 

"Nick... Are you okay?" I take a step closer to him, trying to get a better look at his face, as he has his gaze cast on the tile floor.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Go have fun tonight, just let me know if you need into the apartment later or something." He turns around briskly, continuing to stack the pans and put them away in the drawers. I've made a huge mistake in telling him. I thought for sure Veronica was bluffing and was just telling me this so I would think lower of Nick, somehow. But once again, I was wrong.

"Okay... Well, see you later then..." I pause a little, waiting to see if he'll want to talk about it, but I'm not sure why I'm even thinking that. We're not friends, we constantly bicker and push each other's buttons. And we've only just met, there's no point in thinking he'd want to open up to me. No point in trying to be there for him when he doesn't want me to be. It'd be better if I just left him to stacking pans all night. 

I open the door, stealing a last glance at Nick, stacking pans. Hopefully, he'll be okay. Hopefully, I didn't just ruin the one chance we had of having a friendship.