The Professor

Chapter Thirty-Seven

To my surprise, my new Brit Lit class was not bad at all, it was actually better. My new Professor, Professor Burgess, is man in his early 50's with pepper hair and a goatee. He's been published a handful of times on his analysis' on Brit Lit works such as Sense and Sensibility, Far from the Maddening Crowd, and Dracula. This man is brilliant. He makes the class everything I hoped my Brit Lit class would be with scholarly discussion and analyzing the texts as a class, giving his take on a few things himself, assigning "investigations" for time period issues for our works of study, and then allowing us to be creative with our work too, like writing short stories of alternate endings.

After the first week, my sights are set and i'm in love with the class. It couldn't be a better fit for me.

When Friday rolls around, I catch Collin leaving the English building the same I do, and we meet at the entrance doors.

"Hey," he says with a smile. "How was your class? I miss you being in ours."

I smile.

"Hey. It's amazing. I miss having you in there but, Professor Burgess is so brilliant. He really makes that class what I hoped it to be and I really enjoy it. I think it's a better fit for me than the other."

Collin nods his head. Now we're outside and both walking to the Student Union.

"It sounds like you're excited about it."

"I am," I hesitate to ask him what I do next, hoping I word it right so it doesn't seem suspicious. "How is your class? How's Professor Underwood?" what i'm really asking is: does he seem upset i'm not there?

Collin shrugs.

"Same old, same old. I don't know, he's been a dick the past few days."

My head instantly snaps to look at Collin.

"How so?" is he missing me?

"He's just been uptight. It's like he has this short fuse or something. I don't know how to describe it."

I nod my head and take in the information. Collin doesn't say anything as he opens the door to the union and then decides to speak again.

"We haven't been doing much in the class either."

Collin and I step into the coffee shop and wait in the line.

"I'm sorry," I say, stepping up one spot. "Maybe things will get better next we--," I step up another spot while looking at Collin, and bump into someone.

I look at the person I bumped into and see Professor Underwood glaring at me. His eyes soften just a little when he realizes it's me and we hold each other's gaze for a moment. I don't know what to say. When I see him now, I see the argument. I see the cops showing up at Collin's house, me driving to Dean's apartment and ending up in his bed, us fighting, and me walking out. I see the shocked look on his face when I tell him it's over, and him handing me my schedule with my new Brit Lit section replacing his. Dean sees it all too, I can see it in his eyes.

I can now feel Collin's eyes watching us intently and I clear my throat.

"Sorry, Professor Underwood," I say.

He says nothing. He gives me a look, looks to Collin, and then snorts out of his nose before walking away.

Collin and I watch him walk out of the coffee shop and then turn to each other. Please, God, don't pick up on anything..

"See what I mean?" Collin asks, taking the steps up further in the line.

I release the deep breath subtly and take the steps up to be closer to me.