Albert | Short Story

Albert

"You're my professor, Mr. Albert."

He hesitated with opening his mouth and looked down at his fingers wrapped around the coffee mug. I was staring at them too. Those slender, pale fingers with pink knuckles. How adorable.

Fuck. Stop, Eliot.

"I know," he sighed and then timidly looked up at me for a moment before turning his eyes back down again. "I can't help it." He whispered this part, more to himself, as his blush grew deeper.

His thick, black glasses rested low on his nose, somehow highlighting the tender and long eyelashes he had. Like a little baby's. He could be my baby boy.

Damn it, Eliot.

"There's no chance this does not have a bad ending." I said to him, firmer this time. What was he thinking? This was a totally bad idea. I was astonished that he came up with it in the first place.

"I understand if you don't want to deal with me." He said like a poor little puppy facing another moment of rejection. He'd make a great pet.

Eliot. This is the last time, I swear to God...

"I'm sorry, Mr. Albert. I can't afford to get caught." I said to him as I stood up. I had to get away before I spoke the wrong things out loud.

He said nothing and just sat there staring at his fingers, nodding in comprehension. But then he did the most impossible thing that made a wall snap inside my head, creating an explosion of the things I wanted to keep buried. He pulled his lower lip into his mouth and licked it in a slow movement with his pink fleshy tongue.

Fuck it, Eliot.

I quickly bent down to grab his neck and captured his lips in mine. The coffee flavours burst into my mouth as I pressed down and then slowly withdrew. His eyes were the size of huge buttons as they looked at mine in perplexity.

"Don't...do that." I said awkwardly before hightailing out of there.

~~~

"Can you believe that, Joe?"

"Can I believe that our professor asked if he could illegally tutor you for money? Yes. Can I believe that you kissed him out of nowhere? No fucking way, Eliot Greene."

"You should've seen him, bro. He was totally into me. Fuck, he was clearly letting on signals!"

"First off, I'm not your bro. Second, did he say he wanted you to kiss him?" The tiny female I called my best friend said, her hands crossed across her chest as she gave me a condemning look.

"No," I scoffed.

"Then there was no signal, okay? When are you stupid college idiots going to understand the simple concept of consent?"

I shut my mouth and slouched on the chair in the cafeteria. I really did the most fucked up thing. The voices in my head were warning me all the damn time and yet I did the exact opposite! How on Earth was I going to face him in Scottish Poetry now?

Oh, how stupid, Eliot.

"I say you apologize to him." Joe-the-wisest suggested, biting down a fry from across the table. I pursed my lips together and narrowed my eyes.

"And what's the guarantee that he doesn't do something wrong that makes me do something wrong?"

"Honey, licking your own lip does not make it to Santa's list of naughty things." She rolled her eyes.

"It does to mine."

"What are you, an animal?" She scorned, throwing her hands in the air, successfully knocking the tray of fries over.