It Started With a Whisper

I bounced nervously in my seat. We were getting our first assignment back today, and Mr. Franco didn't look happy as he passed out our papers. Although Amelia had a casual look on her face, I could tell she was just as nervous as I was. We were both freaks about our grades, she just didn't show it as much as I did.

"See me after class," Mr. Franco said as he set my paper face down on my desk. Seriously? I had to stay after class again? That made me not want to turn my paper over, but I wanted to know why I was being required to spend extra time with my Psychology professor. I'd barely convinced Daniel that there was nothing going on, and now I was going to be late for our coffee date.

"I swear, you've been in this room more times than I can count on both my hands." Amelia mumbled, glancing down at her paper. She had a red B+ written on the top of it. She shrugged, seeming happy with herself. I flipped my paper over, my eyes widening at the C+ that was staring me in the face. I wanted to scream. How the heck had managed to get a C+? I spent more time than I should have on that paper. It didn't make sense to me, and I was happy that Mr. Franco asked me to stay after now. I could figure out what his problem with me was all of a sudden. I passed all of the tests we had with flying colors. What was wrong with my paper?

"What are you going to do about Daniel?" Amelia asked, and I shrugged. There wasn't anything I could do. He would just have to wait. He wouldn't be happy about it, but what else was I supposed to do? I mean, I could always walk out, but I wanted to know why my grade was so low.

"Do you want me to tell him that you're discussing your grade?" He wouldn't be happy that I was staying after. Daniel wasn't really the jealous type. Or if he was, he was wonderful at hiding it. He just let me know that he was uncomfortable with the fact that I spent so much time with my professor. Honestly, I didn't blame him. I'd probably be uncomfortable if he spent an extended amount of time with a very attractive female professor. However, Daniel and I hadn't really established our relationship, so I really didn't know what we were or if it was appropriate to even be concerned with who the other was hanging out with.

"Could you please?" I could already see some people standing up and making their way out of the room. I knew to stay in my seat until everyone left. Amelia was already packing up her things.

"No problem, squirt. I'll talk to you later." She pat my shoulder and exited the room. A few stragglers wandered out, and I was left alone in the room with Mr. Franco. I sighed and stood, taking my things to the front of the room.

"Do you think you deserved that grade?" He asked, not wasting any time. He crossed his arms over his chest, causes his muscles to bulge underneath his white dress shirt. I bit my lip, the room suddenly growing hot. Why did he have to be so good looking?

"No," I said, finally getting myself together.

"Do you know why I gave it to you?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"If I knew, I wouldn't be standing in front of you right now. Can you please just tell me what I did wrong so I know not to make the same mistake on the next paper?" I glanced up at the clock at the wall. I knew Daniel would be outside, and I didn't want to keep him waiting that long. Hopefully Amelia explained enough that I wouldn't have to talk about this once I saw him.

"Your information was great. You followed the prompt." I stared at him like he had two heads.

"Then what was the problem?" I asked, exasperated. To me, it sounded like he was keeping me here for no reason and that he gave me a grade that I didn't deserve.

"You just gave the information. I'm not asking for your opinion, but you should put a little more emotion into your work." I didn't really understand what the hell that meant. I thought papers were supposed to be informational. If I wanted to write from my heart, I would have taken a creative writing class.

"I'm not really following," I said, shifting my weight from foot to foot. I was growing a little anxious. I could smell his cologne, and he seemed to be stepping closer to me every minute. I was more nervous than I already had been.

"Give me what's in here as well as what's in here." He said, tapping my chest and then my forehead. I froze, and my breath hitched in my throat from his touch. His eyes widened a little as if he realized what he just did. He cleared his throat and shoved his hands into his pockets.

"I'm going to let you redo the assignment. If you want, we can still use this draft and tweak it a bit." As much as I didn't want to admit it, anything that got me more time with Mr. Franco was perfectly fine with me. That was wrong of me, and my thoughts were extremely inappropriate, but there wasn't much I could do when I could feel his breath on my face. Him just standing as close as he was was distracting enough. His cologne was clouding my judgment.

"Please?" I asked, hoping he wouldn't think better of what he just offered me.

"Okay. Come back tomorrow at noon. We'll start then." I nodded once, ready to be out of there. The longer I spent in front of him, the more I found myself wanting to touch him. I could feel my left hand twitching a little.

"Thank you, Mr. Franco." I said, hoping calling him that would somehow slam me back down into reality and realize how wrong my feelings for him were. We had already spent way too much time together. I turned to make my way to the classroom door.

"Seriously, Aria?" I turned, thinking I had done something wrong, but he was smiling at me. I bit my lip, smiling back slightly.

"Sorry Dave." That didn't make things better for me, but what choice did I have? I walked out of the room, finding Daniel leaning against the wall. He stood up straight when he saw me and smiled.

"Hey. Everything okay?"

"Yeah. Everything is fine. I just have to redo the assignment. Well, I don't have to, but he's giving me the opportunity to," I said as we walked towards the Starbucks where I had my first full on conversation with Mr. Franco. I glanced over at the table I had been sitting at that day as if it held some sort of significance to me.

"Oh that's cool. I'm sure the other students were happy about that." I didn't want to tell him that I was the only one that received the offer, so I just smiled and nodded my head.