Page 5 of Classroom Confessions

Off limits. I reminded myself on a continuous loop as I paced up and down the room in front of the lectern. Standing still was impossible. I had to move and burn off some of this energy before I combusted. She tracked me, her eyes locked and her lips slightly parted.

Growling beneath my breath, I turned my back on the students and focused on the projector screen. “As you’ll see here, the depth of emotion conveyed through the English language changes from person to person. An ‘I love you’ from one person does not mean the same as from another. The beauty of the written word is that a man can say, ‘You are my moon and stars’, and the woman swoons.” A smile hitched my lips upward at the groans of dismay. I faced the students. “You see. Spoken aloud, it sounds ridiculous. Many men would be offended by such flowery language. However.” I stopped and held up one finger. “Men might not think this way, and it may never cross our minds to say something like this. That is where story comes in. A character can be anything, say anything, as long as it makes sense to how you’ve written them from the beginning.”

Rebecca scribbled furiously in her notebook. I’d noticed she didn’t bother with the computer as many of them did but set it to record my lectures while she wrote. What did she write that had her brows pulled low over her expressive eyes and caused her to bite down on her lower lip?

“You really think saying that to a woman would have her swoon?” Matthew, a young man in the front row, shifted in his seat. He tapped his pencil on the top of his computer. “Pretty sure I’d get laughed out of a room if I said that.”

“Because you’ve never said more than three words to a girl before.” The guy beside him nudged his shoulder and cackled.

Matthew blushed bright red all the way to the tips of his ears.

“It’s all about the context.” Rebecca leaned forward.

I tried to ignore how the move pushed her breasts upward. She seemed to have no idea how much that simple move affected me.

She was off limits. Professors and students were a strict no-no. I’d adhered to the rule my entire career, was never even tempted to break the taboo… until now.

Matthew and his neighbor turned around to face Rebecca.

She glanced at me, her silent question plain on her face.

I gave her a small nod. Curiosity got the better of me. I wanted to know which angle she’d take.

“If you look at your favorite movie, you get annoyed with the character when they say or do something that doesn’t fit what you’ve come to expect from them. A superhero with savage banter and sarcasm isn’t going to go moon-eyed over a woman and start spouting sonnets. But his banter will be flirty, even if it’s savage.” She concentrated on Matthew, but her words carried around the room.

I’d seen her as timid and shy on that first day, but get her talking about books and characterization and she came alive. Interesting.

Matthew nodded. The guy beside him screwed up his nose, completely lost.

My watch buzzed, reminding me that class was about to end. “Alright. Assignments. Now that we’ve covered this section, and thanks to Rebecca’s clarification, you have a new task. Tonight, I want you to watch your favorite movie, take your favorite character from that movie, and write a short story that forces that character to change who they are at their core. They need to have reason, motivation, and conflict.” I ticked off each of the points as the students gathered their materials and scrambled for the door. One more class. Then I’d take a break and visit Cole.

The emptiness in the room turned stifling without Rebecca. What kind of craziness was this? I’d never experienced this kind of attraction for a student. I didn’t like it. I’d not come this far in my career to risk it all.

Maybe once she graduated…

My next class piled in, and I started the lecture all over again. This time, it went as planned without Rebecca there to offer her insights and distractions. By the time it ended, I almost shoved the kids out of the way to get outside where I could breathe.

Students filled the quad, many of them sitting in the grass or shuffling around as they laughed and talked. I tried not to look for Rebecca, but it was like telling myself not to breathe.

Cole’s lecture hall loomed ahead, and I burst into the building where cold air snapped across my face. Better. Much better. Silence closed in around me until I marched forward and my dress shoes announced my arrival.

Cole popped his head out from the room on the left, a grin spreading over his face. “Ethan. What’s up?”

“Needed a break.” I followed him into the office he’d occupied for the last five years and kicked back in a cushy chair, propping my feet on the corner of his desk. “Anything good happening on this side of campus?”

“Good? Here?” He spread his hands wide and shrugged. “Same old job. Same old groans and grumbles from students wanting to know why the hell they need statistics.”

“I’m curious about that myself.” I couldn’t help teasing him. “English Lit. Now that’s a subject with something to sink your teeth into.”

“Right.” Cole snorted and shoved his hands into his pockets. He rolled his eyes. “I do have this one student, Rebecca. She looks like trouble.”

I stilled, my blood turning to ice. It couldn’t be the same Rebecca. “Really? What kind of trouble?”

“Hard to say. Something about her, though. Haven’t heard her say a word, but she watches, you know? Like she sees everything. And I catch her writing at the weirdest times like her hand’s on fire.” The look on Cole’s face, the flash of hungry attraction, curled my hands into fists.

Shit. That sounded like my Rebecca. No. Not mine. She could never be mine. Or Cole’s.

Cole looked past me, staring toward the lecture hall while wearing a goofy grin. “I wonder what it would take to get her to talk.”

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