Page 17 of Hello Kitten

“You heard me!” I exclaim.

Beth likes to choose her words carefully, but that just makes me twice as terrified. “You’re supposed to have some spine.”

“I know! I gave him every logical reason we talked about!” I insist.

“Then how is he still going with you?”

“He’s very hard to say no to,” I defend.

She pinches the bridge of her nose. “He’s our professor, Emily.”

“I know. I told him that plenty. I laid out the problems,” I say.

She still doesn’t look at me. “He’s our professor.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“And if he gets fired because of you and people will assume you’re willing to sleep your way to As. Is that worth sleeping with him again?” she asks slowly.

Dizziness makes my vision blur as I lean against the wall. “He asked if I wanted him to come after working me up, and I said yes.”

“Did he kiss you?”

“No.”

“Did he touch you?”

“Not inappropriately.”

“A teacher touching a studentisinappropriate!” she says, taking a step closer to me. “He’s an older man. You’re his student. Text him no. Now.”

I pull out my phone and let her watch me. And type my text.

You can’t come to the wedding.

As my thumb hovers over the send button, I show it to Beth and she nudges my thumb, hitting send.

“There. Done,” she says, clearly done with me. “If you’re going to keep being this stupid, there’s only so much I cando to help.”

“I’m sorry,” I murmur. “I wish I could explain how he gets, how he just ...”

“If you still want him when you graduate, go for it.” She shrugs. “But not now, not when you’re his student.”

“You want me to wait that long,” I joke.

“As of right now, I only want to hear about him because of class. That’s it. Nothing about your night together. Nothing aboutanything.”

I sigh and change the topic as I put my phone away, not wanting to see whatheresponds.

“Don’t worry about the wedding,” I say. “My mom has someone she wants to set me up with, and if you go, she’ll do the same.”

Monday, he doesn’t look at me in class. Nor has he texted me back, so I assume everything is fine.

Ithasto be fine.

He gives me another A on a paper, and I almost argue with him, but I see a sticky note on the back page and it makes my heart stammer in my chest as my cheeks flush.

I stuff my paper in my backpack when I see that Beth got an A+.

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