The Professor and I (Complete)

Chapter 1

   When you're a little girl you dream of a love that can make time stand still. You dream of a romance where you dance when there is no music playing and you kiss beneath the falling rain. You imagine a man telling you that you are his everything and you imagine strong arms wrapped tightly around you, protecting you from the world. You think love in unbreakable but then...you get older. You still imagine kissing under the rain and laying on the grass looking up at the stars but everything in life becomes more carefully coordinated. You have an alarm set every morning, you have work every day, you have bills to pay and responsibilities that you never imagined when picturing your happiness as a child. All of these things seem to make you stumble and fall while on the path to 'true love'.

   My name is Phoebe Ralph and I once dreamt of perfect love. I thought I had it when I was 17. I fell for this boy named Eddie. He was tall and tan and looked like a model of some sort and I thought I had it all. After three months of dating he stole my heart and took my virginity. He was my everything for a whole year until I found him having sex with my best friend (Who is no longer my best friend). After that I realized that It could not have been that famous love talked about in story books. I doubt Prince Charming cheated on Snow White. Or maybe he did. I don't know him personally.

  Now I'm 21 years old and I do nothing but study all day, every day. I have very little friends and I have not had a boyfriend or sex partner since Eddie. I can't say it really bothers me. I'm really goal oriented. I want to be a writer someday, which means I'm an English major. Which means that I write 10 page essays on a regular basis. Boys don't come up to me and I don't go up to boys. Some would say (And by some I mean my parents) that sacrificing a social life for the sake of an education is foolish. I don't care. I often am only able to feel one emotion at a time it seems and for the past few years all I have felt is the desire to educate myself. Not the desire to fall in love. Not the desire to be surrounded by friends.

   So here I am sitting outside my creative writing class waiting to be able to enter. The door opens and like always I am the first one in. Something is different. There is a man at the professor's desk. He is writing his name on the board. His name is Mr. Kevin. Kevin is a really weird last name. He sees me and he smiles and I give him an awkward half smile back. "Hello, I'm Kevin. I'm the new Professor

"What happened to Mr. Stevens?"

"He had an emergency and won't be able to continue for the rest of the year."

Perfect. "Oh...well...it's nice to meet you."

He looks around awkwardly "Class does not start for another 10 minutes. Why are you early?"

I walk to my usual seat "I like being early."

He smirks "Is that your usual seat?"

How could he possibly know that "Maybe. How did you know?"

He laughed. I did not think anything was funny. He ran his fingers through his hair. He has very thick brown hair. It was, dare I say...luscious.

"I use to be you, once."

I scoffed "You seem nothing like me."

He squinted his eyes and cocked his head slightly to the right "You know nothing about me so how can you be certain?"

"I feel fairly certain, Sir."

"Sir? What am I 50 years old?"

I shrugged "It's possible." 

He laughed "I'll have you know that I'm 30 years old and the reason I know we are so much alike is because I use to be just like you. Arriving to class 10 minutes early but waiting outside 30 minutes before. Picking the same seat in the front every day as if that's where the action is."