Time Duology #1: Time For Love 💘

5. Distractions and Dates

"As weird as he is, I never expected Mr Jones to do that!"

Evelyn yawned as she had to sit through a boring one hour listening to a lecture that didn't really have anything to do with the subject syllabus of the previous class – or life, for that matter. At least, as far as she was concerned. She and the rest of her class.

The one who exclaimed in exasperation was Melody, one of the twins sitting to her right.

Mr Jones was a professor from the English department and he had a rather unusual reputation. Rumours had spread around the university, for as long as Evelyn had been there, that he had against him complaints of sexual harassment reported every few months, but the university had done nothing, owing to the lack of any form of real evidence.

The first Historiography class of the semester had just ended with a boring and particularly erotic rendition of Romeo and Juliet, something every student began grumbling about as soon as Mr Jones walked out of the class looking perfectly satisfied. As for Evelyn, she had decided in the middle that she didn't want to hear one more word about it and came therefore upon an idea: she plugged her ears with Melody's earphones lying next to her hand on the desk and began reading the book she got from the campus library in exchange for another she had returned the day before.

And this inspired the rest of the class to distract themselves, too, and do their own thing, without having to listen to another single word from the man speaking to them. Mr Jones even failed to notice a couple students doing Math problems right under his nose!

"I know!" cried Melanie, Melody's twin, sitting to Evelyn's left. "I mean, what's that all about Romeo and Juliet being father and daughter! I can't see where he gets all his ideas from!"

Evelyn yawned and checked her watch. There was still an hour more until lunchtime.

"Porn sites." This was from Shawn, who was sitting behind the three girls. "I think that's what he does in his free time: watch porn."

She held up her hand. "Can we just stop talking about it? I hate this and I hate Mr Jones! And now that he's gone, we actually have something different to do – something much better­ – in plain sight, without having to keep ducking! So, let's play Uno!"

The other three looked at one-another and agreed. Shawn whipped out his cards and moved to sit in front of the girls. He shuffled the cards expertly in his hands and distributed them around.

Just as everything was set up and they were all about to start, they heard a shout from the front of the class:

"Guys! Please, can I have your attention?"

They turned around to see their class representatives, Elena and Mark. It was Mark who called for their attention. The class grew silent.

Elena cleared her throat. "Guys, the next hour is going to be free, but Mark and I have an idea to help kill time. Everybody willing to participate?"

"YES!" A chorus of voices sounded around the classroom. Evelyn was sure that at least half of them were overjoyed about not having to face another lecturer immediately.

"Great! So, the debate question: Sexism in to-day's world!"

"What the...?" muttered Evelyn. "How much lamer can they get?! But, I suppose it's better than having nothing to do at all!" She checked her watch. "Nah, the others won't be out soon, so I have time."

Everybody around her cried "YES!!" once more, except her.

She realised she was not alone when a guy, a few desks across from her, stood up. The class fell silent once more.