My Professor's Secret

45 |

She doesn't say anything in response so I use her silence to continue shoveling spoonfuls of mashed potatoes into my mouth until I've cleared them from my plate as well.

To keep her eyes from obsessively watching me indulge in my slice of cheesecake next, I probed her on questions about her relationship with Leonardo. She doesn't have to say much about him for it to be visibly apparent that he made her happier than that douchebag Tony ever could. In any case, she tells me that for half of our semester break, they agreed on going back to his family's house to spend that time together to get to know each other better, I couldn't blame them. In all actuality, I encouraged it. She deserved to be spontaneous after being bound to such toxicity before. Not that I had much of a say in anyone's dating life considering I couldn't even keep my own in order. Nonetheless, it remains true.

We finish our food and head back outside to the quad with nowhere, in particular, to head next. Any further conversations we begin are brief and to the point. Apart from the play tonight, we decided to meet up much later to accomplish a few more conquests on our list of adventures we'd seemingly forgotten about yet again. Shortly after, we decide to part ways until tonight when she'd be in the theater to witness my leading role. I'd never practiced a single line in front of her. I suppose I could attribute that to my crippling stage fright, but hearing her excitement when I offered her a ticket, I couldn't have been more elated. With my last ticket waiting to be passed out, I'm plagued with thoughts of my friend long gone from here. Even so, I shoot her a message to remind her I'd been thinking of her and that I would be performing as the lead in a play on campus that I wish she could've attended.

Taylor and I stop once we've made it to the theater—despite it not being where we initially intended to go. She hugs me goodbye and waits for me to leave.

"Wait," She calls out, closing the distance that has gathered between us. "There's one thing from the list we can do right now," Taylor ends, glancing up at me. Before I've even had the chance to ask what, her lips find mine—catching me off guard in a kiss.

"Um, okay. Wow. Didn't expect to enjoy that as much as I did," I say, once she's pulled away. Wide-eyed and focused on her. She only laughs and reveals that I'm not the only one with a few tricks up my sleeve. And then she's gone with a wave goodbye.

The theater appears vacant once I've made my way inside and toward the stage. Luckily for me, it meant I could get some uninterrupted practice in before showtime which I desperately wanted. Although having company might not have been all bad. I strip myself of my jacket and toss my backpack to the side after retrieving my phone to take Chessie up on her offer of rehearing together.

To my convenience, her dormitory is less than a five-minute walk to the theater and she arrives in the blink of an eye—though pressed for time and only able to stay for an hour max. During that time she helps me liven up my enunciations and dramatize my expressions. We sail through eighty-five percent of the script before her alarm blares, cutting our time short. She bids me farewell until tonight and scurries off the stage and out of the theater as if her life depended on it. The doors latch with an echo, and I proceed with my act with Chessie's input. Though my supporting actor, Philip is absent, I recite the script without him.

"I have thought of death—wished for it. Would even have prayed for it, were it fit that such as I should pray for anything. Yet, if death be in this cup, I bid thee think again, ere thou beholdest me quaff it!" Without our props out for use, I lift my hand to mouth as if to drink from a cup—brows furrowed with hesitation and fear.