My coffee is hot as I study the world history syllabus for a fifth time. Professor Oakley's cell phone number is toward the top of the page and so is his email. The temptation to text him by accident has crossed my mind, but I would be no different than the other girls considering flunking to get a tutoring session.
"Earth to Cora? Did you hear anything I just said?" Evelyn taps her nails against her notebook and walks across our dorm room. I almost wish my best friend wasn't my roommate. If Evelyn was someone new who didn't know all my quirks I might be able to get away with wallowing in my thoughts."No, sorry studying the syllabus," I reply as I continue to scan the pages. I'm hoping to learn more about Professor Oakley. I will say this, I'm rather impressed with how quickly he put the syllabus together the night before."You've been reading it for an hour. Unless...something happened in that class yesterday that you're not telling me."My cheeks are flustered and my palms get sweaty. I'm not ready to be in Evelyn's interrogation room just yet. It's not fair how she knows absolutely everything about me.She sits beside me and takes the syllabus out of my hands."Have you met a boy?" All I can do is nod my head. I guess I can tell her I met someone. That someone is my college professor but she doesn't need to know that."Well, I want details. Is he sexy?" Fuck it's Evelyn's interrogation."Evie, I am not in the mood for twenty questions. I will say he is hot as fuck but is totally out of my league."She looks deeper into my eyes like they will give me away. My eyes can't talk back Evie Squire even if you want them to."Well if he is out of your league, it's time for a makeover. You really need to toss all your overalls away and start looking like a woman. I'm talking new hairstyle and loads of skin-tight dresses."I surrender to Evie's proposition. It's not a horrible idea. It's just hard to maintain. The last time my friends tried to make me over for a guy was when I was a junior. The magical transformation ended up lasting three days and I reverted back to being me. I don't always wear overalls. My other outfits include jeans and hoodies.Evie goes to her side of the dorm room and finds a box of hair dye. She decides to dye my hair dark brown. Something I wish she would have asked about before adding it to my blonde hair. There's no going back now.The fumes of the hair dye fill the room for two hours. I take a shower and rinse out the extra dark color and watch it go down the drain.Next Evie blow dries and straightens my hair. She encourages me to wear my contact lenses. Something I hate doing, but maybe I should because we are in college."Are you ready to see the new you, Cora?" My heart is pounding. What if I could look pretty? What if Spencer is wrong about me?"Wow, you did a great job. I do look different.""You look hot now, girly. Your blue eyes pop out against your dark hair! You should try on my red dress and wear it to your next world history class. That will make, whoever you are crushing on notice you."Maybe she's right. I need to take my womanhood back and become a butterfly. If I break out of my cocoon and change how I look I can still be me. The nerdy artist who sketches landscapes and anime."Yeah, maybe he will notice. But it's still not a good idea. I don't want to get him in trouble."Evie looks at me with her worrying eyes. She is my best friend and has gone out of her way to make me prettier. Maybe I should tell her the truth. Or do I keep my crush to myself?"Why would you get him in trouble? A little flirting in class never hurt anyone. If you're worried about the professor saying something just meet the boy on a date out of class."My heart is pounding and I hate myself for even crushing on a college professor. But that jawline and that damn deep voice have made the stories of history ever so interesting."Because...the guy I'm crushing on. Fuck never mind."I can't tell Evie it's too soon. She looks back at my world history syllabus and is starting to connect the dots."It's Professor Oakley, isn't it? Is that who you're crushing on?"I put my hand over her mouth. I'm a bit relieved she said it for me. Evie's a good egg and I know she won't tell a soul. Maybe it's good she's my roommate after all."Yes, I'm crushing on my world history professor. I don't know what to do. Every time he starts lecturing I am mesmerized by his voice and his jawline drives me insane. I know it's only been two weeks, but all these other women are making me so jealous.""These other women? Are other girls into him too? He must be really fine then. Damn girl, I never thought you'd be into an older man.""He's not that much older than us. He's like six years older. And I bumped into him the first time we met. I made all his papers fly out of his arms like an idiot. There's definitely nothing sexy about that."Evie picks up my phone and starts texting Professor Oakley's number."What are you doing?""I'm doing you a favor. I'm asking him about the syllabus relax. It's just a test to see if he will respond to students like this."I look at her message and it is surprisingly decent.Professor Oakley,I've been reading over the syllabus and was wondering if you could explain our first research paper. I don't understand what you are looking for.Thanks,CoraI hit send. It might be a good test. Maybe he's cool enough to text students back. My phone dings.Hello Cora,Yes. I can explain it. Can you meet me an hour before class in my office? We can go over the assignment.Thanks,BlakeHe's gone from Professor Oakley to Blake in a mere thirty seconds. My heart is on fire and I agree to meet him in his office."Wow, Cora look at you. And don't worry I won't tell anyone. You'll have to tell me how it goes. You might want to practice what sounding confused about the assignment looks like."I take her advice and brush up on the questions I will ask. I study everything about Chinese history in hopes of getting to know Professor Blake Oakley.I eat breakfast in my dorm room at my desk. My desk lamp glows dimly in the background as Evie sleeps. My syllabus is covered in notes along with a notebook filled with interview-style of questions for my college professor. Evie believes I should wear a sexy red dress. That's a bit too flashy. I wear tight blue jeans and a v-neck t-shirt. I don't wear make-up and straighten my hair.God this girly shit is a chore."Good luck, Cora," Evie smiles and waves from her bed. I'm jealous she gets to sleep in every morning until ten. All her classes start at eleven. Mine all start at eight or nine, but I do get my afternoons free.I walk toward Professor Oakley's office. I try to treat it like a professional would. But truth be told my nerves are everywhere. He's only an adjunct professor, but he still gets his own office. I knock on the door and swallow."Good morning, Cora. Have a seat. What can I help you with this morning?"I hand him my notes. I've forgotten everything I wanted to say."Y
The meeting with Professor Oakley went far better than I thought it would. But even still, I will keep my distance and tell Evie it flopped. I need time to process everything that has transpired. I'm not even sure I believe it myself.In order to make tutoring successful, I need to come with an outline of questions prepped and ready to go. Evie's memorized my class schedule. I am not sure what to tell her about tutoring before world history. I'm sure I will come up with some reason to be gone.Evie comes waltzing in. Her coffee has stained her notebook. Her face looks frazzled from college life."Well, how did it go this morning with a certain older gentleman?" Of course she jumps right into her interrogation mode, as predicted."Well, it didn't go as well as I had hoped.""Is he married or something?" I honestly hadn't thought to investigate his relationship status. But it's a good enough excuse to get her off my back."Yeah, there was a picture of him and some female on his desk. He
The double date ends with Dante kissing my cheek and giving me his phone number. I agree to go on another date with him and he'll take me to his Black Sparrow's concert. He plays the drums. He'll remind me of my little brother, Corbin back home. Growing up Corbin always played the drums in the afternoon. He died of cancer when he was twelve. I sure miss him.Evie leads us back to our dorm room. My phone buzzes. I ignore it."Well, what did you think of the date? Did you enjoy it or was it plain?"Truth be told it was nice. Dante's interesting enough as far as male prospects go and he did spend the majority of the night staring at my chest every other glance. Which is more than Spencer ever gave me."I enjoyed it. I like him. You're right. I need to get a boyfriend. Maybe Dante's the right guy for me. Come to think of it I think Dante's in my world history class with Professor Oakley. I should try sitting next to him on Monday."Evie agrees and starts getting ready for bed. Her rituals
Date night is here! Evie is excited to get down and dirty with Benjamin in the aftermath of our double date. Me on the other hand, I have no plans to fuck Dante. That would be too soon and I want losing my v-card to mean something. Or at least a little something. If I am to sleep with Dante I want to get to know him first or even fall for him a little before hand. I'm not asking too much. It took me two months to fall for Spencer, I am sure I could repeat the process if need be.I spent the entire world history class period avoiding eye contact with Professor Oakley. I sat by Dante who doodled guitars all over his notes. At least we have drawing in common. It was a nice discovery prior to our date night. It allowed me to have enough time to sketch a large guitar for Dante.I pull the guitar drawing out of my sketch book and roll it up for Dante. I slip it into my purse. Evie is ready for me to become a woman. I wear a nice tightly fitting black dress and don't feel like myself one bit
Professor Oakley drives a black Silverado. He doesn't strike me as the type to drive a truck. But I hardly know anything about him.I sit still in the car and listen to the quiet jazz music playing softly in the background. My heart's a mess but it shouldn't be. Students are not supposed to be attracted to their professors. He's made so many passes at me, it's hard not to remember them all by name.Professor Oakley wasn't planning on having me ride in his car tonight. We didn't know we would run into each other. It was a meeting by chance. I'm not sure where Professor Oakley is planning on taking me, it either needs to be far away or we need to go to his house.The idea of going to Professor Oakley's house and being alone with him makes me want to panic. The way I feel right now is how I used to feel when I dated Spencer. In a word, Giddy. My phone buzzed earlier and I still haven't checked it. I check it now in the silence of the car. It's Spencer checking in on me to see how colleg
Did last night really happen? It's getting hard to distinguish fact from fiction. It's all a blur now. I wake up early and find an impatient Evie waiting for me at the end of my bed."What the hell happened last night? Where did you go? How did you get back here?" Evie taps her fingers on my desk with her bright nail polish.Now what am I supposed to do? I did text Dante that I wasn't feeling well. I could just roll with that story and be done with it."I got sick. I think some one spiked my drink and I got a ride home with a girl from my English class. It's fine. I text Dante. I feel bad about it. But my stomach was fire and you and Benjamin were enjoying each other's faces too much. I didn't want to bother you."I'm not a habitual liar or a pathological one, but lying to Evie is getting easier. I don't want to make a habit of lying to her, but until I know how I feel about Blake and if it's worth it my lips need to remain shut. He and I have an understanding about that.This is a ne
Professor Oakley has me grinning from ear to ear. If I'm not careful Evie will catch on. I never thought a college professor would notice the likes of me. But he has and now what do I do? Maybe if we agree to only see each other a few times a month then it would be easier to keep it a secret. Our texts to each other tell another story. We flirt a lot, and he wants to push it further.He wants me to go to his house this weekend around the same time as my next forced double date with Dante. Ugh. Dante still wants that study coffee date. I don't think Blake would appreciate me partnering up with another man who also has an attraction toward me. But I do need to study and his tests aren't exactly the easiest to master.So I guess I'm just going to have to partner up with Dante anyway and study. Dante isn't exactly the sexiest man on this campus. Not sure how to keep Evie out of my romance life. She's so nosy and at some point I'm sure she'll brownnose this out of me. Evie wants to be a jo
I bring my sketch book to my date. Dante doesn't have anything fancy planned. But still hanging out with him is better than being broken by Spencer or having my heart crushed by a tall blonde woman waltzing into my professor's office. I shouldn't even care who my teacher fraternizes with and yet I do."Is something wrong? You seem distracted?" Dante asks as he holds a pair of drum sticks in his hands and begins striking the table loudly. His drumming annoys the coffee shop staff enough they come over and tell him to put them away or he will need to leave."I am distracted. That darn history test. I won't pass. And I'm annoyed with Professor Oakley."Fuck that last part was not supposed to slip. My mouth has run away with me again."What did he do? Make us study? Maybe college isn't your thing."Maybe Dante is to preoccupied with his drumming to notice. I almost want to talk about history so I can be mad at Blake. We aren't dating, but why did he rub me in places no one else has. Am I