Stephanie

---

When I pulled my car into the university's parking lot, I was really sort of unsure of how my day was going to go. Dean Dawson's words did scare me. How fast could the administration work to cause me all sorts of trouble? Right now, all they had was strong suspicion. A photo of me apparently kissing Trevor. We could explain that. Somehow. I just needed to keep it together.

It was a very chilly morning. I woke up alone, and even covered with blankets, nothing would match the warmth of being in his arms. Going out into winds that could be called 'brisk,' if I wanted to be nice, was hardly what I wanted to do, but racking up absences wasn't going to help my case.

It's only like, my fourth day, and I already was late once and slept with a student multiple times. My first impression was becoming aggressively bad at this point.

What's worse, though, was I still had to teach and tutor Trevor. I had to act like I didn't want to rip his pants off and ride his cock.

There was a damn good reason I never joined drama club back in the day despite enjoying Shakespeare and musicals and the other stuff they usually covered.

I was, like, the world's worst actor. Now years of effort leading into my career was going to be decided on it.

Grabbing some coffee from the teacher's lounge, I went to the lecture hall Hatch had assigned to Trevor and me.

I almost dropped it immediately when I walked in.

Hatch was there. Sitting at the desk.

"Ms. Casey, I see you're on time today."

"Um, yeah. I didn't mean to make a habit out of being late." I tried to smile innocently, but I was wondering if Hatch knew, did Dawson already get to him?

"Would you do me a favor and explain this for me?" He pushed a paper across the table.

Fuck. It was that newspaper.

I wanted to come in here, try to calm myself and start up a review. Make everything flow together all well and everything like that. I didn't want to jump right into the fire of defending myself

"Professor Hatch, I wasn't kissing anyone, I swear."

"I know. There's no kissing going on in these photos."

I raised an eyebrow, and approached the paper.

---

THE TRAIN LEARNS HIS ABCs, STARTING WITH XXX

---

I was shaking. I knew I was a bad actor but I was also completely and utterly blowing it here. If I could see my face, I would know that I was obviously guilty as sin.

I looked at the date. It was a later edition, a followup to the earlier story so they could push these photos.

"Um, uh, why is the school paper in the business of publishing smut?" I stammered out. "I thought they were trying to be journalists, not pornographers."

The photos? They were of me and Trevor in the throes of our passion. Naked. Granted, there were some modest black bars put there, but reading over the story, it stated that the uncensored photos could be found on the website. I turned beet red upon realizing that.

I didn't do nudey pictures. I didn't even send naked sexts of myself to Ryan. I knew that the internet was forever, and now all my goods were all over the internet for the entire school to see, and the world if they decided they cared.

Oh God, oh god, what if my parents ever saw that? I was their nerdy little angel, the one they never had to worry about getting into trouble.

It wasn't just a selfie either, it was me riding on top of a cock, my breasts flopping in the wind.

It was a photo ID away from my worst possible scenario.

"Recognize something, Ms. Casey?" Professor Hatch asked, leaning on the desk, and looking me dead in the eye.

"Um, uh, of course not."

"Is that why you look like you've been caught red-handed?"

"Um... uh... no, I'm just, flustered by this blatant pornography, who is this woman? Why does she look like me?"

"Do you really expect me to believe that?"

His expression was stern. Fuck. He saw right through my pathetic lies. "No, no, I don't."

The professor took a deep breath. "The dean told me to relay the message that you are suspended from the university, barring administrative investigation into the situation. The suspension is effective immediately."

Suspension? This was the first stage that would lead to my firing. Then it'd all be over. I'd try to get hired at another university, and they would be asking why I left the last place. 'Oh, it was nothing, I just fucked the star football player, no big deal'.

Four years of high school trying to get into the best school. Four more years of college to get the degrees I needed. All into the shitter, and I'm out asking people if they want fries with that despite my best efforts to evade going into that line of work.

"You need to gather your things, Ms. Casey. Clean out your desk. I doubt it's very much lived in given this is, what... your third day here?"

Walking out with the cardboard box full of random stuff, like on TV when people get fired. Did I really need more stuff to drive home how fucked I was?

"This... this isn't what it looks like, Professor." I gritted my teeth.

"I'm pretty sure it's exactly what it looks like. You know of the school's fraternization policy. We take it very seriously. We've had troubles with it in the past. I'm very much surprised Dawson hired someone so young because of it."

Dizzy. I was feeling dizzy. I always thought that was some nonsense about someone being overwhelmed and all that, about to faint from shock. Now I was starting to understand. I stumbled over to one of the seats in the rows of desks.

"Are you okay, Ms. Casey?" Hatch was quick to his feet and to my side. "You look ill."

"Everything I've worked for is about to be gone. Everything."

"You should have known better than to get involved with a student. They prepare you for this. You can have a personal relationship, but you are never more than friends with a student. Romance leads to exploitation and that's why we have these rules."

"I didn't know he was a student."

"Excuse me?"

I pulled myself up, catching my breath. "I didn't know Trevor was a student."

"How do you expect me to believe that? You walked in, acted like you never saw him before, when he was in the classroom, with me assigning you to tutor him."

"I was freaking out because I was late. You want to know why I was late? Honestly want to know?"

"You said you overslept? Something typical of that nature?"

"No. It wasn't that. Well, I did, but it wasn't because it was just like any night before and I forgot to set my clock or something."

Hatch took a seat beside me. The way he was seated now? He was a friend instead of a boss. It was sort of comforting, even if I really didn't have a whole lot of reason to treat him as such.

"I met a guy the night before. We really hit it off. It felt like one of those love at first sight things straight out of a movie. I'm not exactly a super... um... flirtatious person, Professor. I'm used to being seen as the nerd."

"Really?"

"Hmm?"

"You see yourself as a nerd?"

"Well, yeah, I'm studying to become a teacher and I play dumb video games and read stupid romance novels, and..."

"I believe you, I just find it interesting."

An eyebrow was raised at his evaluation. What was he, my psychologist? "Point is, I'm not a go to bars and meet someone person. I only went because my friend told me it'd be good for me, and whatever."

"So you went to a college bar?"

"No! I went to a twenty-somethings bar. According to Emma anyway."

"You met Trevor there then?"

He was catching on. I nodded. "Yeah. Trevor came up to me. Saved me from some creep asshole. I went along with him. He fell in a lake on purpose."

"Wait, he fell in a lake on purpose?"

"On accident, on purpose."

"But if it's an accident, it's not on purpose...?"

I shook my head. Hatch was past the half-century mark for his age. "It's not important. I stumbled into it. I went home with him. We.... had casual sex, I guess?" Being that he could have been old enough to be my grandfather, I also wasn't super keen on talking about such things with him.

"Hmm. It never came up that he was a student at this university? It seems like that should come up."

"I mentioned I was a teacher. He said he didn't want to talk about education. Seemed like it was a sore spot for him, and in hindsight, I see why."

"He had been given warnings, yes."

"I'm not lying here, Professor. I didn't know he was a student. He didn't know I was going to be his teacher. When we found out, we were freaking out, because we both knew there was going to be something far more between us. We couldn't resist one another. More happened. I still can't resist him. If he walked in here right now, I could try to poorly fake having no interest, but no, he'd be right there, and I'd be fawning over him like I'm some idiotic teenage girl. I'm twenty-two, I should be done with the whole fawning over boys thing."

The professor leaned back in his chair, seemingly lost in thought. There was silence for a time, and really? It made me uncomfortable. Him being accusatory at least was something I could easily understand.

"Do you love him?"

"Excuse me?" I glared at him. I wasn't expecting that sort of question.

"Are you in love with Trevor Richards, Ms. Casey?"

"Um, uh.... I... uh..."

He laughed. "Say no more. I understand."

"You understand what?"

"Love. Young love in particular."

Again, I kept staring at him like he was a crazy person.

"Ms. Casey, do you think I popped out of my mother's womb looking as I do now?"

"Well, no."

"I was young once. I was a liberal arts major. I was a romantic. Jan and I met so long ago. I remember the first few years. I couldn't stay off of her. I wrote her poems about how I was madly in love with her when I first saw her."

"Poetry? I don't think Trevor is going to write me a poem."

"It's not his style, but I wouldn't be surprised that an athlete like him has a heart like mine. Today's society paints this foosball as so much more noble, so he likely went down that path. It doesn't mean he can't fall in love though."

"I doubt Jan was your student, though."

"No, no, we were fellow students. No drama there." He stood up, standing tall, stroking his beard. "You're young. You're brilliant. Life's put you in a strange spot, and you're being punished by a regulation not designed to affect your situation. You did mean everything about Richards’ progress, correct? It wasn't because of your feelings for him?"

"Everything I said about that was true. He really does seem determined to succeed regardless. All of this, besides the whole meeting me thing, was a wake-up call to him."

He laughed. "Then again, since he's my student, I don't see how sucking up to you would really do anything anyway."

"I assure you, none of this is some plot of blackmail or anything. We're two consenting adults who got caught up in a web of bullshit."

He took a few steps toward the door. "You're still suspended, Casey. I can't do anything about that. But this old professor has some pull here and there. I'll do what I can to buy you time, but I suggest to figure out some way to stop them from believing you're some harlot who spreads her legs for her students so easily."

"That's what they think I am?"

"You're guilty until proven innocent. Remember that, Casey. Good luck. You seem like a good egg who the universe aligned to destroy. Maybe it's something I can write a poem about." He continued to stroke his beard as he departed the room.

I didn't see the professor being a Romeo in himself being a thing, but I guess you can never judge a book by its cover.

Still, it didn't change the precariousness of my situation. While Professor Hatch being sympathetic did help, he was a tenured professor, not the dean. He couldn't trounce this alone.

I picked up my things, pacing about, really worried about what I could possibly do. There was no exception for true love. I read plenty of those cases in the past, and I'm sure plenty of those cases used supposed love as an excuse, when it really was just an exploitation of power.

As much as I dreaded it, it still seemed like the best possible solution was for us to end it, and deny it from there. Feign hostility.

More than just our usual verbal sparring, but instead outright hatred. Have him call me a bitch. I call him a bone-headed asshole. Make it like there's no way we could stand one another.

Even that might not work. That could easily be taken as a conflict between two jilted lovers. To be lovers, you have to fraternize, so on and so forth.

Doom, doom, doom. It was all I could think about because really? It was all I could see.