Taught Read Free

water in her water
bottle on a ninety-five-degree day.
    I’m uncharacteristically out of my seat and greeting
students at the door when Elizabeth’s class enters. I figure most will consider
it last-day excitement, although I’m certain Elizabeth will surmise
differently.
    She’s chatting with a friend when I see her coming up the
hallway. She’s wearing tight yoga shorts that hug the curves of her ass. She
has the top of them rolled down a few times, allowing a peek of her flawless
stomach. Her bright-pink tank top is layered over a white cami, both cut low,
revealing the top of her tits.
    Still talking to her friend when she reaches my door, I wait
for her to look at me, but it doesn’t happen. She ceases her conversation with
her friend and enters my room without even glancing at me.
    Hmmm. What the hell is that all about?
    She sits at her desk, taking out her notebook and pen,
actually studying for a test I know full well she does not need to study for.
Her classmates are all shooting the shit about what—and who—they did the past
weekend. Elizabeth ignores them, as well, not that any of them try to include
her in their conversations.
    Class begins and still not so much as a single glance from
Elizabeth. I walk past her to grab the exams from my desk and stand next to her
when I give the directions and still get nothing. She doesn’t even give her
usual “thank you” when I hand the exam to her. She simply takes it without
looking up and begins to place her pen to the paper, allowing her bubbly
handwriting to decorate it.
    Dejected, I head back to my desk.
    I am fucked. And not in the way I had hoped. More like in
the “the hot chick I had hoped to bang has gone home and spent the entire
weekend deciding what a bad idea it is” kind of fucked.
    I spend the majority of the class staring at her, trying to
decipher what is going on in her head. She stays mainly still, other than her
pen, which is writing at a pace that would make secretaries using shorthand
jealous. Looks as if she is trying to get out of my classroom and my life, as
soon as she possibly can.
    I’m momentarily distracted as the students begin to finish
their exams and hand them in to me, then leave. A few whisper goodbyes and even
fewer thank me for being a great professor. I try my best to acknowledge them,
but keep glancing at Elizabeth to see if anything causes her to look up from
her paper.
    It doesn’t.
    There are three students left in class when Elizabeth stands
and comes to my desk to turn her paper in.
    Yes. This is it! She will definitely have some sort of
interaction with me when she hands me her exam.
    Wrong. For the first time ever, she puts the paper on my
desk and neither looks at me or says a thing.
    Fuck.
    I watch her ass dance as she leaves the room, picturing how
it looked, naked and being fingered on my desk.
    “Dr. Collins? Dr. Collins?” I break from my trance and stare
at the student in front of me.
    “Yes, Vanessa?”
    “I was just saying that I hope you enjoy the rest of your
summer. Thanks for being such a great professor.” I am unable to say anything,
so I just nod my head.
    She looks at me with disbelief, clearly expecting me to say
something complimentary in return, and then storms off when I remain silent.
    I sigh and begin to stack the papers as I look out the
window, watching the thunderheads grow over the hill nearby, when I hear
someone rush in. I figure Vanessa has returned to give me an earful, but when I
look up, I see Elizabeth standing on the other side of my desk, eyes dancing, a
smirk playing on her pouty lips.
    “Hello, Elizabeth.” I say, smiling.
    “Is there any way I could have my exam back? I need to add
something to the last essay.”
    “Well, generally I don’t allow students to leave the room
and come back to…”
    She narrows her eyes and mouths, “You are kidding ,
right?”
    I search through the stack of papers on my desk until I find
her bubbly handwriting and hand her paper