“The tests tell me otherwise. In my class, you can’t just remember the definition of something, you have to understand it. Psychology is all about understanding on a deeper level. I would be doing my students a great disservice if I only taught them definitions that they weren’t able to apply to real-life situations.”
She took a step forward, standing directly in front of his seat, so close that her knees nearly touched his own. “Make no mistake, Noah. You need to learn from the beginning. It’s clear to me from your tests that you only know how to rattle off definitions. But I guess I can’t blame you for that. That’s, unfortunately, how many people teach their students, but I’m afraid that I’m not one of them. So, we’ll start from the beginning.”
Noah was startled when she dropped in the seat next to him. "Take out your textbook and flip to the first chapter."
“Wow, this is going to be a real study session,” Noah said as he unzipped his bag and placed his notebook on the desk. With her sitting next to him and no longer looking down on him, suddenly, she didn’t feel like his professor anymore. She grabbed his textbook, and Noah watched as Professor Bryant slipped some of her hair behind her ear, her fingers flipping through the pages as if she knew them by heart. She slipped her feet from her heels, resting them on top, and though Noah wasn’t a feet person, thinking of how revolting it was growing up seeing his cousins' feet, but hers were petite and nicely done with a fresh French tip coating.
“Okay, we’ll start here with this definition, but instead of you memorizing the definition, I want you to focus on applying these to examples…”
Their time went like that, with her tossing out examples for each scenario. And, surprisingly, though he still did not like psychology and couldn’t say he had a full grasp on it, with the way she taught it to him now, he was able to understand it and process it more. For the next hour, they spent their time like that, with her sitting next to him, rambling, and it was clear to Noah that Professor Bryant didn’t teach for a paycheck. She liked her job.
When the clock turned to nine, and they could hear students leaving their night classes, Professor Bryant flipped the book closed for him.
“We were able to get through a lot,” she said as if she were shocked, and Noah had to agree. When he first heard about the tutoring sessions, he had a feeling they would be more like his classes. Professor Bryant would talk, and though it would sound like she was speaking English, it would still go through his ears as if he were hearing someone speak a foreign language. But this time, he was able to understand better. It hadn’t been a waste of his time.
They started to pack their things, and as Professor Bryant wiped the board clean, she asked him, "We're you able to set up a study session with Julie?"
Hearing that name made him chuckle. Like Professor Bryant had suggested, when Noah saw Julie walking around campus, he asked her if she wanted to study together, and luckily, Julie had been eager to help. When Julie had suggested going to his place to study, he had fully intended on doing just that, but one thing led to another, and Noah had been balls deep inside of Julie with her face planted in the textbook as he fucked her from behind. He didn't plan it. It just happened. Pretty fair to say that he got no studying done.
“I think it’s best if I don’t do study sessions with Julie. I won’t learn anything.”
After she finished wiping the board, Professor Bryant turned to face him, a frown on her face. She seemed to want to argue with what he just said before her eyes narrowed, her face turning suspicious before a look of disgust appeared. Noah was just surprised that she was able to discern that from what little he said. Were they even thinking the same thing?
“It’s your grade,” she said, slipping her right foot into her heel. When slipping the other one on, she had trouble with her balance, nearly tilting over, but Noah grabbed her shoulder, stopping her from falling.
She glanced up at him and gave him a thankful, yet reluctant smile. Was she embarrassed? Or was she one of those headstrong women who didn’t like to depend on men? Either way, her wrinkled nose made him laugh.
When she gained her balance and slipped her foot into the other shoe, Noah let go, not wanting to get his head bitten off. She was a grumpy woman. She gave him a curt nod, gathering herself together before she stalked off with her things, and Noah followed behind her as they left the building together, and walked out into the cool night air. The summer was quickly slipping away from them, and soon the fall air would chill them every night.
They walked to the parking lot outside of the building, where a few cars were parked, including his truck.
“Oh, by the way,” Professor Bryant said, stopping him before he could walk away. “Please don’t be late for any of our sessions. I know you weren’t late today and were extremely punctual, but I hope we can keep it that way. I really don't like tardiness.”
“No problem,” Noah said, noting the look in her eyes that told him she was serious. Though he was meeting her after his hockey practice, it was thirty minutes after his practices ended. The possibility of him being late wasn’t high at all.
“Okay, see you next class,” she said with a small nod before she stalked off.
“Bye, Melanie,” he said, and she stopped in her tracks, glaring daggers at him.
She opened her mouth, probably to tell him to stop before she shook her head and kept walking to her car. Noah grinned, amused by her annoyance.
They both walked in different directions, her heading to the right and him to the left, and when Noah made it to his truck, he glanced up to see her getting into a bucket.
This woman who walked around in high heels and nice clothes, carrying herself with an air of confidence that told him that she had her life together was driving around in a bucket. And when she started her car, he could literally see it polluting the air.
Noah got into his own truck and shook his head as he started his truck up. What a strange professor.
CHAPTER
7
NOAH
T
HERE WAS NO BETTER FEELING THAN BEING ON THE ICE. Nothing compared to it. The feel of the chill wind from the ice around you slicing against your skin as you race after the puck. The sound of the roaring crowd guiding you down to the goal, and the friction of your hockey stick against the puck as you cradled it from everyone. Even right now, during practice, where there was no cheering crowd, just Noah and his teammates as he skated down the ice with the hockey puck, Noah felt on fire. But that feeling of fire quickly turned to ice when someone bumped him, trying to take the puck from him. Noah glanced at the person who bumped him to see that it was Anderson. The funny thing was that they were on the same side right now for practice with their team split into two. There was no reason for Anderson to try to take the puck from him other than Anderson just being who he was— a fucking prick.
Noah shoved Anderson back with equal force as he drove down the ice harder, skating to the left to dodge Tyler, his teammate, who, right now, was on the ‘rival’ side, trying to get the puck. Back and forth, Noah and Anderson shoved each other until Noah took a chance, ignoring how far from the net he was, and slammed the puck towards the goal. Trevor, the goalie, was shocked and tried to stop the puck, but it was too late as it hit the net.
