Soft laughter fills the room, and I feel the corner of my mouth curving upward slightly.
He points to a guy sat on the front row off to the left. “You, go.”
We each take it in turns introducing ourselves. The girl who commented on my appearance when I arrived here this morning jumps up out of her seat a little too enthusiastically. She’s slim and blonde, curves in all the right places, a cropped tank top that sits low, exposing her chest and a short mini skirt that leaves nothing to the imagination. She couldn’t hide the fact that she’s checking out Professor Evans if she tried. Her eyes skim up and down his lean body slowly as she stands with an arm across her middle, so her tits spill from her already low-cut top even more, her other hand twirling strands of hair around her fingers.
“I’m sure you’ll do well in this class, however you may be aware, Miss Wilson, that this is anEnglishclass, not an audition for a porno film, so I’d appreciate if you’d wear more suitable clothing in the future.”
Quiet laughter fills the room, and a whimper escapes her lips as her cheeks turn beet-red.
“Is a professor even allowed to say that?” Amy asks, and I shrug, doing everything I can to hide the smile that stretches across my face.
Professor Evans glances over to me and holds my gaze for a few seconds, as if he wanted to see my reaction.
Did he do that for my benefit? Humiliate her like she did me?
No. Why would he? He’s made it pretty clear I’m fairly high up on his shit list already by being late, but what other reason would he have for humiliating her?
The girl returns to her seat, sinking down low as if trying to hide herself from the rest of the room. I almost feel sorry for her, but now she knows what humiliation feels like.
It's soon my turn and I stand up on shaky legs. For some reason, dancing half-naked in front of a room full of men isn’t half as nerve-wracking as this. Standing in front of this man has my legs turning to jelly as his gaze sears into mine. In my periphery, I see a dozen heads swivel around to look at me, but I fix my eyes on the man at the front of the room.
I clear my throat. “My name is Quinn Taylor, I’m in my sophomore year, hoping to major in English Literature. I don’t really know what I want to do post-graduation. All I know is that I love reading and escaping into another world where I can forget reality and become a different person, even for just a little while.” Every word of it is the truth. I’d love to escape my life right now. To pretend I’m living another life where I’m happy. A place where my parents are still alive and I’m not a complete and utter fuck up.
I sit back down in my seat and give Amy a nudge with my elbow. It’s her turn next. She rises from her seat and begins to speak, but Dwight’s eyes linger on mine, his brows are furrowed slightly as if he’s trying to work me out, and I’d sell my soul to the devil himself just to know what he’s thinking.
I stare back at him, unable to break eye contact. It's like there’s a magnet between us, and I can’t seem to look away no matter how much I try.
Amy finishes speaking and returns to her seat. Dwight suddenly looks away when he realises he was staring. He clears his throat and smiles at Amy.
“Very nice,” he tells her, though he probably didn’t catch a word of what she said, just as I didn’t.
Once everyone has introduced themselves, he explains the course outline and what will be expected of us in this class. My hand aches from taking notes and trying to keep up with the pace at which he’s speaking.
“For your first assignment, I want you all to write me a two-thousand word essay discussing a book of your choice, and it is entirely up to you what topic you choose to explore. Although this assignment won’t be assessed, I expect it to be written to the standard you would usually write if it were. This assignment is simply to show me where you’re at. You have exactly two weeks from today to complete this when our one to one tutorials will begin. I want it in my inbox before this time. Thank you all for today, you are dismissed.”
Chatter fills the room as people begin to shuffle out of the room.
“When’s your next class?” Amy asks as she places her notebook back into her bag.
“Not for a while.”
“You wanna go get something to eat? I’m starving.”
As soon as the wordeatleaves her mouth, my stomach lets out a huge growl.
“Absolutely.”
She looks almost surprised than I agreed to go, as if she was expecting me to say no.
We make our way down the steps and head towards the door, but before we reach it, I take one last look over my shoulder at the new professor to find him sat at his desk, pen in hand, his gaze locked on me.
Chapter 5
Quinn
“So how was your summer?” Amy asks as we slide into our seats at the diner a short walk from campus.
I met Amy at the start of our Freshman year, having had a couple of classes together since that time. Amy is a couple of foot shorter than me, her sandy blonde hair falling just past her shoulders, big blue eyes hidden behind large, rounded glasses.
