" But wouldn't you only come on Saturday? " I whispered, in a scolding tone, taking Ethan by the arm as if he were a child, which was nonetheless true. " Aren't you happy to see me, little sister?” "Stop calling me that, boy!". I complain, again, in between words. Ethan is the picture of confusion. He wanted to surprise me, but he ruined everything. I wasn't ready to receive him. Not today. I had other plans, with other people. In fact, the plan was to meet people. My social circle in the first week of college was restricted to my roommate and a professor. In fact, restricted is quite a word that fits my situation perfectly. An extremely restricted, secretive, and dangerous situation. What I was living was so wrong that I could hardly stop to be aware of it all or I would freak out. "What's gotten into you?". Ethan disengages himself from me, extremely irritated. He wants answers. "I wasn't expecting you today.” "That I know, that's why I was surprised. But from what I can s

The attitude surprised everyone. Several heads turned in the direction of the door, through which Max entered, dressed in casual clothes, as if it were possible to camouflage himself among the students. It was the first time I had ever seen him like this, stripped down, totally informal, and smiling a lot.His eyes quickly followed the whole environment, as if looking for someone. A very cheeky student soon offered him a glass of beer, and he accepted, nodding and smiling. That's exactly what it looked like. He just wanted to infiltrate, to relax, to enjoy a moment with the students, with the younger ones.I held myself back from staring in his direction for longer than was acceptable. Loretta nudged me and just with her features gave me a message to disguise myself."Soon you'll be drooling, control yourself. " She joked and Erick just smiled, somewhat confused."Where's Peter, huh. Isn't he coming?" I asked, to change the subject immediately.Suddenly I felt an inconvenient warmth,

Arriving at the room, making sure that no one had seen the three of us together in the hallways, I summarized the whole imbroglio to Loretta and Ethan." And to think I underestimated you. " Ethan mocked with a somewhat mournful tone." Just one last question for me, Aria. " Go ahead. " I say to Loretta." You're not brothers at all, are you? Ethan, who is all the time pacing back and forth across the room, suddenly stops and looks at me, curious about my answer. This was the part I hadn't made clear to her yet. " We are considerate brothers. He is the son of my father's wife. " That's right. Fate brought us together. " Ethan reiterates, making little hearts with his hands. What a stupid kid... And hot." And then you hit it off.Bingo. Loretta didn't miss a thing. There was no need for an answer. Our expression already gave everything away. " Your faces and mouths during the party were the biggest signs. And unlike you, Ethan, I never underestimated Aria. " Loretta completes, c

With no answers, Max shuts me up with a kiss. He smells of sweat, tobacco, and alcohol. His attitude is consistent with his slightly altered state. Apparently while I was spending the night with Ethan in the bedroom, he had continued partying and had a few, or several, drinks. " Stop playing with me, okay? " he says, finally, after taking my breath away with his intense beer"flavored kiss. " I can't tell who is playing with whom." I think I'm going crazy, this has never happened to me before, with any student... " He brings his hand to his forehead, in a second of sobriety. " Then we are both crazy, because as far as I remember I have never even kissed a teacher before. We stared at each other in silence for a while, reflecting on what we were doing. A movie flashed through my mind. We didn't know where we were going with this. We couldn't even explain how it had started, or why it had started. The only thing I was sure of was that I wanted to continue this adventure that still h

The class went about as close to normal as you could consider normal, if you consider that I was in a notorious anxiety crisis the whole time. Every time Stephen looked in my direction, I tried to disguise my discomfort. I looked away, poked Loretta, contracted my leg muscles involuntarily in the motion of closing them. My mind wandered to places far away from verbs, pronouns, nouns.I think that if I had a surprise test today, I would get a zero. I don't think so, I'm sure." Hey, wake up. Class is over. " Now Loretta was nudging me, hurrying us to go. I looked one last time in Stephen's direction, I wanted to make sure I wasn't going crazy, or that there really was a different atmosphere in this class. No other way. When I did, he looked back at me at the same moment and then turned away, trying to disguise it by coughing, as if he were scraping his throat. " See you next week, guys. " He concluded.Next week? That long?" I don't know what you're getting at, Aria. Are you going t