My Professor's Dirty Little Secret
I flipped it over once, twice, then forced myself to set it aside with the rest.
“Just another student,” I whispered. “Keep it that way.”
But I didn’t believe it. Not even for a second.
The morning passed in small, meaningless motions. Copying rubrics, answering departmental emails, nodding at a colleague I barely heard. My thoughts were elsewhere, looping around the same dangerous center.
Sloane.
I thought of her voice, the way she’d said Professor like it was a dare. I thought of how quiet she’d been lately, and how that silence had been worse than all her teasing combined.