Page 29 of His Favorite Student
“Yeah, you just try it.” I smirk, giving her my evil queen glare.
“So what’s the plan from now on? Think you can still be his student?” Becca asks.
“Plan?” I shrug. “There’s no plan. I’ll be a good girl—I mean, good student—”
My friends burst out laughing.
“Oh, you’ll be a good girl, all right,” Dani giggles. Becca reaches down and squeezes my shoulder. They group aroundme, giving off that friend-energy that you can only know with people who really care about you.
“So it’s love?” Becca asks softly.
Her question brings tears to my eyes, but I hold back. “Yes. It’s love.”
Still buzzing,glowing like a firefly, I’m crossing the quad for my afternoon seminar when Gerald steps in front of me.
I haven’t seen him since the last time, when August came over and made him retreat like a member of a weaker army. My heart jumps, and not in a good way, as he looks at me with that same thinning hair, those odd glasses, and the trying-too-hard jacket.
He smiles at me in a way that makes my skin crawl. “Miss Monroe, glad I caught you.”
Caught me? What am I, a fish?
Every instinct I have tells me to just walk around him. Keep moving. Pretend August is here to look out for me. I even glance over my shoulder, hoping to see him walking toward me.
But he’s not. And I’m alone.
“I have class—” I say.
“I just need a minute,” he interrupts. His voice has an odd, oily quality about it that makes me feel like I need a shower. He reaches into his jacket and pulls out his phone.Is he going to ask for my number?“I debated on whether I should show you this…but my conscience won’t let me stay silent.”
His voice has that tone ofI’m doing this for youthat parents always use when they’re scolding you.
I’m about to just walk away, but then he turns his phone screen around, and what I see freezes me.
It’s a photo of a place I instantly recognize: the outside of August’s office. The door is partially open, and through the gap, I can see August. He’s leaning against his desk in that sexy way he does, his sleeves rolled up, revealing his spectacular arms crossed over his chest.
Pretty normal. But across from him is a girl. A girl that’s not me.
She’s young, blond, and twisting her hair around her finger as she laughs at something he said. She’s also sitting on the leather chair.My chair.
I try to tell myself it’s nothing. But my body takes over, and my heart starts racing. “Her name was Megan Ashwood,” Gerald says. “She was a freshman three years ago. Best student. Always sat in the front row of his class.”
My chest tightens, and the ground seems to move beneath me.
“August offered her what he called ‘supplemental tutoring.’” Each word lands like a rock dropped onto a frozen lake. “Private sessions. In his office. She was valedictorian at her high school, so it’s not like she needed the help. But he took a…particular interest in her.”
“Stop,” I say, but my voice comes out soft, unbraced.
“Next spring, she transferred to another university. Never said why, but…people talked.” He tucks the phone away delicately, like he’s handling something fragile. “I’m not telling you this to hurt you, Miss Monroe. I just want you to understand—”
“I saidstop.”
My heart is on overdrive. My forehead is hot. I can feel my legs starting to tremble beneath me. He may have put the photo away, but it’s fried into my mind. Even as I look up at Gerald,I see it.
And it feels like a hot knife plunged straight into my chest.
Always sat in the front row of his class.
Just like me.
