by Bee Daniels
“It's my good looks,” Noah said cheekily. Professor Bryant arched a brow at him, her brown eyes sparkling with amusement as if she didn’t believe him. But it was true. Noah wouldn’t call himself arrogant, but it was hard to ignore constantly being told since he was young by the women around him how handsome he was. And when he passed puberty, it was over. From there on, he was able to get the attention of any girl he wanted, even those who pretended they didn’t want him.
“It’s probably because of your personality,” she said as they hit the corner, and when they turned, their arms accidentally brushed each other, but she didn’t bother to acknowledge it. “Good looks can only get you so far with people if you’re personality isn’t good.”
For the first time, her words didn’t make him feel like shit. “Thanks, teach,” he said.
“Teach?” she repeated before snorting. “I think I prefer Professor Bryant over that.”
“Professor Bryant is a mouth full. Teach is much shorter and cooler. Besides, you’re young. Professor makes you sound old.”
“Yeah, exactly, I’m older than you,” she said. “So out of respect and the amount of schooling it took to get me this title, you should call me Professor.”
They stopped in front of a class on the other side of the building, and she turned to face him, finally giving him her undivided attention.
“So, it’s really a no for Teach?” he asked with a grin, finding himself amused by the wrinkle of her nose.
“If I let you call me Teach, then the rest of my students will start calling me Melanie.”
“Melanie?” Noah repeated, confused before a smile formed on his face. As he looked at his professor, Noah found himself surprised to know that was her name. She was such a hard ass, but the name Melanie sounded soft and sweet. He would have thought her name would be something much different.
“I like it,” Noah said, and Melanie shook her head.
“There’s no way I’m letting you call me that. Now, before I step inside of here, let’s figure out how we're going to schedule this. When do you have time?”
And once again, she was back to her serious self. Noah sighed as he tried to think of the time he was willing to spare. Though he knew he needed this direly, that didn't mean he wanted to miss out on all of the fun, especially with this being his last year.
“I have time after practice during the weekdays around seven,” Noah said somewhat reluctantly. But then again, beggars couldn’t be choosy. And right now, he needed Professor Bryant. If he didn’t get her help, everything he worked hard for would be over.
Professor Bryant nodded as she seemed to muse over what he told her. “Let's do it on Monday and Wednesday. I would suggest Friday, but I won’t be cruel and ruin your nights to have fun.”
“That sounds like a plan,” Noah said in agreement. It was cutting into his time a bit. Usually, he would hang out with his friends somewhere off campus around those times, but in dire times like these, sacrifices had to be made.
Professor Bryant went to grab the doorknob before she paused. “Oh, and I also think you might still need to do more studying after that. You have a lot to learn in order to pass this exam, and I think me helping you won’t be enough. You should talk to one of your classmates and plan study sessions with them…”
Noah had serious doubt that he would do something like that. Dale was his friend, but Noah didn't particularly like the way his friend studied, and he didn't want to go to Dale's dorm to study. The dorm Dale stayed in had way too many of the girls Noah had hooked up with before, and he didn't want to bother getting caught up by walking through those halls and getting mauled by a group of angry girls who were mad that they never got calls back.
“Maybe you could ask your friend Dale..." That wasn't happening.
"...or you could ask Josh..." That definitely wasn't happening. He couldn't stand being near Anderson half of the time.
"...and then there's also Julie."
Noah’s ears perked up when he heard that name. Now, he definitely wouldn’t mind having a sex— study session with Julie. Julie had been on his radar ever since he realized they were in the same class. Asking to study with her would be a nice way to make an in, and to be able to learn at the same time. She was a really smart girl, passing all of their quizzes and exams. Maybe he shouldn’t be thinking about hooking up with her at all and just focus on studying alone.
“She’s one of my best students, and she understands the material. If you were able to study with her, I’m positive you’ll be able to understand the material better yourself.”
“I’ll ask her,” Noah said seriously. No, he wouldn’t hook up with Julie. He needed to learn as much as he could to pass this class.
Professor Bryant nodded again before grabbing the knob, but this time, Noah stopped her. She looked at him with a raised brow, curiously glancing at the hand wrapped around her wrist, and Noah snatched his hand back.
“I wanted to thank you for tutoring me. I really appreciate it.”
“All I ask is that you don’t waste my time,” Professor Bryant said, pushing her frames up on her nose. “If you take this seriously, you’ll pass. The material isn’t as hard as you think it is if you apply yourself.”
“Okay,” he said, though he wasn’t quite sure he agreed with her yet. He would have never guessed that out of all the math courses he was taking this semester that a freaking psychology course would be the one to do him in.
“Bye, Melanie,” he said as he turned on his heels, tossing a hand wave at her.
“I’m serious, Noah. It’s Professor Bryant to you,” she called after him, and Noah once again found himself amused. Maybe she wasn’t as bad as he thought.
CHAPTER
6
NOAH
“W
HAT DO YOU THINK PSYCHOLOGY IS ABOUT?”
It was the first question Professor Bryant asked Noah once they settled down in an empty classroom. When he asked how they were able to get a classroom instead of going to her office or the library, she told him that the professors could use certain classrooms if they weren't in use and wouldn’t disrupt the schedule. It was a smaller classroom, unlike the lecture hall she usually taught in. It fit enough space for at the maximum forty students, and right now, with him sitting in the front row, he was directly next to Professor Bryant with little space between them. He couldn’t do the things he usually did in class, like when he got frustrated with not understanding the material and would space out, or scroll through twitter on his phone, or throw sly glances at Julie, who had taken to sitting next to him permanently ever since the second time he attended class.
There was no running in this situation with Professor Bryant peering down at him with her brown eyes that dared him to answer the question wrong.
“Uh,” he started uncomfortably tugging on the neck of his shirt. “It’s about being able to understand people on a deeper, intimate level. It’s about learning the psyche and how other people operate.”
Professor Bryant nodded before she turned to the board, grabbing a dry eraser marker, and he watched as she drew her elegant handwriting across the board. When she finished, she capped the dry eraser marker, stepping back with a small content smile. Clearly, she enjoyed teaching.
“Psychology, quite plainly, is the study of thought and behavior. As you said, it is a way of us getting to know ourselves and others on a deeper cognitive level. With this study, we're able to understand our actions and why we do the things we do. With psychology, we learn how our mind affects our behavior.”
“Are we really going to start from the beginning like this?” Noah asked.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Noah. I don’t quite remember you being in my class those first couple of weeks. Maybe I was mistaken,” she said sarcastically, and sheepishly, he smiled.
“But I read all of this before. I know this stuff,” Noah said.
“The tests tell me otherwise. In my class, you can’t jus
t 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.
Seeing the puck reach its goal made Noah more than smug as he grinned at Anderson, who stared at the sight before him— Trevor on the floor, and the puck far behind him, still toppling on the ground like a fallen dime.
When Anderson shoved him again, Noah had enough. He was tired of the stick up Anderson's ass that made him a total asshole. It wasn't long before their shoving session turned into a full-blown fight.
"Come on, guys," Tyler said as he tried to pull Anderson back, while Trevor tried to pull Noah back. "We're teammates! You've got to stop this."
Tyler's words were white noise to Anderson because he continued to lunge at Noah until Coach Benson blew his whistle, stopping all of the commotion happening on the ice.
"What the hell is this? Is this a team ful
l of fucking pansies? Why are you dipshits fighting like this is a fucking pageant show!"
Noah ground his teeth, annoyed that he let Anderson get him riled up like this again. He shrugged off Trevor's hold as he watched Coach Benson come over to them. The rest of the players skated over as well, lining up with them.
"What the hell were you two doing on my ice?" Coach Benson seethed out, passing his clipboard to the assistant coach.
"Sorry, coach," Noah said, knowing that excuses never worked with Coach Benson, nor placing the blame. Anderson followed suit, his jaw clenched tight.
"Yeah, sorry, coach."
"Sorry isn't enough!" Coach Benson yelled as he glared at them. "I told you no fighting on my ice unless it's against your opponents. And last time I checked, your teammates."
"Sorry, coach," Noah and Anderson said in unison.
"You bet your asses you're sorry," Coach Benson grumbled. "Five sets of lateral hops and shoot the ducks, and that goes for everyone."
Protests were made along with groans as everyone realized that they would have to stay longer.
"Thank Walker and Anderson, ladies," Coach Benson said as he walked away.
Noah bit his tongue, resigning himself to his fate as he glanced at the clock. Usually, he had thirty minutes before he had to meet Professor Bryant for his tutoring session. He would have to get through this fast so he wouldn't be late.
Noah skated to the end of the ice rink where the line was, and slowly, the rest of the team followed suit.
"Come on. Let's get this done," Adam, the team captain said, as he skated in place behind the line. All of them reluctantly began hopping back and forth over the line.