Filthy Professor
By: Lila Younger
Chapter 1
Kaitlyn
“KAITLYNNNNNN! OVER HERE! KAITLYN!”
I wince at the voice of my roommate Tiffany. Even in a crowded airport, she can manage to stand out. I follow the line of heads that have whipped towards her and... yep, it’s definitely her. Tiffany is tall, like an Amazon, with rioting red curls and crazy curves that makes her look like Jessica Rabbit come to life. The fact that she’s wearing a university sweatshirt with TAU (Taylor Anderson University) and yoga pants does nothing to diminish her looks. Already some of the curious glances are turning into awe mixed with lust, and I don’t blame them. She doesn’t notice them though. I think she’s immune, or too used to it. Instead my roommate barrels forward, arm outstretched for a hug.
“HEY ROOMIE!” she yells in joy, attracting even more attention. “MERRY LATE CHRISTMAS!”
“I’m right here Tif,” I say, but really I’m not that mad. How can you be with that much positivity?
“Sorry, sorry,” she says, then shoves a coffee into my hand. “This one’s yours. I’ve already finished two!”
She grabs my trolley for me while I take a nice, fortifying sip of coffee. The airplane stuff is weak, plus I try to avoid drinking too much of it so I don’t have to try and squish past two other people to get to the bathroom. That’s the only downside of a window seat. I always feel awkward asking everyone to move. The lack of coffee, paired with the fact that I took the earliest flight I could, has me feeling like death warmed over.
The two of us head to where my bags are waiting on the carousel, then out of the airport. It’s a gray, dreary day in the Pacific Northwest, and the sun looks like it’s ready to give up and hide behind the rainclouds looming over the sky. Even though I love it here, I’d trade the weather for what we have in California in a heartbeat. A gust of wind blows by, making me shiver.
“Come on,” Tif says. “I’m parked close and it’s freezing out here. I think someone says it’s the coldest day on record or something?”
We go around the line of taxis to the glass walkway that leads to the parking garages.
“So how was your Christmas?” I ask.
“Good. Boring. You know what it’s like,” she says.
I do. Tiffany actually lives in Martin, the tiny town where our university is. During the school year, it’s a bustling place, but when the students leave, it’s almost a ghost town. Nearly everyone who lives there full-time is working in some way related to TAU and its students. She says she wishes she could go anywhere else, but the university gives her almost half price tuition because her dad’s part of the maintenance crew.
“What about you?”
“I got some clothes,” I shrug. “And the new iPhone. My cousins were here this year too, which meant that Mom was too busy showing up Aunt Patricia to bother me.”
“I’m sorry,” she says sympathetically. “But hey you’re here now. No more putting up with that crap for another four months.”
She’s right about that, and it’s the reason why I took the red eye in the first place. My parents are, well, not great parents. They’re not even good parents if I could be completely honest. I’m not sure why they even had me, because it seems like all I am is a huge burden to them. Back in high school, I would hear my mom mutter about how I ruined her perfect pageant body and my dad grumble about the price of private school and wish that I hadn’t been born, but now I realize that they wanted a kid so they could look like the perfect family, not be one. I was like an accessory that they didn’t realize would grow up into an actual person. It wasn’t until Tif became my roommate and I met her family that I realized none of it was my fault.
“Hey,” Tif says, shaking me out of my mood. “I just remembered something. Rumor has it that there’s a hot new professor in town.”
“Really?” I ask skeptically.
Almost all the professors at school are fifty years or older. There’s even one guy in the philosophy department that’s so old he can barely walk to his lectures. I ask Tif if he’s the one who got replaced.
